The motorbike and general ratbag machines chat

[Wm.Traynor]

Horses
You tried blade and found you weren't quite up to it. That is sometimes the only way to find out about something you admire and wish you could do. It looks so thrilling and exciting, doesn't it but I found out that you/i had to be born in the saddle.
Bikes
I knew a bloke who could exit a ute backwards, land on the rear wheel, spin round and ride away. Reckon he musta bin born to it, too

[Ecobogan]

Joisus daym Blade have you got some stories!
Do you keep a journal of sorts? You've probably led one of the most unboring lives I've heard of and you write well mate, put a book together I reckon.
Also your body damage list makes Barry Sheen look like about as daring as a librarian!

Cheers for the sharing the pics too. Good design, automotive and otherwise, holds up over time through changing trends and the Porsche 911 isn't a bad example in cars.
But Suzuki nailed it in my view with the J, K & L model GSXR750, in particular the L. That red n white model of yours there was a proper head turner and THE bike to have in 1990. Torquier than the K, slick and stable handling, fast and reliable and fantastic looking. There isn't much more a machine has to do and they sold like hot cakes.

From memory in another thread I think we worked out that we all stepped into the big bore world via the J/K/L 750 and my first big bike was the K model.
Bought it crashed in 1993 with 22k on the clock for $3500, complete with bent forks, smashed tank and damaged fairings. Bike was otherwise very tight and I was fully smitten.
The only bad road bike crash I've had was off my '90 model Pepsi RGV 250 where I lost the front end round a bumpy roundabout in Toowoomba and slid 30 odd metres into the gutter wearing board shorts and a singlet. I was 19 y/o and had my leather jacket in my backpack....d!ckhead. I was taken to the hospital sporting several tasty half pancake sized gravel rashes and all I could think about was that the RGV was trashed....but fixable.

The crash adrenaline wore off in the surgery and was not surprisingly traded for some memorable stinging and throbbing pain. Which was nout a pinch on what came directly afterwards in the form of a plastic chair, a cold shower and a very evil nail brush. The doctor 'had' to scrub the edges to about a inch in of my wounds to remove the embedded dirt and crap....I would've rather hy taken a hearty stroll through Auschwitz.
The cops turned up mid scrub with me near cross eyed and twitching and wrote out a fine for riding un shaperoned on my L plates.
Two days later a friend of a friend, who dealt in crashed road bikes, rang to say he'd found me a stacked but tidy GSXR750. I drove to Caloundra that day, turned up to check it out on crutches and needless to say bought it on the spot.
I bought some proper leathers off him and bled anyone I could dry on road bike handling knowledge and was totally hooked.
I'd ridden the RGV a fair bit through Mt Glorious, Toowoomba and the sunshine coast, rode every day prior to the crash and have no excuses for not wearing the right gear.....young d!ckhead.
I got an L model USD front end for the GSXR, a fixable tank, cheap fibreglass fairings, all bits needed to get it ridable. Moved away for work from the sh!thole that was Toowoomba to Tennant creek NT where there were no speed limits.
Put the GSXR together up there in the same year that the NT held the cannon ball run, saw the F40 Ferrari (along with 9 gazillion other mega fast cars) in Tennant two days before it killed 4 people...which of course shut down the race for good.
Everyday for nearly 2 years I had the Suzuki out and the closest call I had on it was with 3 roos coming back from Alice at dusk, it was 1994.
In seemingly sensible efforts to eat up the 500k ride back home I was sitting on about 170 kph when they all thought they'd see what I'd learned about countersteering.
Well, in many German swearwords and f#ck me, I was just at a point where reacting in the correct way was instinctive and gave the right bar a slight but quick push sending the bike hard right. The roos were crossing at speed with the first some several metres in front of the 2nd and 3rd who were side by side. The swerve JUST managed to get me behind the first one and shaving the snouts of the second two, man was it close and I'm certain that had I have reacted any other way there'd still be bits of my carcass up the Stuart highway.

You've got about 1600 of those stories Blade, keep them coming.
Mate, it means a lot to hear I've fired you up a little in getting the bike out of the shed too Tassie...was sure my intention!!
Great stuff fellas

I bought my GSXR750L the day my daughter was born, December 8th, 1989, $9200 on the road, the 40th one built, and very ĺikely the first one on the road in Australia, before any race teams had them. They didn't really need them though, the '89 GSXR750RRK single-seater was the K model with pre-production L model engine and some other bits, the J/K model was getting killed on the track and they desperately needed to homologate something better. There was a bit of a shortage very early on as some dealers were getting the L models and stripping them, as the trick bits (engine, carbs, wheels, oil cooler, forks) were in big demand - Suzuki put a stop to that pretty quickly though.

I was already wanting to race so I test rode many dozens of 250's, virtually every one I could find in Perth, dealers and private. The most fun was the GPZ250R, forerunner to the amazingly successful GPX250R. I especially loved the tiny RG250's, but early on realised I was too big a bloke to be able to race them. I fitted the KR250 much more comfortably and was leaning that way when I got the CB1100F, and discovered my size didn't matter when there was more than 100hp on tap, so Superbikes it was to be.

For my first big bike I drooled desperateĺy over the '85 GSXR750F but it was $5500 and beyond my reach, so I picked up an '81 CB1100F Bol'Dor for $3300 (my dealer's personal bike). I test-rode dozens of big bikes before settling on that one though. First bike I rode over 200kph was an '84 GSX750EFE, and I remember watching the fuel gauge winding down while at full noise

I picked up a very low mileage '88 GSXR750J for $5000 in late '88, but bounced it off a car before it saw the track, so I put the insurance payout (her insurance, I wasn't insured) and sale of the bike (which the buyer streetfightered) straight into pre-ordering the new L model. I did eventually get myself an '85 GSXR750F in '04, picking it up from Melbourne while I was over there doing track days on my '98 GSXR750W at Phillip Island and Mallala.

Sounds like you were up to what exactly what I would've loved to have been but I was a few years too young at the time.
The RR Gixxer was certainly a pretty sexy machine sporting 20kg less an aluminium tank amongst other things if I remember correctly. The fibreglass fairings I got for my crashed K model were RR copies.
I traded the K 750 on a KTM 550 2 stroke ex finke racer in Alice springs which had the rear hub machined down to take a 30 odd tooth sprocket and was geared for 180+kph! Pretty wild on what was basically an MX bike....was sold to me as basically a stock geared standard bike with some hellishing stories.

Left the road bikes alone pretty much til 2008 when I was living in the Netherlands. This fruity Dutch blacksmith I was working for had a pretty mint '95 FZR1000 and always wanted to know how fast it'd go as old school beamers were more his thing.

We were on our way to a bike meeting in Germany when every chance to top gear redline this thing presented itself on the autobahn.
It was one of my bikings most memorable moments because it was the only time I can really remember having my ass well and truly kicked by a car.
So, full throttle through all gears, big wide straight run of freeway, both needles stretched to the far right of the clocks and Speedo seeing about 275, no real skill needed.
Rolled the throttle off after a few seconds at full noise and changed into the next slower lane when this car appeared right next to me.
I'm not sure if you guys know what a Bugatti Veyron is but I sure did, and it gave me quite a start to be reeled in so quickly at that speed....which of course is nothing to a rig like that. A very nasty looking machine to say the least and the only time I'd ever seen one in the flesh and quite happy to be it's laughing stock.

[Ecobogan]

Thought you might be interested in this Tassie.... it's on the one day list but will cop a 450ftlbs 300hp elec driveline....have almost all the bits just need to build a battery

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A close up of the SV's blower

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[Ecobogan]

Horses
You tried blade and found you weren't quite up to it. That is sometimes the only way to find out about something you admire and wish you could do. It looks so thrilling and exciting, doesn't it but I found out that you/i had to be born in the saddle.
Bikes
I knew a bloke who could exit a ute backwards, land on the rear wheel, spin round and ride away. Reckon he musta bin born to it, too

Ha! Right on, sounds like 2 wheeled gymnastics.
My parents were both much more into horses than bikes, they had bikes on the farm but we're never really for fun.
We used to go mustering on horses a bit when I was young but always got bashed never really got the hang of it.
I remember in the late '80's the dirt bikers very publicly challenged some crew who I think were on quarter horses to a barrel race. The bikers were A grade MX pros and the horses riders were also at the top of their field. Needless to say the bikes got absolutely flogged stupid every time...like took twice as long to do the course

[TassieTiger]

EB. You have a lot to answer for...and my wife wants words.
In the space of a week, I’ve taken out the ktm for the first time in x months, I’ve stripped the Gixxer down for a service and booked a Baskerville day and I literally just bought a 200cc diet kart after seeing your bloody electric set up. The 200cc engine can piss right off - I might dose it with n20 and see how much she can take captain...
It’s this..
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200CC-6-5HP ... SwgW9ciDxS

Deadest - I’m sure is Taswegians suffer from winter depression due to low levels of light. You’ve fired me up man!

If your not opposed to throwing some advice, I might lean on you for some info on elec conversion...for the kids...of course

[Ecobogan]

yeah another 2 wheel tragic, thou these days Ive been trying to channel my inner GP rider...

350 barrels, RGV bits, yammy bits, a smokey mongrel that pull 3rd gear up with a good tug LOL

Very cool bike there Bill, did you street fighter it yourself? It'd be tight traffic magic I'd reckon. She an '84-'86 model?
Are the RGV bits the wheels n forks? Just guessin'

[Bill]

Ecobogan no I didnt put it together, 2 previous owner blew a load of cash, I swapped a KLX250 for it after it was advertised unfinished and unregistered with a poorly fitted 2 piece banshee crankcase seal. Was fouling the right plug after only running for a min. I knew what the problem was straight away as Id been there 25 years earlier.

I had the crank case pulled off and an oem seal put in, new gear selector and crank bearings as there was a little play in the big ones. 350 barrels mated to an 83 RZ250 bottom end, pistons and power valves had been done by previous owner so top end didnt need touching.

RGV front end with a 5mm spacer and roller bearings, RGV swingarm, RGV tank, 916 seat/tail, oversize radiator, R1 dash.

not perfect but starts first kick, sticky rubber and ferodo pads, gets ridden a 5 or 6 times a month.

Will look at getting the frame and wheels powder coated next year and a new paint scheme.

[Ecobogan]

EB. You have a lot to answer for...and my wife wants words.
In the space of a week, I’ve taken out the ktm for the first time in x months, I’ve stripped the Gixxer down for a service and booked a Baskerville day and I literally just bought a 200cc diet kart after seeing your bloody electric set up. The 200cc engine can piss right off - I might dose it with n20 and see how much she can take captain...
It’s this..
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200CC-6-5HP ... SwgW9ciDxS

Deadest - I’m sure is Taswegians suffer from winter depression due to low levels of light. You’ve fired me up man!

If your not opposed to throwing some advice, I might lean on you for some info on elec conversion...for the kids...of course

Hahaha! I'm glad mate and did get a hearty laugh from reading that this morning. Sure don't want to cause trouble in the domestic arena and am happy to cop a verbal smack in the chops for firing you up! Though I'm sure she'll give you full backing.

Be very happy to help with any experience I have with your build of course. That kart, even with a 20kw motor, will fry...the tyres that is.
Elec powering vehicles is a funny animal with massive pros and massive cons.

Crappy - heavyish, expensive, poor range and slow recharge times
This is usually enough to put people off

Awesome - near noiseless, cost to run is negligible, virtually maintenance free ,eyewatering acceleration is the norm

I've talked myself into building the buggy on a 50% no noise gain and the other 50% in that the $10k battery and $3k motor will only just get me a noisy unreliable 300hp turbo busa motor anyway

The Datsun also came with a zilla 2000amp controller, it currently has a 1000a unit currently that I'll sell. The warp9 motor that's still in the car can take, according to some, 150v @2000amps that being 300kw for a few seconds. I'd be happy with 225kw as the motor will stay cooler longer.
Many tell me these figures aren't possible while equally as many tell me they've done it themselves.... very little of this happens in Australia unfortunately.
I'm just going to build the driveline and find out for myself, I've heard the naysaying oft before and like to find out the hard way.
Even 180kw and 250ftlbs would be pretty fun in a 450kg machine with 18" front and 15" rear travel, excuse my mixing of imp and metric there.

Do it man, I reckon you'll be pleasantly surprised....after you Nos overdose the old girl first!

[Ecobogan]

https://youtu.be/vdKDOfXBRMM

The guy doing the commentary should be tortured with a soldering iron but the bike is worth it

[TassieTiger]

That’s Awesome!!!!
I need to get some ducks in order...leave form has been put in...
Enthusiastic comments from cam dude lol.

[Stix]

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G'day EB...

I must have ESP...just last week i was wondering where you got to & if you'd be back...

I cant contribute to motorbike stories as ive never owned one...although i could tell a tale of being the passenger on the back of a mates Triumph a few years ago & hitting some unexpected undulations in the bitumen at nearly 180km/hr & fair dinkum thinking i was going to die... .

I could also bore you with the tale of some stupid young invincible primary boys who made their own BMX track, & because one of the stupid boys decided to go the wrong way around the track, two of them made the same evasive move, landing them both face first into not only each other at top speed, but also the trunk of a big gum tree, bruised battered scratched & with limbs intertwined inside each others bike frames...(it really was amazing the state of the tangle--there is no way we could have purposely placed ourselves in that position... ).....but i shant insult your big bike thread with such insubordinate weakling schoolboy talk...

https://youtu.be/Jh7ys7vUv4o

Here's one of the shakedown runs

Anyway...watching this had me swaying back & forth on the seat & tensing up my legs for turns & braking...i seriously thought you were going to drive me into a tree again with another rider coming the other way... ...

Sorry for a stupid question..but...what is this--a motorised thingy...???
Cost...? Availability...?...looks cool...!!...i want one...!!

Hey Stix!!
Yeah good to be back for sure and mate you make me laugh. Nowhere near bored by the BMX recounts....those unco, pre macho,like-off-the-cartoons gutsa's the old BMX's used to dish out was the prequel to all these stories here.
I can sure picture it. Usually the first time your balls got smashed by a bit of steel, first time airborne on 2 wheels, first high speed stack, wheelies and bad cracks at impressing chicks. The trusty nasty BMX was usually behind it.
My cousin Dominic had freestyle pegs on his axles front and back. He swore black n blue they were on tight and sturdy as and if I didn't sit on the bars and go ripping down our street with him riding then I was a pedigree punce.
So off we went and this bad idea got properly worse. At 'too fast to pedal speeds' he had the bright idea of getting some air over a driveway gutter jump. We nosedived wildly, hit the ground front wheel first, the front axle pegs that I was standing on both disappeared and I face and bodily planted the gravel footpath to be then run hard up the clacker by the bike!
Big stack and I was skun at a royal level. Dominic's mum, my Aunt, acted responsibly and abused both of us to the core then tipped iodine all over my carnage whilst holding me down. The '80's were good for things like that.

That electric downhill bike was an idea I had a few years ago. To make a fastish off roader that could be ridden places where an MX bike would have you shot.
There are variations of that concept on the market but they're not cheap ($5k+) as elec power is still kind of exotic, I'll dig up some links. That one cost me $3500 in parts and is far from properly sorted but well worth the effort.

There might be some ESP getting around mate coz late last week myself I had a recall chuckle about your 'anyone seen this handyman thread?' comment on Tassie's shipping container, very funny stuff.
What have you been up to of late? All well in SA land?

Sorry for late reply...yep...evrything (sort of) good here...not enough time to balance wants & needs though...here it is a long weekend & im not out shooting ffs--"oh the humanity"...!!...

Id very much love a bike like that (your electric jobby)--kit it out with some basic storage, rack & lighting & get around farms (relatively) quietly....but i cant afford that kind of coin unfortunately.

If you learn of any vast improvements in both technology & coin outlay, id be keen to hear about it though...!!

Cheers...

[Stix]

Thats not a road bike...

THIS is a road bike...

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[Ecobogan]

Now that's a very natural progression from the BMX there Stix!
Hope things are quickly heading to the better than sort of for ya too mate...the old wants/needs chestnut's a bastard to juggle at times. I'm sure you make 50 people belly laugh a day though and that sure counts for something.
The elec mountain bikes can be done in a more basic and cost friendly way than my one.
I'll still find those links for you but at the moment am sporting a savage award winning hangover and am running on instinct like an aphid....maxed out on basic functions and sending links would would fry my system.
I'll come good by the end of the year easy

[Ecobogan]

Finally got to posting this link. It has pretty much all things elec powered, fast or not.
Stix, my advice would be to run a hub motor in a reasonable quality cross country bike, pretty straight forward and all help needed can be had here. My build thread for the one you saw is under 'downhill project motorcycle transmission' if you wanna squizz.
The buggy thread is under '300hp single seat off road buggy project' Tassie if you wanna see me get a tune up for being over ambitious

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/

[Blr243]

My bike is not running at the moment due to electrical damage sustained while a thief attempted to steal it. So it just sits there sad. A couple of weeks ago there was sirens , police ambo, fire brigade , a big crowd and bits all over the intersection. all that just down the corner. Every arvo I go through that intersection as I take my mongrel dog to the dog park a pranged up black motorcycle sits on the nature strip with POLICE AWARE tape across it. So someone is probably sitting in hospital while his bones mend and not really in a position to collect his machine for the moment. That’s enough for me I think. I will just sell mine as is .....bitumen is much coarser than sandpaper. stay safe on the roads fellow hunters

[Ecobogan]

My bike is not running at the moment due to electrical damage sustained while a thief attempted to steal it. So it just sits there sad. A couple of weeks ago there was sirens , police ambo, fire brigade , a big crowd and bits all over the intersection. all that just down the corner. Every arvo I go through that intersection as I take my mongrel dog to the dog park a pranged up black motorcycle sits on the nature strip with POLICE AWARE tape across it. So someone is probably sitting in hospital while his bones mend and not really in a position to collect his machine for the moment. That’s enough for me I think. I will just sell mine as is .....bitumen is much coarser than sandpaper. stay safe on the roads fellow hunters

Yep fair enough mate, road crashes are memorable in the nastiest way. Sit on it for a while if you can afford to...a 'dirt only' life might present itself.
I've sure seen some brutal street crashes, it ain't funny. Take care mate

[Wm.Traynor]

Speaking of the end of riding Blr243, my basket case did not sell so I am giving it to the wife's son.

Confession
Maybe he will let me ride it a bit, one day

[Stix]

Speaking of the end of riding Blr243, my basket case did not sell so I am giving it to the wife's son.

Confession
Maybe he will let me ride it a bit, one day

Hehehe...

[Blr243]

What is basket case ? I did take the three times stolen Suzuki DR 650 on a hunt once but it was too big to throw around chasing pigs in tight scrub or lift when it fell I feel much better and safer on the quad now with the extra battery set up , racks iPad storage of food water blankets and mattress dog rifle and shotgun It’s almost a home on wheels. I won’t bother adding a TV fridge or kitchen sink. I intend mounting a thermal on the new shotgun and mounting the gun facing forward in my line of sight above my front rack. The thermal will send a wifi signal to my iPad which is mounted up front so I can see the reticle and field of view. This way I can chase pigs on the cultivation paddocks at night with no headlights or spotlights what so ever

[TassieTiger]

What is basket case ? I did take the three times stolen Suzuki DR 650 on a hunt once but it was too big to throw around chasing pigs in tight scrub or lift when it fell I feel much better and safer on the quad now with the extra battery set up , racks iPad storage of food water blankets and mattress dog rifle and shotgun It’s almost a home on wheels. I won’t bother adding a TV fridge or kitchen sink. I intend mounting a thermal on the new shotgun and mounting the gun facing forward in my line of sight above my front rack. The thermal will send a wifi signal to my iPad which is mounted up front so I can see the reticle and field of view. This way I can chase pigs on the cultivation paddocks at night with no headlights or spotlights what so ever

Why not put some receivers and servos on the quad - a turret with a mount and hydraulic actuators, then stay in bed and shoot.

[Blr243]

Consider it done

[Wm.Traynor]

Blr243
A basket case is something in pieces. (in this case the basket would have to be the size of a small truck
)

[Blr243]

Ok thanks w t

[Ecobogan]

Can def be used for people too...I was a basket case after this party the other weekend