[Bueller Bob]

Greetings fellow Cafe Racers,
New guy here, please be gentle. I've checked out this site from time to time and now I think that its time to join. I have several bikes, some of which are projects. My current rides are an '02 Buell Cyclone, an '81 Yamaha XV920R cafe racer I built up, and a '95 Buell Thunderbolt. My current favorite project is my '66/'67 Triton. I have almost all of the parts to put this one together, however there is going to be some serious fabrication time needed.
I recently moved from Maryland to the Reading Pennsylvania area, so if there are some other members/riders in this area, I'd like to hear from them and hook up. The country roads here are INCREDIBLE! In the early eighties, I lived in San Diego, and my buds and I did some serious canyon racing. I had a Kawasaki KZ100 Mk2, and my favorite road was Rt 74, Ortega Highway. I'm sure you SoCal cafe racers know this road well. At the beginning, just off I-5, there is one of those yellow diamond twisty road warning signs that says, "Next 61 Miles". What a great road. Anyway I'm here, not there. It's cold here, not there. I am looking forward to Spring when the really good riding days arrive. So until then, I must tend to my projects and stay warm. See ya.

 

[jbranson]

But....how do you look in a thong?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok...sorry....welcome. Need pix of your stuff ...bike stuff I mean.
JohnnyB

 

[texmawby]

bob,

welcome! i live in philly but don't street ride that much, too damn dangerous. check out the roads around kutztown if you haven't already. i used to live off rt. 737 (gun club road) about eight years ago.

cheers!

tex mawby

 

[Bueller Bob]

Thanks Johnny, thanks Tex,
Why is the name, Tex Mawby familiar? I think I've seen that name in some race results. Vintage racing maybe? Anyway, on to my spewage:

Yes Tex, riding on the road is dangerous. And the danger has changed over the years. I started riding (road/street) back in the mid-seventies on an RD 350 (expansion chambers/clubman bars/car coils). I think my bicycling years prior to motorcycle riding (I rode a bicycle everywhere for transportation) prepared me well for the actions of stupid car drivers. So when I began riding motorcycles I was a little bit wise, plus I had this "magic device" in my right hand. If I twisted that device hard enough, it would get me out of some potentially life threatening situations. Of course many times twisting it would PUT me into life threatening situations. Anyway, my point is the dangers have changed a bit since those olden days. I discovered this after a long hiatus away from motorcycles. In the late eighties I stopped riding motorcycles and got back to riding bicycles for fitness. I got fast and began racing them. Roadbikes and eventually mountainbikes. Somehow, the attention and interest in motorcycles suffered and I sold my KZ 1000, and my Ducati (yes, stupid move). It's tough to find the time to enjoy motorcycles when you're training 200 miles per week. Eventually I burned out. About the same time the burnout happened, I discovered rock climbing (I was a gymnast in High School, so I adapted easily) and I loved it. I traveled all over the country climbing all kinds of rock formations. In 1999 I had a bit of an accident, I fell 36 feet. I shattered both heels, tore a bunch of tendons and ligaments, and crushed some cartiledge. Sixteen titanium screws, a titanium plate, and four months in a wheelchair later, I was back on my feet again. Function and balanced suffered and I knew that I couldn't climb as well as I did before the fall. What am I to do? I don't want to ride bicycles competively anymore. I know! I'll get back into motorcycles. I miss them, I love them, I want one. Well, one bike eventually became nine, and 7 years and 40 pounds later here I am. Now to my point; That break from motorcycling made very clear some changes that had occurred.
The danger differences from the old days to the present:
1. Back in the old days, you didn't have clueless and oblivious people talking on their cell phones while driving. However, cellphones do have a positive side; when the cell phone using motorist runs over a motorcyclist, they can immediately call 911. In the olden days, you had to find a phone booth.
2. The family carrier of choice was a station wagon. You could see over it and beyond it. It had clear windows too. Today the family carrier of choice is a big SUV (guilty) or a minivan. Both are tall and usually have tinted windows. You can't see over or through them.
3. Motorcycles on the road in the old days were scarce and not as acceptable as they are today (thanks Teutels, I think). They were not noticed and therefore ran into more often. Today everybody seems to have one. It's all the fashion rage. Instant bikers are springing up everywhere. However annoying or boring they are, they're getting the rest of us noticed by the four wheelin' public.
4. Bikes are instantly more powerful and purchasable. Any idiot can buy a Gixxer twist its "magic device" and go way over a ton (If I have to explain "ton" get off of this site, now!), and eventually go splat. It is amazing how many bikes there are available today that make over a hundred horsepower.
5. Today there is less land available to ride dirt bikes. So hardly any modern motorcycle rider learns in the dirt first. A huge amount of riders from the old days cut their teeth in the dirt. Riding motorcycles offroad will increase onroad skills immensely. There are so many valuble skills learned in the dirt. Its never too late.
6. On the bright side, most of today's bike do handle better and stop better. Today we have better frame geometry, better suspension, and way better tires. However, I do find it ironic that my Triton and my Buells have the same wheelbase, 55 inches.
Okay, I really wanted to come up with 10, but I got tired. I'm sure that there are more, but I can't think of them right now. So just be very aware and careful, but have fun. Yes, have fun and keep the passion.
Oh yeah, JohnnyB, I do look good in a thong, but that's for a different website isn't it?
Over-n-out,
Bueller Bob

 

[texmawby]

bob,

ever hear of a c. itoh? it was a road bicycle made by bridgestone corp.

tex

 

[Bueller Bob]

Tex,
Yup. Bridgestone also made "Kabuki" a lower cost bike. C-Itohs were higher quality bikes built with roadrace geometry and were very competitive machines. My racing bikes (bicycle) were; Cannondale (all Campy), Guerciotti (all Campy), Raleigh, and Austro-Daimler. I still have the Cannondale and the Guerciotti, however I modified the "Guerch" into a fixed gear bike for training. I also have 2 mountain bikes, a Cannondale Jekyll and a Specialized Team Stumpjumper modified into a singlespeed (with track dropouts) and a Girvin suspension fork. I really need to get back on these things and lose some weight.

Man what a nice day it was today. I'm loving this mild January. I didn't have to work today, and since it was sunny and in the fifties, I got out on the Buell Cyclone. I rode about 80 miles today exploring local backroads. I stopped and visited a couple of shops too; Hermy's Triumph-BMW and Shaeffer's H-D/Buell. I was examining a Thruxton pretty hard at Hermy's. I'm seriously considering buying a new Triumph Bonneville Thruxton. I rode one of these in Daytona last year (Triumph demo bike). I was very impressed. Lots of usable midrange torque and impeccable handling. And most of all, it felt like a Triumph. I need one. Anyone else out there ride one? Maybe this forum needs a ride review section. Members can report on bikes they have ridden recently. I try to ride everything possible. There are so many dealerships and manufacturers offering demo rides. In the past two years, I've demoed bikes from ten different brands. I have been both pleasantly surprised and horribly unimpressed. You just gotta get out there and ride everthing. Okay, enough already, I'm done.
Bueller Bob

 

[texmawby]

bob,

yeah, i got one of those c. itoh bicycles. thinking of selling it on craigs list. can you give me an estimate on price/value. it is in VG+ condition.

tex

 

[magnetoczar]

Tex, It's worth $50. What's your address and I'll send a money order along.

I ride a Specialized Roubeax Triple. I was doing very well in my training, even bought a mag for the real cold days so I could spin it in my living room, and did a good spinning class once a week. Then I herniated a disc in my back and now it looks like an operation. I'll be okay in the long run, but I am so pissed that I can't be out training in this mild winter we're having. My buds' are getting so far ahead of me that now I'll never catch them. Back to square one <sob>.

Over the past 8 years or so, I've been a member of the 'motorcycle of the month club', I don't even know how many bikes I've been through (altogether, maybe 40-some?). I've had Harley's, Beemer's, and a bunch of Ducati's for new bikes.

I've also had every vintage bike that I wanted when I was a kid, Goldie's (3), Triumphs (Metisse's too), Parilla's, Bul's, well, a very nice selection (hardly a country not represented), and most all of them I restored myself (an average of 2 a year). I've built a number of road racers and two real nice dirt trackers which I learned to ride fairly well, even raced a couple of sidecars.

Looking back I don't regret much, but I do regret selling two of them. I regret selling my 1995 Monster (that had the big valves), which was equipped with a 944 kit, lightened flywheel, and 42mm Keihin pumpers, and some other bling/candy. That two valve engine was truly a monster and would easily loft the front end just doing a simple roll on in 2nd. It handled and it went, it was truly nasty; I never got beat by anyone and I raced everyone and anybody that would bring it(I had just gone through my 2nd divorce at the time and life didn't mean a heck of a lot at the time). It was a bike that I spent a lot of time on and I got very familiar with it, so much so that I comfortable backing it into corners, and there's not too many machines, aside from my dirt trackers and ice racers that I can say that about.

The other bike was my 916. It was chipped, piped, and we smoothed out the induction tract (plastic) and we were getting a shade over 120bhp out of it. Quite simply, it was the easiest bike to go fast on that I ever rode, it just disappeared from under you and it was like flying on the ground. But was I happy? No, I had to sell and trade them away, and I have never replaced them. I now have a 97' Bimota Mantra, 900 Ducati two-valve with lightened flywheel and 39mm pumpers on it that I like very much. I don't back it in to corners, though. But I'll probably keep it.

I know better now.

Dgy

 

[joe c]

maryland sucks anyway.


where were you in maryland??


jc