I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. I’m going to get on my soapbox here. There are those that have an old motorcycle and figure it’s worth a bunch of money just because it’s old. Old doesn’t mean it is classic or valuable. It’s just old. I spend time on ebay, craigslist,…
This is one of the great motorcycles. But…. It had to compete with the mighty Z1 from Kawasaki, the CB750 from Honda and the GT750 from Suzuki. A pretty big hill to climb. Yamaha already had the very popular RD series of small two stroke twins, then came the “let’s beat the Brits at their…
In my circle of motorcycling friends there are a few, well, most of them, that their motto is “the weirder the better”. That goes for cars, motorcycles and even some of the women they’ve dated over the years. Corvairs with 327 Chevys in what was the back seat, a Honda CB350 with a Kawasaki Ninja…
It all started in 1978 when Kawasaki America bolted a Turbocharger onto a Z1. This thing was a brute! When the Turbo kicked in, you got kicked off if you weren’t holding…tight! In the early ’80’s we were all power hungry and the manufacturers were more than happy do accommodate us. Turbocharging seemed to get…
In the early 1980’s the ‘Cruiser’ class was growing like crazy. The Japanese manufacturers were selling them faster than they could make them. I know because I was selling motorcycles at the time, the dealership owners even made me ride one as a demo bike for three months. I was happy I had a full…
My business partner in Arizona bleeds black and orange, he wouldn’t be caught dead on any motorcycle that didn’t come from “The Motor Company”. Well, that’s not entirely true but pretty damn close. In all the years I’ve known Les if he’s not in an Aloha shirt (at his pool party) he’s is wearing a…
I was living in Las Cruces New Mexico when I first saw the original Gold Wing. A friend owned the local Honda dealership and the Honda sales rep was there to show off the newest latest greatest from Honda. Being that I worked for a newspaper at the time it was my duty to report…
The Thunderbird is one of the motorcycles my step dad put me on at the beginning of motorcycling life. Well, actually after a Yamaha 80 and a Bultaco 250…he wasn’t so dumb as to put a teenager in the late 60’s on one of his treasured motorcycles. But when he did, well, life changed forever….
My old (not age wise…?) racing friend Steve Allen of www.bevelheaven.com owned an Eldorado…or maybe it was an Ambassador, either one it doesn’t matter, he loved it. My friends Eric and Ken (both are Bonneville Land Speed record holders) run a Guzzi streamliner at Bonneville and I have always lusted after one. I have ridden…
Now here is where the fun begins. The RD series of motorcycles from Yamaha were seriously some of the most fun motorcycles you could ever ride. I spent a good deal of time on RD’s starting with an RD250 that my step dad ostensibly for my mom to ride. I think she spent about 10…
