Bikes you've been disappointed with

<Montgomery Burns>
Exxccellent
</MB>

 

When I started riding in 1978 Brit bikes were very few and far between.
They were usually owned by the 'hardened' smelly biker, who wore a cut
off and normally drove a Transit or a Mk3 Zephyr. When they saw a Brit
bike they called it Jap crap but you never saw them riding their own
because it was always 'being rebuilt'

 

edited ..

This is pretty much my impression of the era although I started a couple of
years earlier.

I can mostly recall CB750's, Z1's, Z650's, Z1-R's [1], R90S's, GT500's,
GT380's etc ... oh and of course the full collection of Japanese 250's of
the time along with AP50's, FS1-E's, SS50's etc etc.

[1] god I loved my Z1-R :'( first 1000cc and first bike to take to Europe

--
Steve Parry
BMW R80RS, BMW R45, 01 Kawasaki ZX12-R, 07 K1200GT SE
95 BMW F650, 87 Yamaha FS1, Sukida SK90PY, 91 Kawasaki AR50,
07 VW Passat SE Estate for comfort
www.gwynfryn.co.uk

 

Oops, yeah.

I'm having a bad day again

 

<Harry Hill>

FIGHT!

</HH>

 

my first post-test bike was an SZR - it kinda spoiled me for a few
bikes I had afterwards. In fact, the bike I had immediately
afterwards, a Bandit 1200, I put into a ditch (in a recoverable way)
on the first day of ownership because I'd made the mistake of assuming
it would handle in a comparable way to the SZR.

 

my Bandit 1200. As per my reply to Henry, I was just soooo
disappointed in the lack of decent handling.

 

You are not alone - the organiser of the tours I used to go on (now
dead :-( ) managed to drop his (almost brand new) Bindit into a ditch
in France. At 10 mph. Oh how we laughed..

Phil

 

They just handle differently, you can actually hustle them around quite
well if you're brutal.

 

Yeah, mine too.

I think we've established that for me too WRT Superdreams, beyond all
reasonable shadow of a doubt.

P.

 

Now you're talking. Nowhere near as fast as RDs and X7s, but looked
great, was very smooth, and made a *fabulous* noise.

And the 400 was even better. Why, why, why did I sell the one I bought
in 1995? Argh.

 

and if you have a wife on the back

 

Honda 750KZ (the one with DOHC and four exhaust pipes). Couldn't even stay
with a 400N through the twisty bits. Too much engine for too little chassis.
Mercifully written off in short order.

 

I did 20000 happy miles on an XS850 - absolutely loved it

 

yes, I got that after owning the thing for a few months, but when you
say "handle differently", the Bandit "handles predictably but
brutally", where the SZR "handled without thinking about it as if
there was a direct brain-to-steering interface".

 

That's the chap! Did you know him? Owned a Bonnie in Broadstairs that hardly
moved.

 

I miss big two-strokes.

 

Here you go..

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

 

The black n gold EFI model? tasty lookers they were

http://kz1000r2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/Z1000R2/Picture/History/Z1000H.jpg


--
Steve Parry
BMW R80RS, BMW R45, 01 Kawasaki ZX12-R, 07 K1200GT SE
95 BMW F650, 87 Yamaha FS1, Sukida SK90PY, 91 Kawasaki AR50,
07 VW Passat SE Estate for comfort
www.gwynfryn.co.uk

 

Ta, I feel much better now.