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Car guys with motorcycles tucked away?


gavinnz

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How many of us are into cars but maybe started out on bikes? Or have a few motorcycles tucked away at the back of the shed?

I know I do! I didn't even own a car for years when I was riding bikes.

Bikes are so much easier to store and smaller to work on, but everything on old bikes is "on show" so their is a lot of detail work that goes into a restoration!

Regards

Gavin

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Guest mikeburch

I still have my first bike, a 1979 Sportster, which I replaced a lot of aftermarket parts with genuine Harley parts - a sort of "restoration" and a 1977 Cafe Racer, stored back in my garage.

My daily rider, a 1991 Sturgis, is sitting, due to a broken back, but will be back on the road, soon, I hope ! I bought it new in 1991.

Thank you,

mikeburch

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Edited by mikeburch (see edit history)
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Back in the early 1970s I had a 1971 Laverda 750SF. I believe it is still in the collection of the guy, two owners after me, who has had it since 1985. Before that, in 1969/70 I had a 1952 AJS 350, in 1971 I had a 1970 Honda CB350 and then I bought, for Christmas 1971, one of the last new BSA Thunderbolts (A65T). There were several more but only other bike I bought new was a 1976 Yamaha XT500D. Always had cars as well. Sitting under cover in the shed is a Canadian market 1982 Honda CB450T which a friend brought back to NZ in 1993. It has had only occasional use and is currently showing 24,000 km, most of which were done by its first owner in Canada in the 1980s.

My kids have taken over my car projects. My 15 year old son decided to drag out the 1955 Skoda 1200 which has been in hibernation since 1985. In the last few weeks he has rebuilt the engine. He refitted it last weekend and it is now driveable though not yet roadworthy, as there is some work to do on the body.

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Guest 914Driver

I have a 2002 BMW K-1200LT my wife made me buy. No, really. "If we're going to retire, you need to gat a nicer motorcycle".

Took me an hour.

I also have a 1976 BMW R-90s clone. R-90 with the S stuff added. Fairing, seat, dual discs up front, the Bing carbs were replace with flat slide Mikuni, progressive springs front and back. The exhaust has been "liberated", just a burble; not enough to be annoying.

Paint is a mid-90s Porsche grey metalllic.

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Well, I jumped back into bikes too. Back in the day I rebuilt/restored a wrecked Kawasaki KZ900 and an old Triumph.

Just recently something came over me and I came home with this 1924 Douglas horizontal twin!

it is going to need some work but it just called to me. Something about all the manual controls (6 levers on the bars and a shifter on the tank, exposed valves, manual pump gravity lubrication) and the look.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like old bikes as well. I spent 12 years restoring a 1932 Packard; there are a lot of parts in a car, even a very old car. I had this 1978 BMW R100/7 and just never liked the looks of it. It came with a Luftmeister fairing which is not a BMW fairing but one made in the US. Last winter I finally realized why I didn't much care for the bike's look, it was the fairing. It hid the whole front end of the bike. I decided to remove the fairing and now I have a bike that looks like a motorcycle again and I now love it.

The R90 of 914 driver is very nice with the cafe racer fairing. BMW did it right.

I would really like to restore an old Indian or Harley from the 30's or 40's but these bikes have really gotten expensive. I had a '42 Harley 45 when I was 20 years old in 1964 and that might be a good place to start again.

Both old cars and old bikes have always appealed to me. The '78 BMW is just not old enough but it is fun to ride.

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After 35 years focusing on old cars and then 2 years of research, I finally decided to get into an antique bike in 2012. Had been watching prices go up,up,up even in a down economy so figured better get one soon or a decent machine would be out of reach for my budget. Buying this 48 Chief has been one of the best things I ever did and both my wife and I enjoy it regularly. Its an awesome machine to ride relatively speaking since its 66 years old.

Was big into dirt bikes for years but never street bikes. We just like old stuff with American history and this is perfect. I have no desire to own a street bike any newer than this. I can bring the bike in the house over winter saving valuable garage space. Aside from basket cases with rare missing parts, bikes are so much easier and faster to restore than the Buicks I've done.

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What a great thread! I've been smiling all the way through. Sitting behind me as I write is my '68 Flatside shovel HD old school chopper, I built that between '02-3. Sitting in front of me is my freshly restored '68 Penton Six Day, which I'd bought in '70 (?) sold in '75 to a cousin, and was returned to me by him in '91, finally restored it 2012-13. Over in the corner on a shelf is a framed pic of me sitting on my old 36&39 cobbled together Indian in '72. A 'Rat' bike decades before that became 'fashionable'.

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  • 11 months later...

I just bought an all original 1964 Vespa VNB with 1761 original miles on it yesterday, 3 August 2015.  The last PA inspection expired 48 years ago on 31 Dec 1967.  The gentleman who owned it passed away 35 years ago and his wife recently decided to sell it.  


 


It runs fine, but the paint is oxidized, it has a few dents in the front fender  , and the chrome needs redone from sitting in her garage covered with dust all these years.  


 


I plan on doing a complete restoration on it and showing it locally to include Hershey when I am finished.


 


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Posting update.  


 


After wiping this scooter down with Acetone and then polishing it, I have decided not to restore the scooter.  I only need to touch up a few scratches in the paint and replace two pieces of chrome and a few rubber gaskets then it will look like new.


Edited by Vila (see edit history)
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  • 3 months later...

Ah Yes, tucked away in the corner of my basement my old passion. A 1972 Kawasaki H2 750. It's been apart for years but did so much work on them in my old days I will eventually get around to restoring it. We toyed with them to no end. Nothing like the smells and SOUND of an old 2 Stroke Triple ! The PC crowd killed them off but I still have mine. Never get rid of it.You 2 Stroke Guys chime in ! I know you are out there!

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Update on my Vespa mentioned above after cleaning and polishing it.

 

It only need to replace a few rubber parts, new front fender crest, new speedometer face, new speedometer chrome bezel. I plan on touching up a few scratches and it will look like new.  I also plan on buying an original spare tire carrier for the back, to add a spare behind the seat and above the rear light.

 

I got a quart of original Grigio Ametista colored lacquer for Christmas to touch up the scratches and paint the spare tire carrier and rim.

 

Pictures after clean up.  For some reason the AACA website turned these pictures when I posted them.

 

 

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Edited by Vila (see edit history)
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