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News Nov-Dec
2024
Triumphs
& tribulations, Dec 5
We threw a lot of effort and money at sorting the lovely Triumph Daytona Super III. With good reason, as it was the Hinckley hero bike in the mid-1990s.
We've reluctantly decided to move on, as part of a larger shed cull.
See the listing at Donington Auctions;
And the wider
auction cattledog;
Plus our Triumph T300 series profile.
Mick's
adventure tourer, Dec 4
Let's just imagine you're one of the country's most experienced motorcycle industry faces, with decades of achievement, including running a championship-winning superbike team. And you decide to have a crack at a cross-continent ride that pretty much defines the whole adventure touring gig.
What do you take?
If you're young Mick Hone of the
eponymous Suzuki dealership, you select a V-Strom
800DE and then go to town with factory and aftermarket
gear to fine-tune the package to your tastes. He was kind
enough to sling muggins the keys while we had a 25th
anniversary Hayabusa in for a service and so we got to
have a quick play with it.
The set-up is really well thought-out (as you'd expect)
and we'll soon bring you a report. Watch this space...
See the Suzuki
Australia V-Strom 800DE home page
See our Hayabusa
resources page
Set
your Wing free, Dec 4
With not one but two 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wings in the shed (?!), including a museum piece we recently bought, it was time to make the harsh decision to let one go.
A shame, given it and its near cousin are coming up for their 50th birthday next year, but we're only prepared to buy one cake…
And so we've sent the blue bird you see here off to Donington Auctions, having just spent a fair bit of time and money sorting it.
And the full auction cattledog.
Rubber
side down, Dec 3
This Continental ad with
the chunky tyres from 1969 hints at adventure touring
before we had a label for it. Though these days you
might think twice about straying off the tar or into
the snow if you were on the now very collectible BMW
R69S road burner.
See the 1962
road test at Cycle World;
And the retro
review by Falloon at MC News.
Meanwhile
Donington has a project up for sale in its current
auction.
1980
Honda CBX1000B sixer start and walk-around, Dec 3
Early eighties techno extravagance at its
best with Honda's 24-valve inline six CBX1000B, the
second-gen sports-touring version.
See our
profile on this machine.
It's on the
market with Donington Auctions, in Melbourne,
Australia;
See the full
auction cattledog.
Flashback: FJ flyer, Dec 2
Bloody good though not perfect, Yamaha's early FJ series
produced a string of stylish and ultra-reliable machines
that did much to establish the fast sports-tourer market
segment across the mid-1980s and well beyond.
See our profile of the FJ1100/1200 cruise missiles.
Bimota YB11 start-up & walk-around, Dec 1
Up for auction with Donington – a 1997 Bimota YB11.
Sunbeam
start-up, Dec 1
Up for auction with Donington – this 1947 SUnbeam S7.
KTM liabilities
balloon, Nov 30
The widely-reported financial troubles
of KTM's parent company, Pierer Mobility, now appear
to be worse than first thought. Up until recently,
liabilities in the hundreds of millions of Euros were
being talked of.
More recent
reporting by Crash.net and others suggests the
figures are more like €2.5 to 3 billion.
The company also has MV Agusta,
Husqvarna and Gas Gas under its corporate wing. It has
recently entered administration. Meanwhile, share prices
are currently about a quarter of where they were
last May.
Let's hope it pulls through...
Flashback:
Lunchtime bike market, Nov 29
The heady mix of claret, food and finance has some risks...see the story.
Daytona Super
III auction, Nov 29
This Triumph Daytona Super III is up for sale with
Donington Auctions – one of 805 ever made.
And the full
auction cattledog;
Plus our profile
on the model.
Farewell
Malcolm, Nov 28
Malcolm Smith, one of the stars of the seminal film On Any Sunday, passed away November 26, aged 83.
He was a six-time winner of the Baja 1000 in the USA and had eight ISDE gold medals to his credit.
That success was for a time translated into a commercial enterprise and for decades you could buy his branded off-road riding gear.
His most famous moment was as one of the high profile riders featured in the 1971 lifestyle movie On Any Sunday.
The movie promo still shown here depicts champion flat-tracker Mert Lawwill at left, Smith at centre, and Steve McQueen at right.
See the Cycle
World story, which has some rich links.
Gixxer auction,
Nov 27
Up for auction with Donington at the moment is this 1987 Suzuki GSX-R1100H.
See the start-up and walk-around vid (above).
The auction
cattledog is here.
See our GSX-R1100 series profile.
Ducati MotoGP
racer auction, Nov 27
A Ducati GP6 990 used to good effect by Loris Capirossi in the 2006 MotoGP title fight is being offered by Sotheby's via a sealed auction.
How much is it expected to fetch? A staggering
Au$600k-1.2m (US$400-800k, GB£320-640k). See the listing
and backgrounder.
Brit bomber
landing soon, Nov 24
Meet the next addition to the shed, a 1953 Vincent Series
C Rapide, in touring trim. We bought this one through Classic Avenue in the USA.
Rather than tackle the convoluted process ourselves,
young Jon Munn over at Classic
Style has kindly agreed to import it.
Hopefully we'll see it in a few months.
In the meantime, here's a story by
Roland Brown on what it's like to play with one.
The UK-based Vincent HRD Owners Club is very active and
famously has a wide enough range of spares to build a
complete bike. See it here.
Mr Versatile,
Nov 22
While the long-lived and versatile Suzuki DR650 is no
longer available new in Australia, it remains a popular
choice in the used market. The attraction is rugged
mechanicals, light weight, simplicity and an ability to
tackle a wide variety of riding terrain. Oh, and a modest
price.
We've just added one to the shed and traded out one of
our other bikes (the first-gen
SV650S) in the process. Like a lot of them, it's
been modified, in this case with a Lectron carburetor and
a giant 30lt fuel tank by Safari. We'll have a play with
it and report back.
In the meantime,
see our DR650 profile.
Fast socks, Nov 22
Up till now, we never thought of socks as an instructional tool...Brembo has changed that. We lifted this from its Facebook feed.
2-stroke single
to 4-stroke six – 50 years of start-ups, Nov 21
Just for the sheer hell of it, we
thought we'd share nine quick start-up and walk-around
vids from the Donington classic bike auction in
Melbourne Australia that begins on Monday. It covers a
motley crew of toys from 1947 through to 1997.
Our favourites? The bass rumble of the
77-year-old Sunbeam, contrasting with the ripping-silk
note of the CBX Honda six.
And see the auction cattledog, here.
Drysdale V8
auction, Nov 20
A Drysdale V8, an example of the machine
brewed up by Melbourne (Australia) engineer Ian Drysdale
during the 1990s and into the 2000s, is up for auction via
Donington.
It was one of a few Aussie start-ups on
this theme and managed to find a modest number of buyers
despite the fairly hefty pricing necessitated by the
hand-built nature of the machine.
The heart was formed using two Yamaha
FZR400 top ends mated on a common crankcase at 90 degrees.
Of the assorted attempts across the world to create
something like this, it was arguably the most successful.
And the
backgrounder at odd-bike.com
Plus the
auction catalogue which has incorporated some
interesting toys in the last few days.
'Busa mail,
November 18
It came as a weird thrill today to get
email and SMS reminders from Suzuki, and the local road
admin, that the 25th Anniversary generation 3 Hayabusa we
bought a year ago was due for an oil and rego renewal. How
the world has changed...once upon a time you might have
received a letter in the post. Or not.
The lovely new toy turned up earlier than
expected (late 2023) and capped off a busy year for the
Hayabusa end of the shed.
We started with just one: Hannibal, the
first-gen bike modified by Phil Tainton to produce 209hp
at the back tyre. (Lou Martin pic)
Then we bought the new chap.
Mere weeks after, a stock-as-a-rock 1999
model in the hero colour was added to the shed.
We've recently conducted a major cull of
the fleet (down from 30-ish to 20-ish) and the three
Hayabusas remain.
Oh and there's a surprise new
entrant...more to come.
See our
Hayabusa resources page.
Instructors
wanted, November 18
The good folk at Baylink Motorcycle Training
Centre, on the Mornington Peninsula south of
Melbourne, are looking for instructors.
You'll need to be an active motorcyclist
with a Cert IV in training and assessment.
The company promises:
Flexible, casual employment;
Above award wages;
Friendly, relaxed work environment and culture;
Located on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula in
Hastings – no peak hour
traffic!
Email anthony@baylinkmc.com.au
Single solution,
November 17
With the SR500 Club annual rally
coming up next weekend, we figured it was time to dust off
the Cousin-Russell-mobile and take it for a spin to check
it's still happily thumping away. Once the rain stops...in
the meantime, here's our
profile on the bike.
Shed ghosts,
November 16
One of the joys and traps of owning a
string of motorcycles over the decades is that some come
back to haunt you. This Suzuki Katana 1100 is one...see our story on
the theme.
King Zed,
November 15
Flashback: When sports-tourers ruled the earth, Kawasaki was king...see our profile on the mighty ZZ-R1100.
Desmo auction,
November 15
Donington in Melbourne, Australia, is limbering up for another collectible motorcycle auction, starting November 25. This circa 1974 Ducati 450 Desmo looks tempting...see the listing here.
And Ian Falloon's backgrounder on this series.
You can see the auction here...more lots are being added next week.
Seventies trail
hero, November 13
Remember these from the 1970s? Honda's
XL250 kick-started quite a few riding 'careers' over
time and finding a good early example like this 1975
model has become a challenge. It sold
recently through Bring a Trailer in the USA
for Au$5600 (US$3650, GB£2900).
We'll confess to owning its big
brother some time ago, the XL350. See our quick
profile.
Trident trials,
November 10
Our lovely Triumph T160 has been off the road for some months, maybe a year, thanks to some relatively minor problems and a lack of time to deal with them.
However, a recent shed cull means we hopefully have time to focus on it again. We'll bring you up to date once we drag it out, coughing and spluttering, from under its dust sheet.
When working properly, they're a delightful ride. This
one turned up in our shed just over a decade ago and you can see what
we thought of it back then.
Here's a 2019
review of them from Bennetts in the UK;
And a Classic
Motorcycle Mechanics engine rebuild video with
Chris Roberts.
Collectible
Blade, November 10
There was a time when Honda FireBlades were in the thick of the multi-way sports bike battle, at relatively affordable prices. The company produced some special editions to liven up the showroom, and this Repsol racer replica from 2007 is a good example.
It was produced to celebrate American
Nicky Hayden's 2006 MotoGP championship win.
He went on to have an interesting race career after that feat, but his life was cut short in 2017 by collision between his bicycle and a car.
However his memory appears to live on.
This 2007
Honda CBR1000RR Repsol, with just 43 miles on
the odo, has just sold via Bring a Trailer for
Au$44,500 (US$29,250, GB£22,700). It came with a solid
pack of Hayden-related memorabilia.
Our memory of this generation
FireBlade is that it was a thoroughly enjoyable bit of
kit.
Before you get too excited over the
price, remember that an example like this with next to
zero miles is catnip for collectors. Plus the
associated memorabilia has far more cultural traction
in the USA than it does here.
We quickly
checked bikesales for the local 2009 version
of this model, and two turned up, priced around
Au$10-13,500 (US$6700-8600, GB£5000-6700).
Nevertheless we have heard of a very
low-mile collector condition example which sold in
Australia (on the tail-end of Covid) for Au$35,000
(US$23,000, GB£18,000), compared to a new price of
around $18,000 (US$12,000, GB£9200).
More recently, Honda has gone upmarket
with litre-class CBR1000s. The current
offering is the CBR1000RR-R SP (?!) priced from
Au$38,825 (US$25,600, GB£20,000).
We have a soft spot for the original CBR900RR, an example of which we owned for a while. See our collectible profile which has a video, a period road test, and lots of other resources.
Flashback: the
day Suzuki rediscovered its GSX-R mojo, November 8
It's late in year 2000 and Suzuki is in
the throes of launching its feisty new-gen GSX-R1000.
Lighter and more powerful than the then one-year-old
Yamaha R1, it put Hamamatsu back in the litre-class sports
bike game.
See our
profile from a few years ago
And the
Hamamatsu Suzuki Plaza website
Fifties rapid
transit at auction, November 5
Okay, it might be a big call, but we
reckon the Ariel Square Four in MkII one-litre trim
qualifies as a fifties rapid-transit.
While it wasn't about top speed, it was
about loads of grunt and gobbling up big distances at a
pace that was the domain of only a few competitors. Think
80mph (130km/h) or so.
A restored
example is up for sale as part of the Roy Parker
collection, via Donington Auctions.
See the full
auction cattledog here;
Plus, read about
our epiphany after finally swinging a leg over one.
Recycled
Rickman, November 3
Classic junk
or classic gem? Much depends on your point of view.
This bike was described as both before it was
restored.
In any case you can't help but admire how this revived Rickman Honda has turned out. See the story from Motorcycle Classics (pic by Jeff Barger).
See the 1971 Honda CB750-Four in our shed.
Back yard Norton V8 fire-up, November 1
Our favourite shed genius, Allen Millyard in the UK,
has got the Norton Nemesis V8 prototype running in his
back yard.
We love his ability to test the new
tacho on his dodgy old lawn-mower. Grab a glass
of your favourite tipple and put about 25 minutes
aside...it's worth it.
See our
1968-77 Norton Commando profile.
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