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News Feb 2024
Workshop find
for the day, Feb 29
This was one of those rare times when I was glad I wasn't really concentrating on what I was doing. Muggins somehow trips over a workshop manual for a 1975 Honda Gold Wing, which is the first model. It was $50, not a fortune, via online retailer Pitstop. The latter, sadly, is in the throes of a closing-down sale.
Anyway, we buy the book and get a bit of a shock when it turns up. It looks old, albeit in great condition. Not only was it published in 1975, but this was out of Australia.
The publisher was Tractor & Mechanical Publications,
trading as Cycleserv Publications. We assume the company
is long gone, and what was impressive was they got on to
what was then a new model so quickly – there must have
been a few motorcycle people on staff.
A special thanks is offered on a flyleaf to the Honda
Motor Company Foreign Service Division for making it
possible. It seems Honda provided not only the service
information, but diagrams and photographs.
I have vague memories of having a Cycleserv manual or two
in the shed in past years, but to find a new-old stock one
of this age all these decades later is a bit of a treat.
It makes you wonder where it has been all this time. Was
it found in one of those dusty boxes up in the attic?
We've owned two of these monsters – see the most
recent story here.
And our Honda
GL1000 Gold Wing profile here.
Singular
Saturno, Feb 28
Another oddball spotted today by a
reader: 1988 Gilera Saturno Bialbero 350 – the
smaller-capacity sibling to the 500. It's
advertised for Au$9000 (US$5900, GB£4600), with
the seller offering a 500 barrel and piston kit as
part of the deal.
See the Motorcycle
Specs data and backgrounder.
Oddball for the
day: Bimota KB2 Laser, Feb 27
You definitely won't trip over one of
these every day – Bimota's mid-size KB2 Laser from
1981, running a Kawasaki Z500 powerplant. It was said
to be some 27 kilos (60lbs) lighter than the host
machine.
This example
was recently auctioned by Bring a Trailer. It
fetched a top bid of Au$25,000 (US$16,300, GB£12,900),
which wasn't enough to convince the seller to hand it
over. It's now on the market at Au$30,200 (US$19,795,
GB£15,600).
See the stats
and backgrounder at Motorcycle Specs.
Six runner, Feb
26
Bought at auction, this old CBX six has had a colourful life and proved to be a bit of a project to get back on the road...see the story.
Mick's NSR, Feb
24
It's 1995 and Honda has a campaign
going for its domestic-market NSR250R SP, dressed up
in warpaint to celebrate mighty Mick Doohan and the
first of his five-on-the-trot world GP titles in the
premier 500 class.
Sadly, it was also reaching the end of
its development and model life.
Two-strokes from the mid-1980s and on
have become hot property, so it would be interesting to
see what a good example of this model would now be worth.
An equivalent in Rothmans livery was sold by
Bonhams in October 2022 for Au$31,000
(US$20,400, GB£16,100).
See the Motorcycle Specs date.
Speaking of race-inspired Hondas, see our
profile on the VTR1000 SP
superbike series.
Gixxer arrival,
Feb 22
We're in the throes of reshaping the fleet a little, with a couple going and a couple coming in. Here's the latest arrival: 1987 Suzuki GSX-R1100H.
A couple of early 'slabbies' have found their way into
the shed in the past, and we rate them as a fun if dated
ride.
More to come on this one – in the meantime, see our
GSX-R1100 series profile.
And the 1987
Yamaha FZR1000 versus Suzuki GSX-R1100 feature
at Classic Two Wheels.
The Beattie files:
Mountain Mayhem, Feb 21
Trial by fire and the
legend of Ajay: young Chris Beattie was a cub
journo for Australian Motor Cycle News and
was thrown in the deep end at Bathurst in 1983. Here's his story.
Yamaha
stars, Feb 21
Yamaha showroom stars, 1980, shared by the good folk over at the SR500 Club.
Fresh air for
the Speed Triple, Feb 19
Do you have any jobs in the shed for which you develop a blind spot? For me it's changing the airfilter on a T300 series Triumph, of which I own three: a Speed Triple, Super III and Daytona 1200. Finally, we're on the case – see the story here.
The Wing Nut
files: American Idol take 2, Feb 18
Honda's 1975 launch of the flat-four GL1000 Gold Wing was an incredibly bold move and for a while there it looked like it might fail in the crucial American market.
A mere 49 years later, we've bought our second example. It's a grey-import from, of course, America.
Farewell Dr
John, Feb 17
Dr John Wittner, the legendary dentist
turned Moto Guzzi race bike engineer, has died. A
resident of West Chester county in Pennsylvania (USA),
he was 77.
From
Ian Falloon: "He was a talented and passionate guy who
loved racing and the engineering of them to winning
standards.
"John hit his stride in 1985 when his racers won
National Endurance Championships.
"Racer Doug Brauneck rode the much-modified Guzzi and
won the AMA Pro Twins Championship in 1987.
"John was lured to Italy by Alejandro DeTomaso as an
R&D engineer, leading to the Daytona 1000 – the 'Dr
John Replica' – and other machines like the Sport 1100
for Moto Guzzi."
See the 1988 Cycle
World story, Dr John and the Guzzi Gang.
See our Moto
Guzzi Daytona 1000 profile.
Shed finds at
Donington, Feb 17
A Series C Vincent Rapide is one of the headliners from a
collection of shed finds that will be auctioned by
Donington from April 1.
The list includes:
1949 Vincent Series C Rapide
1954 Vincent Series C Comet
1981 Honda CBX1000
1971 Honda CB750 K1
1980 Honda CB125N
1956 Ariel 4G MkII Square Four
1949 Ariel 4G MkI Square Four
1972 Suzuki GT750 J
1976 Suzuki RE5 A
The catalogue for
the auction is being compiled.
Kawasaki GT750 –
today's random brochure, Feb 16
Remember these? Kawasaki's
four-cylinder shaft-drive GT550 and GT750 did modest
sales numbers in the mid-1980s. They had respectable
touring capability though their reputation was damaged
by issues with front downtubes and rear subframes on
some examples.
See the data
and overview at Motorcycle Specs.
Brit benchmark –
1937 Royal Enfield KX, Feb 15
Rare, fast, and very desirable, Royal Enfield's premium
1140 V-twin of the 1930s is still a great ride...join us for a spin on it.
Yamaha YZF-R1 –
today's tempter, Feb 14
First-generation Yamaha R1s are now very much on the collector radar.
Here’s what UK Motor Cycle News had to
say about the model: “The third and final great
sports bike of the nineties. The FireBlade set the
agenda, the 916 added finesse and the Yamaha YZF-R1
topped them off with extra power and madness. Even
today the original Yamaha YZF-R1 is a sports tool to
be reckoned with.”
This example is a 1998 model,
claiming just under 28,400km and is being offered through bikesales
at $12,900 (US$8300, GB£6600).
See our
profile on this model.
Big bid for BMW
R90S, Feb 12
A 1976 BMW R90S restored by Mark
Francois has just sold in the USA, via Bring a
Trailer, for an eye-popping Au$92,000
(US$60,000, GB£47,500).
As a recent string of listings of
these machines suggest, having the 'right' restorer
can make a huge difference to the value, at least in
the short to medium term. It would be wise to avoid
assuming all clean R90S are worth this sort of money.
We saw a similar dynamic at work 20
years ago with 'sand-cast' Honda CB750-Four K0 series,
built by World
Motorcycles in San Francisco.
In the case of Mark Francois, his
projects are advertised for big money. For example, Classic
Avenue in the USA has one of his 1975 R90S on
the market at Au$69,000 (US$45,000, GB£35,600) while Moto Borgato
has another listed at Au$100k (US$65,000, GB£51,500).
Back in 1975, you would have paid
Au$3495 (US$2300, GB£1800) for a new one.
See the Classic
Two Wheels period road test.
New dates for
Donington, Feb 11
Donington Auctions in Melbourne has moved the timing of
its upcoming classic motorcycle auction to April 1-14.
Consignments are still open.
One of the recent and yet-to-be-catalogued entries is
this 1975 Norton 850 Commando Mk3. More info to come.
The Wing Nut
files: Owner manuals then and now, Feb 11
Chasing an original owner manual for a 1975 Honda Gold
Wing may seem absurd – and it is – but we
reckon it was worth the trouble and has led us to look at owner bibles then and
now.
Top twin, Feb 9
Honda's VTR1000 SP-1 and SP-2 series rates as one of the all-time great V-twin rides, in our view.
Flashback: Big
sky dreaming, Feb 8
Sometimes you need to forget the bike and instead concentrate on what it’s for...see the story here.
Blast from the
past: Bimota SB3, Feb 7
Bimota's Suzuki GS1000-powered SB3 of 1979-82 was a wickedly quick bit of gear for its day, claiming a 240km/h (149mph) top speed. The 90hp package weighed 219kg compared to a stock GS1000 at more like 254kg (483/562lbs).
Just 402 are believed to have been made, with 66 of those as complete motorcycles. The majority were sold as a rolling chassis kit, for which you supplied your own driveline.
This example in Australia is said by the seller to be one
of an even more rare group, which was assembled and sold
with a warranty by Suzuki Germany.
It's on the market via Bikesales, priced at Au$45,000 (US$29,000, GB£23,000).
See the
Motorcycle Specs backgrounder.
See our feature on one of our
favourite Bimotas, the SB6.
Flash twin, Feb
5
Mid-nineties hero or a flash-in-the-pan? You could interpret Yamaha's TRX850 either way, though it could also be seen as a predecessor to today's rash of sporty parallel from several makers. Either way, it was a lot of fun.
Honda hero sale,
Feb 4
Fancy a piece of Honda history? The NS500 triple was one
of the corporate heroes of the 1980s, memorably used to
good effect by Freddie Spencer when he won the 1983 world
championship on one at the tender age of 21.
Honda also sold them as customer bikes and shown here is
Dutchman Jack Middelburg, aka 'Jumping Jack' on such a
machine, which is now for sale.
Middelburg won a couple of world championship grands prix
on other machines, in heroic circumstances. He took the
1980 Assen round riding with a broken leg, beating
Graciano Rossi and Fanco Uncini.
In 1981 he won a titanic battle with Kenny Roberts at
Silverstone. He was on a privateer Suzuki in that event
and Roberts was on a factory Yamaha.
Sadly he died in a racing accident in 1984.
His former 1983 Honda NS500 is now up for sale with
Iconic in the USA, priced at Au$164,000 (US$107,000,
GB£85,000). More info here.
(Pic: Manfred Mothes)
Buying a
late-model Yamaha R1, Feb 3
"Aluminium Deltabox frame, KYB suspension, injected
screaming inline-four with EXUP exhaust… is this
sounding familiar? It should, as Yamaha didn’t venture
too far from familiar waters when developing this
critical generation of the 1.
"It did, however, throw a
huge depth of knowledge and development at this
generation, coming up with a recipe claiming 198hp
(147kW) at a heady 13,500rpm, and 112Nm of torque at
11,500rpm, in a package claiming to weigh 199kg wet."
That's the intro from a story we
recently did for bikesales, offering some advice
on buying Yamaha's 2015-19 R1. See it here.
See our
first-generation R1 profile.
Suzuki GSX-R1100
– random brochure for the day, Feb 2
It's 1986 and Suzuki has launched its
GSX-R1100 follow-up to the 400 and 750 series, with some
well-justified fanfare. It was wickedly fast and sold in
good numbers, despite a looming slump in many of the
world's motorcycle markets.
Slab-sided or 'slabbie' GSX-Rs are in
favour with some collectors, though prices tend not to be
too crazy. Finding a clean example can be the real
challenge.
Though clearly outgunned by modern
tackle, a good one is still a quick and engaging ride.
See the Classic Two Wheels
1987 Yamaha
FZR1000 versus Suzuki GSX-R1100 comparo.
Shed-diving, Feb
1
Started the day with a bit of shed
diving over at young Phillip W's place. Managed to
grab both the 1937 Royal Enfield KX 1200 V-twin and
the 1950 Sunbeam, S7 Deluxe 500 tandem twin for a bit
of a gallop.
They were impressive for different
reasons – great fun!
Watch out for the upcoming stories,
right here.
See the story
on the early S7 in our shed.
The Beattie Files: First love and
a very warm ride, Feb 1
This was the precise moment when I knew I was doomed to ride motorcycles for the rest of my life. I was totally absorbed in the experience...see the story.
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