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Post by oldchopperguy on Mar 2, 2018 23:26:03 GMT -5
A while back, I found this old shot (sorry, but a really crummy Poloroid pic) of me in 1971 on a toy I rescued... Cheesh... I was 25 and had the world by the tail. Now, I'm 71 and the situation is pretty much reversed... LOL! I was currently riding a new 1970 Electra-Glide, and found this Suzuki on its side in a pal's business parking lot. It was abandoned, and had been run over by a truck. He gladly gave it to me to get it off his property... LOL!  I had the ruined rims replaced and re-laced to the original hubs, shod 'em with new Michelins, fabbed up a headlight, added drag-bars and a set of chamber-pipes from the local dumpster... made a new seat from plywood and naugahyde with the stock taillight set inside and painted the whole thing black lacquer with orange and green pinstripes. I sanded smooth the corroded engine and rusted exhaust and refinished in matte-black "Gun Kote" which is GREAT stuff... I could get 16oz. spray cans back then for $2. Now the stuff costs around $30 for a 4oz can IF you can even find it... LOL!
The little wheezer would do 0-60 in 5 seconds and top 100. Dang... I wish my old Kymco could do that... My only complaint was plenty of horsepower, but ZERO torque... I had to constantly keep shifting those six gears just to maintain a steady speed. That hydraulic front disk brake was something else after riding a 900 pound boat anchor with cable-pull drum brake up front... I think I may have unintentionally invented the "stoppie" long before "crotch-rockets" came on the scene!I don't think I had more than $200 invested... Of course, that's $2,000 in today's sorry bucks, but still a lot of fun for the money! I still have a soft-spot for 2-strokes, but not many around anymore. Just a fun memory from the stone-age, but the same thing can be done today with forgotten scooters, and probably for much less money...
Times change, but fun projects remain similar!Ride safe,Leo (riding a lot tamer 250 these days) in Texas
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Post by bagga on Mar 3, 2018 7:36:45 GMT -5
i love the sound of expansion chambers. oh, and the "fro".......WOW,
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Post by oldchopperguy on Mar 5, 2018 22:12:43 GMT -5
i love the sound of expansion chambers. oh, and the "fro".......WOW,
Yeah, those pipes would really howl around 9-grand! I did actually find them in a dumpster behind the bike shop that made up my "new" wheels! They came from a customer's Yamaha 250 and bolted right up to the Suzuki "X-6 Hustler". Ran great too! They were solid rust outside, but solid. Like with the engine which was totally corroded "Japanesium" under peeling clear-cote... I sanded the whole mess until smooth, masked off the frame, tank, fork, etc. and warmed the motor up and sprayed the engine and pipes in matte-black "Gun Kote". This stuff is incredible. After drying, a good ride finished baking the stuff and it was then IMPERVIOUS to gas, oil, "Gunk" engine cleaner, etc. No solvent will touch it, not even aircraft paint remover. It REALLY made a cosmetically AWFUL engine and pipes look factory-new!That was my first 2-stroke bike (also my first bike with "real" brakes...) LOL! Took some getting used to. As long as I kept it "on the pipe" it was a LOT faster than my Electra-Glide (a lot faster than most Brit 650's for that matter...) and handled like a racer... I rode it a LOT! And, shifted gears a LOT! LOL! I wore that "Afro" a good number of years. Back then, I think as many white guys wore them as did black guys... Went great with bell-bottom dress pants and platform shoes...!Yeah, I was quite a "big-shot" in Chicago advertising back then, and was quite stylish riding my Harley bagger in a tailored 3-piece suit with 8" lapels, 6" wide tie-dyed tie and patent-leather platform shoes... Heck, all the office gals loved the image... Time for a dip in the secretarial pool...? EEEWWWW... How "politically incorrect..."What a sight guys like us were on the freeway... Ain't life grand? Ride safe, and remember: That Afro-pick makes a passable weapon in a pinch! |
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Post by bagga on Mar 8, 2018 13:21:27 GMT -5
ocg, you kind of look like that guy on public broadcasting that paints landscapes. he's got a fro and he kind of whispers while he's painting...."that's it" "there ya go". are you the same guy?
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Post by bagga on Mar 8, 2018 13:26:38 GMT -5
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Post by bagga on Mar 10, 2018 10:55:34 GMT -5
i have absolutely no talent for painting but once in awhile we'll watch bob ross because it's just so relaxing watching him paint. it's amazing what he does with big paint brushes on the canvas. he's got that voice that just makes you drift off to what he's painting.
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Post by bagga on Mar 10, 2018 10:57:45 GMT -5
i have absolutely no talent for painting but once in awhile we'll watch bob ross because it's just so relaxing watching him paint. it's amazing what he does with big paint brushes on the canvas. he's got that voice that just makes you drift off to what he's painting.
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q
Cadet
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Post by q on Mar 20, 2018 20:13:43 GMT -5
Oh wow love the old Suk GT
I had a 72 250 with the ram air as you have shown.
The Scrambler was its predecessor.
She was a wheelie monster but mine wouldn't come close to 100mph.
I also has a 73 GT380 with the Ram air is was a pig...
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Post by oldchopperguy on Mar 20, 2018 21:42:28 GMT -5
Bagga,
I'm a big Bob Ross fan too! He couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler, BUT Woo-HOO... He COULD paint! Greatest natural talent I've seen... He invented a whole new way to paint with oils, "wet-over-wet" paint and even developed his own proprietary line of oil paints to do it!
He devised his technique to paint with oils like I'd paint with watercolors. He could do an oil painting in a half-hour that would have taken WEEKS using traditional oil techniques... A real pioneer!
He seemed to be such a peaceable, genuine nice guy. He was taken from us way too soon!
R.I.P. Bob...
Leo in Texas
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Post by oldchopperguy on Mar 20, 2018 22:05:03 GMT -5
Oh wow love the old Suk GT I had a 72 250 with the ram air as you have shown. The Scrambler was its predecessor. She was a wheelie monster but mine wouldn't come close to 100mph. I also has a 73 GT380 with the Ram air is was a pig...
That little 2-stroke was a real hoot for this old Harley guy back then... I never would have even thought about getting such a bike, except that I found it rotting away in my pal's parking lot. I just couldn't bear seeing a bike to waste like that...
Apparently it had tall gears. I couldn't get it to wheelie, but it would do over 100... BUT... ONLY on the flat and level, NO wind, NO hills, etc. Any headwind or slight incline and I'd be downshifting... 5th, 4th, 3rd... Then wide open and running less than 70... Lots of gears DO allow a little motor to do things it probably couldn't normally do, but "all horsepower and no torque" has it's limitations... As Clint Eastwood might say... LOL!I guess the most memorable thing for me was simply to find out there WERE bikes to enjoy besides Harley Davidson rides!
I really hate to see 2-strokes go away. I think folks make WAY too much of the emissions little 2-strokes give off, but that's just my old-geezer opinion... I loved to mess with racing go-karts in the sixties and had a lot of respect for motors you could hold in one hand, and would put out OBSCENE horsepower! Around 1962, I built a mini-bike (Go-Kart Scrambler) with a hot McCulloch kart motor. Through a fluke in the Illinois licensing laws, I actually got that little beast street-licensed! Trust me, you can't imagine doing 100 on a 40-pound bike, on 5" wheels! Insanely dangerous, but oh, so practical... Going to school in downtown Chicago, and living in the suburbs, I could ride it to the train or bus station, carry it aboard and then ride it to school after the bus or train arrived. I carried it into the college and just stashed it at the back of a classroom... NO big-city parking problems!  Ride safe!Leo |
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q
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Post by q on Mar 20, 2018 23:18:04 GMT -5
I think it twas about 1972 Daytona 200 the big factories showed up with the latest pushing liter class 4 cylinder 4 strokes Yamaha showed up with a little tiny two cylinder 349cc two stroke and spanked em.. Changed the world of Motorcycle road racing overnight and the best part was you could go to your local Yamaha dealer and buy one for under $1,900...
I think this civilian version was the R-5 then the RD and stood for "Race Developed"....
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q
Cadet
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Post by q on Mar 23, 2018 12:06:30 GMT -5
The old Mac's are cool. I know a guy over in Tennessee is into the whole vintage Kart business. Lynn is a former Kart racer tuner etc. Lynn could really make em fly and stay together too. here is some of his vintage stuff. Theres also a buddy of his in Kent Ohio, Damanic there buds and co tuners, Damanic in Kent has the most amazing collection of Mac's and Mac parts thats probably out there. I want one just to put in a glass case....    |
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Post by oldchopperguy on Mar 23, 2018 23:08:41 GMT -5
Q,
THANKS for posting those great pix, and the story. Talk about a trip down memory lane... I firmly believe absolutely NO vehicle ever made can beat a vintage 3-motor kart from the fifties/sixties for pure adrenalin rush!
Today's "politically correct" atmosphere, noise issues, air-pollution, yada, yada, yada and insurance liability issues would never allow such fun pursuits!
I can still smell the nitro and burning rubber from goosing the throttle on one of these and joyfully spinning donuts and figure-eights in the pits!
More fun than you can have today, even on a hot bike!
Ride safe!
Leo in Texas
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Post by bagga on Mar 24, 2018 5:28:12 GMT -5
the only go carts i ever drove were at amusement parks. the last one i drove had a remote cutoff that that the guy in the booth (a friend of mine) would cut my engine just so mrs. bagga would win the 5 lap race. i think the carts had about 5 horse briggs on them, not fast, actually slow would be what i would call them.
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CAN YOU HELP ME OUT MAN,AS i LOST ME JOB DUE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO GET THERE?ANY INF