Motorcycles. Who has (had) what?

[Redthies]

My family has a deep background in the truck industry. We owned multiple Kenworth and Hino dealerships, and my cousin is freshly retired from his position as Vice President and General Manager of Freightliner trucks. I worked briefly in sales at one of the dealerships over 30 years ago, but what I learned has helped me with every vehicle purchase since then. I rarely, if ever talk to a salesman. I go straight to the sales manager, or lease manager. I know what I want before I walk through the door, and it’s way easier and WAY faster to cut out the sales BS and just cut to the money part of the deal. It still isn’t fun, but it takes the slime out of the deal a bit.

[The Wiz]

Suzuki Volusia
Honda 1200 GT
Honda Cruiser... wreck it, wreck me. Took the hint.

[dave77]

650cc BSA
Honda 250 Elsinore (street legal)
Honda CX500
Honda 750 Sabre

Loved riding and especially my last bike, the Sabre. After many close calls with drivers that don't see bikes I had a 80 year old lady pull out in front of me that was unavoidable, she said she didn't see me. After several surgeries to save my foot and 9 months off work I decided riding just wasn't worth the risk. That was in 1984 and haven't been on one since. Have considered getting one many times but I just have to look at my foot to decide against getting one, always have a sports car which helps.

[Cofisher]

Dave, sorry you were done wrong. I've 60 years with no one else causing me harm. Not that I didn't go down on my own, lol.

I'm interested in your opinion on the CX Honda. I still have a CX 650 Custom, 1983. Collecting rust for 20 years. I put 60K on it, commuting and cruising.

I'm hoping a grandson will rebuild it...

Love that machine.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I went to the local Harley Dealer and due to my physical challenges, I spent some time with the lead salesman, discussing my options. Being a bigger guy, I wasn't going to get the "Sportster" as it wouldn't be enough bike. We settled on a FatBob and they would lower the rear for me to accommodate the shattered femur rebuild and fake right knee. Seat swap would accommodate the lower back issues. 1200 Sportster would work for Miss T, and an enclosed trailer to store them in and lock them up while in hotels on the road cross country to ride around the country. Hauling them to far reaches to ride.
(Yeah yeah, too old to ride cross country)

Then I started talking about a package deal. "What deal, this is the price, you pay it."
"So you toss in a couple helmets and a Couple jackets for a package this large."
"Nope. We don't have to make deals, Harley's and Harley Gear Sells."

How about that.
I told him to have a nice day.

Back in the late 60's, early 70's the local Harley dealership would put an ad in the local paper:

"Now accepting orders for new Harley-Davidson's".

In other words, don't bother us till we announce it and we'll call you once it's in.

That's the demand they had for them and the attitude to match.

Luckily I bought mine used and avoided that hassle. It was like new though. Just 6 months old and only 2000 miles on it. And $250 less to boot. Was a great motorcycle and enjoyed all of the 8 years owning it.

[dave77]

Dave, sorry you were done wrong. I've 60 years with no one else causing me harm. Not that I didn't go down on my own, lol.

I'm interested in your opinion on the CX Honda. I still have a CX 650 Custom, 1983. Collecting rust for 20 years. I put 60K on it, commuting and cruising.

I'm hoping a grandson will rebuild it...

Love that machine.

It was a OK bike but I thought it was kind of under powered, I did have a full fairing on it. I didn't have it that long before trading it in on the Sabre which was kind of a semi Cafe-Racer, no fairing and it had plenty of power.

If I had kept riding I likely would have traded it in on the V65 Magna, which was more of a Cruiser style bike. Very similar to the Sabre but with a V4 engine and conventional rear shocks.

The Sabre was a mono-shock which was probably the cause of my severe injury, as near as we could figure it my left heel went into the mag type wheel and since I was wearing tennis shoes it did a number on my heel (only other injury was some minor road rash). If it wasn't for that I would have picked myself up and looked to see if my bike was still rideable (it wasn't, it was totaled). Luckily I was wearing my helmet as it had a significant gouge from sliding on the pavement. I wasn't thinking about the bike at all, I was just sitting on the pavement hoping they'd quickly get me to the hospital so I could get some pain meds, they had me on morphine for most of a week after the spinal they gave me for the surgery wore off. That's a weird feeling, wide awake but completely paralyzed from the waist down. Home for around a week and then back to the local hospital for several skin grafts and then several months before being sent to Seattle for micro-surgery.

[Hatchdog]

After a couple of off road small bikes my first street legal was a Yamaha 100 Enduro. That was in high school. Next up was a Honda 500-4, a four inline (side to side) road bike. It was pretty heavy and rode well. It had extended bars, a sissy bar and crash bars with road pegs. I would bungee cord a sleeping bag to the sissy bar to lean against and with the extended handlebars and road pegs I could ride pretty comfortable. Sold it to but my first wife’s wedding ring.

Then many years without a bike and around 20 years ago I bought a Kawasaki KLR 250 dual purpose and my wife a KE100. The KE was a very small frame that fit her short stature great. But she kept struggling with it tipping over when she stopped so we switched out to a couple of old Honda Trail 90’s with the step thru frame. One day coming down a mountain road she caught her front tire in a rut and went over. A broken leg, broken knee and a pretty cut up hand later we decided her two wheel days were over. That’s another story I’ll share another time.

I think I have some pics of the Kawasakis and the Honda somewhere, I’ll take a look and post if I can find them.

[Hatchdog]

Found this pic of the Kawasakis but no luck with the Honda Trail 90’s but we all know what they look like.

So my wife crashes her bike doing less than 10 mph. We are up in NE Washington state in grizzly country probably five miles from camp. She crashes and when I get to her she says I broke my leg. I’m watching the blood dripping from her hand and thinking, way to go Boy Scout, you don’t even have a bandage with you. She keeps telling me she broke her leg and I’m telling her no she didn’t but we have to get this hand taken care of. Finally she convinces me she does have a leg problem so I tell her just to stay put and I’ll ride back to camp and bring the truck up to get her. She says no way am I leaving her up here with the bears. I offer to give her my 44 mag I’m carrying and she insists on riding back to camp with her broken leg. So away she goes riding that Trail 90 down hill all the way to camp. These bikes are a three speed without a clutch so thankfully she doesn’t have to shift to get going. Tells me later she rode all the way back in first gear because it was her left leg that was broken and that’s the side the shifter is on. Wonder what rpm’s she was turning. She said she just let her leg dangle. Must of hurt like hell.

We get back to camp and I load her in the truck and drive her to Colville Wa about 40 miles away over a low pass. Great hospital there but it was very busy and she wasn’t getting looked at. (They too thought “you didn’t break your leg”) or so I told her anyway. We had left the dog in the camper so I left to go get the dog and button up camp. It’s getting late and I figure we’ll be heading home from Colville. So finally they get to her and sure enough, SHE BROKE HER LEG. So much for Dr. hatchdog.


Someday I’ll tell you about my son and I skiing at a local resort and about when he crashed and “didn’t break his shoulder”. Yep, good old’ Dr. hatchdog again. (His mom wasn’t very happy with me as she had to deal with it the next day )

Here’s the Kawasakis and our very first RV. This is hauling them up to the exact location mentioned above in the broken leg story. This is a few years before the broken leg on the Trail 90.

100_0209.jpeg (1.36 MiB) Viewed 2603 times

[Redthies]

Well, I ended up putting a deposit on a 2025 Tenere 700. I was in the big city and went to a couple of dealers and sat on KTM 890 Adventure R, 390 Adventure, Honda Africa Twin, Transalp, and a few others. Then I tried the 2024 T7, and it just felt “right”. It’s a fully refundable deposit, so if I end up changing my mind over the next 4 months, I can.

[Coach]

I had a 1985 Honda Magna 500

I was going through an intersection and a truck turned left coming from the opposite direction and hit me. I flipped over the truck and landed in the street. Luckily I was young and fit and nothing got broken. I was banged up pretty bad and that ended my motorcycle life…

This was pre helmet law time frame. I got lucky.