Motor bikes

[Valkie]

Only ever came down three times.
Once chucking a u turn over double yellow line....stupid
Once when a truck blew a gearbox spilling oil allover the f3, I came Down and several cars skidded into each other, the f3 was closed nearly all day cleaning it up.
The only other time was simple stupidity.
Not watching traffic, a small van pulled out in front of me, I hit it midships, and because it was turning right, my hit was enough to topple it on to it's side.

A few close calls, no serious injuries, I consider myself lucky.
But I also did several stay upright trading courses, that probably helped a lot.
Sadly, I have lost a few friends to bikes, some through their own stupidity, some through the stupidity of others.

There are few second chances when riding bikes.

[Bobby]

Only ever came down three times.
Once chucking a u turn over double yellow line....stupid
Once when a truck blew a gearbox spilling oil allover the f3, I came Down and several cars skidded into each other, the f3 was closed nearly all day cleaning it up.
The only other time was simple stupidity.
Not watching traffic, a small van pulled out in front of me, I hit it midships, and because it was turning right, my hit was enough to topple it on to it's side.

A few close calls, no serious injuries, I consider myself lucky.
But I also did several stay upright trading courses, that probably helped a lot.
Sadly, I have lost a few friends to bikes, some through their own stupidity, some through the stupidity of others.

There are few second chances when riding bikes.

Bikes are so dangerous.
I'm lucky to be alive after riding them when I was much younger.
I had an H2 750 Kawasaki 3 cylinder 2 stroke with chambers and it went like a rocket.
Same model and colour as this one but in much better condition and
not a rattly worn out engine - like this one:

[Valkie]

Was that the dreaded water bottle or was that a different bike?

Can't remember.

I had the 500 CC kwaka for a while, nice bike but had a permanent oil leak between the cylinder and engine block where the oil traverses up to the head.
My left boot was always oily.

I found out years later, it was the oil restrictor which resided there, needed a well fitted "o" ring or the oil pressure leaked out.
Was a very reliable and nice bike to ride.

I later purchased a second hand Yamaha XV 750.
What a dog of a bike, worst starting system on earth.

Then I got a Yamaha XV 1000, I know...stupid.
It would go around l/h corners nicely, but r/h corners it squirmed all over the place.
The drive shaft on this model was also the only connection to the rear wheel and it twisted, shocking design.
I wasted so much time fixing those two yammys it's not funny.
I had to buy about a dozen helecoils for all the 5mm threads on the engine casings, I think they come stripped from the factory.

[Bobby]

Was that the dreaded water bottle or was that a different bike?

Can't remember.

I had the 500 CC kwaka for a while, nice bike but had a permanent oil leak between the cylinder and engine block where the oil traverses up to the head.
My left boot was always oily.

I found out years later, it was the oil restrictor which resided there, needed a well fitted "o" ring or the oil pressure leaked out.
Was a very reliable and nice bike to ride.

I later purchased a second hand Yamaha XV 750.
What a dog of a bike, worst starting system on earth.

Then I got a Yamaha XV 1000, I know...stupid.
It would go around l/h corners nicely, but r/h corners it squirmed all over the place.
The drive shaft on this model was also the only connection to the rear wheel and it twisted, shocking design.
I wasted so much time fixing those two yammys it's not funny.
I had to buy about a dozen helecoils for all the 5mm threads on the engine casings, I think they come stripped from the factory.

No the water bottle was the Suzuki 750 triple 2 stroke -
a much tamer bike.

Was your 500cc Kawa a triple 2 stroke?
( I had 2 of those in my time )

[Valkie]

Was that the dreaded water bottle or was that a different bike?

Can't remember.

I had the 500 CC kwaka for a while, nice bike but had a permanent oil leak between the cylinder and engine block where the oil traverses up to the head.
My left boot was always oily.

I found out years later, it was the oil restrictor which resided there, needed a well fitted "o" ring or the oil pressure leaked out.
Was a very reliable and nice bike to ride.

I later purchased a second hand Yamaha XV 750.
What a dog of a bike, worst starting system on earth.

Then I got a Yamaha XV 1000, I know...stupid.
It would go around l/h corners nicely, but r/h corners it squirmed all over the place.
The drive shaft on this model was also the only connection to the rear wheel and it twisted, shocking design.
I wasted so much time fixing those two yammys it's not funny.
I had to buy about a dozen helecoils for all the 5mm threads on the engine casings, I think they come stripped from the factory.

No the water bottle was the Suzuki 750 triple 2 stroke -
a much tamer bike.

Was your 500cc Kawa a triple 2 stroke?
( I had 2 of those in my time )

Nope, a 4 cylinder 4 stroke.
Smooth bike, but no speed machine.
Bugger to adjust the valves, you had to remove the same and take out the cups out, the shims were under that.

The sequence was
Measure the gaps when cold ( recording each gap accurately)
Remove cams, taking care not to let the timing chain fall into the engine
Remove each cup and measure the shim, write it down.

Then the hard part, you could either go to the trouble of trying to mix and match shims, or just purchase the new shims as required, this was my method.

A mate pulled his down and didn't follow the rules.
It took us two days to get them right, building and disassembling the bloody thing three times.

Another little problem mine had was that at the same spot, on the way to work every day, it would play up ( missing and losing power), the it woukd run perfect again.
I finally figured it out, one of the two ignition pick ups was going open circuit at a specific temperature.
As the engine warmed it got to that temp and went open circuit, then as it warmed a bit more and operated perfectly again.
I tested this at work in our environmental/ temperature chamber, it was a buzz to see it in action.
After replacement ( with a second hand part worth $5.00) it never missed a beat again.

I think I spent most weekends working on my old second hand bikes in them days.
But, saving for a house, it was all I could afford.

[Redneck]

I think Bobby should move all the recent stuff out of this topic into a new one ... how about Bike Torque?

[Bobby]

I think Bobby should move all the recent stuff out of this topic into a new one ... how about Bike Torque?

I tried.
The split topic function is not working.
I sorted it out by moving each reply one at a time.

[Bobby]

Jump to 2:15 to go straight to the pass -
5.83 seconds at 250 MPH in 1/4 mile drag race.
He goes a bit quicker in some other videos:

[Bobby]

The World’s LARGEST Motorcycle Auction!

136,811 views
May 1, 2021