Bikes we've owned.

[The Bigfella]

Bring out your oldies. Here's me with my second bike. My first was a mid-50's Vespa that we used as a bush-basher. I've still got the 3" scar from when my brother ran me down on it, but... no photos. So, this is the oldest shot I've got with a bike. I think it was the weekend I sold it... I was home from uni and in need of cash. $55 was a lot to me back then

I'd already had my Suzuki 250 Hustler for a couple of years by then... but sold it when knocked off it in Sydney traffic.

- and what started this discussion, on another thread, my old 750/4

 

[2wheels]

Yamaha XT600 1985c.
Here camping at Kangaroo Island, South Australia (NB wallaby beside tent)
Fabulous touring bike for Central Oz.
Huge touring range.
Swallowed corrugations.
Could be a bitch to kick start though.
And, at that time, electrical problems decreased the bike's reliability, especially in remote area.

 

[galoubet]

My Triumph 350cc 3TA on the France-Andorra border in September 1969. My first bike trip (of many) to France with my elder brother on pillion. I had this bike for many years from 1967. Totally reliable, never let me down.

 

[galoubet]

Triumph 650cc Tiger (single carb) with an Avon fairing. Le Vieux Port, Marseille, France - September 1975. Returning home from my honeymoon in Corsica (I'm still married!). I was changing the rear inner tube after a terrible time in Corsica with numerous punctures. The bike was reliable but pinked badly on low octane fuel. It was also a pig to start in cold weather with a 9:1 compression. No electric starter in those days! I still had the 350cc bike.

 

[Brian]

Bring out your oldies. Here's me with my second bike. My first was a mid-50's Vespa that we used as a bush-basher. I've still got the 3" scar from when my brother ran me down on it, but... no photos. So, this is the oldest shot I've got with a bike. I think it was the weekend I sold it... I was home from uni and in need of cash. $55 was a lot to me back then

View attachment 88060

I'd already had my Suzuki 250 Hustler for a couple of years by then... but sold it when knocked off it in Sydney traffic.

- and what started this discussion, on another thread, my old 750/4


View attachment 88061

View attachment 88062

Hmm, I seem to have conveniently forgotten that!

 

[galoubet]

Further digging through my archives reveals two more old bikes. The first was a BSA C15 250cc single from 1966. Not a good buy. It drank more oil than petrol and was dirty and noisy. I didn't have it long before I bought my next bike, a 1961 Triumph twin 350cc 3TA (or T21). The first pic is from 1966 when it still had the "bathtub" cowling, the second (colour photo) after I modified it. It was a good machine but I wrote it off in 1967, ploughing into the side of a car that turned suddenly in front of me. However, I salvaged most of the bike and put the best of it into the 1962 3TA seen in my first photo. And that was a great bike.

 

[The Bigfella]

Those bathtub cowlings were, um, interesting

 

[galoubet]

I think the idea was to keep the rear of the bike nice and clean for the girls riding pillion (and there were plenty I'm happy to say!). However, get a flat on the rear tyre and you couldn't get the wheel off for love or money.

 

[The Bigfella]

I used to have enough trouble getting the wheel out of my R90S. IIRC, I shaved a bit off the rear mudguard bottom left corner to make it easier.

Here's another of my oldies.... but I've still got it, back in Oz

It's a bitza. Bits of this, bits of that. That's my son refueling it, on Scrapheap Ride 2 - which was to Cameron Corner, the far north western corner of NSW. It's an MZ250. Front wheel is 21" Ducati, tank was an alloy aftermarket tank for some Suzuki, seat came of a '47 Knucklehead Harley I had (unfortunatel sans motor or box). Can't see it in the photo below, but it also had a rack from a postie bike (Honda CT110). He rode it from Dubbo to the Corner and back, mastering the sand, etc.

.... and it was a good thing too. He got the bug and a few years later he and a mate did the Mongol Rally - UK to Mongolia and on to Lake Baikal - both on MZ150s.

I had another oldie for years too - a '94 BMW Funduro 650 - note the odo reading here

It'd done more than that though... I'd ridden it for four or five months with no speedo cable. Stuck a replacement engine in it after the carbie O rings failed, allowing fuel into the oil. The thinned oil led to a gudgeon pin failure. $1k for an engine from the wreckers, and away we went.

It wasn't a great highway bike, lacking in top end, but it used to stay ahead of the Harleys in a group I did weekend rides with. Where it excelled was as an outer-urban bike. Day rides out of the city... and as an occasional commuter into the city for work meetings.

Then again, so did Paula, on her 250 Suzuki cruiser

She went from that to a Vulcan and now rides a Ducati Monster.

 

[2wheels]

Kakadu NT. (Nourlangie Rock)

My bullet-proof Honda XL500 took me through most of Central Oz, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
The only modification was that larger fuel tank (20 litres if I recall).
Loved that bike.

Ord River scheme, Kunanarra WA

Gibb River area, WA.

Tanami track NT.

somewhere in remote WA

West of Alice Springs, near Hermannsburg Mission.
I actually rode around the bend to discover my mate under his 500 and lay my bike down for this photograph.
True. He wasn't impressed.

 

[The Bigfella]

Is that who I think it is?

 

[2wheels]

No.