I had so many #BikesOutForHarambe contributions that I’ve decided to give each one its one post. Feel free to comment about each bike as it appears.
One caveat: As regular readers here know, you’re allowed to be mean to me, and you’re encouraged to be mean to Bark, but please treat these riders with consideration and respect.
Anyway, here’s one from Robert: “My cherry 1982 CB900F, taken sometime in 1994 and at least 75 pounds ago.” Who wouldn’t be jealous of this warp-speed Eighties UJM?
That is one sweet machine. I like the looks of UJMs. All business.
Very ‘standard’. Pretty bike.
I miss it every day.
I respect the UJM for being the early stages of high-performance sport bikes, but so many of them seem to have a pre-set “expiration date.” Esp. when it comes to charging systems.
My CB900C and F both lasted through years of neglect and abuse without ever needing repairs (I was a student, so oil changes were as much as either bike ever got). My 900C got stored outdoors under a tarp during severe northern Ontario winters and in spring I’d drag it on its side across a snow-covered lawn, reconnect the battery, and it would fire up every time. Then again, I guess they were only ten or fifteen year-old bikes at the time, they just seemed old.
Charging systems indeed…Not pictured but owned at the same time was my 1978 Suzuki GS750. It caught on fire a little bit when I tried to top it out on a remote highway and the voltage regulator failed.
“On fire a little bit.” That phrase made me laugh out loud. Kinda like “slightly shotgunned.”
I was going about 105 when it happened. In the dark, and all the lights quit 😀
But you had the light of the underseat fire to guide you right?
That is exactly where the fire started, yes.
Love it! No idea why people hate the comstar wheels aesthetically.
I do hate Honda’s recommendation that you replace them every 10-15 years and they don’t sell them anymore. It’d be nice of the Japanese OEMs supported their older bikes like BMW. Imagine how many more UJMs would be on the road if you could get random replacement parts for them?
Yeah. I have Comstars, or a facsimile thereof, on my CB1100.
And we love that too!
A CB1100 with ABS is on my short list. And it should be on everyone’s short list as a ‘if the price is right’ kinda bike. Really nice piece of work. It’s a shame Honda can crack out a CB1100 as a vanity project and make the fenders, brake light, and turn signals out of polished metal, but they’ll slather their metric cruisers in plastic and wonder why people buy HDs and Indians. (Except for the Rune, the official bike of cosplaying a Nazgul.)
The aircooled bikes work really well for late fall commuting - they get up to temperature so fast. And it’s so nice to feel heat come off the engine on nice autumn rides on country roads (though you don’t need aircooling for that!). Very romantic. Or certainly a lot more romantic than other things in my price range (money on the dresser, no kissing).
I’m starting to think the CB1100 was a pet project for the CEO at the time. After those gosh durn earth quakes the CEO rode a CB1100 around Japan to visit the factories that were inaccessible by car:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/04/12/honda-chief-by-motorbike-to-quake-hit-site/
Though I hate the guy’s guts for making the CB1100 when he could have just ridden a CB1300 Super Bol’dor and brought it to America (with a shaft drive) and then someone else could have purchased it, ridden it for 1,500-4,500 miles before his wife got pissed at “that toy” and made him list it for sale, and then I can go there and get their wife involved in the negotiation and beat a good deal out of them. Sounds like a parasitic business model, no? It’d work great in America.
no kidding. I was helping someone try to get his ’81 XJ650 Maxim back up and running, and trying to find parts for that thing is either 1) LOL, or 2) $$$$
Now that I am living at the cabin in “middle of nowhere, Michigan” (about 45 minutes north of Grattan), I’ve caught the MX bug again. Spent the weekend digging out the bikes/quads and giving everything a once-over.
I forgot what a workout manhandling a bike is on the technical trails, haven’t been this sore in years.
Is it too late to shoot over a picture or two?
I have something like 30 bikes to share. Take your time and send them in.
That goes for anybody else!
Always liked the cb900, and the comstar wheels, as good looking as anything out there. Time to get my naked gl1100 goldwing back together!
Ohhh that’s a nice one! What are your plans?? Those things sure are peppy and some people make ’em look really nice too. They certainly don’t build them like they used to, huh? What year/
Mild custom, unique looks some parts still available and has a following.
I thought a naked Goldwing was a Valkyrie.
I think he’s referring to a ’76 Gold Wing or thereabouts. They weren’t faired from the factory until the arrival of the Interstate model.
Mine is an 83, standard from the factory, first year for cast aluminum wheels on a gold wing, plenty of power, not the greatest in handling, but entertaining.
80 or 81 was the first year of the interstate, was available as a standard through 1984, 84 was first year of the 1200, fairly rare, but they are out there.
You have to follow a serious ‘ Winger ‘ down a twisty mountain road on an unfaired Gold Wing to fully appreciate how well a properly set up one can go .
Waiting to see if anyone else has stupid Motos like I do .
This old Honda isn’t my cuppa tea but I know it’s a *very* good Moto .
-Nate
Nate,
Let us have a pic of your Ural, please.
And Jack, if you encourage people to be mean to your brother too much, he just might jump in his whip and administer a disciplinary podium trouncing on you, just to get you where live, so to speak.
And yes, I hope Bark keeps referring to it as his whip, just so he will continue to annoy people who think that they are the HS English teacher to the rest of the world’s students.
‘Whip it, Bark, whip it good. You’ve got to crack that whip!”
Bark softly trolling TTAC’s more annoying commenters always makes my day!
Glad to be of service!
This site doesn’t allow posting of images .
Jack posted a pic of me riding my newest (I have three) Ural not long ago, I’m sure someone here will know how to post a hyperlink to it .
I have stupider Motos than Urals .
-Nate