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News Dec 2023
Suzi style
comparo, Dec 30
Now the delivery dust has settled, we've been contemplating the styling and tech on the first-gen Hayabusa compared to its 25th anniversary cousin.
We reckon that's worth a day or two with a camera and a feature. Watch this space...
In the meantime, you can find a wealth of 'Busa resources on our features page.
Hungarian resto,
December 30
Here's something to keep you amused over a glass or two:
A restoration series on a Pannonia 250, circa 1970. And
don't feel bad if you've never heard of the marque – it's
Hungarian and faded away in the mid-1970s.
The company produced twins and singles, and it seems it
was best known for its Soviet era 250 two-stroke singles,
which appeared largely unchanged from the 1950s through to
the seventies. Above is a factory ad for the 1965 model.
Meanwhile the restoration vids are interesting in that
there is no narration, but they show the step-by-step
process using pretty basic tools. So far, the series has
completed much of the bodywork, and the
engine/transmission, but has yet to assemble it. See it here, via
YouTube.
Deus world domination, Dec 30
It seems the plan for a world domination by Australian
custom brand Deus ex Machina is proceeding nicely. It
established itself in the USA some years ago and now has a
beachhead in the UK, in Bournemouth on the south coast.
Calling itself The Lodge of Heavy Leisure, it offers
overnight accommodation – a first for the brand. See it here, via
Instagram.
First edition
Hayabusa, Dec 29
The latest addition to the shed – Gen 1 Hayabusa in the hero colour. As it's a January 1999 build, it will be eligible for club plates in just a few days.
See our Gen 1 Hayabusa profile.
See the Hayabusa
buyer guide at Bikesales;
And the 1999 road
test at Classic Two Wheels.
Unboxing the
SR500 after 41 years, Dec 28
What happens when you try to wake up a new-old-stock Yamaha SR500 after a 41-year snooze? Apparently one of the big mysteries is where the factory hid the keys. Any guesses?
See the story and video link from the Bikes and Beards channel, via Bring a Trailer.
Walt Seigl Bol
d'Or – today's oddball, Dec 27
If you happen to be well-heeled and
looking for something really special, we have a
suspicion a Walt Seigl Motorcycles Bol d'Or would suit
nicely. See our quick profile.
RADD ride, Dec
26
Today we managed to slip out in between thunderstorms and get acquainted with our 'new' 1993 Yamaha GTS1000, which is now eligible for club plates around the country.
We've owned one in the past and did a few miles on it, and this brought back good memories. The Parker RADD single-side front end may not be to everyone's taste, but we love the communicative feel. More to come on this one.
Engine cutaway
for the day, Dec 26
Engine cutaway for the day: Moto Guzzi 's Daytona 1000 powerplant. Note the hybrid gear and belt drives for the cams, which are offset and high with stubby pushrods rather than strictly overhead.
A Christmas
wish, Dec 23
Hannibal the Hayabusa is warming up in the driveway and the cat's in charge – welcome to our traditional Christmas column, folks.
Enjoy the season...
(Lou Martin pic)
Retro Nortons,
Dec 23
Norton has unveiled a line-up of 125th
anniversary specials based on the 961 twin (above) and
the VS4V (below), all of which reference race bikes of
years past.
The V-fours are priced at a hefty
Au$97,000 in the UK (US$66,000, GB£52,000). There is
also a naked V4, which is a little cheaper.
They make the twins look a whole lot
more reasonable at Au$35,500 (US$24,000, GB£19,000).
There are
four liveries on offer – see them here.
Of the options, we lean towards the
Trans-Atlantic series colour scheme at top. What's
your favourite?
See the
Commando 850 MkIII in our shed.
Taglioni tales,
Dec 22
The legendary Fabio Taglioni on joining Ducati: "Ducati had
just been soundly beaten in the Giro d’Italia and he
told me that he couldn’t pay me much unless we won the
race the next year."
BMW R 1200 GS
guide, Dec 21
In the used market for a big
do-anything kind of toy? BMW's R 1200 GS series might
be the answer, though with three major generations the
devil can be in the detail.
Super twins, Dec
20
Honda's apparently modest CB72 and CB77 Super Hawk twins turned around the company's early 1960s image from interesting to potential giant-killer.
See the profile by young Mr Falloon, and one for sale.
Racer reel, Dec
19
We rarely cover racing, but every now and then something pops up that we reckon has a broader appeal. Like this video from Tara Morrison, who in 2023 moved up to become part of the lead pack in Supersport 300 in Australia.
The video gives a great
fly-on-the-wall view of the lead up to her race
weekend at Phillip Island and then what competing at
this family-affair level is like – clearly not
something for the faint-hearted! See it here.
Tougher Hustler,
Dec 18
Suzuki's second generation Hustler, aka the T-250, in a Brit ad circa 1970.
This time around it and the T-350 shared an updated bottom end, potentially giving it greater longevity than the X6 predecessor.
See the period road test from Cycle World.
Sixers, Dec 17
We appear to have an infestation of Honda sixes in the
back yard...1981 CBX1000 and 2001 Valkyrie Interstate.
The CBX is now registered and first impressions are of a
light truck with a sexy engine. More to come...
As for the Valk, you can read
about it here.
Suzuki
GSX-R1100W - random ad for the day, Dec 16
Suzuki's GSX-R1100 gradually shuffled from pure sports to nudging sports-tourer territory by the time it reached the W generation, which brought in liquid cooling. However it was still a formidably quick bit of gear in pretty much any circumstances.
These days we reckon it would be a very enjoyable modern classic. Early ones (WP) now fall into the 30-year category for club registration, and even the last of them (WU) are now 25 years old, which makes them eligible in some states.
How much for the
big Honda six? Dec 14
After a considerable amount of work, we're on the verge of registering our 1981 CBX1000 Prolink, on historic plates in Victoria.
While we were fishing through the paperwork, we came across the original dealer receipt, from Phil Crump Honda in Mildura. Yep, that Phil Crump, the champion speedway rider.
And the price? A snip at Au$4999 (US$3350, GB£2700)!
Bridgestone 350
GTR, Dec 13
Random brochure for the day: Bridgestone 350 GTR, circa 1967.
Review via Motorcycle Classics.
Triumph Bond
teaser, Dec 13
Triumph has relaunched an action teaser from behind the
scenes of the 2021 Bond flick, No Time to Die. See it here.
And the Triumph
filmography, here.
Nineties
classics, Dec 12
Bikesales has today published a story penned by muggins
on what makes a classic motorcycle, and gives a heads-up
on the five nineties gems you should stick in your shed.
Think early FireBlade and R1, among others. See it here.
CBX rebuild, Dec
10
"A Honda CBX1000 engine rebuild is
not something that should be taken on by a home mechanic
in their shed or garage. In 1978 most of the top
mechanics for Honda were either flown to Japan or sent
to Honda Britain to be trained in the CBX specifically.
"These motors are unique, quite complex and there is a
lot of knowledge required about how these engines work
and are put together before touching them. The time has
come to rebuild these motors now because the cam chain
tensioners are at the end of their life..."
So says the
story at The Motorcycle Broker in the UK. See it here.
Red frame
result, Dec 9
Gooding & Co has just sold this 1971 Moto Guzzi V7
Telaio Rosso (red frame) for a staggering Au$132,000
(US$87,000, GB£69,000) against a pre-auction upper
estimate of Au$76,000 (US$50,000, GB£40,000).
Just 104 examples were built that year.
According to our profile by Ian Falloon:
"Not only
did the new Sport look purposeful, unlike any other
sporting motorcycle it had shaft drive. Homologation of
the V7 Sport for production racing saw the first
examples built in the racing department, these being the
Telaio Rosso (red frame) models.
BSA test –
random mag cover for the day, Dec 8
BSA Lightning road test, Bultaco 360 Bandido and how to
rebuild a Japanese carburetor – the hot topics for March
1970 in Popular Cycling out of the USA.
See the 1971 BSA
Lightning review from Cycle World magazine.
And the Bultaco
Bandido retrospective at Motocross Action
mag.
GPz gallop, Dec
8
Flashback: One of the early experiments with our ongoing fly-buy-ride program, a 1984 Kawasaki GPz900R bought out of Alice Springs in the NT mid-Summer and ridden about 2300km (1400 miles) to Melbourne. It turned out to be a great long-distance bike.
Random brochure
for the day: Bimota DB1, Dec 7
Remember these? Ducati-powered and a very
1980s motorcycle with the fully-enclosed bodywork.
See the stats and
backgrounder at Motorcycle Specs.
Dakar desire,
Dec 6
Spannerman over at InfoMoto unwraps his long-held desire
for Yamaha's pioneering Paris-Dakar star of the late
1970s, the XT500....see the story,
here.
See the Harry's
Garage video on his collection of iconic Paris-Dakar
machinery and the progress they represent.
See the BMW
R100GS Paris-Dakar that was in our shed.
Classics for the
brave: Suzuki RE-5, Dec 5
Suzuki's 1975 RE-5 (M-model) rotary of 1975 was, from a marketing point of view, a courageous decision that just might have eventually paid dividends when it came to positioning the company as an innovator.
It also represented a massive engineering effort, albeit
a little conservative in some respects to produce
something with respectable reliability and factory back-up
for the time.
It famously never really caught on as a sales success,
despite efforts to produce a MkII version with more
conventional-looking styling for the instruments and
tail-lamps.
We've tripped over a few MkI versions. One tidy 1975
10,000km (6000-mile) example sold in the USA
via Bring a Trailer recently for Au$9000 (US$6000,
GB£4800).
That's a tempting proposition for Australian collectors, until you start to add up the import costs including the possible complication of a VASS approval given it's right on the cusp of the period (start of July 1975) which requires one.
Perhaps more realistic is the example shown
above from Bikesales, claiming 11,400km (7100 miles)
and looking as though it is in similar condition. It's
priced at Au$16,990 (US$11,200, GB£8900).
Somewhat more ambitious is the pricing of what is
advertised as a local super-low-miler (577km/359
miles) that is questioned even by the owner and with less
clear provenance at Au$25,000 (US$16,400, GB£13,000).
Suzuki's RE-5 series has long held interest among
enthusiasts as a potential classic, and it deserves to be
in any collection. However rarity in this case hasn't
necessarily translated into huge demand and prices to
match.
See our mini
Suzuki RE5 profile, here.
Today's blast
from the past: Yamaha SZR660, Dec 4
It may not be the prettiest thing Yamaha
ever built, but the SZR660 was an absolute hoot on a tight
and twisty road.
The combination of TZR125RR chassis and
the big single-cylinder powerplant could be intoxicating.
The brain-child of Yamaha Belgarda, it
claimed 48 horses (35kW) at 6200rpm and 56Nm at 5000rpm
from the five-valve engine, for a dry weight of 159kg
However it never became a volume seller
across its 1996-2001 model life.
More stats at
Motorcycle Specs.
Random
project for the day: 1975 Honda Gold Wing, Dec 3
More coming on this one...in the meantime you can see our previous GL1000 project, here.
Travels with
Guido: Vlad and the irony of lunch, Dec 3
It's 2006, and we have a bit of a situation at the Lemmings Motorcycle Club lunch...see our retro Travels with Guido column, here.
Ducati Apollo –
today's mythical beast, Dec 2
Hugely ambitious, the Ducati Apollo,
aka the Berliner, never made it into the showrooms – see our profile.
Yamaha RD350LC –
today's random brochure, Dec 1
The eighties hooligan bike of choice and
the machine that launched a load of racing careers...
And the
Bennetts RZ350/RD350F story here.
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