I have a feeling bike loyalty is generally stronger although car loyalty is still pretty strong in Australia as I imagine it would be in the US. OTOH, I’m the opposite to the trend I just described.
I’m partial to Fords (much to the derision of most Aussie petrol heads), but I’m a total bike brand slut. I started on a VT250 (Honda and one of the best learner bikes), moved to an R6 (a yummy yammie), currently on a ZX-9R (Kwaka Ninja) and saving for an R1150GS (a big move away from Jap crotch rockets to a Beemer).
I rode around today hoping to find an old Yamaha twin. No joy, so I went down to the Yamaha shop. Uh oh. Look at that beautiful red R6! Ooh! There’s an R1! I think an R6 would be more practical, as I’d save over two kilobucks up front, plus lower insurance and fuel consumption. I asked the salesman what kind of price he could give me. (The sticker was $7,999.) He said $7,999. Nope. Not gonna deal. I called my favourite dealer in my old stomping grounds and he quoted a price $500 less.
I’m going to call the credit union next week. I don’t know if I’ll actually buy the bike, as I was told months ago I’d be losing my job. But hot-dog, is it tempting!
I ended up ordering a pair of aftermarket mirrors, a new windscreen and a new seatcover for the Seca II. (The right mirror is slightly tweaked, but serviceable. I ordered aftermarket because they’re $18/pair vs. Yamaha’s $71 each. Ditto the windscreen – mine’s a bit yellow from all of the smog around here – at $49 compared to $140. I am shelling out for the factory seat cover though, even though mine only has one small crack in it.)
Down the street I bought a bike cover to replace mine which was stolen a while back. (I suspect the crack-ho’ manager we used to have around here.) While I was buying the cover I looked at a yellow 1998 Ducati 900SS. Very, very pretty. It’s amazing how much it looks like my Seca II with its half fairing.
Anybody else out there got a CB900? mine’s a 1980, been outside for 20 years, in Florida for 16 of 'em, in Maine now. I ride year round; only trouble from this bike is she doesn’t warm up well below 5 degrees F. (Maybe someone can help me with that…) Tried hotter plugs, thinner oil… I’ll ride this bike 'til I die, but it would be nice to get it working better in the winter.
That R6 is still on my mind. So’s a used Cessna. And a few hours in the helicopter. You know, it’s funny. I thought that when I had some money I’d know what to do with it. Now that I have it, I’m trying to be careful so I don’t spend it all in one place. Hmmm… I could almost get a used Robinson helicopter. Or all of a Hughes 269 older than I am…
I’ve got a 1975 XS650B, and I love it. Love, love, love. They’re simple as pie to work on, look great, sound great, and ARE great. There’s a huge amount of resources for them online, and parts aren’t too hard to find, even though they’re 20-30 years old. They have a number of quirks (weak charging system, easily torn oil sump screen, cheap plastic swing arm bushings, etc) to be checked and taken care of, but all of that is well documented. Plus, they’re cheap! I wish I had a few more. So fun!
I’ve just sold my Honda CB750F2(similar to the Nighthawk but with better suspension and brakes) to pay off a couple of debts and buy a garage
I’ve just been out and got myself a ratbike to tide me over until next year when money won’t be so tight but I would be surprised if it makes it all the way through.
It’s a CB350S, it shows 32k miles but I reckon its lying, I’d put a good 10k more on, but the rear shocks look original so it might be true.
It has the Superdream engine so it’ll need a new camchain asap.
Had to strip and free the front brakes and drill out the metal brakepad pin cover plate and now they work, although new pads are needed, haven’t got around to the rear drum brake but I’d imagine that it will need work, it doesn’t do much at all and then it grabs which is what happens when the pad is nearly worn out, the drum seems round as it does not grab in one particular spot.
One of the exhausts was blowing slightly, turned out the flange at the manifold end had a small lump flange sticking up and this was preventing it from sealing properly, judicious use of a lump hammer sorted that out and the copper gasket was replaced, no leaks now.
On the other exhaust header I cannot get the outer compression plate off, the stud is too badly gunged up, I may have to resort to violence here, at the risk of busting the stud, this will be a last resort, anyway it’s not blowing past so it’ll do for later, I’d like to have done it same time as I did the other one.
Anyway, it goes, and stops, has 2 new Metzelers and new O-riong chain(bit unnecesary that) and new sprockets and all for the princely sum of £500.
There will be a lot more cleaning and tidying up to make it respectable.
Sorry for the hijack, but one can get a used Cessna for under 50 grand? Is maintaince, insurance, etc a major killer? I’ve so got to get my pilot’s licence, so I can fill out the last of the Holy Trinity of Bad Ideas…
I haven’t really done the research on them, since I’m not currently in the market for a bike, but based on watching both of them at, err, speed, I think I’d go for the 900 class Honda CBR (I think its the 919 this year) over the R1. The CBR seems a little more agile, and you know what they say: Hondas always break at home.
Coldfire, any idea what Ducati is trying for with the Multistrada? It looks interesting, and, if I’m reading it right, perhaps well suited to the streets of los angeles, but I can’t quite figure out what the bike is likely to be like.
I don’t seem to have that problem on my current bike. In fact, I don’t think I want to try…
The latest issue of Plane & Pilot magazine lists used airplanes you can get for under $1,000/month. They show the average price of a 1965 Cessna 172F as $29,500 which works out to $230/month.
1965 was a long time ago if you’re talking about a car or a bike. A car or a bike would be considered a “classic”. But airplanes are different. By law they must be airworthy if you want to fly them, for one thing. And airplane manufacturers are extremely conservative. Engines were switched from Continentals to Lycomings. Landing gear went from spring steel to tubular steel in the 1970s. The “skeg” at the front of the vertical stabilizer (“tail”) got longer in 1973. There are a lot of subtle differences in systems, and major differences in avionics (which can be retrofitted according to how fat your wallet is), but a 172 is a 172 is a 172. There are “dogs” that need a lot of work, and there are restorations that look brand new; but generally what you’ll find are good, solid airplanes with not a lot wrong with them.
Maintenance can get expensive. It costs about $14,000 to overhaul a 1965 Cessna 172, and a little less for the newer Lycoming-engine ones. But the overhaul is only due every 1,800 hours for Continentals and 2,000 hours for Lycomings. If you fly two hours a week every week, you’re only putting 104 hours a year on the airplane. What’s that? 17 years? That’s less than $1,000/year you need to put aside for an overhaul. But then you have your annual inspection. I don’t know how much those run, but I suspect about $1,000. Fuel burn is about 9 gph at a couple bucks a gallon. No idea what insurance runs. Tiedown fees varie depending on where you live.
What many people do is buy a mid-time airplane and fly it for a few years, then turn around and sell it – often for a profit.
I’ve heard it said that you need to fly about 300 hours per year to really make it worth owning your own plane. I don’t know if that’s true. But I do know that if I had my own plane I would fly very frequently. And you can also put the plane on lease-back so it might (or might not) make some money for you when you’re not flying it. (At the expense of more frequent overhauls, 100-hour inspections in addition to the annual, more “wear and tear”, etc.)
So the initial purchase price is relatively low. (Oh, the average price for a '65 is $29,500. The price of a new one is about $175,000. Most GA aircraft were made in the 1970s, and 172s of that era seem to go for about $50,000.) Cost of ownership varies on where you live and how often you fly. The big thing is that if you own it (and don’t have it on leaseback) you can go where you want to when you want to (weather permitting). And it’s fun!
Today I saw a Hughes 269A/TH-55 (no year listed, but I’ll bet older than I) for $51,000 overhauled.
typo mna: Sounds like a good ride. I was attracted to the XS650 because it looks like a motorcycle. I like the isea of an air-cooled twin. (I rode my ex-g/f’s Honda CB360T, and it was fun.) And because they’re cheap. Usually I need speed, which unfortunately my Seca II doesn’t have enough of; but there’s something about an old-style motorcycle that’s just… [encapsulate in a single word a range of good emotions that describe the feeling of an old ride].
I called about a '78 XS650 for $100 the other day, but it had already been sold.
Tried to race my buddy from a redlight yesterday…I tried to roll on the throttle as good as I could and still get a strong launch but the front wheel still came straight up. Rode it for 20-25 feet, let it come down, tried to hit it again and the damn thing popped right back up again.
Guess I’ll have to lay on the damn handlebars to get a clean launch.
So, yesterday I go for a look at an '89 Kawasaki EN 450 LTD.
The price was pretty good, but I was already disinclined to buy because of the insurance break. In BC, the first break is at 400cc, then 750cc, so paying an extra $400 for basic insurance because of an extra 38 cc over a slightly smaller bike seemed like a bad idea.
Then the owner showed me the bike, and pointed out the things wrong with it: the front left indicator was corroded, and one of the exhaust pipes was pretty loose and didn’t really fit into the other pipe. Not too serious, I thought.
I check the rest of the bike out, and it seems okay, so I go for a test ride. Nice and gentle-- it’s not my bike, and I’m in a severely sloped parking garage and have to negotiate speed bumps before I get onto the street. When I’m finally there, I notice the speedometer isn’t working. Bad! But the odometer was clicking along after a couple hundred meters, so acceptable.
Then I get to a point that looks good for making a U-turn, so I slow down and start to turn the bike, shifting into first and feathering the clutch just like in lessons-- but where’s the rear brake?
My foot’s on the peg, my toe’s on the lever, but I’m getting NO resistance! My foot’s now in tiptoe position, and there’s still no braking actionandohmigodi’mabouttohitthecurbsoGRABthefrontbrakeand
planttherightfootandLURCH to a stop and stall the bike. Okay, the lack of a working rear brake, or one that severely misadjusted is a very bad thing. I’m not buying this bike. So let’s just restart it and…that didn’t work. Let’s turn the key to off, run through the FINE-C, and the ignition light still isn’t coming on. It’s in Neutral, I can move the damn bike without holding the clutch. Nope, there’s no damn juice in this bike.
I ended up pushing the bike for two blocks, which made the seller’s jaw drop.
Anyone else think she knew what state her bike was in?
as in
Fuel–make sure it is set to on, and not off, or reserve
Ignition–turn the key on
Neutral–check that it is not in gear
Engine cut off–check that the switch is in the run position
Clutch–pull in the clutch
Very nice! And if it’s any consolation; you’re not the only one who had difficulty keeping the front down on the R1. When I bought my R6 (its little brother), I was told there was a glut of R1s on the secondhand market just after they came out. The tendency to wheelstand frightened shit out of many new owners and this inspired late second thoughts.
Still, R1s and R6s got Yamaha to the top of the market in Australia at least. With good reason too.
