My search for better performance

[DAVES89]

16 hours ago, 2seater said:

That is one solution for sure?

 Despite my spending lots of time, and some amount of money on an obsolete platform, my next vehicle will likely be all electric. The very definition of torque on demand. That will be for simplicity, but the Reatta thing still feels good and the experiments are educational, if not logical.

Sounds like a "Trekky"!

[2seater]

49 minutes ago, DAVES89 said:

Sounds like a "Trekky"!

Maybe so. I seem to remember an electric bicycle in someone's garage when I visited?? A form of hybrid I guess, like an early moped is with actual pedals? 

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, 2seater said:

A form of hybrid I guess, like an early moped is with actual pedals? 

You're bringing up old memories of the first motorbike I ever owned. It was an Sears Allstate with a 50cc Puch (I think) engine and two speed transmission that was operated by a twist shifter on the handlebars. First gear was always too low and second gear was always too high. It dumped my ass in a gravel parking lot the second day I owned it. Those were the good old days. ?

 

Here is a photo of one exactly like the one I owned.

 

[DAVES89]

2 hours ago, 2seater said:

Maybe so. I seem to remember an electric bicycle in someone's garage when I visited?? A form of hybrid I guess, like an early moped is with actual pedals? 

I was thinking what Spock from Star Trek would always say...

 

logical.

 

And your memory is correct I do have one of those new fangled "E Bikes". Great improvement on the bicycle.

[DAVES89]

47 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

You're bringing up old memories of the first motorbike I ever owned. It was an Sears Allstate with a 50cc Puch (I think) engine and two speed transmission that was operated by a twist shifter on the handlebars. First gear was always too low and second gear was always too high. It dumped my ass in a gravel parking lot the second day I owned it. Those were the good old days. ?

 

Here is a photo of one exactly like the one I owned.

 

I was never allowed to get a moped, motorcycle, or any type of motorized bike. My younger sister was at a friends house, and rode one, wiped out and tore up her knee. That was it for me being able to get one.

[Padgett]

My first owned bike was a Honda 150 dream. Had to replace the crank so built something a little more interesting. Seemed like a normal 150 up to about 6,000 rpm, then there would be a little flat spot and then it would scream up to something silly rpm. Surprised a lot of bigger bikes.

[2seater]

I won't go into what, when and where, but I still do have an actual Puch moped that looks pretty similar to the Sears model, except it is black and doesn't have the fuel tank appendage, just the large lower frame member that is the actual fuel tank. Mine isn't the two speed model? I have the saddle like that but changed it to the longer style to get a more comfortable angle on the pedals. The pedal location feels like they are behind you with the standard seat. Now that I think about it, mine has a very long muffler with removable baffle on the left side. I guess it isn't so alike, rated at from 1hp-2hp depending on carburetor  and called the MAXI, a real contradiction in terms.

[2seater]

1 hour ago, Padgett said:

My first owned bike was a Honda 150 dream. Had to replace the crank so built something a little more interesting. Seemed like a normal 150 up to about 6,000 rpm, then there would be a little flat spot and then it would scream up to something silly rpm. Surprised a lot of bigger bikes.

I said I wouldn't but I lied. My first car was a 1951 Shoebox Ford with a flathead V8 (worn out), three speed on the column and a handle below the dash to engage overdrive. First owned bike was a Honda CB160. Changed the exhaust pipes three different times, megaphones, straight upswept pipes on each side of taillight. Never went any faster, but the sound did. Would do just over eighty on a long downhill while laid out flat on the tank and seat legs over the taillight. Jeez we were stupid.

[Ronnie]

My second bike was a Honda CL-90 usually referred to as a Scrambler 90. When I got it I was wanting a CB 160 but my dad didn't think I was ready for that. Going from a moped to a scrambler 90 was like going from a VW to a Corvette. Next step up was to a Honda 305 Scrambler. Going from a 90 to that 305 was like going from a Corvette to a Formula One car. I owned over a dozen bikes when I was young. After I got a little older and smarter I got dirt bikes thinking that would be safer. Not sure that was true because I loved riding dirt bikes on the back wheel. My friends called me the "Wheelie King" and let me tell you, I earned that reputation the hard way. I've flipped over backwards several times. The worst being on the pavement when I shifted into 3rd gear. The pavement ground the skin off most of my finger tips, my shoulders, and my knees. It also ground a face shield snap completely off my helmet. If it weren't for me wearing my helmet I would probably be dead. Not long after that I gave up riding motorcycles altogether and never looked back.

 

CL-90

 

[Padgett]

By 1967 I was into big bikes: 650 BSA, 883 Harley, 750 Suzuki (first water cooled). Later I had a Honda trail 70 to carry on the nose of my Westphalia.

 

 

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, Padgett said:

By 1967 I was into big bikes: 650 BSA, 883 Harley, 750 Suzuki (first water cooled). Later I had a Honda trail 70 to carry on the nose of my Westphalia.

 

 

I think you are a little older than me. I was 16 when I got my new '67 CL-90 and my license to be legal to drive on the street. There was a shop near me that sold BSA, Norton and Ducati. I loved the BSA 650 Lightnings and the Norton Commandos but the only thing I ever bought from them was a used 450 Ducati thumper. I had to buy what fit my 1974 billfold. ?

[2seater]

4 hours ago, Padgett said:

By 1967 I was into big bikes: 650 BSA, 883 Harley, 750 Suzuki (first water cooled). Later I had a Honda trail 70 to carry on the nose of my Westphalia.

 

 

Never had bigger bikes as a teen, and I did lust after the 305 Honda in HS but never had one, and went away from them for a few years. In the 70's I had a 650 single carb Triumph Trophy, very briefly a Bonneville, then the sort of Japanese clone vertical twin Yamaha 650 and then the Yamaha 750 triple, where my biker career pretty much stopped in the early 90's. Never had a Harley.

[Padgett]

'72 Suzuki was the first bike I had with an electric start. 750cc 2-stroke triple. Also first bike that would just burn the rear tire instead of reaching for the sky.

[2seater]

6 hours ago, Padgett said:

'72 Suzuki was the first bike I had with an electric start. 750cc 2-stroke triple. Also first bike that would just burn the rear tire instead of reaching for the sky.

The Water Buffalo? I never owned a two stroke although I rode a few. Funny how the revs seemed to go on forever? The scariest, and I guess the fastest I ever rode was the Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750 two stroke triple. Good thing I didn't own it, and only rode it two or three times, or it would have ended badly?

[Ronnie]

25 minutes ago, 2seater said:

I guess the fastest I ever rode was the Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750 two stroke triple.

I agree. By far the fastest motorcycle I ever rode. They made a Honda 750 four cylinder of that period look like a wimp in comparison.

[Padgett]

Remember seeing a kid showing off in a parking lot with  a Kaw triple. Stood straight up in air, rear wheel left the ground, kid hit the ground, bike fell over sideways and cracked the cases. Memory still vivid of the bike bleeding out on the ground. Kid seemed OK.

[2seater]

I never saw anything quite that severe but I do remember my neighborhood friends and I trying to get some of the underpowered stuff we owned to wheelie. Good example: Honda 50 street bike/scooter, the step through kind with the plastic shield in front of your legs. Rev it up on the center stand and then kick the bike off of it. Laughed so hard when it stood up, rear fender scraping the ground, friend slides off the back and now he is running with the bike standing on end, down the driveway. Can't roll the throttle off due to the awkward position, so of course he runs out of speed and the bike falls over. Scraped up, broke the mirror, and hurt his pride, badly, since we had no mercy. Learned quickly that waxing or siliconing the seat was a very bad idea?

[Ronnie]

Some bikes are easier to ride a wheelie with than others. For example the 750 Kaw would pull the front wheel off the ground easily in the first three gears without you wanting it to, but it didn't make a good wheelie bike because everything happened so fast you would have to let off the gas after going a short distance on the back wheel or flip over backwards. I owned a Yamaha RD-350 that was the same way. It was the quickest bike I ever had to jerk the front wheel off the ground when it hit the power band but it would get out of control really fast. It was a terrible wheelie bike but it was fast if you kept it in the power band.

 

The best wheelie bikes I've rode were dirt bikes with big single cylinder engines (thumpers) that had heavy flywheels. They have lots of low end torque and the heavy flywheel smooths out the power so throttle changes don't effect the attitude of the bike so quickly when you're on the back wheel. It helps to keep all the slack out of the chain too so changes in the throttle would be felt quickly. Doing a really long wheelie is about balance and being smooth with the throttle more than it is about power. The best wheelie bike I had was a Honda XL 250 with a Powroll storker crank that brought it up to about 305cc. It had tons of low end torque and a big heavy flywheel to smooth out the power. I could keep it on the back wheel through the first three gears and it would start coming down when I shifted to forth. That is the same bike I flipped over backwards on the pavement. When the skin is removed from your finger tips it will make you rethink your style of riding. ? Probably the most pain I have ever experienced.

[Ron Walker]

Lots of talk about motorcycles. I never owned one. My experience hasn't been good. Borrowed a 125cc Binelli from my father-in-law - wrecked it due to excessive gravel and speed.  Borrowed a 650cc Yamaha from brother - almost wrecked it - due to highway conditions and, again, due to speed. Later, had two "3-wheelers" both were wrecked by me and others. Last time I broke numerous rules, had my wife as a passenger on the 3-wheeler and her extended stay in the hospital with a fractured femur put the end to such "joy." I have a brother who "lives to ride", has over 900,000 miles certified by BMW (this doesn't count his early Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha use). He says when you feel like you mastered your ride, its time to get off.  

[Padgett]

Scariest was trying to make a 60cc Yammer try to do something stupid and it tried to escape. 650 BSA Lightning (dual carb) could carry the front tire about a foot off the ground for a coupla gears/blocks. Worst experience took a Harley Sportster to a party and went to park at side of house. In dark put foot into an in ground trash can and everything came down on top. No injury but need help to get bike off since had no leverage.

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Padgett