Every lunchtime, and new plugs, to ensure that it got you home?
That's nothing I could fetch, eat pie chips and beans and set all 3 sets of points on my KH250 in a lunch time.
Pete
This one taxed my recall somewhat. Not ridden since the 90s.So, what have you guys had and how did they work out?
This one taxed my recall somewhat. Not ridden since the 90s.
Suzuki X7: Learnt on this. Nice quick handling but with a tendency to turn in on you.
Moto Guzzi V50: Yuck. So stable you couldn't move it off line to avoid drain covers except if you knocked off into a bend at 90 or so when it would weave all over the road.
Suzuki PE 175: Fun to ride on the road in the snow, between the traffic in London and off road on the grass and dirt. Unfortunatley far too loud for going places off road because it would spook horses and the like.
Yamaha RD250LC: Tuned and used for proddy racing. Put back on the road to sell but was too much fun and kept for a year or two.
Honda CB250RS: Boring go-to-work commuter. Weird handling like an off road bike.
Suzuki RG500 Gamma: Stupidly quick and probably shouldn't be aloud on public roads. Still got it under the house if anyone interested. Late model, low mileage, chassis slightly bent, not used for decades so soft parts gone.
PS Just looked up what a clean RG500 goes for now! Been an interesting thread in more ways than one.
Perhaps a curious choice? I recall it as the bike for hooligan learners. Light, 100 mph and quick but tricky handling. I liked it a lot and regretted selling it for a proper grown up bike.My sister has an Suzuki x7 she bought new.
I had mine for commuting for a few years but started increasingly using the car because there wasn't much fun involved. It was reliable and I cannot recall any mechanical issues. The handling discouraged throwing it around. It was a good commuter bike. Just not much fun.Loved my Honda CB250RS! Probably the best all rounder 250 of all time IMHO. I used one as a courier in London and then bought a knackered one for £180 years later when really skint and needed some basic transport. Fast for a 4 stroke single 250 and would burn of most other 4 strokes of same engine size. Good handling and braking but the single disc could twist the forks a bit under really heavy braking which was its biggest foible really.
That was the one apart from the handlebars. On the way to Le Mans one year had a total electrical failure. What a surprise for an Italian bike! (My Alfa was no different.) The spray from the front wheel was directed straight at an electrical junction block and the prong from the battery was simply a collection of rust chippings.I went and found a few old photos, so I scanned them.
Guzzi V50III. I bought this to learn mechanicking. It promptly dropped a valve, so I had to learn quickly! I sold it to my son a few years later (I had sprayed it pink, but resprayed it red to sell it on). That's a Le Mans Mk1 handlebar fairing.
I had mine for commuting for a few years but started increasingly using the car because there wasn't much fun involved. It was reliable and I cannot recall any mechanical issues. The handling discouraged throwing it around. It was a good commuter bike. Just not much fun.
That was the one apart from the handlebars. On the way to Le Mans one year had a total electrical failure. What a surprise for an Italian bike! (My Alfa was no different.) The spray from the front wheel was directed straight at an electrical junction block and the prong from the battery was simply a collection of rust chippings.
Mine was reliable, once I fixed the valve. The Mk3 had points, which were better than the electronic ignition on the earlier models. Many bikes direct spray into the electrics (my SV650 would if I let it), but a fender extender fixes that. If you don't know how overcome electrical problems, you shouldn't be allowed to own an Italian bike! It handled OK, looked way better than the CX500, and mine cost me £100 from a friend (he was drunk at the time!), so not exactly expensive. I would happily have it back.I could never see the point of a Guzzi V50. A naff, slower version of a plastic maggot with much dodgier electrics and reliability and yet more expensive..
I think we are only disagreeing about the handling which I found a bit like an off road bike. It tended to want you to sit upright and push the bike down rather than the opposite. Good or bad handling often seems to follow how one goes about riding a bike. For example, the bike press in the 70s and 80s used to rave about the handling of Ducatis which went round corners on rails. I found this type of handling a problem. In turn they disliked the tendency of the X7 to turn in which I could live with in order to have something that would turn quickly.As I said that wasn't my impression of them at all... Good handling, light, quick for a 4 stroke single...