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Time for a motorbike list

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 also only got mine because it was very cheap. It was about 15 months old, a recovery of some sort that had been sitting in my father's dairy for a few months while whatever was going on went on. A Finance company ended up owning it but weren't geared up to do anything with it and accepted a speculative low offer of something like 10-20% of list price to get shot of it with zero effort and cost. Can't see it happening anymore in these days of cheap postage and the internet. Wouldn't want it back.
 
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.

I guess different riding styles could suit the handling of different bikes somewhat yes:) The X7 certainly had a rep for being twitchy in the handling dept... I recall them having incredibly long lasting front tyres:D

A mate had a Triton which I often used to borrow and I recall that living up to the reputation of the featherbed frame and it "went round corners on rails".
 
Great to see this thread back up and running :)

Just added this one to my list.....

38438673892_4be7f50931_b.jpg

Nice. What is it Rich - late model 900SS, or something even newer ?
 
Never saw one of those with the USD forks before. Cool thing to throw around I'd say.
Keep her between the hedges :)
 
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.

Both sisters had X7's I had a KH250, mine was faster 15 tooth engine sprocket made all the difference.

Pete
 
I rode motorcycles in the 80s and early 90s. My most treasured ride was a black and orange Suzuki GSX1100 not dissimilar to the one pictured below, except mine had the slimmer 19L tank.

8b4167d9d682167a342a0e745e342c28--bike-style-suzuki-gsx.jpg


It was my last air-cooled big bike. I thought about 'upgrading' to the Katana or trading it in for a Honda CB-X. But a succession of Yamaha FZ-based water-cooled fours followed instead. I haven't ridden a bike since 1992.
 
I rode motorcycles in the 80s and early 90s. My most treasured ride was a black and orange Suzuki GSX1100 not dissimilar to the one pictured below, except mine had the slimmer 19L tank.

8b4167d9d682167a342a0e745e342c28--bike-style-suzuki-gsx.jpg


It was my last air-cooled big bike. I thought about 'upgrading' to the Katana or trading it in for a Honda CB-X. But a succession of Yamaha FZ-based water-cooled fours followed instead. I haven't ridden a bike since 1992.
1100 engine, spindly frame and forks, 2 pot brakes, what's not to love? :D
And apart from a Bantam 125 for a year in '65, and a moped in the '80s, I started riding in '92!
 
I rode motorcycles in the 80s and early 90s. My most treasured ride was a black and orange Suzuki GSX1100 not dissimilar to the one pictured below, except mine had the slimmer 19L tank.

8b4167d9d682167a342a0e745e342c28--bike-style-suzuki-gsx.jpg


It was my last air-cooled big bike. I thought about 'upgrading' to the Katana or trading it in for a Honda CB-X. But a succession of Yamaha FZ-based water-cooled fours followed instead. I haven't ridden a bike since 1992.

I had the 750 version. The last before it was restyled and got monoshock suspension (the "ES" IIRC, later "EFE"). Same styling as that one in the picture. It was not Suzuki's finest hour... Slow (117 approx.), heavy, handling and braking "adequate" rather than good. The earlier GS750 was better in every way. The restyled and modded monoshock version was reportedly a much better machine.
 
Even my CB250RS four stroke single used to burn off KH250's... An X7 would blow it into the weeds! Now the S1 version was rather quicker...

The 15 tooth engine sprocket made all the difference it was under geared as standard, ton on the speedo two up on mine!

Pete
 
The 15 tooth engine sprocket made all the difference it was under geared as standard, ton on the speedo two up on mine!

Pete

Sorry but I don't believe you. After the first S1 triple (Rare and reputedly would do the ton) they were detuned year on year and the last KH250's only did about 85. RD250 was fastest 250 for years (Ducati Mach 1 250 supposed to be quicker, some say 100MPH, but extremely rare and performance probably exaggerated), then came the X7 and RD250LC which were both about 6-7MPH quicker and disputably the first 100MPH 250's. i remember the controversy in the bike press as to if they did 99 or 100 and which was fastest... this then followed on to silly headlines about "killer ton up learner 250's" in the tabloids... 'cos of course 94MPH was perfectly safe before this... and we got the 125 law. I still recall seeing 2-3 year old 250's selling for £200 at the time as those who failed their test could no longer ride them and they were no longer legally rideable by learners. Ah hindsight! Look what a decent RD250 etc goes for now! And FS1E's OMG! My first road bike for my 16th birthday:) Off roading on D14-4 Bantam before then.
 
Well that's up to you but the chap I used to race down the Nottingham ring road on his 250 Suzuki was pissed off that he didn't pull away from me over 70mph.
They all had similar power outputs so they should have had similar top speeds.

Pete
 
Well that's up to you but the chap I used to race down the Nottingham ring road on his 250 Suzuki was pissed off that he didn't pull away from me over 70mph.
I had my RD250LC tuned by a chap in Nottingham. He had a workshop in a shed at the bottom of this garden. He was quite popular but I can't remember his name?
 
Well that's up to you but the chap I used to race down the Nottingham ring road on his 250 Suzuki was pissed off that he didn't pull away from me over 70mph.
They all had similar power outputs so they should have had similar top speeds.

Pete

Ton-up on the speedo was probably reasonable, given the vagaries of the clocks on bikes in those days. They did indeed have 'similar' power outputs, but in the minds of most of us rabid 17 year-olds, the difference between having a bike which MCN put through the lights at a reported 96mph vs one which 'only' achieved a measured 94 was absolutely enormous :) (The fact that they would only ever get close to the reported figures in ideal conditions/with a 9st rider/on an engine with less than 2000 miles on it/which had been serviced-by a pro-in the last 20 minutes was neither here nor there..)
 
I remember the noise and smoke the two strokes bikes like the RD250LC, RD350LC and X7 used to make....you could hear them on the next street!

I think MCN quoted 97 MPH for the X7.
 
Similar to an extent... for 250's from the era we're talking about they varied from about 24 - 35BHP. Superdreams seemed to lose a lot of their power after a short time I recall. Never a quick 250 they were meant to do about 88 ish IIRC but after a couple of years use they seemed to go down to about 78-80 max but remained pretty reliable...

Of course we all new the guy whose FS1E or AP50 would do 65 and his replacement RD250 would do 105... stock.. in his own mind anyway!
 
There was one RD250 that would clock the magic ton:

12731.jpg


The (in)famous HamYam. Ugly brute, but clocked at 103mph in one of the mag tests if memory serves correct. Fellow near us at home had one - simply the.noisiest.road.bike.I.ever.heard period :)
 
I remember the noise and smoke the two strokes bikes like the RD250LC, RD350LC and X7 used to make....you could hear them on the next street!

I think MCN quoted 97 MPH for the X7.

The 2 strokes sound louder close up than the 4 strokes. The 4 strokes sound louder than the 2 strokes from a distance.

Turning this thread audio....
 


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