Something to jog memories for us old bikers

Can I get away with showing my current bike, it’s a 1994 suzuki gsx750f, nearly a classic, but not british!

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Nice ,looks to be in lovely condition, I’ve owned , Jap, German and Italian bikes over the years, so I’m pretty open minded ,in fact there’s not really any I don’t like !, except for the Cossack Urinal, but even thats got its die hard fans, my first bike in 1975 was a Suzuki :+1:

Thanks bosley, yes it’s okay, as you can see it’s not standard paintwork! Got it as a project bike nearly 2 years ago, it’s all good now. In fact I got some help from the mx5 owners when I was replacing the fork seals earlier this year. They’re all a good bunch on here! Looking forward to some good weather now for the bike and the mx5.

URAL’s :+1: one of my brothers had the Dneiper outfit! Spare Wheel (fitted all 3 wheels) shaft drive to sidecar wheel, reverse gear etc. I had the ‘custom’ version with saddlebags, etc,etc. The brother that owned the outfit had AMAL concentrics fitted, made up adapter plates as the Cossack carbs were mounted North/South and the Amal’s were East/West. He had a tow bar and a nice trailer too! Only issue was sidecar on wrong side! He was a sidecar fanatic though and could throw it around corners. He also owned a street legal kneeler outfit with a Norton Atlas engine, not sure of the chassis though, possibly Wessex? Does that make sense :thinking:
Barrie

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The street legal kneeler outfit sounds interesting, good for a trip to the Isle of Man :smile:
There was a local guy to us who had a Cossack, a real utility bike and built like a tank , and as I said , not my cup of tea, but they have plenty of fans .
My Dad always said there was a knack to cornering a sidecar outfit, although I’ve never ridden one myself.

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I saw a kneeler out fit, with a child seat fitted to the side car floor. The Mum was riding a Ducati 916 race spec and Dad drove the full race side car combination (on his knees). Now as they left the Cafe, she had the front wheel hovering for the first 3 gears and he put down about 30 yards of rubber as e accelerated hard to catch her up. I never managed to catch them up, “well my tyres were still cold”. This is why I love the Isle of Man.

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Still got my 1957 Velocette Venom that I bought in 1979. It still goes well but seems heavier now. When I first had it it seemed quick compared to what cars were on the road then, now small diesel hatchbacks out accelerate it over 65 mph. However it is fast enough for me and I wouldn’t trust myself on a modern bike.

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Very nice :+1:

Barrie

Agree, lovely bike :+1:

What a smashing bike

hi great to see all this nostalgia ( ah nostalgia its not what it used to be ) I to was a biker in the good old days ,seeing the A10 at the start of this thread brought back memories of a plunger gold flash I had as an apprentice in the 50s my only transport 50 mile/day commute,I fitted a jet 80 sidecar during the winter months to stay upright.Its correct you need to adapt to 3 wheels ,theory is accelerate round L H turns slow for R H .If you accelerate on R H bends the outfit will go straight on . I rode bikes for 50 years many makes and models starting with a DOT 197 Villiers ( DOT devoid of trouble) finishing on a Honda VFr 800 .I was a Triumph fan at heart bonneville took some beating ,big change in1978 when I got a Honda 400/4 ,mostly japanese bikes there after ,struggled with Italians too temperamental like their women ,all the fresh air and fun in the Mazda now
Dave

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Here’s a pictorial view of my biking history starting on 01/12/1976 (17th birthday). There’s a Honda CB200 missing as I never took a pic of that plus I actually had 3 DT175’s in total. Worst of all is the gradual decline of my hairline !!

image !

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What a great set of photos, I bet the yam RD sounded a treat :grin: , love those “Adventure” style bikes, got my first bike in 76 , I was 18 and got a Suzuki GT250a, those old 70s two strokes are worth a packet now if there in good nick, I looked at some old KH Kawasaki’s recently just for the h.ell of it, 250 and 400cc, one, which was pristine, was going for £5000!

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I had a Velocette Venom front drum brake on my Greeve’s Silverstone road racer, I have it in my mind that it was twin leading shoe, am I correct ? I think it was the air-cooled Yamaha td1 and tr3 that had a 4ls front drum, but my memory is not so good now.

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Yesterday I called in at the petrol station in Blakeney Suffolk, they had a good condition but not immaculate Elsie 350 and… Wait for it… they want £7,000 for it! I bought mine in 96 for £600 and sold it in 99 for £900 :disappointed_relieved:

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Those Elsie’s were great , my cousin had one and we took it in turns to ride down to some relatives in Devon, must of been the late 80s, what a hoot, but they became very popular, and they were either nicked ( we lived in London ) had the ■■■■■ thrashed out of them or ended up on the track as they had their own race category, so you had to be careful buying used one , but £7000 ! :flushed:

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Sorry to say, chaps…but an immaculate RD400 same as mine went recently for £10k and there’s others out there with even higher tags. 350LC’s fetch £10k plus too for immaculate numbers matching bikes. People are prepared to spend big on memories from their youth. Heck, there’s even Yamaha fizzys fetching £5k plus !!!

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Wow that’s bonkers money! The 400 was an amazing piece of kit, the torque was great for long low wheelie’s as I recall, shame strokers died out but they weren’t very green!!

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Incidentally I have a few Yamaha rd spares I don’t need,
Coils , ignition switch, rectifiers etc and I think an Elsie engine cover clutch side I THINK, anyone interested let me know.

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The twin leading front brake backplate was standard on the Thruxton and probably an option on other models. It uses the same brake drum as the normal Venom and Viper. They are still available new from specialist suppliers.

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