Bikes I Had at OH©

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#1). A buddy and I split the cost of a used 1976 Suzuki RM125 one day and I became "hooked". #2). I later went on to purchase a Honda CR125 Elsinore after that but it turned out to be a bad investment. Every single nut and bolt had been "rounded-off". It was owned by some other young kid that apparently did all of his own maintenance with a hammer and a pair of vice-grips. I was certain, even then, that the Chrysler penta-star on the spark-plug boot was a bit out of place!

#3). Here's my first street bike. It started life as a 1972 Honda CB500-Four. One of the previous owners had rebuilt the engine with Yoshimura racing pistons and cams and added a Hooker header. Upon completing the project, he let a "friend" try it out who then proceeded to put it through a guard-rail at about 85 mph. The "friend" survived but the front-end was destroyed. The bike was then sold .
The next owner replaced the front-end with a 1976 CX500 Twin assembly. I bought it off him in 1981 for $500 and a basket-case Honda CR125 Elsinore dirt-bike as a partial trade. I had a heck of a time with the 500's wiring since none of the colour codes matched between the bike and the newer front-end. I had to replace the entire wiring harness after the "kill switch" melted just about every piece of wire on the bike one fine rainy night. It was a fun bike and fast! The engine was very strong and could easily keep up with the Honda V-Four Interceptors that had just arrived on the scene. Over the winter, I did all the body work and added a cafe fairing. It had a bit of a shake at around 95 mph due to it's guard-rail history but it was still a blast around the city.

#4). Here's my favourite. It was a 1981 CB900F Super Sport. I bought it on a visit to Vancouver back in 1983. I ended up riding it back to Ontario... about 3,000 miles... in winter. It was probably 6 of the chilliest days of my life. Once the sun went down, it was impossible to ride without freezing so I would just pack it in until the next morning. I was numb below my knees for about 6 months after that. I was forced to sell the bike due to poverty... (not having a job).

#5). Here's what I grabbed a few months after getting a job and saving up a few bucks. It was a 1982 Honda MB5. It was in perfect condition when I got it. The previous owner had added some really low bars to give it a "racer" riding position. I removed the stock air-box and added a free-flow K & N filter. I had to increase the carburetor jets 3 sizes to balance out the new thirstier carb setup. The fuel economy decreased from 115 mpg to 85 mpg. It was then able to pull the front wheel off the ground in the first three gears. The top end of this 50 cc screamer was 63 mph at 11,000 rpm... with a tail-wind! I had my worst case of "road-rash" on this bike when the 2.25-inch tires slid out from under me on a city corner one day.

#6).One day, one of my buddies agreed to give me his Yamaha Seca 750 that he no longer rode. The deal was that all I had to do was find it! He had put it into storage in a barn somewhere but only his brother knew where it was. I was able to track it down and was excited to finally pick it up. It appeared that the "storage" was less than adequate. The folks at the farm had hot-wired it and had been driving it through the corn fields. There were corn cobs embedded in the engine's heat fins, all of the locks had been snapped off with farm tools and several parts were missing. My friend had lost the keys and the ownership papers just to make this project more challenging. I eventually got everything straightened out and spent several hundred dollars at the bike salvage shop. It was a very fast bike but judging by how the handle-bars hit the tank, it had suffered some major damage. It was my first shaft-drive bike. I soon realized why you don't see any shaft-drive bikes on the racing circuits. It was a death-trap on sweeping corners. The back end would bounce up and down whenever you changed the throttle and totally change your cornering path. I later had to sell it to pay for a new clutch in my Camaro. All that work and I never even got a chance to license it.