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Reader Ride! One Bitchen V-Rod!

All the way from the UK!!Reader Ron Fairbrother from England Sends in this terrific take on a boring old V-Rod

Ron Writes in:

Hi
Love following your site and thought it was time to send you the phots of the project I’ve just finished.  Stock Vrod frame, engine and swingarm.  The rest is my design, creation etc.
Pretty much everything has been redesigned.  Maybe this is how HD should have built the Vrod eh?????  I think so .
Kind regards

Hey Harley!  Take a look at this why don’t you!!

An In-process build pic.

CX500 Cafe Racer. More proof that You don’t Need Big $$ For A Cool Bike.

For more info on the build see this ADV Rider Post HERE

The Before Pic!

HA! From a local bike night.

Ape-hangers on a Bandit 1250? Ever get the feeling that some people wish they had a different brand or model of bike?

Reader Ride. A rare 1971 T120RV, a 5 speed Bonneville.

This in from Dogtown Cycles.  They write:

A rare T120RV, a 5 speed Bonneville from 1971 with matching engine and frame numbers. The T120RV was released in the US in 1972, to permit Triumph to use them in American Motorcycle Association production-based racing.  But a few were imported in late model year 1971.  In order to race, all bikes had to be made and sold to the public in the same basic form as they would be raced. To meet this requirement Triumph had to produce and sell 200 of them before they qualified.


The Engine/Frame number, T120RV GE25619 is coded as follows:  The ‘T120R denotes this is a 650cc Bonneville, ‘R’ for a road bike, the ‘V’ five speed. The first ‘G’ in the engine and frame number represents June and the ‘E’ is for 1971 production.  As you can see it has the original and correct Triumph logo printed behind the engine serial number, for 1969 and later models.

With the exception of the stamping on the engine case, there were no external differences between the 4- and 5-speeds. They had the same final drive ratios and sprockets, and the 5-speeds were significantly quicker.

This bike has been completely rebuilt with less than 100 miles since. The engine was thoroughly gone through with a new valve job, guides, rings (std.), main & rod bearings (std.), gaskets, seals,etc. HPC coated TT pipes with removeable internal baffles. It was upgraded with a 1973 disc brake front end with resurfaced rotor, new seals/fluid and polished lower legs.  New Marzocchi shocks at the rear. It has like-new  4.00 x 19 Street Tracker tires front and rear on excellent original rims and spokes.

Stunner of a Kawasaki KZ900 For Sale…

A good friend of mine is selling his fantastic Kawasaki KZ900. It’s located in Jacksonville, Florida. I’ve ridden it and it’s ridiculously fun and fast. Recently rebuilt engine and a serious looker. Bike just never gets ridden so he’s selling. I would definitely buy it myself but I can’t offer him nearly what it’s worth. If you’re interested let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

And for the record, No I’ve never done this before and I only do it for people that I’ve known for 30 years or longer so please don’t get after me to list your bike unless you’re one of those dozen or so people.. Peace.

Sometimes there just something about them…

Just an aside from our regularly scheduled posting…

Coming to that point with a motorcycle where your own personal and spiritual gears mesh and the bike just becomes an extension of you is a moment of satisfaction that’s hard to explain to folks who don’t ride. For a lot of us this can happen as quickly as the ride home from the dealership on that brand new ride and for others it may never happen. Sometimes the two of you just have irreconcilable differences. It’s usually not the bikes fault. It’s usually our fault. We just refuse to believe that the “bike of our dreams” could be anything less than perfect. Then we spend some time trying to bond and it all goes wrong. Hey it happens. No point denying it. Put it behind you and move on. We weren’t the rider we thought we were. At least not on that bike. These things “usually” happen quickly enough.

But then there’s those of us who are constantly falling for the tired old girl with all that “potential”. We know we can get her on the road quickly but once we start into her it’s like pulling that first thread on an old sweater. Next thing you know you’re into a full restoration of a bike that was just going to be a “rider” till you finished one of the three projects you have going on already. Even in the best of circumstances there can be weeks or sometimes even years before you can get that first ride much less that moment of mystical magical bliss.

I had just such a moment this weekend on a bike I would have never expected. The first amazing thing is that I actually kept it whole and didn’t take it all the way down. It was a “rolling upgrade”. A cosmetic buff and fluff with some substantial performance mods that actually worked as advertised. The next surprise (at least where I’m concerned) is that it’s a 4 stroke single. Long time readers of this blog know that my first love is 2 strokes. You can see my 2-stroke blog as an example. It actually preceded this blog by quite a bit but I kept finding all these cool bike pics with nowhere to post them so this blog was born.

Anyway, after a lot of tinkering and performance updates I finally got the jetting dialed in in my DR650 this weekend and took her on the first of what will be many longer excursions. Twenty minutes into it I knew I was hooked. Everything started to feel natural. The riding position, the (nicely upgraded) handling, the power and torque of the engine.What started out as a ten minute shakedown run lasted all day and the grins lasted all weekend. This single cylinder, do-it-all motorcycle stuff is more fun for the dollar that any bike I’ve ever ridden. I’m starting to wonder why bikes would ever need more than two cylinders tops… er… then I remember the sultry stumble of my old speed triple and come to my senses. But still, does anyone really “need” more than one? Maybe…. we are a country covered with interstates after all. But where’s the fun in that? All the best action is on the 2-lane stuff anyway. And don’t forget the dirt and gravel!