Sweet Suzuki Reader Ride!

Mike Sternick from New Jersey sends in this cool budget beater build… I love bikes like this. More proof that you don’t need deep pockets to ride a cool bike! Nicely done!
Mike writes in:
Greetings ,
It was a $500.00 beater with potential.You don’t see to many GS’s cafe’d out.All new bearings and seals front to rear.Seat, cowl (battery box) and taillight made in house.
Works performance did the shocks and fork springs.Kerker header with a supertrapp exhaust from the junkyard.Fuse box and electronics are behind screen.Out of all the tanks I tried the stock tank had the best balance.The carbs and harness were a bitch,took a month to sort.That which doesn’t kill us makes us better fabricators.It now rides and runs great.Love your rag.

Cheers
Mike Sternick

Chinese Chang Jiang CJ750 M1M. A close relative to the BMW1938 R71

I get a kick out of all the different “family trees” there are to the old BMW’s. It seems like after the war there were quite a few versions of some variation or another being built. Here is a gorgeous example of the Chinese model sent in by Bur Zeratsky who writes in:

Here is a photo of my Chinese Chang Jiang CJ750 M1M. This bike is a current production version of the BMW R71 from 1938. The story goes that the Germans sent their tooling to Russia after the war, where they produce Urals & Dnepr’s to the same design. Sometime later, the Russians sent the tooling to china, where the CJ750 is produced today.

Year of origin is uncertain. A good friend had it shipped here several years ago directly from China. After tinkering with it for a while, he decided to let it go and my wife was kind enough to present it to me as a 25th wedding anniversary gift. After additional tinkering by another good friend, Paul Crowe, which included the removal of 3 entire sheets of chinese newspaper lining the inside of the gas tank, it now runs like a top.
Hope you enjoy!
Bur Zeratsky

That’s Great stuff Bur. You have a great wife and a true friend there! Thanks Much!

Ducks and a Goose in the shade!

That’s my kind of parking lot! Thanks to Chris Lewis for the pics!

OK a few thoughts on the “controversy”..

Lets see. I’ve already received a few nasty-grams and been told goodbye by a few readers. sorry to see you go, Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed it! Sincerely. I also received a lengthy and well written comment (which I reprinted in the previous blog post) that made a lot of observations that I completely agree with. Yes, they’re reckless, dangerous and will likely die young. They may take someone with them. They may encourage others (much less skilled) to imitate them and also get harmed. That sucks. It’s a shame that this obviously popular motorcycling destination is not better patrolled by the authorities and kept in check. It’s a shame they have avoided the legal system to the point that they still have licenses. I hope the legal system does it’s job and catches up to them.

However I was also assailed for “promoting” these two videos suggesting that it will contribute fall of European motorcycling as we know it. It may give the jack booted nanny state regulators even more justification to regulate the fun right out of the sport, if not give them the excuse they’ve always wanted to eliminate motorcycles all together.

….sigh…. really? seriously? If that’s the situation where you live than you have my sincere sympathies.

………..I just deleted the rest of what was a very lengthy response. I’m tired and it was a lot crankier than I intended it to be. The bottom line is this. Yes I get a ton of visits and I do feel a sense of responsibility to that. I have immense appreciation for all the people stop by regularly and ESPECIALLY those who contribute. And like most bloggers I get a charge out of watching the site meter and all the traffic. But honestly I’m not chained to this. It’s just a hobby that I enjoy. It says right in the masthead that I post whatever appeals to me at the moment and I will continue to do that. If I get in the mood to post the occasional hooligan video and it offends you then I’m sorry you’re offended. Do what you must.

Just one final thought though… if the sport of European motorcycling really IS threatened by the “promotion” of these two videos then I’m sorry to tell you this but you’ve got much MUCH bigger problems in your future than that.

Regards,
Steve Ducharme

A passionate comment reprinted here as a full post regarding the “Greek Hooligans”

“It’sfookedmate” (sorry that’s his handle I don’t have a full name) posted an excellent and thoughtful comment in response to the Greek hooligan video post. To be clear, I completely respect every point made here AND the point he makes about the video he linked to. I’ve been riding for 40 years and I do have some other points on this this that I want to make. Unfortunately I’m at work at the moment and do not have time for a full and thoughtful response. I will make a comment either tonight or Saturday. In the mean time here’s is what he had to say. If you’re interested, please chime in in the comments. More later I promise.

It’sfookedmate

I’m very disappointed to see that you’ve given bandwidth to these complete and utter morons, I don’t know what it’s like in your part of the world but in Europe the governments are trying to bring in a massive amount of very anti-bike-trike-quad legislation ranging from anti-bike-trike-customising, new Type Approval and Market Surveillance Regulation that will see the introduction of compulsory ABS, the sealing of powertrains from the airbox, through the engine to the final drive (including the diameter and aspect ratio of the rear tyre), restrictions on the aftermarket industry, possible roadside checks by police or other government agencies to inspect emissions, detect owner ‘tuning’ and the compulsory wearing of long sleeved high viz jackets which you must agree to wear as part of your bike-trike insurance policy so if your stopped and not wearing one an offence in it’s own right you will also be considered to have no insurance as you are breaking your policy agreement, there’s been huge demos in Europe recently where they also want to ban all bikes over 7 years old and there will be a lot more demos in the UK and Europe soon.

The last thing the anti-bike campaigners and the bike hating general public need to see is totally irresponsible bloody twats like these it just adds more fuel to their fires and I wonder if you would be so impressed with them if they slammed into you on your bike and put you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, I’m a life time biker of 34 years on the road and biking has gone all to hell since so many talentless idiots have bought sports bikes and proceeded to do nothing but crash and burn all over place and post their exploits all over the internet.

I’ve been a pro mechanic for 30 years and in the last 10-15 years the vast majority of bike accident recoveries I’ve attended involve sports bikes and are not the fault of the car driver they are the riders talentless fault, seeing a car with the footwells full of children’s blood after a fireblade has slammed through the windscreen is not easy to forget and it was a completely avoidable accident, that’s the reality of what can happen!

As far as I am concerned the people that ride like this are not bikers and have nothing to do with biking because they are simply destroying it for the rest of us, I know people that have bought a sports bike and rode it like an idiot for a few months and crashed and injured themselves or other people or both and got banned then sold the bike and had no more to do with bikes but their actions have reflected very badly on biking as a whole and really attracted the attention of the authorities in many countries and also put my the cost of my bloody insurance up!

Maybe you should balance your enthusiasm for such riding by showing the consequences of riding like a moron can have by posting a video like this one,
http://www.streetfire.net/video/deadly-motorcycle-accident-caught-on-cockpit-cam_645314.htm
I just hope it’s not you he hits!

September 15, 2011 at 5:27 am

Video of King Kenny riding the 1980 YZR500 at Laguna Seca.

Thanks to Jay Davidson for the heads up!

More information on the Greek hooligan videos and some great reader rides!

A reader from Greece was kind enough to do some translating and fill us in on the “Greek Hooligan” videos from the previous post. He also included some fantastic bikes of his own!

Thanasis Vgenis writes in:

Hello there!
I would like to congratulate you on your great blog, I’ve seen very nice bikes there since I subscribed! Well done, it’s priceless!

I come (and still live here) from Greece, so I had a laugh watching those nice old videos from “Agios Ioannis”. This is a place in island of Evia, not far from Athens, were many athenian bikers use to go for a ride since the scenery is nice and the twisties are great. The guys in the video are race riders, especially the one on the 749, and local heros, so they know the road like the back of their palm, which of course is no excuse for that silly riding…The “disclaimer” at the start of the video says that “this has been done by professional riders, in a controlled (!!!! 😀 ) environment, so don’t try this at home and ride safely” Funny enough I dare say….(we must admit that their are pretty good, though)

Seizing the opportunity, I am including a couple of pics from some of my bikes.
First is my 1970 Ducati Scrambler 350, almost completely restored. I got the bike in 2003, and studies and PhD included I got it running in 2010….But it’s a charm…
Next, the scrambler is together with my mate’s 1979 XT 500, a really lovely bike, almost unrestored, just some paint jobs and slight engine repairs.
Finally, my lovely 660 smc in a break from work, on to the mountains near by.

Hope you like ’em.

Keep up the great work,
Best regards,
Thanasis Vgenis

This post is a great example of why the internet is so great. Thank you very much for the information sir and congratulations on your excellent collection! I like your taste in bikes!

Reckless greek hooligans on video!

We here at MCPOTD do not endorse this behavior… but damm. Anybody speak Greek?