reader ride

All origina low mileage Suzuki T500. The kind of barn find I dream about.

Regular contributor to my 2 stroke blog Ted Guthrie sent in his latest “barn find”.

Hi, Steve. Thought I’d share with you the great barn find I brought home recently. It’s a 1973 Suzuki T500 Titan, with 4,000 original miles on it. Although far from perfect cosmetically due to plain old aging, it is in amazing condition. All I did to get it look as it does in these pictures was to wash it. Torn fork gaitors show, as well as a broken lock on the gas cap – hence my baggie/rubber band seal. Tape on the tank is my label reminding me there is no fuel in it. Haven’t tried to fire it up yet, as I intend to go through the carbs and ignition first. Dig the condition of the seat and tires. They’re exactly as when I got the bike. No Armorall on ’em or anything. Nearly 40 years old. Amazing. What a survivor. Ted Guthrie PS: Please see also, pic of parts and pieces of ’75 Bultaco 350 Alpina I am putting together. 1960 Triumph Tiger Cub is next in line, too.

A Stunningly Beautiful Hand Crafted Yamaha RD350 Cafe Racer.

I followed the build thread for this bike for quite a while over on the 2 Stroke World Forum and today I got an e-mail from Ben Alameda with these fantastic pics! I’m a huge fan Ben! Thanks Much!
He writes in:

Hey there,
Love the blog I always follow up on it every week. Here are some pics of my custom 1973 rd350, I hand made all the aluminum body work and fenders from scratch. I also designed and built the pipes myself from stainless. The front wheel is a highly modified motoguzzi eldorado hub which was machined heavily, I added airscoops to both the front and rear drums. I also reinforced the frame with gussets.
-Ben Alameda

What a beauty. I’ve tried banging out a few panels over the years and this sort of skill is almost god given. I don’t often get envious but this is one of those times. Just superb!

Reader Ride! Beautiful Yamaha RD350 Restomod.

Ted Brecheisen wrote in with a post intended for the 2 stroke blog but it’s so nice I thought I’d include it here too. Stunner!

Hi Steve,

Great blog site! I submitted some pics of my 78′ Honda Hawk bobber July 2010, thanks for posting and good words.

I know that a lot of the bikes that are on the 2-stroke blog are modified to radical so I thought it might be of interest to see a stocker.
We found this great 1975 RD350 in excellent condition hiding in a service department of a local Yamaha dealer. As is typical, money was needed by the owner so we provided $$.

Only a few things are not original. The ignition was replaced with an electronic version from Vintage Smoke, and hi-output coils from HVC Cycle as well as the front master cylinder. This is a rider and these changes make it a pleasure to ride. Everything was taken apart and cleaned or buffed. Even the “orange peal” in the tank close up is original. That was the way some of them came in 75′ as Japanese paint standards were not very good.

Thanks

Thank you Ted! A real beauty!

The Dirt Fazer!

Manny had made a few comments about his old Dirt Fazer in the FZ! Adventure Bike thread and he was kind ehough to send in some pics of it.  Cool Stuff but a sad ending..
Manny Wrote in:

Hope some of these are OK. Don’t forget most of this stuff is from the film era and it wasn’t so easy to take pictures back then. I owned this bike for 13 years and had a blast with it. One day I was riding it home from work and the countershaft sprocket came off the shaft and the chain wrapped around and locked my rear wheel in the fast lane of a major Montreal highway. I slid to a stop on the inside service lane and took the plate, tools and mirrors, crossed the highway, called my wife to pick me up and abandoned the bike. I had never plated it and ran it on the street with the plate from my other Fazer so it couldn’t be traced to me. That’s the last time I saw it.

Update: Nice reader ride. A 1971 Bonneville.

Update:  shame on me I forgot to include the backstory on this bike.  Sorry about that Linh.

Thanks to Linh Barinowski for the shots. I’d love to have one in this shape as a rider.

Steve
I know this bike is not anything out of this world, but it has a great story that goes along with it…..
I have a friend here in Whitefish Montana. He has owned this bike for 15+ years. The former owner said it would never run again, and my friend bought it for $1.00
It has sat in a garage for a long time. I knew my friend had it and I have been bugging him for 6 years to sell it to me. He could not part with it. So i knew i had to get it back to running order. i bought an old XL 350 for $75 bucks (hey – it is montana) and then broke into my friends garage. I took his old triumph out from under it’s cover and replaced it with the old Honda. That was over four months ago. He hasn’t noticed that his bike is missing. The bike just got finished and my friend has no idea about it. I had a lot of help from his mother ($1,200 in parts alone) and a super talented Triumph mechanic and machinist, who still races flat track at 65+ years.
It was a labor of love, for a dear friend. Every time i sit on the bike i feel like i am Fonzie…. I just have to remember the brake is the left pedal and the shifter is on right.

Sweet 1967 gilera 106ss Cafe Racer.

Special Thnks to Mike Soteros.

Something of a rare sight these days… A Stock 1979 XS650 Special!

Now I don’t want to ruffle any feathers here when I say this (especially since I have a long history of taking somewhat rare bikes and making them “my own” so to speak) but I’ve noticed lately that it’s getting pretty hard to find a nice original XS650 these days. I commented on a thread somewhere recently that it seems like every kid with a Harbor Freight welder and a tractor seat is taking the really nice stock XS’ and chopping the hell out of them… often with less than impressive results. But hey who am I to judge. Anyway I tripped across this stunner of a late model stocker today and it hit me again how unusual it is to see one that hasn’t been hardtailed , streettracked or cafe’d! And lucky for me that SpeedFourJoe over on ADV rider was kind enough to hook me up with his flick page!

He wrote in that:

“It had the “tiller” bars and king and queen seat when I got it. I changed the seat and bars, and then just went through it mechanically, and painted some rusty parts, but mostly just a good cleaning. There are so many modded XS650s out there, it is nice to keep one stock.

Hell of a nice save there Joe! You know if it wasn’t for my 2 stroke addiction I’d probably be all over these bikes! I may have to hunt one down yet.

Here she is in all her glory!

And here’s a few select shots from the flickr page. Hit the link above to see all the work that went into her. Great Job!

Some before and build pics:

Wow! Stunner of a Kaffee-Maschine Moto Guzzi.

I’ve been overdue for a nice Guzzi and Axel Budde remedies that by sending in this absolute stunner!!

He writes in:

This custom cafe racer was built for Gustav Larsson, living in Monaco.

The donor bike was a Le Mans 3. The engine was modified with 950ccm cylinders, balanced crank drive, performance cam, electronic double ignition and a lighter clutch. It already had a rare, straight geared racing transmission, which was revised. Wheels are Morad with stainless spokes.
Shocks are Ikon, the fork got new tubes and Fac dampers. A minimal electrical system including a motogadget instrument was built. ALL special components on the bike are handcrafted.
Dry weight is 180kg, power is 82hp.

“Kaffeemaschine” (coffee machine) is my company, building unique cafe racers and bespoke bikes, based on the classic Guzzi V2-engine and frame.
I´d be very glad if you would mention and link my webside “www.kaffee-maschine.net“.

Please let me know when you are going to post my stuff.
If you have any more questions or need more info, don´t hesitate to contact me.

Best regards from Hamburg/Germany,
Axel Budde

An (almost) half million mile Beemer, a stunning Indian a Triumphs (for scale) and a nice ride report from our old friend Chuck Lathe.

First of all sorry for the delay Chuck. Your e-mail got tangled up in the usual laundry somehow and I just found it after doing some inbox cleanup. Not sure what happened. Anyway Chuck sends in a ride report from a recent trip along with some interesting shots.

Hey Steve,

I’m attaching a few shots of a couple of bikes we saw on the Blue Ridge Parkway — Virginia — on Tuesday morning.

I continue to check your site daily — except when I’m out riding around looking for photo ops.

I didn’t get the name of the fellow with the Indian. There was a Honda Rebel parked next to it and the Rebel had been crashed. It turns out it was the wife who crashed. She is going to be alright, but if she is as old as he is, she’ll be sore. His father owned an Indian dealership and he has his Dad’s old bike, but it isn’t this one. He has several other Indians. The one in the truck belongs to a friend and was going back to Ohio for some work. I don’t know what it needed since it looked pretty good to me. The Triumph is my Bearshark. I put him in the picture to show how small some of those old bikes were. I’ve been on three or four stock Knuckleheads in the past year and I’m always surprised how small they are. The V-Twin Indian is a 1941 Sport Scout. I don’t remember which model the Indian vertical twin is.

The BMW is kind of special for me. I bought a 1974 R90/6 in 1983 when my ’68 Shovelhead was stolen — I rode the bejeebers out of that Shovel for seven years and when it went, I said, “I’m gonna to try a BMW.” My R90 had the same Vetter fairing and it was also black. I called him Fritz. He had some funky teardrop shaped saddlebags and a flatter seat. My T100 shares a lot of the same riding characteristics except I popped lots of wheelies on the Beemer by dropping the clutch in second and I don’t do that on the Triumph. The R90 in the photo is owned by the guy standing with it. His name is, Steve. He bought the bike used in 1982 and it has 451,000 miles on the clock. He totaled it on the Interstate and bought it back from the insurance company for $250. He had to replace one head and a few other things, but he says the cylinders and pistons are original. He did put new rings in after the crash.

Bearshark took Nina and me into West Virginia last weekend — I had Monday and Tuesday off. We found some great roads, a cool little town with a bed and breakfast, and we watched a bunch of people parachute off the New River Gorge bridge — 800+ foot drop. They were supposed to hit a mark next to the river, but it was very windy and most of them landed in the river — shiver — and were picked up by boats. It was weird to watch people free-fall from above and then see their chutes open. I’m not interested: 80 miles and hour on a motorcycle is enough thrill for me anymore.

Regards, Chuck Lathe, North Carolina

Hell of a nice trip Chuck. I’ve got to get back to the mountains this spring and get in on some of this. I’m way overdue.

 

That looks great for the equivalent of almost 20 times around the planet and a bad wreck!

 

 

The thing that gets me the most about this picture is that the Triumph isn’t exactly a large bike either.

 

If I’m not mistaken I believe that this is the rebadged Royal Enfield?  Can someone correct me on that?

A sweet Enfield with a sidecar.

I’d love to own one of these for putting around the beach towns where I live. Maybe get a cool dog and put some goggles on him and just roll for a weekend. this’d definitely be the ticket.

and thanks to reader Martin Victor Alva who writes in:

Still old school, still beautiful!

A photo of our custom painted Royal Enfield Classic 500 with a sidecar. On sale at Classic Motorcycles LLC, Royal Enfield UAE and North Africa.

Thanks Martin! If it was closer I’d be tempted.