Historically Important Motorcycles

[oldfast007]

My first "street bike" I bought in 1986. I think this bike advanced the "hyper sport" trend for the time period. However mine was the 750 not the 1100....

 

[n1one]

All,

Lots of good pics on this thread...here is my contribution:
1982 Honda V45 Magna...the first V4 engine that Honda built and it was awesome.....Here is my recently restored 1982 V45 Magna with 40K on the clock. I tore the bike down to the bare frame and repainted it. Replace a lot of stuff. Did some minor top end stuff on the motor. This bike runs MINT.....I just recently gave it to my cousin, he wanted it because it was his fathers (original owner) and his dad passed away when my cousin was only 5 y/o. I have owned this bike since 1986...it only had 1500 miles on it when I bought it from my uncles estate.

Anyway..cool motor..great power band for stop light to stop light drag'n! This bike is still pretty darn quick even considering it's age and lack of tech compared with today's bikes.:rockon:

By the way...did notice I had not yet put the exhaust back on?..it's on now ...of course!

Later,

 

[Tailgate]

Well, I remember the Kawasaki 500 triple 2-stroke. When the rider was really on it, you could really hear the howl. I knew a guy who got himself killed on one in the 70's. For awhile, I think that these were the fastest around, weren't they?

 

[Hellgate]

Is that a steering damper??? :rockon:

It is. That was pretty trick in the '70s and '80s, they worked well too. I think they were about $50.00 or so. You had to make your own mounting brackets and it ususally involved a bit of welding. If I remember correctly it had either 3 or 5 clicks to adjust the stiffness of it.

On those old 750s and 1000s you really needed one because the frames were SO flexy. Tank slappers and oscilations were the norm, you just rode through them because if you rolled off the power it would upset the chassis that much more!

I rode a FZ600 in an endurance race back in '88 and I was blown way at how solid it felt compared to my RZs and RDs. The then new Yamaha Delta Box frame was amazingly solid. It seemed easy to go fast.

They other standard piece of handling equipment then was a fork brace. Even on the street is made a huge difference in handling. The really fast guys would either get a braced swing arm or have a brace welded onto their stock swingarm.

Those old bikes were a whole lot of fun!

 

[Hellgate]

Another milestone bike was the 1980 Suzuki GS1100E. This was the first stock bike to break 11.00 in a quarter mile by a magazine. It ran a 10.99 at 119 mph. Seems slow today but it was so fast back then. This motor lead to the GSRXs and eventually the 'Busa. It was Suzuki's first 4 valve head, coined TSCC, Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber. They still use that label today. Like the other bikes of the day the handling was terrible, but man did it fly! I had one for about 10 years and loved that bike, toured all over the US on it.

 

[JeffrosFZ6]

Found this cool web site with lots of info and pictures of historic motorcycles.

http://www.supershowevents.com/collection/

 

[08fz6]

great timeline!
Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA - Epic Yamaha Motorcycles

also cant forget the FJ's
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/epic_mcy/500/84_fj1100_600.jpg

the RZ350 was an amazing bike! also

or the Seca turbo
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/epic_mcy/500/82_secaTurbo_600.jpg

 

[08fz6]

great timeline!
Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA - Epic Yamaha Motorcycles

also cant forget the FJ's

the RZ350 was an amazing bike! also

or the Seca turbo

 

[ozmodius]

In 1978 Yamaha release the fastest production bick made, up to that time anyway. It was the XS1100 with an 11.73 quarter mile time. The FJ series still uses tech designed into this bike.

in 1981 (the last year for the XS1100) the Midnight Special version came with linked brakes.

I'm currently restoring one of these beasts.