Yeah Daytona 675 is a lovely bike. It’s what my STR is based on, but with clip ons and fairing, and IIRC the D675 had lighter pistons and flywheel or something, to make it a bit more rev happy and track focused. Sublime handling and one of the best midweight sportsbike engines out there, according to Clive Wood, ex racer and legendary Triumph mechanic. Quite a looker too. (the bike, not Clive hahaha!)
Any fellow motorbiking coffee fans?
Ah, dealers.
When i got my first proper job I decided to treat myself to a brand new bike. It was a toss up between a Guzzi V50 or a BMW R65 (I wanted a middleweight bike for London traffic). I decided on the Guzzi and went to a dealer in the east end of London and told the salesman that I was interested in buying one, he disappeared into his office and left me standing in the showroom while he did something incredibly important. I left after waiting about half an hour. I went to the BMW main dealer in West London to buy the R65. They wouldn’t give me a test ride but did get one of their mechanics to take me out on the pillion for a little run. I actually bought one, the only new bike I have ever owned.
I started in the Mod era on a Lammy LD150, on and off it like a tarts underwear and moved to Triumph cub, and a Thunderbird. when the Japanese stuff came out I switched to them and became a firm 2 stroke fan, I owned most of the Suzuki range and had the Kettle 750 whilst I lived in Aussie, came back home in the 80’s and went Honda crazy with a few models, got made redundant (again) so started to courier on old BMW RT’s did the for a few years and ended up as an instructor for the last 26 years, my last ride was a Pan Euro 1300. Had to stop riding a couple of years ago due to a shoulder injury - had a good 50 odd years on them, never had a car (side-car when the daughter turned up, untill she was old enough to go on the back
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/fHJeX9p.jpeg
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Norvin Harley were very good…my Fatboyh had very loud custom pipes, largely unappreciated by the Surrey Police… The Harley Place just past Box Hill said they would fit a new standard exhaust (no charge for parts or Labour), if I let them keep the custom ones. I of course agreed,
They guy said how you getting back, I said I will call my wife….he said take the Buell, you can have it for the weekend if you want….so I did. Completely different attitude..
hubcap I started in the Mod era on a Lammy LD150, on and off it like a tarts underwear and moved to Triumph cub, and a Thunderbird. when the Japanese stuff came out I switched to them and became a firm 2 stroke fan, I owned most of the Suzuki range and had the Kettle 750 whilst I lived in Aussie, came back home in the 80’s and went Honda crazy
That’s a nice set of motorcycles there…the 2 stroke kettle was a funny bike. I’d tried a KH500 triple and a KH750 triple…and a mate said, do you want to try my Suzuki 2 stroke liquid cooled. I thought wowsers this is going to be good (being a Suzuiki, you expect a lot). I got on, engine didn’t sound like the usual Suzuki bag of bolts (as they did back in the day and I am expecting it to go like shit off a shovel. The H2 750 triple Kwaker used to go nuts when you got the revs up.. All I can say was the Suzuki 750 2 stroke was a remarkably “refined” motorcycle, one my dad would have loved to ride. 🤔
One of my favourites owned by a friend, and he let me try it, was the Seeley Honda 750…very nice indeed…beautiful to ride and so light on the handling (it had just the nose fairing). Chrome Molybdenum space frame, he was fond of reminding everyone.
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Hi @DavecUK
I worked for Mayfairs the Suzuki distributors in Brisbane, the kettle was ever so slightly warmed up by the mechanics, The upper powerband was vicious and the 3 into 1 expansion chamber really annoyed the neighbours. I eventually saw sense and traded it before it killed me. Never owned a Kwaka tripple but the widow maker nickname was apparently well deserved. I did however trade the kettle for a Z900, all the rage in Aussie at the time.
That mechanic was probably Peter Trulson.
He spannered my Wes Cooley rep for years at Brisbane Suzuki.
Guys used to ship their water bottles from Darwin and Perth for him to work on.
He ended up Service manager for Suzuki Australia.
6 days later
Someone just liked a Facebook picture that I had posted over ten years ago and I thought people here may be interested.
First picture shows the Norvin as found, it had been parked at the rear of someone’s house for over ten years and was in a sorry condition.
Second picture is after renovation but as said in a previous post, it was slowly changed to make it more comfortable.
One bike / engine I wish I still had was a grass track bike with a Sunbeam engine (the engine was one that had raced at the TT) The engine was so tall the frame had a crank in the top frame member.
The engine had a large brass sunbeam face on the rockers and the rockers were completely open.
Elcarajillo
There was a Sunbeam road bike on my Godfathers farm parked next to a 500 BSA.
I think the BSA was seized but I’m pretty sure the Sunbeam had the usual problems with the shaft drive worm gear.
I have often wondered what happened to them, pretty sure the shed was bulldozed in the eighties when I was interstate.
I remember those, they were the S7 & S8 often in a green metallic colour.
The BSA’s were very popular, (at that time) gold flash, gold star, rocket gold star.
The one I mentioned in the earlier post predated those and was not made by BSA.
I still have a couple of specialist tools for the BSA’s , clutch and timing gear pullers.
5 days later
I knew a couple of guys years ago called Sid and Bill. They were comrades in WWII and one married the other ones sister so they were brothers in law and brothers in arms. One had a Sunbeam S7, the other one had the S8. Last time I saw them was at a bike rally, we were up all night drinking round the camp fire. They’d been kicked out of the local boozer for saucing up the barmaid. We ‘youngsters’ fell asleep at about 2 or 3am, so they went and slept under their bikes. When I woke up, they were trying to ride a penny farthing round the car park! Absolute legends.
Apropos of nothing, just going to leave this here 😉
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It’s quite amusing sometimes how far people will go to hate on Harleys… never really understood where the chip on the shoulder comes from.
Not saying there aren’t Harley riders with an attitude problem but there are a lot of people on the road with an attitude problem…
Ride what you wanna ride!
Something that does get my back up though… people who drive while on their phones… texting, scrolling, Tweeting or whatever. I rode back from the southwest yesterday, and the number of people looking down, sitting at lights when they turn green as they’re too busy on their phones.
I’d be in favour of an instant ban for anyone caught.
Ernie1 It’s quite amusing sometimes how far people will go to hate on Harleys… never really understood where the chip on the shoulder comes from.
In the olden days, we would all go down to box hill and marvel at the variety of machines…never would anyone hate on a bike. If we all rode the same bike we wouldn’t gone to box hill to look at the variety of machines. which was what made it interesting.