Roman's First Cycle

[Times Roman]

it took me all summer to build. cams with lobes meant I had to machine the heads, oversize carbs, hooker headers, beefed up valve springs and clutch, heads ported and polished.....

As a stop light racer, I beat the Honda 750.

Mine was painted black, with better, higher handle bars.

This was 1976

[DontTaseMeBro]

sweet!

[Times Roman]

yeah, it wasn't too shabby back in the day. I took off all references to manufacture/model/size. High performance was not too common for M/C back then. I'd go to the strip, and had a lot of guys trying to guess what it was. It had a deep, throaty rumble to it which threw everyone off.....

[David LoPan]

Did it run on Testosterone ?

[Times Roman]

back then, we didn't know you had to run testosterone on your first cycle.............

[derekkpapa1]

Nice work man I am jealous.
Sweet how long of a project was it?
Anybody can buy a bike not everyone can say they restored one!

[Times Roman]

Nice work man I am jealous.
Sweet how long of a project was it?
Anybody can buy a bike not everyone can say they restored one!

well, it was a 1968 Honda 350

in the summer of 75 I believe, a friend of a friend said he'd help me work on it. I was 15 and he was 21. He also worked at Hayward Honda as a wrench. And he could buy beer. So this dude was a god...

...Until I realized too late he was a flake.

Either way, he immediately tore the entire engine apart, and we replaced/repaired/improved every nut/bolt/spring on the bike. We'd regularly start work on it early evening and there were many times the sun would be coming up and we were still working on it. It took the entire summer, which bummed me out. I also sank over $1,600 of parts into it (only paid $200 for the m/c). The carbs were off a Honda 450, with Mikuni air filters. That didn't really cost me too much, since the carbs were used and just laying around. We/I did have to rebuild them. And the rubber manifolds that connect the carbs to the jugs were a challenge since the oversize carbs didn't fit the stock rubber boots. Machining the heads so the lobes could rotate without banging into metal did set me back some. Had a pretty radical cam duration, plus an extremely high lift. Which is why I needed the extra tight valve springs. I forget what we did with the valves, but somehow we machined the heads to fit oversize valves. that set me back too. The bloke that was working on my bike would rip off parts from work, little ones, here and there. a gasket set for this, a screw set for that.

That summer was, in a way, a rite of passage for me. We finished the project around august, right before school started. And I became one of those guys that rode a motorcycle all over the place. Before there were helmet laws. M/C's were not that common back then. Maybe 5 or 6 in the school parking lot out of maybe seven or eight hundred kids. So yeah, that motorcycle meant a lot to me. And that is when I realized chics dig bikes. I'd go to the strip, and sure enough, I'd have some honey on the back before the night was through.

[hawk14dl]

Very nice tr.

My boss just bought one of those last year. Had a number of small issues but it was mostly restored. I had to rebuild and sync the carbs, get the fuel tank relined (hard to find anyone that does that nowadays), and rebuild the clutch. Soon as I was done he jumped on it and rode it around, only to remember now he's 60 and not 20 anymore.

[Times Roman]

Very nice tr.

My boss just bought one of those last year. Had a number of small issues but it was mostly restored. I had to rebuild and sync the carbs, get the fuel tank relined (hard to find anyone that does that nowadays), and rebuild the clutch. Soon as I was done he jumped on it and rode it around, only to remember now he's 60 and not 20 anymore.

I've relined the fuel tank on a number of different bikes. the best way is to sand blast the interior, but the common way is to etch it with acid. then you buy a can of polymer that lines the tank, almost like a rubber lining.

syncing the carbs is a piece of cake, as long as you have the mercury gravity tubes.

bikes are too friggin hard to work on nowadays. electronic ignition, fuel injection, blah blah blah....

back then, everything made sense, and you didn't need a friggin computer to work on shit

[lovbyts]

Looks a lot like my 1st cycle. Suzuki 120cc 1967.
I HATED and still Hate that bike.
I had saved for 2 years picking blueberries to buy a dirt bike. I had $800 saved up when I was 13 and was looking for a Honda CR 125 or similar.
My dad brought home this POS and used $500 from my savings for this boat anchor that broke down every time I got more than a couple of miles from home up the power lines trails.

[DCI]

I'd love a bike but I know I'd be hoovered off the road in one. Friend has just finished rebuilding a 02 Blade 954cc very cool bike has cams etc in it and a few other pieces sounds crazy but the funniest part is my buddy is 6ft 3 and 230lb's he dwarves the bike lol

[Times Roman]

one of the problems now adays?

Back then, you could learn on a bike that topped out at 90mph. Now they go 180mph.

In my day, even with no helmet, mostly just scuffed up when going down.

Now? Try going down at 100mph+, even with a helmet, you're cooked

[bass]

LOL, the title through me off! hey TR, that's a nice bike, I had one exactly like it but don't remember what year, it was given to me by a relative of mine, I had no idea what I had until a year after I gave it to a friend! very sad! I even remember the look on his face when I gave it to him "are you nuts?" kind of a look! but he was an asshole for not saying anything

[Times Roman]

LOL, the title through me off! hey TR, that's a nice bike, I had one exactly like it but don't remember what year, it was given to me by a relative of mine, I had no idea what I had until a year after I gave it to a friend! very sad! I even remember the look on his face when I gave it to him "are you nuts?" kind of a look! but he was an asshole for not saying anything

want to know what happened to that bike I built?

well, listen up anyways........

my best friend wanted to ride it. I said, ok, but be careful, it has a lot of balls. So he's going down the street and pops a wheelie, slides off the seat, hanging on the handle bars trying to catch up and get back on, and then like a whale catching air and falling back to the sea, he laid it down on it's side, scuffing the shit out of it, breaking the side turn signal lights.

So I told him (I was getting ready to go in the Army) that he could buy it from me for $100 but I get to ride it when I came home on leave.

Six months later, he goes in the Army too. So his dad sells it and keeps the money. Never really knew how much he sold it for. But whoever bought it had no clue as to the history of the bike.

[bass]

want to know what happened to that bike I built?

well, listen up anyways........

my best friend wanted to ride it. I said, ok, but be careful, it has a lot of balls. So he's going down the street and pops a wheelie, slides off the seat, hanging on the handle bars trying to catch up and get back on, and then like a whale catching air and falling back to the sea, he laid it down on it's side, scuffing the shit out of it, breaking the side turn signal lights.

So I told him (I was getting ready to go in the Army) that he could buy it from me for $100 but I get to ride it when I came home on leave.

Six months later, he goes in the Army too. So his dad sells it and keeps the money. Never really knew how much he sold it for. But whoever bought it had no clue as to the history of the bike.

ouch that sucks! unlike my story you put time and money into it, your story is sadder than mine. LOL.

[Times Roman]

yeah, that was a sore spot for a while.

but by then, I had a new 79 ltd 1000 kawi..... my first ten second machine!

[hawk14dl]

I have a kawasaki zx14. limiter has been removed, runs over 200mph.

Ran 173 mph in the standing 1/4

[Times Roman]

my LTD was clocked at over 140mph (I forget the exact number, I'm thinking 147 but now I'm just guessing) in the quarter which earned me respect for being in the ten second club.

Your machine sounds like it is easy a nine second machine?

[hawk14dl]

8.26 was the quickest.

[hawk14dl]

Sent you a pm tr

[Times Roman]

8.26 was the quickest.

fawk!

8.26?

that boggles the mind. ten seconds was the fastest I was ever timed. don't remember the fraction, but it was high. I remember thinking "Yes" because I finally got below 11 seconds.

I had another bike I built that would kick the shit out of that "stock" one that I had. I just never timed it I got spooked when the front end would float up off the ground when I would roll the throttle back at 80mph.

You know, we would go to the races and they had a "Friday Night Grudge" which was basically just an open event. Cars would race trucks, bikes against cars, whatever you brought. I remember Danny K. had this chevy nova he was all proud of. If I remember correctly, he ran it 13 seconds in the quarter. so he kept the time on his windshield for a few weeks til he finally washed it off.

Memory lane. You know, I never lost on grudge night. But motorcycles were not that common, and I mostly just raced cars. A few Honda 750's. I even raced a kawi kh 900 triple (or is that a 750???) two stroke. gave me a pretty good run for the money til about 100mph, and then he started dropping back. he ran out of gears and didn't have enough top end.

[Cuz]

Say..That's a nice bike. My first bike was a an ole Honda XR100

[Cuz]

8.26 was the quickest.

1/4 mile?

[Dpyle]

fawk!

8.26?

that boggles the mind. ten seconds was the fastest I was ever timed. don't remember the fraction, but it was high. I remember thinking "Yes" because I finally got below 11 seconds.

I had another bike I built that would kick the shit out of that "stock" one that I had. I just never timed it I got spooked when the front end would float up off the ground when I would roll the throttle back at 80mph.

You know, we would go to the races and they had a "Friday Night Grudge" which was basically just an open event. Cars would race trucks, bikes against cars, whatever you brought. I remember Danny K. had this chevy nova he was all proud of. If I remember correctly, he ran it 13 seconds in the quarter. so he kept the time on his windshield for a few weeks til he finally washed it off.

Memory lane. You know, I never lost on grudge night. But motorcycles were not that common, and I mostly just raced cars. A few Honda 750's. I even raced a kawi kh 900 triple (or is that a 750???) two stroke. gave me a pretty good run for the money til about 100mph, and then he started dropping back. he ran out of gears and didn't have enough top end.

750 was the 2 stroke triple

[hawk14dl]

1/4 mile?

Yupp

[jimmyinkedup]

Looks a lot like my 1st cycle. Suzuki 120cc 1967.
I HATED and still Hate that bike.
I had saved for 2 years picking blueberries to buy a dirt bike. I had $800 saved up when I was 13 and was looking for a Honda CR 125 or similar.
My dad brought home this POS and used $500 from my savings for this boat anchor that broke down every time I got more than a couple of miles from home up the power lines trails.

LOL That bike but a year newer was my first bike. It was 20 yrs old when I got the thing. MIne had just whte on the side of the gas tank-not chrome. I walked the damn thing as much or more than i rode it. F that bike! LOL

[Cuz]

Yupp

Pretty unbelievable numbers bro. What mods? Nitrous? Turbo? Any track vids?

[Times Roman]

750 was the 2 stroke triple

the bike was quicker than hell up to about 100mph. it was a very light bike and had a very light front end.

big Jose owned it. he was around 230lbs in high school. he weighed almost as much as the damn bike. well, almost.

and then Mike somebody had the 500 kh dually 2 stroke. that was pretty quick too.

my buddy C had a Honda 450, then later the 750 4 cyl.

no one had a Harley.

there were a couple of other motorcycle at that highschool, but that was about the size of it in a school with several hundred students.