There have been quite a few motorbikes in my life. Sometimes there has been more than one at a time although I've never owned more than three simultaneously. It's been a while since I've had a vrooom, I really ought to get out and about more.
Here's one that I've had since the late 1990s, it is currently in need of a small amount of maintenance.
It's a Honda VF400 from 1983.
I briefly owned a rather fancy old machine at the same time as the Honda. This is them giving each other the eye.
It's a 650 Matchless G12 Deluxe, built in 1960. Here it is out and about.
It was an experience to ride. Given its age it didn't have automatic ignition timing, there is a lever on the left hand side of the handlebars to manually advance and retard the timing. If you get this wrong you can cause the pistons to overheat and burn a hole in them, so you have to make sure you get it right. The braking capability was also something else, it arrived as if delivered by post, that's drum brakes for you, you really had to think ahead. A bit of a luxury for me, I'm generally rough and ready and a bit messy, so I sold it. It didn't help that it was a bit of a worry keeping something so flash. I replaced it with a VFR 750, which I still have. The VFR also needs a small amount of maintenance...
Here's another older one of mine, much more my style. It's a Kawasaki Z400 with sidecar. An absolute delight and terror to ride - there is absolutely no experience like it, it was brilliant.
And here is the engine on our bedroom floor having some maintenance. I carried it up myself.
It did get put back together, and it did live again.
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