Cool, Old Skool,trick and interesting motorcycle thread

[mlsred]

When my old man used to talk up old school flat-track I used to think "Pffft yeah...sure thing old man. I bet they house some old pump motor, assemble some sort of pulley and power some wheels" type of thing. But, after seeing various flat track vids and assorted other motocross vids (any given sunday being a stand out)- it's all mucho respecto.

I'm also keen to see the bike Eddie Mulder used to take out last years pikes peak on. It was a 69 Bonneville Trump I believe. Anyone got pics etc?

if you think thats impressive the bloke who went through the fence tied a bandana around his nose and rode the next race, dick mann the guy I posted on the first page broke a leg in a previous race but then soaked the cast off and rode most of a flat track race until he stuck his leg in a pot hole doin 100 mph sliding around a corner, to anyone who posts in these threads and hasnt seen "on any sunday" go out and buy a copy you will be amazed. anyway enough of me blabbering heres one that has to be posted

another fine machine called the empire twin featured on the front cover of "old bike Australia" the man who built it is a family friend of ours and has been riding with my dad for 30 plus years, he has all sorts of weird and wonderful things like hotted up goldstars to rotary nortons, not one but 2 one for racing one for road use

this next photo is a shot from a bsa presidents day, featuring every year of rocket 3, 69, 70 (rare as rocking horse shit) dads 71 and a 72

this one is a grey flash that was at the little river TT, for all those not in the know a grey flash is a racing vincent with 500cc? correct me if im wrong

 

[skivi]

Floody thats such a rad picture, i just want that track all to myself!

Pete J got any pictures of obscure european/eastern block bikes like NSU, CZ, MZ etc

Spanky theres a video of the Kawasaki on youtube, it's bloody savage

another fine machine called the empire twin featured on the front cover of "old bike Australia" the man who built it is a family friend of ours and has been riding with my dad for 30 plus years, he has all sorts of weird and wonderful things like hotted up goldstars to rotary nortons, not one but 2 one for racing one for road use

wow awesome, i'd be hanging around at his place like a stray dog!!
i saw him and the bike at P.I. he built the motor himself yeah with two BSA singles? what a hero, Australasian Old Bike magazine has so many great stories of Aussies and their pioneering home-made bikes and modifications

this one is a grey flash that was at the little river TT, for all those not in the know a grey flash is a racing vincent with 500cc? correct me if im wrong

i saw it there too, i can't remember exactly what model it was or it's racing history but driving on the way home i noticed the owner towing it in a trailer, turns out they live around the corner from me!

 

[NCR600]

Has anyone got a pic of the monoshocked/upside down forked Katana that featured in Performance Streetbike mag about a decade ago?

Pretty sure I've got it somewhere, but I'll have to search through boxes to find it. Give me a while to take a trip in the wayback machine!

The nicest Kat's were the very early ones that had spoked wheels. Strangely, they don't look out of place at all. The worst were the pop up headlight 750 models. Ugly and very slow. I remember dragging one off up to about 80km/h on my very low geared and lightly modified VT 250!

 

[mlsred]

Floody thats such a rad picture, i just want that track all to myself!

Pete J got any pictures of obscure european/eastern block bikes like NSU, CZ, MZ etc

Spanky theres a video of the Kawasaki on youtube, it's bloody savage



wow awesome, i'd be hanging around at his place like a stray dog!!
i saw him and the bike at P.I. he built the motor himself yeah with two BSA singles? what a hero, Australasian Old Bike magazine has so many great stories of Aussies and their pioneering home-made bikes and modifications



i saw it there too, i can't remember exactly what model it was or it's racing history but driving on the way home i noticed the owner towing it in a trailer, turns out they live around the corner from me!

best thing is that i don't have to hang around him like a stray dog he is good friends with my dad and now me so the conversations im involved in with some of the guys in the BSA club are just mind boggling

if I was you I would be hanging around them like a bad smell just wanting to know any information, as for the original post in this thread about Kel Carruthers flat track built bike the guy I bought the cottons off had Kels' original racing manx norton in his garage that he is restoring for Kel to ride at broadford at an old bike meet soon, and he invited me to sit on it, dad said he'd never seen me move so fast or with a bigger smile

thought I might post up a few more of my favourites from the little river TT

 

[skivi]

he invited me to sit on it (Manx Norton), dad said he'd never seen me move so fast or with a bigger smile

hahaha! yeah i get giddy sometimes too around such bikes

for people interested in the Australian built modern superbike killer Irving Vincent mlsred has pictured above you can read all about it here:

• www.irvingvincent.com

• http://www.ma.org.au/AM/Template.cf...&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=10108

i saw this Honda CBX1000 inline 6 cylinder (!!!) at Phillip Island last weekend, i'm not a huge fan of multi's but my god this thing was such a sound orgasm down the main straight! what a snarl! what a bike!

heres a video of another CBX. YEAH!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=e8tkVSKb77Y

 

[Pete J]

Pretty sure I've got it somewhere, but I'll have to search through boxes to find it. Give me a while to take a trip in the wayback machine!

The nicest Kat's were the very early ones that had spoked wheels. Strangely, they don't look out of place at all. The worst were the pop up headlight 750 models. Ugly and very slow. I remember dragging one off up to about 80km/h on my very low geared and lightly modified VT 250!

Excellent, hope you can find it because from memory it was the best updated Katana i have ever seen. I used to have almost all of those mags from the mid 90's on but got rid of them during my 'less is more' phase...
Yeah the spoked wheels did look good on them, the pic i posted was just the best i could find during a quick search of sites i know of. Apparently Katanas were still being made for the Japanese market well into the 1990's, at least that's what i remember reading in some magazine a while back.
Personally i think the smaller Katanas were the worst looking of the bunch, especially the GS550 for example. The pop up headlight 750 isn't anywhere near as bad in comparison to that eyesore.

Another pic:

A nicely modified CB750.

 

[floody]

Man so much cool stuff being posted up, keep it up.

Another Astro...I'd really like to own one, even though I've only ever SEEN one once in my life (on a trailer here in Hobart! Which makes very little sense given I don't think they even race short circuit, dirt track etc here).

Erv Kanemoto built, H2 Powered flat tracker (Gary Nixon's I think)

Not nearly as quick as the TZ750 powered bikes but still one evil sonofabitch I'd wager.

Side thought... I think a Kawasaki W1 650 motor would be brilliant in a metisse scrambler or yank flat track frame, as unsurprisingly they make a fair whack more grunt, more reliably than the BSA A10 they copied ever did...

Factory XS-based Yamaha flat tracker

If Yamaha had a competitive flat track bike post the TZ750 fiasco, Roberts wouldn't have gone to Europe...Lucky the XS things were outgunned it seems!

I'm not even all that interested in flat track bikes, but there sure are some trick examples.

 

[Pete J]

 

[Pete J]

Pete J got any pictures of obscure european/eastern block bikes like NSU, CZ, MZ etc

No, mainly because none of those makes do anything for me.
However you could check out this site if you want to find some:
http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/index.htm
Jawa made far more interesting bikes in my opinion and Ural is another brand whose oddball appeal is undeniable.

 

[mlsred]

someone has to do it, heres a picture of Burt Munros' Indian scout and his velocette which is still the worlds fastes Indian and Velocette

the indian on its own

 

[floody]

Nice green machines Pete!

Jawa/CZ same same really... Although CZ = technically interesting and quite rapid race bikes where Jawa = utilitarian communist regime peasants machinery in the main...

 

[wombat]

Wow, I haven't seen this many cool old bikes since I was a kid wandering around Amaroo!

The old man, and his Cotton Telstar at the Island somewhere, southern loop or siberia maybe? Not sure.

Apologies for the rubbish scan, it was the only image I could find now.

Cool old thing, even if methanol and castor oil smells fucking shite.

 

[mlsred]

Wow, I haven't seen this many cool old bikes since I was a kid wandering around Amaroo!

The old man, and his Cotton Telstar at the Island somewhere, southern loop or siberia maybe? Not sure.

Apologies for the rubbish scan, it was the only image I could find now.

Cool old thing, even if methanol and castor oil smells fucking shite.

SAY WHAT I nearly fell off my chair, does he still have the telstar? any more pictures? sorry to be so nosey its just that i'm restoring a Telstar at the moment ANY info would be appreciated, if your interested I posted up my two cottons on the project bike/car thread page 17 in fact

 

[wombat]

SAY WHAT I nearly fell off my chair, does he still have the telstar? any more pictures? sorry to be so nosey its just that i'm restoring a Telstar at the moment ANY info would be appreciated, if your interested I posted up my two cottons on the project bike/car thread page 17 in fact

Hahahaha, I only bothered finding that pic cause I saw you mention cottons somewhere.

Yeap, he still has it, although since his other passion (guitars and such things) took over a few years back the bike hasn't been started, she's sitting in the corner of the shed, probably feeling very unloved. I'm pretty sure there's a frame and all the parts for a Cotton Cobra sitting out there too, don't think it ever got around to being built though.

He raced the telstar (along with some Ossas and stuff) for as long as I can remember, and I'm pretty sure the Telstar is reasonably heavily tweaked. Was really heavily into it for years, used to do engine work and make custom pipes for quite a few racers, still gets random calls these days but doesn't really have time for anything.

Anything in particular you want photos of? I know I could dig up some more racing pics, but if there's particular bits of the bike you want to see I'm sure I can get shots or whatever for you.

You planning on racing yours? I'll go check out that other thread now.

 

[Pete J]

Nice green machines Pete!

Jawa/CZ same same really... Although CZ = technically interesting and quite rapid race bikes where Jawa = utilitarian communist regime peasants machinery in the main...

Not all Jawa's can be lumped into the same category, they did make some fast race bikes like most manafacturers did back in the day. They did make alot of junk too, just like CZ and MZ (who most people will remember for ugly looking and smelly 2 stroke underpowered overweight runabouts). Incidentally, Jawa and CZ merged at some point anyway and were effectively being run by the Czech government, but that's another story...
Their speedway bikes have also been in use worldwide for decades and it's probably the companies only real strength these days.
Some nice looking and interesting Jawa's coming up:

1952 500cc parallel twin, with styling that even Royal Enfield can't compete with to this very day.

Here is the latest R.E Bullet Classic EFI for comparison. Lots of similarities but still nowhere near as pretty as the Jawa, imo.

1968 type 673, 350cc V4

Type 673 again.

 

[Pete J]

1967 Kawasaki W650

1979 Kawasaki Z1R Turbo

 

[skivi]

1967 Kawasaki W650

wow i can't believe i'd never seen one of them before, only the new ones. their a dead ringer for the A65 spitfire, lightning and hornet with the exception of the seat, tank and RHS side cover designs. cool beans. *edit are the engine and box on the w650 pre-unit and the bsa unit design?
how did they actually ride? what was the markets response to them?

i can't believe Kawasaki was pumping those out pretty much at the same time BSA was selling the bike they were coppying, i mean you look at the XS650 based on the bonnie and they were years apart considering the first bonnie was in '69.

 

[Pete J]

wow i can't believe i'd never seen one of them before, only the new ones. their a dead ringer for the A65 spitfire, lightning and hornet with the exception of the seat, tank and RHS side cover designs. cool beans. *edit are the engine and box on the w650 pre-unit and the bsa unit design?
how did they actually ride? what was the markets response to them?

i can't believe Kawasaki was pumping those out pretty much at the same time BSA was selling the bike they were coppying, i mean you look at the XS650 based on the bonnie and they were years apart considering the first bonnie was in '69.

Well, having never ridden one i can't say that i know much about them first hand, but i do know that they actually didn't fair so well sales wise. I doubt this was due to them being a bad motorcycle, moreso it was due to them being almost direct copies of British bikes of the time.
The fact that they failed to sell well was actually a good thing for the big K as it forced them to invent their own persona, which is why they came out with the H1 a few years later. Ever since then they have consistently come up with bikes that are pure Kawasaki and nothing else, which is one reason why i love Team Green.

 

[floody]

I was only stirring about Jawa Yeah Jawa and CZ merged in 1948.
The V4 is pretty trick! CZ also had a successful-ish tilt at 500cc GP racing in the mid 70s but gave up after a season, despite podiuming once and leading a few races.

Skivi, as for the W1;
Kawasaki acquired the manufacturer Meguro in the early 60s. Meguro were producing a licensed copy, 500cc BSA A7 motor. Kawasaki then took the motor and enlarged it to 624cc, went to a built up crank, larger oil pump and other oiling system mods, better bearings etc compared to the BSA product. Probably closer to the A10 motor by the time it became the W1.
Oh and 47hp vs the contemporary A10's 35...
In Meguro and Kawasaki 500/624cc guise they were built from 1960-1974.

My guess is this is quite similar to Nissan building metric copies of B-series austin motors in its early cars (A40 copy, then 310/312/411 Bluebirds, 311 Fairlady, 320 utility etc).

 

[mlsred]

Hahahaha, I only bothered finding that pic cause I saw you mention cottons somewhere.

Yeap, he still has it, although since his other passion (guitars and such things) took over a few years back the bike hasn't been started, she's sitting in the corner of the shed, probably feeling very unloved. I'm pretty sure there's a frame and all the parts for a Cotton Cobra sitting out there too, don't think it ever got around to being built though.

He raced the telstar (along with some Ossas and stuff) for as long as I can remember, and I'm pretty sure the Telstar is reasonably heavily tweaked. Was really heavily into it for years, used to do engine work and make custom pipes for quite a few racers, still gets random calls these days but doesn't really have time for anything.

Anything in particular you want photos of? I know I could dig up some more racing pics, but if there's particular bits of the bike you want to see I'm sure I can get shots or whatever for you.

You planning on racing yours? I'll go check out that other thread now.

This is so amazing I never thought I would find someone with the 2 bikes I have on farkin of all places, I posted them up on Australian classic bike sites and people didn't know what they were for shits sake. Anyway can you please take alot of photos of the frames from pretty much every angle on the telstar and mainly the area under the seat behind the engine on the Cobra. does your dad have any spares or anything like that im finding it very hard to source parts for these things, also if he would ever like to let anything made by Cotton go send me a pm please, anyway thanks so much for your help if im ever in Sydney i'l buy you a drink or two