Any members ride motorcycles or rode motorcycles or......any photos new or old?

[Rocket]

At one point I was looking for an RC51 - aside from being a work of art they looked like a ton of fun to ride.

 

[dobie]

Man, it was an incredible bike. Unreal amounts of torque. Downshift once on that thing, compared to 3 or 4 with the inline 4's. And the sound.......There is NOTHING like a V-Twin screaming around a track.

Seriously....the dumbest thing I ever did was to switch over to the RC as my race bike. The RC was a killer street bike. My 929RR was better suited for the track though, or at least in my limited experience and opinion.

 

[Rocket]

I had an F4i before it and I really liked it in the twisties. The 954 would spin the tire in a turn necessitating a change of shorts upon my return. It took everything I had in me not to let off. The 954 would bring up the front wheel at will very fun in the turns and a bit of a hooligan around town.

 

[A12]

Man, it was an incredible bike. Unreal amounts of torque. Downshift once on that thing, compared to 3 or 4 with the inline 4's. And the sound.......There is NOTHING like a V-Twin screaming around a track.

Seriously....the dumbest thing I ever did was to switch over to the RC as my race bike. The RC was a killer street bike. My 929RR was better suited for the track though, or at least in my limited experience and opinion.

V-Twin sport bikes are the only way to go. That's my daily flyer 990 Super Duke V-Twin (orange and black) earlier in this post. I've had it at Summit Raceway, Norwalk a few times and it runs high 10's with mirrors Ridden the Super Duke and the RC8 at Mid Ohio and as you said "ain't nutten" like a V-Twin on the track or on the street. Between 4000 -6000 rpm in the sweet spot it's perfect.

 

[Smokngun]

My current stable: L to R, 2012 Kawasaki KLR650, 1999 Yamaha YZ400F Supermoto, 2004 Honda RC51, 1981 Honda CB125S



My RC51 on a trackday at Blackhawk Farms Raceway, So. Beloit, IL (2009 I think) Full set of track bodywork to save the street stuff.



And the Supermoto (#308) at the Motorplex at Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI

 

[Smokngun]

...View attachment 8013

A12, I lust over the RC8-R. It's the only current bike I would sell my RC51 to get.

 

[A12]

Mike are you still doing the supermoto thing? I was at Road America years ago when they had the first Supermoto event the same weekend as the AMA road race nationals. I was there with a couple of racers I sponsored and it was the first time that a young kid Chris Fillmore raced a supermoto, and now races the RC8. I tried a little supermoto but never could get the hang of "backing it in"

Me not backing it in :redface:

 

[Smokngun]

Yeah, I can't make myself slide a bike on purpose. I'm not fast, but I have a blast with it. I run about a 1:08 around the motorplex. Most of the fast guys are just under a minute, so I get lapped about every 6 laps or so. Glenn Curtiss is responsible for getting me into this! I really just do trackdays, but enter a fun/charity race here and there. I figured it's a lot cheaper to crash a Supermoto than it is to crash the road bikes. I have as much into the whole YZ400 as what it would cost to fix my RC51 if I dropped it once!

I cornerwork for the CCS races at BHF and Road America, and the AMA races at Road America too. It's my way of being a part of racing without spending thousands of dollars a year racing.

 

[A12]

A12, I lust over the RC8-R. It's the only current bike I would sell my RC51 to get.

Mike if you lust over the RC8-R you may not want to see this next photo:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
TURN AWAY NOW
.
.
.
.
.
.
LAST CHANCE
.
.
.
:eek-new:

 

[dobie]

I had an F4i before it and I really liked it in the twisties. The 954 would spin the tire in a turn necessitating a change of shorts upon my return. It took everything I had in me not to let off. The 954 would bring up the front wheel at will very fun in the turns and a bit of a hooligan around town.

My first sportbike was an F3. It was nice, but I naturally wanted something "faster." After having my F3 for a couple of years I bought my 929, then the RC51.

Dang it...talking about it just makes me want another even worse!

 

[dobie]

My current stable: L to R, 2012 Kawasaki KLR650, 1999 Yamaha YZ400F Supermoto, 2004 Honda RC51, 1981 Honda CB125S

View attachment 8016

My RC51 on a trackday at Blackhawk Farms Raceway, So. Beloit, IL (2009 I think) Full set of track bodywork to save the street stuff.

View attachment 8017

My RC was an '04 as well. I never put any of the graphics on. I have them still to this day somewhere in my basement, along with all of the paperwork, etc. I seriously miss that bike. Every now and again i peruse craigslist looking to see what they are going for nowadays.

 

[ACME A12]

Steve, I had no idea that you were such a crotch rocket junkie. Next time we're all together at Carlisle you and my buddy George will have a LOT to talk about.

I bought a brand new KZ1000 Z1-R in back in November of 1980 at the ripe old age of 18. Insurance was only a few dollars less each month than the bike payment. Wish I still had it. I have a pic of it with my '69 B3 RR somewhere... All I have now is a XR400R that just wears my 52 year old right leg slap the f*** out every time I drag it out of the garage... :basketcase:
Even though I look at bikes all the time, there will likely never be any street bikes for me living down here. Too many blue hairs. Every week they are scraping some poor guy off of the asphalt because some 90 year old with no business being on the road has sent them to biker heaven. Really sux.

 

[dobie]

Haha. Yeah, I had quite the time on bikes! I started riding dirt bikes in Jr High, then started to race in H.S. After my crash on dirt, I switched over to street riding, and then racing. I had almost given up street riding a year before my big crash. There was a group of us locals that would always get together and go riding. They were the typical crotch rocket guys, doing dumb stuff on public roads. I always got made fun of as I wore full leathers, gloves, boots, etc every time I rode. Those guys were more the jeans and T shirt wearing guys. A few weeks after I stopped riding with them, a "friend" went down while passing a car on a curve. He got some broken bones and a major case of road rash. I hated to be the one that said, "I told ya so".... I primarily switched to track only riding at that point. The next riding season (2004) is when I went down on the track, effectively ending my riding, at least for the next 10+ years....haha

My X and I used to ride all over together. In fact, she had her own bike, a CBR600 that she rode quite well actually. Just prior to my crash, we were up near Blossom Music Center riding the back roads. She was pregnant with our daughter and ended up getting run off the road and crashing in a ditch. Luckily she wasnt banged up too bad, and we were able to get the bike home without to much effort. That was the last time she rode, and the next month was when I crashed and burned. There's another funny part to that story, but I'll save that one for later....

 

[earlyrides]

Just got back on two wheels recently

After seeing a few of my friends in the last few months become incapacitated by various ailments (heart issues and various cancer types) I decided that life was short and that I wanted to ride again.
I got a motorcycle from my buddy that he had on the side of his house that he hadnt ridden since he had hip replacement in 2006. It was a 2000 Kawasaki ZX12-R.

It was developed and built to be the "Busa killer" and at the time was the fastest motorcycle on the planet.
I discovered pretty quickly however that this thing was a true beast and that my inner 18 year old was very healthy when it came to my right wrist.

So after riding around SoCal for a few weeks; I rode over to the Huntington Beach Harley dealer and rode out on this beauty.

This 2015 Road Glide S in black denim really gets my blood pumping!

I rode it last weekend out to Biketoberfest in Cave Creek Arizona. We rode out into the hills during the day and then went into town in the afternoon for some fun there. (we took a cab due to adult beverages being consumed in large quantities.)
Lots of fun and I met some really nice people there too.


Life is short my friends.

Get out there and ride!

 

[Smokngun]

My RC was an '04 as well. I never put any of the graphics on. I have them still to this day somewhere in my basement, along with all of the paperwork, etc. I seriously miss that bike. Every now and again i peruse craigslist looking to see what they are going for nowadays.

I bought mine new as a leftover in 2005. The CBR1000RR had just come out and was the new hottness for Superbike racing. The RC51's were sadly languishing in showrooms, but the soul of that bike called out to me over the inline 4. I've never regretted that decision. I regretfully put a couple of the decals on the bike before thinking "I should just keep these". I have the rest of the set tucked away safely. I think the only ones I put on were the HRC, the AMA Superbike, and Power Commander decals. I love this bike and would love to do some more mods to it, but parts are getting harder to find for it.

 

[dobie]

Yeah I can imagine. I had a set of Sato high exit exhaust on mine. Good lord she just growled with that set up. I love a big block Mopar V8's sound, but a VTwin superbike sounds even better IMO.

I was looking on craigslist last night for one. It hit me that mine would've been 10 yrs old by now. I couldn't believe its been that long.

I'll have to dig up a few pictures for ya.

 

[dobie]

Here she was, in all of her factory stock glory.



These are after removing a few things and adding the Sato exhaust.




The wife's 600F3 and mine at a family outing. This was Thanksgiving dinner 2003, so it was pretty warm that year.



Early part of 2004 was when she went down. Its hard to see, but the entire left side has rash on it. No major damage, and nothing on the tank; just the fairings, peg, and handlebar if I remember.



And my first sportbike, a '98 600 F3. It was a nice little bike. Very comfortable and looking back, plenty fast.

 

[Rocket]

In retrospect I had more fun on my beat up yard sale z50 than all my other bikes combined. I spent countless hours riding that bike.

 

[bobcal]

Yes, '77 Kawasaki KZ750B, all original, 12000 miles.

 

[dutchrunner]

Had a Yamaha 650 then an Virago and last bike was Suzuki GSX-R 1100 from 86.
MAde a Streetfighter out of it.
Ducati seat and Venom headlight mask.
Had 126hp at rear wheel.
Tons of fun but needed to "settle down'due to left leg problems.

RR is a nice alternative