Bike over 25 years old

[Northern Monkey]

So BCFers, I need a bike that over 25 years old.

My old man is majorly into the Vintage Motorcycle club, and I've been invited out on a few rides, and being is that it's my dad, I quite fancy going along. Problem is, is that any bike needs to be more than 25 years old. (for anything this year, registered before 1st Jan 1988).

It's also no good being a rocket ship, as most of the rides are at a pace that can be kept by much older bikes, so a 1988 VFR750 is out,

Ideally around the 2k, but that's not a hard limit.

Suggestions please BCF
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Fisty: after polishing the tank with the glistenng beads of sweat from my full hot scrotum, I filled the headrace bearings with 10cc of my manmilk

[Carvel]

Fs1-e.

/thread
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2002 Aprilia RSV1000R, Cbr600Fs, Mk1 B12, Vfr400 NC30...

Matt B: I can deal with crushed nuts to beat Ollie.

[P.addy]

Sounds quite gay, 1980's CG if you wanna be a fag like that.

Or Carvels suggestion.

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

https://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/howlingterror_2006/DSCN0340_zpsadc18238.jpg


Plenty of affordable parts.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[moonzoomer]

[tony_d123]

You can get a nice gpz900 for £2k. Ride it as fast or slow as you want.

[lihp]

[slowlydoesit]

[moonzoomer]

[sidewinder]

Kawasaki gt550

https://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m492/sidewinder11/ff6b2a01b736d6dc252136333980a222_zps2cf28f7c.jpg

[lihp]

CB550?

[Teflon-Mike]

Triumph T140 - Last of the Meriden Bonnies; unit construction 750, 12v electrics and disc brakes up front.

Least desirable of the Bonnies, its also one of the cheapest, and £2K ought to eek you a pretty good 'rider', as its a tad too expensive to attract a spanner monkey wanting to restore it, yet neither tarty enough or interesting enough to be a garage-trophy.

Its a very practical classic; well supported and easy to work on; as standard modern 'enough' to be useable in modern traffic while not demanding SO much finickity maintenence or warrant lots of expensive 'upgrading' getting the rivet counters muttering... though enough of them on offer if you want to tinker.

That's the bench-mark 'My-First-Brit-Bike' and its not a bad one.

Depends how much of a talking point you want it to be; how much you want to do spanner wise; how much else you want it to do besides ride with VMC.

If you want to be daring, Kwak or Zook 500 tripple could be fun and might fall into budget. But, if you fancy a two-stroke fix? RD350 would fall nicely into age eligibility, as well as budget.

Sticking with stuff with push-rods? Guzzi's are good £2K would get you a very tidy V50, possibly even a Monza. You'd have to up your budget a bit to get a big-block, but not much. You might eek a Spada 1000 (possibly my favourite) for a smudge over £2K; but good choice of older Cali's & Le-Mans between £2 & £3K.

Not a lot of other italians would fall in budget; Morini 3 1/2 might be worth a look; I dont think I would even contemplate a Ducati at that age/price, though a well sorted Paso might work, if you like that sort of thing. Otherwise you'd be looking at more obscure singles, and probably very old ones.

Old air-head Beemer? £2K would give you plenty of choice of them. Or for a googlie, even a brick? You'd have to be careful and get clued up on them before you buy; but they came out what 1981? And were at the time about THE most advanced 'production' motorcycle on the market. Most Japanese bikes of the time were air-cooled accross the frame-fours with just eight valves; the brick had double overhead cam water cooled motor with electronic fuel injection... certainly be something to talk about if you got one on a pre pre-fix number plate.

Just spotted a REAL talking point on e-bay! 1988 Norton Interpol rotary in full cop-trim! £2.9K! Bit rich but certainly get attention!

Or going th eother way; if you are going to be on the bike for long hours whils old smokers chuck along at moped speeds; what about an early FJ11/12? Comfy way to tag along; and plenty in budget.

VERY wide remit; really, and really depends on just how much of a rider as posed to a museum exhibit and talking point you want.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[G]

Might be pushing your budget a bit, but, non-excessive top speed, as requested....
https://p1.bikepics.com/2011%5C02%5C25%5Cbikepics-2158561-800.jpg

Maybe add some SM wheels so you've got a chance of not ending up in the adjoining field the first time you open it up coming out of a corner?

[stevo as b4]

RG125 Gamma? RG250 Gamma?

[Ariel Badger]

LE Velo Cheap as chips, fun to ride and the earlier models are hand change.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Kickstart]

Hi

The CB250RS (and possibly CBX250RS) and the XBR500 sound appropriate to me. Also possibly an SR500 (which would probably be cheaper).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Alex A]

Oil cooled slingshot GSXR750?

https://www.suzukicycles.org/photos/suzuki-history/1988/1988_GSX-R750_bw_500.jpg

Works perfectly well as slow or fast as you like.

[Robster]

1988 VFR750

[stinkwheel]

C90 or a monkey bike.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[WD Forte]

A lot of vintage or classic bikes are garage queens
Seldom used, spoilt rotten kept warm, dry and treated like royalty.
money thrown at them too.
People witterin on about paint codes and the correct tank stickers
Pah!
Cant be doing with all that old bollocks, may as well collect stamps
or build model railways in the attic.

My 79 CX500 based 'classic' has an 82 TI lump, all manner of odds and bits from other bikes, rarely washed and thrashed daily.

Tell him to to get an old CX, rat it and have some fun.

[moonzoomer]

[kestrel]

XS650, bullet proof motor and plenty of OEM spares still available.
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Isle of Man.........Road Racing Capital Of The World

[Shaft]

[talkToTheHat]

Yamaha TR1 or older XV enough around and unlikely to have been thrashed too badly, they take to the gentle bimble quite well.

[yen_powell]