The rarest, most unusual bike you've ever OWNED

Back when I was club racing, I built a KZ1000 into a 1205cc firebreather. Big cams, Mikuni 33mm smoothbores, upgraded ignition, exhaust, suspension, welded gussets onto the frame, blahblahblah. Thing was scary fast, this was in the Eddie Lawson era, and when one of the bike rags did a two-article series on his bike and a build they did to copy his factory specs, we were pretty much tied.
Anyway, even with frame and suspension upgrades, it was a handful especially in tight turns when you accelerated hard out of the corner. I bought the CalFab/ATK swingarm, a big beefy welded aluminum piece with the ATK device on it.
Made quite a difference. Dunno why it never caught on.


1911fan

ok, probably not as rare as some bikes out there, but apparently everyone either hates it or has never heard of it before:

1982 Sachs G3 Moped







This thing was pretty awesome, but I traded it towards my first dirt bike.

Back in the early 1960's I had a DMW. That's DMW, like in Dawson Motors, Wolverhampton, England. Large tool tray under the saddle, leading link front suspension like BMW. It also had an eccentric chain adjuster mounted on the swing arm just behind the swing arm pivot. The whole swing arm moved to adjust the chain. I also had a 250 DOT trials, a James 175 road bike, an Allstate 250 Enduro, wonderful bike. A Matchless 750 scrambler. It looked like, what is it, a P11 Norton 750 scrambler with different tank labeling? The one thing I remember most about that Matchless is it had killer torque for enduros but got miserable gas milage. If anyone finds a 750 Matchless Scrambler with and oil tank in the normal place plus oil running through the frame, I built the bike. Put your hand on the frame while it was running and it was warm, not hot. I forgot to mention, I still have a year unknown Tote Goat model 706 long wheelbase off road scooter. This bike has WIDE tires for use in sand. Think Piper Cub airplane tires. It was used by the Forestry Service before ATV's were even invented. Also a ton of literature for that bike. Sure would like to have the DMW or the Allstate back. Oh well, I do have six Triumphs, '05 Sportster, '64 BMW R60/2, '80 Honda XL250s, '65 BSA Spitfire Hornet, a Chinese 50cc scooter of some unknown make and a "few" others. Still love British bikes after 50+ years.

2006 Husaberg FS 650E


1985 Honda VF1000R

Digg'en the 'burg.

PIcture illiterate
08 Buell 1125r 1 of 9000 , 03 KTM Duke 2 how many in N America? 88 Honda Hawk nt650. 88 Yamaha TZ 250R street, 86 Yamaha SRX600, 72 BSA B50 SS, and MX , 2 of 9000 made ,
Had 2 of 81 yam. XV920 rh , chain drive Viragos .

Always loved those, even though I've never actually ridden one. There are some suspension bits that are unobtanium, and may have to be modified / made from scratch should they wear out.

Mine was also not so rare or unusual- a '65 Ducati 250 Scrambler, and theoretically enough parts to build three more.

Tell me about it, i had one, christ i used to climb some hill's on the 500, it would go up a straight wall, well, some the hill's were like wall's, that thing had some serious go in it, amazing torque for a stroker!

Owned 3 different Yamaha Visions. kinda rare, and finicky. But when working correctly was a wonderful machine

Never seen one of them before. What size is the motor, and what year is the bike?

My wife's first bike was a '83 Yamaha Vision.

I keep threatening to find one and restore it for her as a gift.

Of course.... I'd do it so I could have the "relationship credits" to buy and restore my own first bike, a '72 DT125.

The rarest was a 1963 Douglas scooter, essentially a Vespa made in England. My ex sister in law still owns it.

It was a 550 V-Twin.Early 80s.

My local riding buddy has one of those. I hope it's not yours

THey were only sold in the US in 82 and 83. The 83 had a larger fairing, air assist forks, improved carbs, dual f discs, and a few other tweaks. My last one (the red one pictured above) was an 82 but with lots of mods from an 83, clipons, gusseted frame and a final drive gear from a Euro bie with taller ratio.

It was a 70 deg counterbalanced V, DOHC, 8V, shaft drive, way ahead of it's time and if not for a shitty stator design (fried them like eggs) it would have sold better (that, and it was way overpriced, a common gaff of Yamaha with new model intros).

The motor was designed by the same dude as the Vmax/Venture V-four, and is basically half of a V-max.
It could really be made to scream, was comfortable and had good range. It was Yamaha's first street bike with a monoshock rearend.

rarest?

GRC Lazer (only a handful in the US)



and for a full size bike it's prolly my Morini:

Love those Morini 500s, but for a cool name, the 350cc "3 1/2" gets my vote.

yes indeed.... I wish mine had the "sport seat"

The more I think of it, the more it seems very do-able to make a Morini tribute bike out of a first-year XV920....


Yeah, I'll get right on that with all my free time...