The rarest, most unusual bike you've ever OWNED

They were actually pretty good bikes at the time. A bit heavy for a twin, but incredibly smooth thanks to the industry's first application of a counterbalancer system...

Of course, it would have helped that first year if Yamaha had thought to put an adjuster on the counterbalancer drive chain!

Yamaha correct the issue, but by then it was too late. Here's a snippet of information on 'em if you're interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_TX750

But if you thought the TX750 was a bit of a problem child you should have met its little brother, the TX500 twin...




It had a *FIVE* piece head (sort of in layers, top to bottom), and sprung more oil leaks than most British bikes!

They were pretty and sounded good, though! It died a quick and quiet death, too, just like the TX750.

Dallara




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Fzr 400 with a built rz350 engine. It was too much fun.

While a ZX11 in and of itself isn't very rare or unusual, one like mine is........

I edited your post a bit.
That is a very nice Transalp, yes sir, very nice indeed

Here's a shot of my weird old scooters, tucked away for the winter.

PhilB

I see a GS, a Heinkel. and a Bella. Verry nice. I need to get a pic of my Rabbit up here.

EDIT: Oh, haha, I didn't even read your sig line. I guess that Bella is actually a Maicoletta?

I've had a lot fun bikes over the years, some rare, others not so much. Bought this one new and in a fit of weakness sold it to a fellow in Japan in the late 90's. Should have kept it !












Mike

Could you be a bit more specific as to what "a fit of weakness" means? :huh

Weakness or stupidity or self preservation ?
I rode that bike a lot, and rode it hard. Spun the crank in it after 20K miles.
It sat disassembled for a number of years as I had other bikes and interests. Once I decided to put it back together I went down the path of no return. Crank went to Falicon, Yoshimura was called for 1103 kit and Mt Everest cams. Stainless valves, new springs, porting, coils, etc etc etc.
Finally back together it was a "MONSTER" and I still had a heavy right wrist. Those two things don't go together too well on a flexi-frame bike with ancient brakes and suspension. After one particularly spirited ride up to Deal's gap and back I decided I was going to end up in the hospital (more likely) or jail (also very likely). So the decision was made to sell it and move on to other things.
I had made contact with a fellow in Japan that really wanted the bike, and he was willing to pay for it, and pay the shipping.




Mike

Alright, we can accept that answer. I was afraid it was another one of those stories where the first (now ex) wife told you to sell it so you did. Too bad you couldn't have dug deeper for some self-control. What a shame to have bought it in the crate to just let it go later. It's not often that you get to establish history with something that special, right from the delivery crate.

I have one bike that nobody's hands have touched it since it left the factory (I uncrated it). It's been in pieces for twelve years for similar reasons (finally got all the parts...reassemble when the weather warms up). People just don't understand when they suggest that since I haven't ridden it in so long, I should sell it. I reply that it's not an option...that's a womb-to-tomb bike, it's mine, I'm not selling it....ever.

That's funny- my name is Mike, and in the late70's when your Eddie Lawson came out I was working at, and sponsored by, a Kawasaki dealer. I did a lot of the stuff you did, 1205cc kit, giant smoothbore Mikunis, high lift cams, ported and polished the head, Falicon did my crank, stainless steel Pro-Flow valves, shim-under buckets, etc etc etc..... Plus I had wider tires, ATK swingarm, and other handling goodies, and a Magura quarter-turn throttle adapted off my YZ400. Was my daily rider, I roadraced it, and put a wheelie bar on it and dragraced it. Averaged 10.2 to 10.5, on a track that had never had a good cleaning and had a 12 foot uphill rise into an average 20mph wind.
About that time, Cycle World (?) had a two part series on recreating the ELR, and after the Stage One article came out, several of my coworkers pointed out that I had done all that and more. When the Stage Two article came out, it was a close tie.
Never dyno'd it, but did get clocked at 151.2mph late one night. Damn thing was HUGE fun, and very dangerous. About the time I graduated from college and moved out of state, it swallowed a valve. I sold it to a friend.

I'm amazed I lived long enough to have health problems, lol.

[/thread hijack]


1911fan

After seeing some of the rarities here I'm almost embarrassed to comment that I owned a '92 TDM 850.

Crate pictures are actually when I packed it up to go back to Japan.

I was at the dealer when it was put together, also got to start it and have the first ride.

Mike

It's funny, used to be a man had to pour a ton of money into a liter bike to make it go fast. Today's 600's will pretty much run circles around it right out of the box....they also stop and handle well.

I had a 1977 GS750 prior to the ELR, did the yosh 850 kit with mild cam, valves etc. It was a lot more street able than the Kaw.

It's good to still be around to share stories.




Mike

I just saw an ELR in the flesh this morning. I was stunned - it's literally been years since I saw one last. We traded stories about going fast on early '80s superbikes, you know, the one with the hinge in the middle that shows up at about 130...

I've had two that I would consider rare or unusual; one rare, one unusual.

The rare one: 2008 MV Agusta Brutale 910S. It lacked the pricey suspension, brake, and tuning upgrades of its 910R sibling, but it was...well...just a brutal bike, and only lacked about 6-8 hp as compared to the 910R. Absolutely brilliant on a smooth, twisting back road, with telepathic handling, fantastic brakes, and an engine that really came into its own north of 6000 rpm. It was an absolute wheelie machine...just think about twisting the right grip, and if you weren't leaned over the tank, the front wheel was coming up. WAY too easy to go flying past 100mph without realizing it. It hated being ridden in town...it would heat up fast (unless you swapped in a high-flow water pump, a better radiator fan, and a cooler thermostat), and fueling was snatchy below 4000 rpm (unless you installed a power commander and had it dyno tuned). I sold it for two reasons: due to a worsening back, I could only ride it for 10-15 minutes before pain set in, and because it lifted its front wheel so easily I knew it was going to kill me very, very quickly.




The unusual: a 2006 Hyosung Beaver 125 scooter that I owned while I was in Seoul. Not rare in Korea, but just the name made it unusual (for westerners anyway) and pretty funny. Typical comment from bystanders: "Hey Sir, nice beaver!" Or "Hey Sir, it's raining and you rode in today? You like wet beaver?" Yeah, yeah, laugh it up...you know you want to ride my beaver. I sold it just before I left Korea in 2007.

I have a 1950 Harley Hydra Glide now, not to rare but seemed to buy bikes that were not very popular. 1966 106cc Sears, SC500 Yamaha, 1969 R60US had telescopic forks think they only made it one year, SP600 Suzuki made it one year.

While stationed in Italy, I bought a mid 90's Yamaha TZR125RR for $500. It had been crashed several times, I got it back to the states (in pieces)...reassembled it and sold it to an enthusiast in Utah.

It was stupid fast for a 125cc....maybe I'll dig up a pic tomorrow.

I think the rarest bike I ever owned was the 100cc 1971 Rockford TAKA. These were built with Bridgestone tooling in the early 1970s. I never saw any more, other than the ones my father and uncle sold from their motorcycle shop in Atlanta, Illinois.




The next rarest was the 500cc Ossa Yankee-Z. If my memory is correct, Yankee Motors from Schenectady New York, built less than 800 units, of which my father sold 11 of them.




I had the most fun with a 1973 Ossa Pioneer.




One of the very few street bikes I have owned was the last year production of the 2-stroke water cooled 3 cylinder Suzuki GT750 (Water Buffalo).





Brad

First motorcycle shop I ever worked in back in 1970 was one that specialized in British bike repair but also was the local dealer for Bridgestone an Montesa. Those Bridgestones were *ROCKETS*... The 90cc models, 100's, 175 twins, and 350 twins. Very high tech for their day, too. Chrome liners, rotary valves, and even selective shifting on some models... Where you could have a gearbox that shifted *normally* - up and back through the gears - or with the flip of a lever on the cases you could have a *rotary* shift, where you had neutral at the bottom of the pattern, then would shift up 1-2-3-4-5 and then if you pulled up again it went straight back into neutral!!! :eek1

A bit bizarre to ride at first, but made a bit of sense in situations with a ton of stop-and-go. Still, it was obviously not something most folks found useful...

Still, I thought those Bridgestones bikes were trick, and I really wanted one of their 350 GTR rotary-valve twins.

Thanks for jogging the memory!

Dallara



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