Old school rides: Let's see 'em!

3h ·

My father on his 1200cc Indian Chief in 1947, on the farm in northern Canada. When he joined up for WW11 the deal was if they gave there motorcycle to the army; when they got back at the end of war (if got back) the goverment would buy then a new motorcycle of there choice!! He turned in his 750 Indian Scout & took delivery of this Chief in 47.

Not my father , I copied this from FB

Gotta wonder, where they all ended up.

I can remember when Triangle offered Harley 45 engines for $25.00 plus freight. A few times they offered Indian 30.50 engines with transmission for about the same. One of the local guys bought one of the 30.50 engines and stuffed it in a BSA plunger frame.

Stuck at work but had a chance to walk across the parking lot to the Keene Cafe to check out the bikes this morning. A friend brought his beautiful 900F down from Tehachapi and the Euro Riders of Kern always show up with some nice bikes.

Nice Honda, nice Norton, I have been known to ask people to move their gear from the bike for a photograph.

T20? Very first bike I bought was a beat-to-shit T10 with the stamped steel frame. But the T10 and T20 both had that marvelous one-piece solid footpeg. And the combination starter/generator.

The bikes plus a few more belong to a friend of mine who lost his battle with cancer this year. I found the pics on my phone and thought I would share. The Alpina is a fun bike for sure and it is beautiful. He also had a gorgeous Triumph T120 that was amazing to ride. He let me ride them all whenever I was home to visit. Then we would drink a lot of beer and talk about them. Mostly all have been sold now. I am probably not the best person to tell you about all the bikes. My brother would be able to but he is a grumpy fucker. I miss my friend.

Hi, I
have owned this 1971 built (1972 model) Kawasaki W1SA for a couple of years now. Still has original paint and all the major parts are the ones it left the factory with. Sold new by Tom Byrne Motorcycles in Sydney Australia it appears.Correct date codes on the wheels etc. It should be L/H shift but is R/H and there is no evidence it has been changed. It now has first oversize pistons (.25mm) and rings and has been balanced. New main bearings, seals and so on.
Respoked wheels, new sprockets, chain, tyres, all new cables , seat cover and brand new 28mm mikuni carbs (just waiting on a couple of air cleaners) and I reckon its nearly finished. Goes great and sounds wicked. I am pretty happy with it and it should be with me for a while.

Nice!! I had a W1 long time ago! Why does this one looks like a W3 without the Z1 disc in the front?? ( and S2 gauges??).Going through my Kawasaki model official book, I can’t find it!!

Thanks , I like it.
Quite a few parts were shared with other Kawasakis AFAIK. Gauges, wheels, brake shoes, axle, spokes , headlight and other stuff was on some H1 , S2 and others I believe.
W1SA built 1971 & 1972 before they went to W3/RS650. Big news was the left side shift and also the front brake was shifted from the right to the left of the hub, along with the new paint scheme and so on. We got them brand new in Australia.

Thks for the précisions... no air filters?? Ooops sorry I did not see you were waiting for them!! Another model which was only made for Australia/Asia!!
Love to own a W3 one day!!

I remember that ad.

EVERY motorcyclist "of a certain age" does

As an aside; it's remarkable that in that time period Dunlop made both arguably the highest praised tires (K81/TT100) and ones that were basically rim protectors (K70).