TonUpSoldier
bad assed, super fast and fully gassed
He's looking to have this published and is looking for pics of nice vintage cafes or vintage bikes in general.
And now, from my friend Michael Perkins
Ode to the Vintage Road Racer
It takes guts for anyone to toss a leg over 1000cc’s of engine on two wheels, but it takes a special breed of crazy to do it when that 1000cc’s is laced to 30 year old brakes and suspension and a tube frame with the accompanying 30 year old metal fatigue. Thankfully, that breed exists. They don’t get the cred of the Harley group, or the attention of the sportbike crowd, but they’re out there, doing their thing on forks about the circumference of your middle finger. Sure, they’re skinny, but they’ve braced them and sprung them and added heavier oil. They’re crazy after all, not stupid. (Unless you call breaking a ton on tires less than 3” wide and drum brakes stupid.) Stupid of course, can be fun too.
It’s hard to shake the “fastest production bike in the world” mentality, even if it’s a label coming up on three decades old. When you’re 17 and you hear that, it gets tattooed on your brain. Frighteningly, it has the power to infect others too, especially when old men with little fear tell big stories. Beer helps. For some, nothing will ever replace the image of the bike they saw filling the showroom window when they were just reaching the age of stupidity. Nothing. And that includes ungodly 0-60 times, monoshock rear suspensions and wild triple digit hp figures. Money and desire will always be a lethal combination with a head full of testosterone, and never more so when nostalgia kicks in.
And when you combine nostalgia and modern technology, then you’ve really got something evil. Sure, you can rip the front end off and install some USD forks, but where’s the fun in that? Go ahead and push some 37”ers through that turn until they quiver and slip and then recover a half second later. The back of your knees will sweat, but it’s a known fact that it’ll also add a few years to your life. Really. Scaring the sh*t out of yourself is also known to expel bad memories and free radicals, when done intentionally. Remember, every second spent past a ton is time gained on death.
Hell, some have upgraded their ignition, their intakes, their exhaust, hotter spark, bigger carbs, all to hold onto the fleeting feeling that they’re alive and seventeen again, even if they’re fooling no one but themselves. No one else worth fooling, truly.
Sights like a Kawasaki 750 turbo, with brake calipers just slightly larger than a beer coaster, or a CBX 1000, whose carburetors can still cause facial tics in old men and stupid boys, are enough to scare off most sensible people.
Sense would say to upgrade, or at the very least upshift, since no one should routinely push 500 or a 1000rpms past redline on a thirty year old engine whose cases have never been cracked. Of course, those who do it regularly know it’ll just provide an excuse for that overbore they’ve been dreaming of.
And there lies the problem. If a little is good, more MUST be better, right? On most days, no. But on riding days, most certainly, and for many that’s every day. After all, Tuesdays come every week, but you’re dead a long damned time. Truly it’s a funny thing to hear from someone who routinely scoffs at the notion of supra-legal speeds with hot oil leaking onto their boots and legs from a good bit of limey iron, at least before sundown. After that, it’s harder to see the oil window.
So they pray to their gods, under sprung, under braked, under shod every one of them. These are truly the old testament gods, the vicious gods, the temperamental gods. Mad British twins, Jap triples, smoky two-strokes and Italian V’s, every one the snarling, wobbly beasts you remember, or heard tales of, and every one just waiting to kill you if you fail for one second to show them the respect they deserve. Men become surly in old age, and so do motorcycles.
------------------------------------------------------------------
This is something I've been passing around to some motorcycle mags lately. I'm looking for some pictures to send along with it, so if you guys have any that you own and wouldn't mind having attached to this article, let me know.
And now, from my friend Michael Perkins
Ode to the Vintage Road Racer
It takes guts for anyone to toss a leg over 1000cc’s of engine on two wheels, but it takes a special breed of crazy to do it when that 1000cc’s is laced to 30 year old brakes and suspension and a tube frame with the accompanying 30 year old metal fatigue. Thankfully, that breed exists. They don’t get the cred of the Harley group, or the attention of the sportbike crowd, but they’re out there, doing their thing on forks about the circumference of your middle finger. Sure, they’re skinny, but they’ve braced them and sprung them and added heavier oil. They’re crazy after all, not stupid. (Unless you call breaking a ton on tires less than 3” wide and drum brakes stupid.) Stupid of course, can be fun too.
It’s hard to shake the “fastest production bike in the world” mentality, even if it’s a label coming up on three decades old. When you’re 17 and you hear that, it gets tattooed on your brain. Frighteningly, it has the power to infect others too, especially when old men with little fear tell big stories. Beer helps. For some, nothing will ever replace the image of the bike they saw filling the showroom window when they were just reaching the age of stupidity. Nothing. And that includes ungodly 0-60 times, monoshock rear suspensions and wild triple digit hp figures. Money and desire will always be a lethal combination with a head full of testosterone, and never more so when nostalgia kicks in.
And when you combine nostalgia and modern technology, then you’ve really got something evil. Sure, you can rip the front end off and install some USD forks, but where’s the fun in that? Go ahead and push some 37”ers through that turn until they quiver and slip and then recover a half second later. The back of your knees will sweat, but it’s a known fact that it’ll also add a few years to your life. Really. Scaring the sh*t out of yourself is also known to expel bad memories and free radicals, when done intentionally. Remember, every second spent past a ton is time gained on death.
Hell, some have upgraded their ignition, their intakes, their exhaust, hotter spark, bigger carbs, all to hold onto the fleeting feeling that they’re alive and seventeen again, even if they’re fooling no one but themselves. No one else worth fooling, truly.
Sights like a Kawasaki 750 turbo, with brake calipers just slightly larger than a beer coaster, or a CBX 1000, whose carburetors can still cause facial tics in old men and stupid boys, are enough to scare off most sensible people.
Sense would say to upgrade, or at the very least upshift, since no one should routinely push 500 or a 1000rpms past redline on a thirty year old engine whose cases have never been cracked. Of course, those who do it regularly know it’ll just provide an excuse for that overbore they’ve been dreaming of.
And there lies the problem. If a little is good, more MUST be better, right? On most days, no. But on riding days, most certainly, and for many that’s every day. After all, Tuesdays come every week, but you’re dead a long damned time. Truly it’s a funny thing to hear from someone who routinely scoffs at the notion of supra-legal speeds with hot oil leaking onto their boots and legs from a good bit of limey iron, at least before sundown. After that, it’s harder to see the oil window.
So they pray to their gods, under sprung, under braked, under shod every one of them. These are truly the old testament gods, the vicious gods, the temperamental gods. Mad British twins, Jap triples, smoky two-strokes and Italian V’s, every one the snarling, wobbly beasts you remember, or heard tales of, and every one just waiting to kill you if you fail for one second to show them the respect they deserve. Men become surly in old age, and so do motorcycles.
------------------------------------------------------------------
This is something I've been passing around to some motorcycle mags lately. I'm looking for some pictures to send along with it, so if you guys have any that you own and wouldn't mind having attached to this article, let me know.
