It often confuses me how little love there is for the 600 bandit. I think they're a cracking looking thing and along with the Firestorm would top my list of "cheap ways into bikes".... but so many people completely ignore them. I've only ridden one the once, but thought it was a pretty nice piece of kit, goes, stops, turns, handles... just really nice.
So what's your little mongrel bike that others don't seem to like?
Not for the performance and handling or the looks or just because I had one. One of the reasons I had one was it was 'logical' - across the frame, water cooled v-twin and shaft rotating in the same plane + tubeless tyres. (I always thought you could drop the engine out and use it for all sorts of things ie boats etc).
(I liked Guzzis too).
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
I just don't get the bandit. Sure I understand that it's more than the sum of its parts, but its parts are so boring. And a million badly streetfightered ones with lairy paint jobs and faux carbon, thrown at them from the M&P catalogue, haven't helped the issue
I am, obviously, picking Honda's 52° 650 vtwin series - and before you concede that the hawk or bros have some merits - I'm choosing the really ugly sister, the ntv650 shafty.
Beloved by dispatch riders and commuting nerds everywhere. Great motor, shame about the face, but you can fix that.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:53 am
CX500.
Not for the performance and handling or the looks or just because I had one. One of the reasons I had one was it was 'logical' - across the frame, water cooled v-twin and shaft rotating in the same plane + tubeless tyres. (I always thought you could drop the engine out and use it for all sorts of things ie boats etc).
(I liked Guzzis too).
You beat me to it! I had a cx500 and actually had a stab at restoring one 30 years later ( it was a disaster). I really like them.
I have a guzzi v7 850
I was chinwagging with a bearded-artisan at a custom show (I know!) and he pointed out to me that with a lot of these fugly bikes, there's always 'something' of merit. You just have to keep taking parts away until it starts to become less horrid. I think this is why maybe I 'get' a customised boxer or a cx, because the motors are unusual and have something about them, whereas a bandit just does nothing.
I have no idea what this bike is like to ride, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, but for the fact that it outraged so many people simply by its existence, I have to present this for your viewing pleasure. Laydeez un gennelmen, I give you the Phillippe Starck-designed Aprilia Moto 6.5:
Aprilia-Moto-6.5.jpg (338.02 KiB) Viewed 569 times
Maybe my Gen 1 FZ750 in Lawson colours.Back in the day everyone gushed about Suzuki GSXR 750's,I also liked them but being a contrary fecker I didn't want a Gixxer like everyone else,I wanted a FZ750.
Mines currently parked up in a corner of the man cave awaiting a resto
I could write a long list of bike's that are popular but hold no appeal to me..
mangocrazy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:09 am
I have no idea what this bike is like to ride, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, but for the fact that it outraged so many people simply by its existence, I have to present this for your viewing pleasure. Laydeez un gennelmen, I give you the Phillippe Starck-designed Aprilia Moto 6.5:
Aprilia-Moto-6.5.jpg
I've seen at least one in the flesh, in London (natch), and I didn't see anything particularly wrong with them - it's just a tidier way of packaging all the necessary bits than anyone else was doing at the time.
A modern one would probalby have things like belt drive (for cleanliness), and no doubt a funky instrument panel with iPhone (only) charging reticule etc etc.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:53 am
CX500.
Not for the performance and handling or the looks or just because I had one. One of the reasons I had one was it was 'logical' - across the frame, water cooled v-twin and shaft rotating in the same plane + tubeless tyres. (I always thought you could drop the engine out and use it for all sorts of things ie boats etc).
(I liked Guzzis too).
You beat me to it! I had a cx500 and actually had a stab at restoring one 30 years later ( it was a disaster). I really like them.
I have a guzzi v7 850
Ooh...that would make an interesting thread - the pleasure and perils of restoration on a bike that should, in theory, not be too gnarly to do. I'd read it.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
mangocrazy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:09 am
I have no idea what this bike is like to ride, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, but for the fact that it outraged so many people simply by its existence, I have to present this for your viewing pleasure. Laydeez un gennelmen, I give you the Phillippe Starck-designed Aprilia Moto 6.5:
I forgot about that Aprilia,one of my mates has one,he rode it to a mutual friends funeral the other year.It's as fugly in the flesh as it is in the photo's,but he likes it.He reckons that there's only a handfull of the things on the road.
mangocrazy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:09 am
I have no idea what this bike is like to ride, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, but for the fact that it outraged so many people simply by its existence, I have to present this for your viewing pleasure. Laydeez un gennelmen, I give you the Phillippe Starck-designed Aprilia Moto 6.5:
Aprilia-Moto-6.5.jpg
I think they had a bad reputation for reliability and things falling off etc, but i used to see one in daily commuter use most days, including winter, for a couple of years!
Taipan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:33 am
This is mine, although Mr LB might back me up on these.
Yeah for the CCM R30, but nah you're on your own with the Rotax lump
I had the rotax and the Suzuki 710, but in some ways I preferred the Rotax. So easy to work on and I stuck a pumper carb on mine and then dropped in a midrange cam. Twas a hoot to ride!
