Old school modifications

[Doc]

I remember the turbo GSX1100 being in PB! Thought it looked awesome. It's aged pretty well
There was some seriously good stuff in Reader's Special (Simoto CBX550?) And some horribly gash abominations - like an RGV250 with a seat unit raked at about 45 degrees to accommodate some 7 foot bloke.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I feel like I am very much in minority when I say: Jesus christ what an ugly lot of motorcycles! Hand on heart, I would not have been surprised to see any one of them in the "eBay WTF" thread.

I guess you really had to be there

[Rockburner]

Were they for winning prizes at shows?

Years ago I was at a mainland rally and some trick framed GSXR won best streetfighter.

Which was absolutely great except it was brought there in a Transit and didn't even run.

It was pointed out to the guy that a streetfighter that doesn't actually see the street is a bit pointless. He took a hissy fit, loaded it back into the van then pisses off with his bauble.

The VMCC is full of them too.

[Doc]

I feel like I am very much in minority when I say: Jesus christ what an ugly lot of motorcycles! Hand on heart, I would not have been surprised to see any one of them in the "eBay WTF" thread.

I guess you really had to be there

Burn the heretic!

[dayglo jim]

As much as kits and exhausts for 50s a popular local mod around our way was jacking up the back end to make it look more off road, couple of mates got ticketed for having number plates that couldn't be read for being close to horizontal than vertical. Probably ruined the suspension rather than improve it but it looked cool to other teens (at the time).

[demographic]

For me Old School Mods would be stuff from the late 80s-90s. Not new bikes even then but at the point where people don't mind mucking about with them.
Stuff like LCs with Astralites, Swarbrick/Gibson, Allspeed expansion chambers. Anyone remember the Powervalve in PB with the frame made from two Dural plates?
GS/GSXs with Davida swingarms, Laser/Alpha pipes and airshifters that used the swingarm as an air reservoir.
Indicator switches that activate the nitrous and a boost (or nitrous pressure) gauge by the clocks.
Magnesium Dymags (with a cush drive, wahoo) on CR500s.
Ledar air corrector kits (just a few jets and a needle with a fancy title) and Stan Stephens stage 1,2 or 3 tunes.
Aftermarket "powervalves" which fitted onto the first few inches of a twostroke exhaust and were actuated by gas pressure pushing in a plunger held back by a spring.
PB showing their ARKX was running because there was smoke coming out the back but in reality they'd just put a firework in the exhaust.
Oh and jumpers for goalposts, obviously.

Then people started using Dynos and some of those things were shown to reduce the power so fell off the ads pages.

[Whysub]

Weird really because nearly all of the two stroke pipes sold in the 80s were at least as good as the standard pipes, so long as you didn't care about mid range power.

The Piper 3 into one I fitted to my Suzuki GT550 disproved that! Beautifully made as it was (thickest chrome I've ever seen), and a fantastic sound, it completely ballsed up the power, knocking a fair % of top speed. Oddly, plug chops showed it was carburating perfectly. Did I.mention how great it sounded?

One of the nicest modified bikes I remember seeing was the first incarnation of Bill Hunter's GSX1100 street drag bike. Really well finished and faster quarter mile times than any road legal bike at the time.

[Yorick]

Weird really because nearly all of the two stroke pipes sold in the 80s were at least as good as the standard pipes, so long as you didn't care about mid range power.

The Piper 3 into one I fitted to my Suzuki GT550 disproved that! Beautifully made as it was (thickest chrome I've ever seen), and a fantastic sound, it completely ballsed up the power, knocking a fair % of top speed. Oddly, plug chops showed it was carburating perfectly. Did I.mention how great it sounded?

One of the nicest modified bikes I remember seeing was the first incarnation of Bill Hunter's GSX1100 street drag bike. Really well finished and faster quarter mile times than any road legal bike at the time.

2 stroke engines need a pipe for each cylinder by design.

I had 3 Pipers on my kettle. Sounded lovely and saved 3 cwts