That bike you should have kept...

[crust]

My very trick '86 CR500.

An absolute monster of a machine with uprated suspension and engine courtesy of a mate with close contacts to Honda's MX team. Raced it for a couple of seasons, stuck lights on it and enduroed it for a while.

Sadly a change of circumstances meant it had to go, sold it to a hooligan mate who rode it around Brixton for a while, god knows what happened to it, he got locked up for extreme dodginess and the contents of his lock up disappeared.

[ZRX61]

My first RD350YPVS, though I hadn't ridden it for over a year when I sold it, and it needed a new crank.

Some demented chap around here has an YSR80 with an RZ350 engine in it. Got my ass handed to me in The Playground. Spotted something wasn't quite kosher when I pulled up next to him at a red light.

[maccecht]

The only bike I would like back is my TLs couldnt ride it but loved it. However like most owners only missed it after I got rid of it. Still taxed apparently

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eyeq1ei10gy4a ... S.jpg?dl=0

[Jody]

KTM525 SM

It started life as a pit bike for some car racer (Niel Jani IIRC).
I got it with a few hundred miles on the clock. I added a slipper clutch, full Akropovic and pukka SM suspension.

Thrashed the hell out of it for a couple thousand miles, then I convinced myself that it couldn't last much longer so I sold it for not nearly enough money and replaced it with a Aprillia SXV550. Unlike the KTM, the Aprillia needed £100's and £100's spent to make it anything like decent. I soon got bored of that and went back to KTM. But the 'new' KTM got stolen out of GP's garage before I had even seen it in the flesh...... should have just kept the dam 525 and had the engine rebuilt !

[Pgm]

KTM525 SM

It started life as a pit bike for some car racer (Niel Jani IIRC).
I got it with a few hundred miles on the clock. I added a slipper clutch, full Akropovic and pukka SM suspension.

Thrashed the hell out of it for a couple thousand miles, then I convinced myself that it couldn't last much longer so I sold it for not nearly enough money and replaced it with a Aprillia SXV550. Unlike the KTM, the Aprillia needed £100's and £100's spent to make it anything like decent. I soon got bored of that and went back to KTM. But the 'new' KTM got stolen out of GP's garage before I had even seen it in the flesh...... should have just kept the dam 525 and had the engine rebuilt !

Ah the aprilia sxv 550 absolutely loved mine for the short time it was running right.

[ajlog]

My Vertemati S501

Completely impractical, but an absolute jewel of an engine that only weighed of 29kg,
Reverse rotating crankshaft complete with forward kickstart.
Gear driven cam shaft,
It had a lot of interesting race bike engineering that for back in 2003 was quite exotic.

But everything was on a short time scale:

Life of the company.
Life expectancy of the engine.
Tank range
Arse resistance to seat.

But a beautiful thing to look at, and immensely fun to ride on the right roads.

[Newey]

My Vertemati S501

Completely impractical, but an absolute jewel of an engine that only weighed of 29kg,
Reverse rotating crankshaft complete with forward kickstart.
Gear driven cam shaft,
It had a lot of interesting race bike engineering that for back in 2003 was quite exotic.

But everything was on a short time scale:

Life of the company.
Life expectancy of the engine.
Tank range
Arse resistance to seat.

But a beautiful thing to look at, and immensely fun to ride on the right roads.

Looks like a conventional kick start, what have I missed??

[Taipan]

My Vertemati S501

Completely impractical, but an absolute jewel of an engine that only weighed of 29kg,
Reverse rotating crankshaft complete with forward kickstart.
Gear driven cam shaft,
It had a lot of interesting race bike engineering that for back in 2003 was quite exotic.

But everything was on a short time scale:

Life of the company.
Life expectancy of the engine.
Tank range
Arse resistance to seat.

But a beautiful thing to look at, and immensely fun to ride on the right roads.

Looks like a conventional kick start, what have I missed??

They literally kick forward (clockwise) towards the front wheel and not backwards (anti clockwise) towards the back wheel like a normal bike.

*edit* Video added