That bike you should have kept...

[niggle]

Regret is a pointless emotion, but all the same I regret parting with my MZ Skorpion Traveler, with its superb combination of long distance comfort and bend-swinging fun in one package. Of course it was by no means perfect, the finish was a bit hit and miss, the lumpiness around town was irksome and the headlight was not brilliant even with the best uprated bulbs.

So what bike do you wish you had kept hold of?

[KungFooBob]

I don't think I should have kept any of them, they were all sold for a reason.

Saying that I do miss my FZR400RR, it was the bike I learnt to wheelie, stoppie and knee down on, did my first track day on it too. I also miss the Blade, but I did own it for 16 years!

Of the bikes I have now, I reckon the Enfield Bullet EFI is a keeper. It owes me very little, the wife loves it and it makes me smile every time I ride it and I can't see that changing anytime soon.

[Yorick]

None, they were all past their best.

[Supermofo]

I don't think any. I'd like another 96 model Blade, but I sold it for the right reasons in 2002.

I do wish I'd have bought an SP1 when they were £3000 though. By the looks of things I could have bought a good un for £3k ridden it for 10 years and sold it for close to double.

[v8-powered]

Not because it was brilliant or anything but did feel a little 'special', my gen 2 Aprilia RSV1000R Factory.

[weeksy]

DSC00779 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr


That really. Plenty of regret in some ways, but i wouldn't have changed overall how i've done things with bikes, but if i could have worked out how to keep that and still do all the other stuff, then yeah, that.

[Tricky]

There are a fair few I look back on with affection and think it would be nice to still have sitting in the garage, or the house as an ornament- none I really regret selling though if I'm honest, as they are all only metal and plastic when all is said and done.
My second Tuono is perhaps the closest to the thread title , as its one of the very last Factory Racing ones, and has the complete (and unused apart from the full-length carbon belly pan) race kit with it and I would definitely buy that back if the opportunity ever arises - I sold it to my brother, so you never know, might happen one day

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

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

[Taipan]

My Thruxton. Bought it on a bit of a whim as I hadn't owned a Triumph before, but ended up really loving it. Had a few really interesting conversations with old guys who had one in their yoof etc. It's that kind of bike, looked old enough to appeal to hipster types, old blokes and most non biking people too? I loved the exhaust note and would just keep riding it to listen to it. Sadly I had to sell it as I was waiting on a knee repleacment and it ended up fecking killing me to ride it.

[Rockburner]

I do have a regret of selling this Ducati.
I only sold it because it had electrical issues, rather than because I had grown out of it. The buyer promptly fixed the issue and flipped it for a profit. (I'd rather he'd have helped me fix it).

Very comfy, very fast (for what it was), and 'mine' because I rebuilt it the way I wanted it after I crashed it.

[Skub]

If I had been in a position to store a fleet of bike sand had much deeper pockets,I probably wouldn't have sold any of them,but you got to move on and selling/trading was the only way for me.

I've owned a fair few which are deemed classic now,but at the time they were just tired bikes and I wanted something fresh,so almost all went with few regrets.

If it had been possible to keep any,it would have been the R90S and ZX10R,there was a fair bit of thought went into the decision to move those two along. They both were special to me and especially with the ten,I knew it'd be very unlikely I'll ever own another sportsbike,so kind of an end to an era too.

[David]

B25SS.
BMW R800RT
I havent added the LE as I still have one. And a Viceroy.
And a BSA Victor I am not keen on.

[Asian Boss]

Like KFB says they were all sold for a reason.

I guess part of me would like my AF1 125 and XL185S (in pre crash condition) back - but both in the condition they were in then, not all old and fucked. Also my Nissan 300ZX. And the 200SX thinking about it.

But we are where we are; and all the better for it.

Never go back. Never go back.

[Scotsrich]

[
My GSXR 750 SRAD.

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Loved this bike.

The gearbox went and instead of fixing it or getting a s/h unit I traded it in.

I even got a 750k1 a few years later which in theory should have been pretty similar but it never felt the same.

[Hairybiker84]

My Laverda Mirage, bought in bits, 2 trips in a Mondeo estate to collect it and painstakingly built up, loom made, painted by a bodyshop guy I'd worked for years before. It had Jota cams and was just superb. Only sold it as I was emigrating to Canada (a permanent move at the time) and was under the impression that I couldn't get the fuel for it to run on. Turns out when I got there that they measured the octane differently and I wouldn't have had any problems. The guy that bought it said that he had seen many motorcycles described as immaculate and this was the only one that was!
I was back in the UK just over 2 years later

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[ZRX61]

Every 3, 4 & 6 cylinder Kaw I ever owned.
The Jota & the Duke 900SS (purely to park in the house to look at)
'75 Trident with the export tank.

Bikes I'd never own again ever if someone gave me one for free:
Guzzi Lemon (WTF was I thinking ?)
Z250 Scorpion (had one, the crank snapped in two)
BSA 250 Starfire. Bought mine off a mate as a blown up basket case, rebuilt it, blew it up, sold it to another mate as a blown up basket case. He rebuilt it, blew it up & sold it as a basket case. All told there were 5 of us who owned it, rebuilt it, blew it up & sold it.

[2xtwins]

No regrets and, as said above, they had served their time and I have good memories of most of them.

However, the little YAS1 I had as a teenager and on which I got my first speeding ticket was special...

Kev

[David]

I had a yas1! Great little bike.

[mangocrazy]

The Hejira-framed YPVS-350-engined 'special' I built for a girlfriend who became my ex before it turned a wheel. Box section steel frame/swingarm, TZR250 forks, Billet 6 pot front caliper, Astralite wheels taking 120/70 and 160/60 tyres, custom aluminium fuel tank, carbon fibre race seat doubling as a subframe, TZ250 fairing.

I only sold it cos I had been out of work for 15 months and I was getting desperate. I should have manned up and lived on beans and toast.

<edit> I put it on Oulton Park's weighbridge and, fully fuelled, it weighed just over 125 kgs.

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[Yorick]

The Hejira-framed YPVS-350-engined 'special' I built for a girlfriend who became my ex before it turned a wheel. Box section steel frame/swingarm, TZR250 forks, Billet 6 pot front caliper, Astralite wheels taking 120/70 and 160/60 tyres, custom aluminium fuel tank, carbon fibre race seat doubling as a subframe, TZ250 fairing.

I only sold it cos I had been out of work for 15 months and I was getting desperate. I should have manned up and lived on beans and toast.


Hejira_05.jpg


Hejira_04.jpg

That's one of very few old bikes that I like