Pete, saw it was a concept bike later (should have mentioned), wanted to post it as an eye popper.:hehe:

Zing... I bet that's an all metal engine cowel! Yep, those old bikes that seem so primitive today so often become the most desirable.

Cool thread.

GREAT THREAD.

Where do I start.

1999 VFR800 Interceptor. Gear driven 4 camshaft engine. Best sound in modern motorcycling.

2001 HD Super Glide Sport. Full Showa suspension, Brembo brakes and a high performance (by HD standards) engine and reinforced Dyna frame. A HD that handled and stopped and went.

1984 (or so, I forget) XR200 with a new OHC Lifan engine I concocted with the help of our fellow CR's.

1980 XS400 Yamaha. Just a plain simple happy bike.

1980 Suzuki GS1100E. You never forget your first. (That's what she said). In it's day, the fastest bike in the world.

1984 RZ350. Ring a ding ding ZOOM!

I've had maybe 50 or so bikes, and those are the ones I regret selling.

I would have to say for me it would be:

2001 Yamaha R1...fully upgraded to be a 'busa killer...never did find out this bikes top speed after all the mods were done. Got into a wreck with a buddies R6 and sold the R1 while in the hospital from that.

1993 Kawasaki ZX7 Ninja....Not much to say on this bike other then it was a fun one to ride when i got back into riding a few years ago after being off bikes for a few years after the aforementioned R6 accident.

The one i regret the most however:

1993 Honda CBR 900RR Fireblade....Also a fully upgraded bike. I still think to this day had i not traded this bike in on the R1 the accident on the R6 may not have occurred.

Sorry to hear about your accident. If an R6 put you in a hosptial God only knows what the R1 could have done!

The 900RR was and is a great bike. In it's day the lightest sharpest high performance 4 cylinder bike. I liked the perforated fairing.

Another classic Japanese bike (I never had one) that I lust for is a first generation air and oil cooled GSXR1100. Especially a red white and blue one. I'd waste good money on a nice one of those.

Nowadays, at almost 52, race replica bikes don't motivate me. My ST4S-ABS Ducati is fast enough.

I had one, for about two weeks, the ergo's and turbo lag turned me off. was too small for my frame:{

One I HAD to sell, Kawasaki 750 H2 smoker, without a doubt the scariest thing I ever rode. Was insane, had to make absolutely sure you were squared up and pointed where you wanted to be when you breathed on that throttle, cause you WERE going to be 'there' in a heartbeat.

Hell, I had been killing hardened combat soldiers, jumping/falling out of jets(sometimes was hard to tell the difference), and "securing" errant US troops of the "baddest of the bad" category i.e., green, maroon, and black beret types, LRRP s ,a couple of UDT types, and once, a whole group of intoxicated marine recon( good thing they were that drunk) but it was that bike that made my hair stand on end.

No kidding, one night I awoke terrified and trembling from an intensely vivid nightmare in which that bike carried me to my death. Never rode it again, sold it within the week.

We need to make a movie about your life, SeerAtlas.

Maybe gloss over the H2 experiences to avoid PTSD ;-)

Never rode one, but I'd be inclined to give it a try...

Craziest smoker I ever rode was a CR500, and I loved it lol.

Well it wasn't speed with the R6 that put me there. It was a mid range stumble that caused the bike to break traction and slide into a turn. Well that was the mechanical cause.....it was partly rider error as well due to being used to riding 900+cc monsters. So i had the mentality to ease into the throttle on the turn instead of keeping it on the power like the 600s prefer. So when i eased into it the rpms dropped down to around 3K then suddenly snapped up to 12K :wtf: The bike was having fueling issues and that was why i was even out on it riding it to see if we could sort out the cause. Yea i found the cause pretty fast! As for the R1...well it didn't last much longer after the accident. A rich dad bought it for his kid and well his kid did not have the skill to control it...nuff said on that.

I miss the CBR and will probably buy another one day...

I see 900RR's turn up every now and then and not too much $. Even prisitine examples go for around $4,000. In the day of current 'hyperbikes' the RR gets overlooked.

Also they tended to be more adult owned thn the GSXR's etc. and thus tended to fare better through the years.

Sucks about the R6... I thought they were EFI, no?

DOC, that thing's handling was atrocious, but in a straight line...before the euphoria faded. you felt like god had grabbed you by the azz :)

re the other, my daughter made me promise to write an autobio for her before I cash out, hopefully no time soon:) and my son, well he's eclipsed me in pretty much everything military: rank, qualification,citations,awards etc. except for the one i got for "NOT running fast enough" which I would gladly have missed :(

in reflection, life Has been a not entirely uneventful journey but there remains so much i would like to have known and more than a few things I would rather have never learned:{

Yea the RRs tend to be in better condition even the later 929s and 954s. I have ridden a couple of the 1kRRs as well and those are nice. Forgiving power curve to them. The earlier model R6s were carbed they went to EFI in '03. The bike i had the accident on was an '01 like my R1.

Congratulations to your son and I thank both of you for your service.

I assume the slow running medal was a Purple heart?

SA, by the way, I agree with everything in your sig line very much.

Well, Fast Doc, while I regret selling all of the English bikes I have had, the one I most pine for was my 1949 Ariel Red Hunter 350. It did everything so well - - -