Vintage Supermotard?

Zomby woof wrote: They're extremely well built and rugged bikes.

Thats what i was told as a kid until the trans exploded and i had to pay to fix it...Bike was about 4 hours old...I had about 5 minutes of fun and had to work most of the summer for free to pay to fix it. I was on it when it broke so i was responsible... Thank god I have good parents who tought me right and wrong even when it hurts.

Now give me a 76 husky 360WR i'm all over it. or a Suzuki RM370 with Thorr swing arm. I had both as a kid My older brother siad if i could start the rm i could ride it...took me a week and a pair of boots but i learned how to start the beast. the husky i got @15 and still have it sold it twice and got it back both times.

Zomby woof wrote: That's funny. Those pics of the XT came from a thread titled "My vintage supermoto" and the race it was in was a supermoto race, not a dirt track. I don't get supermoto bikes. I've been to their races, I've ridden them, and frankly still think they're kind of stupid. If you want a street bike, get a street bike.

I've owned and ridden all manner of motorbikes over the last nearly 30 years, from weedy little 2 strokes to ex-national championship winning race bikes made into barely street bikes. Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Ducati, Cagiva, KTM, Triumph...

I'm down to one "new" bike and one "old" bike now.

New:

Old:

Supermotos don't make sense unless you have someplace either urban or very twisty to ride. Big ones are OK on the highway - megamotos like the KTM 950 SM I just sold, the Ducati Hypermotard, Aprilia Dosoduro 1200. The little ones are sort of miserable droning at 85 mph.

In the suburbs and city however, they are the best motorcycles ever made. I commuted from the 'burbs into downtown Washington DC daily for 3 years on a Suzuki DRZ400SM. It had an Akrapovic exhaust system and a 39mm Keihin FCR carb, and I have never in my life experienced anything faster from point A to point B in the city. I used to be a motorcycle/bicycle/car messenger, so I know about this.

The KTM 690 SMC has 120F/160R tires on crazy light 17" wheels, a 320mm Brembo radial caliper and radial master cylinder, makes 60hp, and weighs just under 300#. It has limitless cornering clearance, a sh1tload of suspension travel, and great ergonomics.

Were I to go sport touring I'd buy the best used Honda VFR 800 I could find and call it a day. Picnic rides w/ the wife? I'd buy an early injected TC88 Harley Road King Standard. Track days? At Shenandoah I'll take the 690 and beat up on everyone. Anywhere else I'd find a cheap R6.

SuMos are not the bike for all purposes, but after a single day of trying to get home on my old '98 GSXR600 when DC was entirely gridlocked - I went supermoto and have never looked back for a second.

Zomby woof wrote: So it worked out, and I got my vintage dual sport tonight. Guess what year it is Check out the leather tool bag. It still has the original Magura controls, and leather covers over them. It was originally a competition enduro bike, but has been street plated. It's my second Can-am. I'll use this one for light street duty, and vintage hare scrambles, the other for post vintage MX, and now looking for one for the true vintage MX class

Nice! Are those Ceriani or Betor forks? I'm leaning toward Cerianis. That bike dates from the beginning of the 'long travel' revolution, everybody was scrambling to copy Maico and most of them did it by laying the shocks down like that.

Those would be Betors. 77 was the first year for the Qualifier. The previous year's competition woods bike was the TNT O/R. Like this one, but with less travel, and white tank.

Last event of the vintage series this weekend. There's a show, so I'll take the 77 for that and race the '80 works bike copy.

It doesn't look like it, but this bike is a black tank, and a few hours work away from being a Black widow. Search that if you don't know what it is

The final event was postponed due to rain, but they ran it last weekend. I took the new bike to show, but had electrical problems with the race bike, and ended up running the enduro. Finished 7th overall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5i3K76VUpE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

I'm the enduro with the X on the number plate (and the old guy standing there looking at the bikes near the beginning)

Apparently I've made the big time

http://www.canned-ham.com/