What was your first street bike?

[r1limited]

1 hour ago, faffi said:

Bikes sure where tiny back then 😄

 

 

😅 I was looking at this picture and I was like man I was way to big for that bike or it shrunk

[gregjet]

" I was looking at this picture and I was like man I was way to big for that bike or it shrunk" SEE! I told you you should never wash a bike. They shrink really badly!

Boy that guy has a BIG head!

 

[gregjet]

Faffi,

You will never guess what I found in my workshop library yesterday. An original XV1000R brochure. And you are right about the 19" wheel. I forgot that I had an 18" wheel put on when I bought it, to steepen the front head angle and allow better tyres. I knew the owner of the shop and the salesman well as we raced together , and it sounded like a good experiment. That is the official Aussie model. Considering how different the Aussie MT07 is to everyone elses it is no surprise that we had a different XV's

 

Most people do not realize how revolutionary the XJ550 was. It was one of the first ( if not the first) multis to have a narrow crankcase and stacked gearbox. All later sports bikes went along those lines. got rid of the huge bulgey ground scraping side cases.

 

There is another 6 pages to the brochure but I thought you might like to see the main bits.

[faffi]

Thank you for sharing! I wonder if it was called the XV1000R also in other markets, or if that was unique to Oz?

 

Other than that, I believe you are correct when it comes to the Seca 550 and it carrying the generator behind the cylinders to make it narrower. I think it was also the first model with YICS. Stacked gearboxes had been seen decades before, though, although it probably wasn't common on Japanese mass production models. As I recall it, MOTORRAD scored it as a common winner together with the GS550M Katana in a mid-size comparo, ahead of the Kawasaki Z550 and GPz550 as well as the Ducati Pantah 500 and Honda CX500. When Cycle world compared the Seca against the GPz550, GS550M Katana and XZ550 Vision a year later, the new UniTrak GPz won by a significant margin ahead of the Seca, closely followed by the Vision. The Katana fell well behind, mostly due to the lack of engine performance, but the testers still liked the Suzuki a lot - enough that several of the testers would be willing to spend money on engine upgrades to make it competitive. The German Katana test bike was much faster.

[gregjet]

Never had one but have ridden a Z550 and the GPZ550 Kwakas. VERY underrated bike. Unbustable as well. Handled as well as the XJ stock, but getting aftermarket shock for the Kwaka was impossible at the time, so as soon and you did the basic suspension fixes ( fork valves and decent shock/s) the XJ was way better. I notice the CBX550 wasn't in there. Also a brilliant bike ( with pain in the butt brakes).

[faffi]

USA never got the CBX550. MOTORRAD compared it against the GPZ550 and XZ550 in 1982 and the Honda took a very clear victory in front of the Kawa and then the Yamaha. In 1983, the GX550ES won the comparo ahead of the CBX550F2 and the GPZ550. 

 

From what I have gathered, the Z/GPZ550 ruled box stock racing in USA between 1980 and 1983, with the XJ (FJ in USA) 600 then taking over.

[aiian]

‘03(ish) CBR 600rr

 

I’m guessing I was 18 or 19. In hindsight I can’t believe the dealership let me buy that thing, maybe it was the 19.99% interest they were charging 😩

 

Then again, knowing what I know now I’m surprised they didn’t try to talk me into a Gixxer 5000.