What teenagers liked

[Voltaire]

We looked at British bikes much like the cars, unreliable, old pre war designed tarted up each year.
Working at the Post Office confirmed that with Commer vans, CF Bedfords, Transhits. When the new Corrollas and Hiaces turned up they were awesome.

As for music I hated Disco and the crap that Radio Hauraki played, endless Beegees and Genesis. Only time you heard alternative was Barry Jenkins. Became a BFM listener, they might play some crap but at least it was not the same 20 songs day in day out.
By 1980 your old American cars were getting pretty pricy, guy at work had a mint 34 3 window coupe, was about 8K I think.
Could nearly buy a 10 year old Kombi for that

[Motu]

We'll never see another van like the CA Bedford - a nice little leather strap supplied to slip over the door handle to keep the sliding door open, no seatbelts and a seat like a school chair. Cool as in summer...but the van wasn't. I had a CA Bedford with a Vanguard/Triumph 2000 engine...dunno if it was the Triumph, but it had the 45 degree Solex carbs because the side draughts wouldn't fit. It had a PB Velox diff, and the gear lever was behind the drivers seat. That was my bike hauler in the early '80's.

In the '70's we had 2 radio stations - 1ZM and Hauraki, and they played everything from Freddy Fender to Deep Purple. AM radio was the best thing for musical variety....I kinda miss it. Those poor buggers who didn't live in Auckland didn't have Hauraki - I think I would've hung myself if I lived in Featherstone.

[SNF]

I prefer the decade I was born in - the 80's. Some/most of the music was decent, that said I like most stuff from the 60's - 80's, a few 90's songs here and there. All went to shit after 2000. Same deal with the cars. 50's cars right through til the 90's (some of them).

When I was in my teens in the late 90's it was all rice - stickers, wings, on nearly stock civics, cut springs, chrome wheels, rap music.... nothings changed. Oh nope Justin beiber and all the emo stuff and rap, urgh.

Bikes are the one thing I don't mind. I would happily ride a vintage bike as happily as I'd ride a new one. Yes, the decade(s) I grew up in have made a difference in what music and cars I like. Strangely not bikes. I find a CB750 as good to look at as an R1 (before they stuffed the exhaust under the tail - urgh!). And I don't mind them stock or done up.

[Arronduke]

I remember seeing an RG500 parked out side a pub...It left in a cloud of smoke which I just inhaled. I was about 16 with a face full of zits. This was the coolest thing I had ever seen, a mental picture was taken and I said ONE day I would have one.
Only took ............. about 25,000 beers (ok maybe a few more) or 20years to make this dream come true.

Fait 124, Cortina Mk3 - sport with the bucket seats were my cars and I rode RD's, RZ followed by a NS250R . What great days.

Then got married, hair fell out and my leathers shrank... go figure, leathers today still shrink you would have thought they would stop them shrinking in the rain!

[Pedrostt500]

Dad for a couple of years before i could buy my first bike, woho the mighty Suzuki TS 185 ER, yep 15 yrs old, being a farm kid it was mostly trail bikes, Dr 250s, XL250s, a trike built out of a DT175, my first car was a Hillman Super Minx SW, then the mighty Triumph Herald sw, and a couple of GT 380's, yep a kerosene cowboy.

[unstuck]

my first car was a Hillman Super Minx SW,.

I still have one of those, 64 model.

[seymour14]

Still got my KR250 Tandem Twin, think it was my first bike. The old "widow maker", probably getting collectible by now.

[Yamahardman]

Still got my KR250 Tandem Twin, think it was my first bike. The old "widow maker", probably getting collectible by now.

Pretty sure I saw a kr150 in my friends dads garage last time i was there, and heaps of those old aircooled dohc twin kawasaki motors too. Dunno what they were out of....

Those kr's are pretty damn cool.

[Voltaire]

I like that Kawasaki term " Widow Maker" did everyone get married at 19 back in the 90's

[ktm84mxc]

The term "widow maker" was first used on the Kawa H1 500 triple , fearsome motor woeful brakes and iffy handling great at the traffic light races but put a corner in and may god be on your side.

[Voltaire]

Friend of mine had 3 of them, he's still here, better shocks and tyres improved things a lot he says, that and disc brakes.
I've got a bevel drive Ducati that has never given me electrical issues and a Norton Combat that has never blown up, and a BMW ( The Pensioner Maker) that I don't wear slippers on

[ktm84mxc]

Yep better shocks, fork brace, frame strengthening, disc brakes, good tires, braced swing arm all helped with a H1 or H2. These bikes made Kawasaki's reputation as a company for fast bikes.

[gammaguy]

The first kawa 2t triples were edgy trigger happy mercenaries surrounded by a sea of boring diesel powered British grunts

Maybe the diesels would win the war, but you would die like a kamikaze on your screaming smoking banshee

And chicks dug that

[awa355]

Still got my KR250 Tandem Twin, think it was my first bike. The old "widow maker", probably getting collectible by now.

I had one. Was the bike that taught me the joys of flying through corners on a smooth light bike. At 120kph it was just coming into the powerband in top gear.

[Motu]

I always preferred the security of British handling, suspension and tyres - going apeshit fast on some foul handling bike with crap tyres was somewhere I didn't want to be. I'm still riding an old slow, heavy, 650 pushrod 2 valve twin - it's where I always wanted to be, and still loving it.