old rider but new to this site

[pete376403]

Hi, I discovered this site when I was sent a link to a 48 cylinder Kawasaki
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...=&threadid=514 and that got me looking further.
Ok, certified old fart (old enough to join the Ulysses Club as a full member)
Been riding since 15 - first bike was a Velocette frame with an AJS 350 single (sound like a POS? It WAS a POS), then a Matchless 500. Discovered Japanese trailbikes - Yamaha DT175 and DT250, Kawasaki 350 Bighorn. Then speedway started in Wellington so spent the next 16 years on and off JAP, Jawa and Weslake powered bikes, mostly with little success. Then back into roadies, first with a Honda CB750F1 and finally to my ride of the past 14 years, 1982 Suzuki GS1100GK ("Exxon Valdeez" on account of the size and the oil leaks).
Don't get out as much as I would like to but have done 11 Brass Monkeys and a few others (Cold Kiwi, Cold Duck, Sulphur City, etc).

Currently in planning mode for this years Brass, South Island riding is as close to paradise as you can get while still alive.

[franco]

geez Pete, I bet you could share a few good stories from bygone times. Good to hear from ya.

[merv]

Good to hear from you. As for the Bighorn did you ever get yours running for any length of time? I had a mate had one of those and he never did a trail ride with me because every time we were about to go his bike clapped out and he was at home working on it. It had a habit of shearing the woodruff key on the flywheel and I'd find him sitting in the gutter of the city streets filing up a new one to put the flywheel back on so he could get home.

[wari]

Welcome Pete ... :spudwave: ... did you get to the long track speedway GP in NP last year ?

[LB]

Hi Pete - have to catch you on the hill sometime. (I don't mean on the road, I mean at the summit.....)

[pete376403]

Good to hear from you. As for the Bighorn did you ever get yours running for any length of time? I had a mate had one of those and he never did a trail ride with me because every time we were about to go his bike clapped out and he was at home working on it. It had a habit of shearing the woodruff key on the flywheel and I'd find him sitting in the gutter of the city streets filing up a new one to put the flywheel back on so he could get home.

YES!. My Pighorn did this several times, I finally got around it by lapping the flywheel to the crank taper with fine valve grinding paste, the putting the 'wheel on with super loctite. It was one of the first with pointless ingnition so getting the flywheel off again wasn't an issue. In the end it wasn't a bad bike, the engine was a little wide due to the rotary valve (side mounted carb) but it had a ton of grunt (for those days). All the multi adjustments to the suspension and forks were mostly for show. I had lots of fun in Karapoti with it (ahh, the glory days of trail riding in the '70s - go where you like when you like)
(Cue: "When I were a lad, etc....)