Very cool forum! (sugilite)

[2much]

Damn, that's a good read!

Welcome to KB!

[Jabez]

Welcome....

[Maha]

Shit i only just make thru' ''that guys'' column in the Sunday Herald........
Thats a BIG effort mate, onya!
Theres some funny bastards on here.... enjoy!!

[sugilite:Me]

Here is the next installment of my rambling bike history!

Yamaha RZ500 1984 - Sold the RM, ATC and RG250 to buy this object of desire. There were only 20 in the country at the time, it was faster than the 1100's of the day. It had the most character of any bike I've ever owned.
The funny thing is it was not on my shopping list at the time. To rare and unobtainable I thought.
I just wanted something faster than the RG250. So it was off to Wellington Motorcycles, 1st up I test rode a GSX750ESD, it was slow bloated whale.
I jumped on a pop up headlight Katana, and took it out to their Lower Hutt branch they had in those days.
That was more like it, great acceleration, but it signed off too early for my liking.
Due to my height, the tank splayed my legs wider than a star struck rock band groupie!
Hmmm, what to do I pondered as my test ride was drawing to an end.
The answer as it turns out was sitting up on display in the window at the bike shops Lower Hutt branch window. It was lust at first sight!
I'd only just finished reading the day before how it won the Aussie six hour.
Bob Toomey was the sales man and he did not seem to keen to get it down out of the window for a 17 year old. I showed them the color of my money and it was done.
By 2nd gear, I knew I was buying the bike!

16 inch wheels on rough winding back roads were not cool, so I bought a steering dampener for it in the first week. This transformed the bikes handling and composure. After that the steering was always light and nimble, yet rock solid. The power for the day was stunning. The sound of the V4 motor with induction roar and 4 screaming pipes was a sound to behold!

Funniest moment -
I got to do a number on a text book 80's Mitsi cordia turbo driving yuppie.
I'd come up against him before on my 250 and been beaten. Being pipped by the gold chain laden hairy chested smarmy faced yupster was a bitter pill to swallow!
I'd had the 500 a few weeks and who should I see at the head of the queue at the now deceased Porirua traffic lights on SW1. Xmas had come early and I was keen to open my present!
I sidled up beside him, he gave me his trade mark yuppie smirk and takes off, I make it look good, keep it in the lower gears and get right down on the tank and just inch it in front of him really putting on a show of trying hard, once in front I flicked my choke on, simultaneously the 4 pipes billow out 2 stoke smoke and I start to pull to the side of the motorway as if to pull over and note the yuppies hearty laughter as I do so.
Right, I let him get only so far away then I flick the choke off, The bike clear her throat then lunges forward running through the gears, shrieking for revenge and who am I to deny her!
He saw me coming and floored it.The timing was sweet, the bike was just edging into redline in top as we sucked the doors off the yuppies cordia. Revenge is sweet as they say!

Best crash - Just one on this bike, was doing a lap of the Lyal Bay/Airport GP after night shift, come off Onepu road on to the fore shore ans straight into a massive sand drift from the southerly storm the day before. The upside was, very little damage as it fell in quite deep sand.

Suzuki RG250 1986F - I decided to go racing, a respected member of the racing fraternity tells me 250 is where I should start, bad move I'm 2 meters tall FFS!
the 1st practice day I saw the writing on the wall, I spent the day passing loads of riders on the corners and getting dusted by them down the straights. So I never raced this bike.
To broke to upgrade for a while here...I do spend a lot of time crashing this bike and learn a lot about mid corner speeds and fairing repairs!
I tried to put a RZ350 motor in it, but the shop I got to do it stuffed around for way to many months, so next!

Funniest Moment - I went on a ride with mates to do the fielding, Kimbolton, Taihape road for the 1st time.
I was having fun and pulling away from the group. I came across a group of about 8 or so Ducatis pulled over on the side of the road, I'd never seen so many Ducatis on the road at one time, in those days most lived in workshops lol
Anyways, picture this ...I'm on my multi crashed, painted, crashed, painted, crashed painted (different colors each time if course) RG250, to call this bike rough was at best being charitable!
They asked where I was from, told em Wellie, so they said ahhh, so you do the Rimitukas? After saying I did, they told me, "this road to us, is what the Rimitukas is to you." So off they went, I was happy because I figured I'd have expert lines to follow. the 1st few were way to slow, so I passed them and so on and so forth till there was clear daylight in front of me. I stopped at the end and everyone of them rode by like I did not exist! I felt as welcome as a blow fly on a wedding cake.

Best Crash - Hmmm, soooooooooooooo many to choose from!
I was out riding on the Akatarawa road , there was a cool temporary bridge there at the time, the fun jump on and a jump off type, it was wet this day so I was just cruising, I come up onto the wooden bridge and there is diesel spilt the length of it, I dont touch the brakes and pull in the clutch, all to no avail, I instantly go down. As I watch my latest week old paint work (a tasteful gloss black with gold pinstripes) be ground away into oblivion I thought, at least my riding partner will see this and have a chance, just then his bike slides past me inches to my right,

Honorable mention - The claytons crash, it's the crash you have when your not having a crash!
I was near the top of the South side of the Rimitakas, a car comes around the corner on my side of the road, My right handle bar and brake lever smash through his side mirror and monsoon shield, this puts on my front brake which locks and twists the front tyre into the side of the car. I instinctively use a technique picked up when playing the ram your mate into gorse bushes whilst riding dirt bikes (both giving and receiving lol) I give the bike full throttle and once the bike was clear of the car wrench the bars straight.
It had smashed my knuckle into the middle of my hand, but at least I had not gone down.
So who won?
The bike - scraped bar end and brake lever end broken off.
Car - broken side mirror, smashed monsoon shield, Dented driver and passenger door as from bikes front wheel and a rent near the length of the car from my brake lever and resovoir....The bike wins!
Not that their insurence company did not try to tell me it was my fault they were on my side of the road. Told em where to go...

I really did want to get to the race track, so with this in mind, I went and purchased my next bike....to be continued....

[cowpoos]

hmmmm.....more freash meat....

[cowpoos]

I really did want to get to the race track, so with this in mind, I went and purchased my next bike....to be continued....

getting sick of waiting for the sequil!!!! come on bro!

[Fatjim]

The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe

Tui ad!


10 chars

[Lil_Byte]

War and Peace was a shorter read.

But welcome anyway

[sugilite:Me]

Gawd, we have a thread resurrection!
OK then, just for you Poos LOL

Suzuki GSXR750F 1985 - As Suzuki were prone to doing in those days, they dumped a load of cheap GSXR750's from Aussie on the NZ market. I picked up a red and black one.
As mentioned I was keen to get to the track, so with original fairings n all I rode to my first race meeting at Onekawa in Napier. On the way I stopped behind a van load of Vic club members who were going up to race. As I was talking to Anthony McCarthy I heard my bike being started up, I turned around just in time to see a drunk Dave Hicks wheelieing my bike up the road, he turned it around and wheelied it back landing it with a fork crunching thud, does another u-turn and promptly drops it, I always did think that guy was a jerk

Anyways, it was pissing down at Onekawa and slippery as hell, I can remember passing Anthony McCarthy on his GSXR1100R then him running on in the next corner and straight into the side of me leaving big tyre marks on my swing arm, thankfully I'd been riding my motocross bike the day before, so stuck my foot out put her in sideways into the corner and made it! Anthony crashed, poetic justice one might say. I cannot remember where I finished, it was not 1st place, so

2nd Race meeting was Gracefield, fark, that place was dangerous, I was fearless at 19, but I sure respected that track. I got top 5 finishes, and was up against names like Holden, Toomey, Kattenberg, all on GSXR1100's. The only thing I can remember was in race 2, Anthony McCarthy's girlfriend coming up to me as I was on the start line and whining in her nasal voice, "Well Anthony, Dave, Jim, Anthony and Jason have all crashed, so I guess it is your turn!" How did she know that was just what I wanted to hear? Not!

Best Crash - None! Amazingly, I never crashed this bike.


Suzuki GSXR1100H 1986 - I went to Wellington Motorcycles to buy a helmet and ended up riding out on a GSXR1100, how did that happen!
Both Robert Holdens and Bob Toomeys race bikes had come up for sale. I liked red and black, so bought Roberts one, bad move as it turns out! It was a missile for 3 days, but then the war head blew up! After an 8 week wait it was fixed, while running it in, it blew up again! (at 6000 revs) stranding me at the top of the North Island. After another 8 week wait it was fixed again, this time it had a whole new top end and strangely was only as fast as other GSXR1100's now. hmmm

I raced it at manfield 3 times in the then winter series, I was getting 3rd places on it straight away in F1 and by the 3rd meeting was giving 1st and 2nd places a real hard time, was lapping in the 1:14 to 1:15 range. The track was billiard table smooth compared to the condition of it these days.
I can remember pushing the front end on this bike so hard that I had to save it on my knee three laps in a row on the Manfield hairpin, to say these bikes were forgiving is an understatement!

The 6 hour endurance race was approaching and I was keen as mustard to do it, I enlisted the help of one Terry Stevenson, he was an experienced racer who had been fully sponsored by Wellington Motorcycles. I let him ride the bike for a race meeting to get used to it, in the 2nd practice session he pushed to hard into the hairpin and crashed it. The impact bent the crank
He was a bike mechanic and said, "no worries" I'll pay for the crank and fix it. He did neither, though did come around to help put it back together, snapped a bolt in the head, fucked off and I never saw him again, yep another

I got it fixed up, but by this time I had, had enough and decided to buy a brand new bike.....

Best crash:The brakes were always a issue on this model even with the 750 master cylinder my "production" bike seemed to have come with!
Anthony McCarthy (that man again) said, here spray this stuff called brake clean on your disc's and just leave it. So I did that, went out for the 1st race and coming into coke, hmmm, no brakes???? Squeezed the lever harder and POW I was off and sliding up the track at about 200 kph, buggar!
My mate lent me his RG500, it was straight of the street, we taped up the headlight, took the mirrors off and called it a race bike, the plugs had not been out in over 7000 km's and I was adjusting the clutch lever down the back straight! I lined up at the back of the grid in F1. by the finish of the 5 lap race I'd worked my way up to 3rd place against full house formula one bikes, passing names like one Sean Harris down the front straight (proving what I'd said all along, RG500's were faster in a straight line than the GSXR750's) I was cornering so hard I was levering the rear off the bloody ground on the pipes, oh for a 17 inch front wheel!

OK, in my next post, and it will be another long one, I will cover just one bike, so you can sux on another Tui Fatjim!

[skelstar]

That showed them eh Ant?

[chanceyy]

still laughing here Ant .. gawd you have such an eloquent way of putting things .. awaits for the next installment ..

[2much]

Great stuff Ant. Finally, a worthwhile resurrection.

[gijoe1313]

Good gosh magolly - excellent tales of biking madness! A tale of extroverted riding and madcap explorations on two wheels of freedom - entertaining read and leaves me Dead impressed and can only :slap:

Keep posting your eloquent tales from the saddle!

[babyB]

ar Sugi, has been a long day for me & reading ya stories so far has just made my morning
thanks for a wonderful read ....
but now awaits for ya next entry

[Edbear]

I used just about every character allowable, I couldn't make a dent in the arcade scores, so had to try for an unofficial record!
The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe

"Please review your post. Maximum lenght is 10,000 characters, you have written 10,335". Didn't know that before...