Very cool forum! (sugilite)

[MSTRS:Me]

Man, that first photo is an old one...you've grown a bit since then

[T.W.R]

I've got the KX250, KX500, ZX9R and my current bike the ZXR750 to cover. We can't rush these things, the writing about them, not the riding them!

great read Anthony
This last list of what's to come has a distinct pattern to it though
mite have to hold off on the ZXR till it's matched up against a sibling in red 7 black though

[merv]

Man so you're a decent bloke after all having owned an '83 XR200RD and VFR400.

As for the rear shock on the XR well I found mine perfect at the time, but then I'm over a foot shorter than you and weight would be quite different, so I guess they just didn't build those bikes for you.

[sugilite:Me]

Heyya Merv, Yeah, well I was a lot shorter when I was 17, barely 6 ft then. I did tend to hit big jumps holding it flat in the upper gears, that might have been it . I was always looking for big jumps on dirt bikes, did not really get into the speed thing till I got my RZ500

[merv]

Yeah love those XRs, these we me 1983, bike must have been near new then.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...9&d=1137291510

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...0&d=1137291510

[sugilite:Me]

Hey Great pics Merv, wish I had some action ones of mine.
Yep, bought mine brand spankers from the old Honda Center in Taranaki St Wellies

[sugilite:Me]

OK, it's been a few days since my last post on this thread
Kawasaki 1989 KX250
I bought this as a trainer bike for road racing to get fit and brush up on skills, esp pushing the front. I purchased it off my mate and it 'was' a minter!

It was a great all rounder with enough power to get me in plenty of trouble, and good handling to get me back out...for the most part! I never raced it, so no stories there, but yeah, I did have plenty of adventures on it! so here's a few of those.

Richard and I went to a beach close to Levin. I'd ridden there before a few years prior in the sand hills, it was an awesome spot! This time however, I saw a sign saying no riding in that area as they had planted it out in some sort of local sea grass. So I carefully picked my way through the clumps without running them over and went on to a different area. I'd been riding there a while when the police turned up with a couple of Maori guys. They asked me had I seen the sign n that. I mentioned I did not run their sea grass over and came to this spot. The cop said it was still a no go and to leave. Which we duly did. I was fair knackered anyways. When I got to a river crossing to get back to the van, I rode through what I thought was the same patch from whence I'd come and opppps, no, I found a nice deep hole and promptly fell of the bike, I was on my back spluttering like hell trying to keep the bike upright, and thus not drowned using my feet. I think Richard came to the rescue and got the bike out the river. About that time, I noticed the van looked at an odd angle. Turns out those kind Maori fellas had dug all the sand out from under the van tyres and it was on it's belly pan!
Richard came up with a plan to get out using the jack...as we were working away, the Maori guys came back and said "I spose you want us to help you" An offer we declined. They started to hassle us really spoiling for a fight, unfortunately I let my young big mouth get away on me and instantly paid the price! These guys were not small and one kicked me in the side of my stuffed knee and I went down like a ton of bricks....Richard was freaking he was going to have to save me...the kicker backed off and I got up and went back to packing the van up, as I had my head in the back, the other guy kindly slammed the back door on my head We finally got back into the van and some local kids gave me there names, which I passed on to the cops (they could not find them) and off we went with me muttering threats of coming back to spray there gardens and lawns with roundup to bring the beach closer to them...naturally I did nothing about it. Looking back on it, I could of avoided the whole thing by going to another beach, and also keeping my big yap shut!

Another incident, my mate and I were both training on the bike at a local track in Porirua, quite far in the wops though. He disappeared on it and did not reappear in a timely manner, so I went looking for him. I found him crashed on the side of the track with his foot stuck between the rear tyre wheel and swingarm at a sickening angle, he was in massive pain. I did not have the right tools to get the wheel off and knew his ankle would be useless anyway, so I set off on foot in full motocross gear on a blazing hot day. I got to the nearest house and called the fire department and they also called the ambo and as it turns out the helicopter. I got back to my mate and as he had been trapped a while was in agony. At the time I was doing a lot of healing using crystals, but had none on me...so I put my hand on his shoulder, as we were right by a stream and in the bush, the sounds of nature were prevalent. With my hand on his shoulder I emptied my mind (a fairly short process by all accounts ) and just filled my consciousness with the soothing sounds of nature. Then seemingly all hell broke loose with both the ambulance, fire brigade and helicopter all arriving at once, the noise was hellish. They had tools and removed my wheel and a few other bits and then loaded my mate into the helicopter and they all vamoosed, just leaving me with my bike in bits and the sounds of nature once again, it was a freakish surreal feeling. Interestingly enough, when I went to visit my mate in hospital an hour later, he was feeling sheepish as his ankle was not broken (I put it down to his flexibility through karate training, he is a black belt) and he said to me that the best he felt through the whole thing was when I had my hand on his shoulder. So that was good. Energy is an interesting thing and not everything in this world is as it seems.

OK, the part you have all been waiting for - Best crash!
Hmmm, soooooooooooooo many to choose from! OK, check out the photo attached (hopefully) to this post. That is above Horokiwi quarry in Wellies, by the old Newlands dump. I call it the jump to nowhere, as on the approach to it, all you can see is Wellington harbour. I used to be the only one to do it, as to get to it you had to come down the devils staircase, which none of the other locals could get back up...unfortunately, the quarry guys bulldozed the staircase and suddenly everybody could get to that jump. It was crazy this day, so I went around trying to get everybody to go in a loop to avoid prangs. As I approached the jump, I went really slow, as in about 5 km's, not enough to get airborne, or so I thought! The last thing I remember seeing was 2 guys flying up towards me. Apparently I was knocked out cold for about an hour, weird thing was, when my brain came online, i had already somehow got to my feet and was walking around, talk about disorientated! I'd been shoved back from the jump by more than 25 meters. The other guy had very little safety gear and he had all sorts of broken bones. So I scored a free ride in the back of an ambulance. I cannot express the relief after discovering the other guys injuries that I had quality safety gear and I had spent the bucks on a top of the line helmet. other than a sore knee and head, I got away largely unscathed, whew!

The next dirt bike I bought was my dream dirt bike, and the one I still have to this day. I'll cover that, at some stage!

[chanceyy]

bout time we got another installment .. gotta watch them beaches around here

[sugilite:Me]

I'm using this thread as a light hearted bibliography of the bikes I've owned. I just found a awesome site ( http://www.bikepics.com ) with loads of owner photos and managed to get photos of all my model bikes in correct colours. I've used my own photos when I had them. photos run in correct order of ownership. Spose I should do a write up on the KX500, as thats next in the dirt bike queue

 

Suzuki TS185ER

 

 

Honda XR200RD

 

 

Suzuki RM125D

 

 

Honda ATC200X

 

 

Suzuki RG240W

 

 

Yamaha RZ500

 

 

Suzuki RG250F

 

 

Suzuki GSXR750F

 

 

Suzuki GSXR1100G

 

 

Kawasaki KX125

 

 

Suzuki RG400

 

Suzuki GSXR1100K

 

 

Kawasaki KX250

 

Yamaha FZR1000W

 

 

Honda VFR400 NC21

 

 

Kawasaki KX500

 

 

Kawasaki ZX9R C1

 

 

Kawasaki ZXR750 H1

 

 

Kawasaki ZXR750 H1

[sugilite:Me]

I'll never forget the 1st time I rode a KX500, I was about 21, had been racing big road bikes and had a load of dirt bike experience. I'd like to say it was the bad brakes that needed a good bleed that made me shit myself, but no, it was the raw totally untamed power that did that job! I had no excuse, I rode the bike on my home track that I'd done a squillion times. Straights that had been 3 gear changes long on my 125, suddenly became a challenge to get the throttle to the stop in one gear before getting to the end of it! Needless to say, I was totally awestruck by the bike, and I told myself that while I was no where ready for one at that point, I would learn to tame one in the future, or at least die trying! This was the only bike I've ever ridden to date, that actually scared me.

Fast forward to when I'm 34 and I decided to take the plunge and get one, enter one crasherfromwayback with his personal immaculately prepared bike for sale and the deal was done. I just started to get to know the bike in a gentle easy does it manner. It still nearly caught me out though, it never sounded fast and I caught myself rushing into corners faster than I anticipated at times. When I moved to my current location, the bike was put to regular use, both on the high terrain farms I'm surrounded by and the 50 km dirt road loop complete with 7 km hill climb!!! I know your all waiting for a spectacular best crash incident here, but up to this point, I'd not had any crashes really worth talking about. All that was about to change, as it was 2003 and a fledgling supermoto scene was emerging in New Zealand.

Supermoto Mayhem!
Supermoto was a class that really interested me, so I built the bike into one by lowering the suspension, adding a 6 piston caliper and 320mm disc, and had a set of 17's made up. I hooked up with a few other supermoto fans, and we got things moving in the lower north island, I helped on a national level and built the supermoto website. We ran at cart club tracks and Manfield. My 1st race set the scene for what was to follow, I crashed 3 times at that meeting! The problem was the initial power pulse, it had the ommphh to unhook the back and spit me off faster than the blink of an eye. I tried to tame it by cutting a old set of reeds in half and putting them over the existing reeds, added a sealy flywheel weight and a few other bits and pieces, it all helped a bit, but it still had large and nasty teeth, which it sunk into my arse with monotonous regularity

OK, I have a funniest moment, and a best crash to relate, well technically three crashes!
Funniest moment (as usual, for others, not myself!) I was at Manfield about 2004, with a sleeved barrel for the 1st time. It was noticeably slower. I holeshotted the start, with Dennis Charlotte on a 600 Husaberg slotting in behind me, coming out of the hair pin, I got a bit frisky on the throttle and the back end did it's thing and spat me off, I ran over and got the bike picked up and started and off I went again. It was a 5 lap race and I started to reel in Dennis in a big way, I was just coming up on him down the front straight as we started the last lap, I started to get excited and wondered how many people had crashed and still won in a 5 lap sprint race. My bike sensed I was about to have a great moment, so promptly shit itself and seized, naturally in front of everybody down the front straight. One consolation is, I set a 1:18 flat (on the slow motor!), a supermoto record broken only last year by a 4 stroke, I think?

OK, best crash, or two! I rolled up to a one off meeting at a new suburb in Upper Hutt. Crasher from way back was there on a 4 stoke suzuki. I holshotted, came around the last corner and bike did it's thing yet again and I was on my ear, someone rammed their front wheel into my head and my visor came half off. I was a bit stunned and the ambo guy came running towards me bag in hand, I then noticed they were doing a restart, so got the bike up, banged a few bits straight, and got on the bike in time for the restart, boom we were off, I holshotted again even having time to rip my dangling visor right off, but I was a bit gun shy in the 1st corners and crasherfromwayback took me, coming up on that same last corner, my bike decided to give everyone a action replay of the 1st crash and this time it spat me over the high side! I was pissed and sore, so loaded up and hit the pain medication and trundled off home! I still have this bike, and will never sell it. I love the challenge it presents, and all the reasons why people avoid these bikes are the exact same reason that draws me to it, like a moth on the path to self destruction!

[merv]

Great read Anthony. Crasher talks about the KX500 but I never knew until now you ended up with it.

[sugilite:Me]

Crasher talks about the KX500 but I never knew until now you ended up with it.

Mate I'd rather buy a low hour bike from Pete than a brand new one! His bike prep and maintenance is 2nd to none Best condition 2nd hand bike I bought, ever!

[chanceyy]

One of the best reads on KB I reckon, Enjoying your biking experiences Sugi, really do make me

can we not have so long between installments thouugh

[Howie]

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.

Thought I'd resurrect this tread again for you. Heres a couple of pics from Onekawa in 1986 with you in them. Your #171 if I remember correctly.

[JustNick]

I'm loving the stories mate keep them coming!