Rat/Rough Bikes, you have owned.

[tri boy]

Today I got all nostalgic and scanned some photos of bikes I have owned.
Amongst the cluster of 20yr old pics, was one that stood out.
It was a rough old Honda four, made up from a mish mash of parts sourced from the bike wreckers I was swinging spanners for.
I dragged it out of the pile of wrecks, got it running etc, for the sole purpose of riding it to the Xmas party, so all us Hairys had something to destroy when we got pissed(as every red blooded apprentice does).
Could we kill it?
Only by riding it into the river!
Next morning, it was skull dragged out of said river, thrown on a trailer and taken back to the workshop.
For the next Nine months it became my Rat Bike. Broke down regulary, was a constant source of laughter, frustration, learning etc.
Anyway, I would be interested to hear of similar Rats that people have owned, and the adventures you have had with them.
I did a search for similar threads but couldn't find one, so if this has been done to death, my apologies.

[Steam]

I got a couple of survivals but that's different from rat, kinda instant-rat really.
One day when I have mechanical knowledge I will have a bike so dirty and oily and bodged together, I will be known far and wide as "that rat guy".
That is my ambition in life.
oh, Gotta have a beard too, a big white one.

[tri boy]

Hey Steam,
The CX in years to come will transform into a perfect Rat.
Give the beastie shit, and it will grow a tail and sharp, sharp teeth.

[Bonez]

Hey Steam,
The CX in years to come will transform into a perfect Rat.
Give the beastie shit, and it will grow a tail and sharp, sharp teeth.

Aint that the truth. I'm having a ball of a time on mine. Nearest thing to a rat bike I had, apart from my CX that is, was an early '70s Cb500. Rusted Cb550 fuel tank, rusted seat pan that flexed every time you went over a bump, shitty tires and rather obnoxious 4 into 1.

Went rather well and used as much oil as the CX. Did my first winter Tahapie/Napier crossing on it. Ended up wrecking it as room was a premium at the time. Still have the 4 into one and some top end bits, crank and a few other bits that are compatable with my '76 CB550F.

Never ever got around to taking pics of the cb500 for some odd reason.

[billyvan]

The one I am working on/playing on, at the moment is a real dog, It's a freebie project, 1980 TF185 Suzuki.

Got given the bike with no cluth, due to a shorn off shaft and missing parts.


Got given lots of donor parts of a TS185 for nada!

Its now running again after turning it into a TF/TS 185.

Just gota get the wiring right and ride it for a few months, before I try and unleash it's quirks on some other keen punter



Good fun building though

[tri boy]

Those old TF/TS Suzi's were tough old girls,
Even high country farmers struggled to kill them. Mainly died from a poor oil change out policy, or bouncing down/over steep country.
A true Shearing Shed Rat.

[vifferman]

When I was "between bikes" in the early 80s, my (then) bro-in-law gave me a bike in exchange for painting his roof and fitting some guttering. It was a CB250RS, with an XR500 engine and twin Cycleworks zorsts. It ran like a bag of arseholes, and the previous owner had given up on it and dumped it on the side of the road. After my bro-in-law retrieved it, it then spent several months sitting in the weather outside.

I checked it over, and found out it the intake valves weren't seating, so I took the head off, and my uncle (who was a tutor at the tech) got his students to give it a valve grind. While that was going on, I took the rest of it apart, and painted everything with spray cans from Repco. Had some el-cheapo tyres and a chain fitted, and it was back on the road. It still didn't run terribly well, but by chance I found something in a dirtbike mag about XR carbs, drilled the slider, rejetted it, and it was much happier.

All up it cost me $630 to get mobile, but I never quite got the jetting sorted so it was a bit cranky. Pulled beaut wheelies though!

Then one night it got stolen from the garage while I was at work, and taken on a joyride around a local subdivision. I found it the next morning, a wee bit trashed from being crashed in the dirt, and with a broken ignition. By chance, a girl who worked for me had a flatmate with some CB250RS parts lying around, and I got replacements for all the trashed parts for next to nothing.

I kept it for a while, then decided I needed summat a bit more tidy and with less "character", and bought a VF500. Some guy in Wanganui bought the XB500RS from the shop I bought the VF from, and I came out about even, once the commission was accounted for.

[tri boy]

Wow, it's a small world.
Snap, on owning a CB250RS.
Snap, on having Wanganui connections. (hmmm, wonder if my old RS ended up with a 500 in it?).
Often I wondered if the mighty RS would handle a XL/XR 500 conversion. My mate had a CB400N, and loved fly'n past me, giving me "The Bird".
Photo of both of us on the incline just out of National Park, circa early 80s.
By chance, was the RS blue?

[Bonez]

Wow, it's a small world.
Snap, on owning a CB250RS.
Snap, on having Wanganui connections. (hmmm, wonder if my old RS ended up with a 500 in it?).
Often I wondered if the mighty RS would handle a XL/XR 500 conversion. My mate had a CB400N, and loved fly'n past me, giving me "The Bird".
Photo of both of us on the incline just out of National Park, circa early 80s.
By chance, was the RS blue?

I've got a blue cb250rs in the garden shed keeping the C50 stepthough company.

[xwhatsit]

Not sure if my CB250RS counts. Paintwork is far too good to be a rat bike, and it doesn't burn any oil (just leak it from the gear shift shaft ). However it does fuck plugs up the arse like they're Zhang Ziyi and as a result I have to bump start it more often than not. Speedo unit is held on with duct-tape.

I'd love a CB500RS, but don't want to sacrifice my own CB250RS, I doubt they'd handle particularly well compared to the original which is a beautifully balanced little thing.

I bought a parts bike for peanuts, and ripped off nearly all the bits I needed, and then recently sold the rolling chassis to a racer who is putting an XL500 motor in it to race it in post-classics. Of course I'm a numbnuts who left the pillion pegs attached to the frame; so now that one of my pillion pegs has dropped off somewhere I don't have any spares . Going to see him tonight to get them back off him lol.

[tri boy]

Not sure if my CB250RS counts. Paintwork is far too good to be a rat bike, and it doesn't burn any oil (just leak it from the gear shift shaft ). However it does fuck plugs up the arse like they're Zhang Ziyi and as a result I have to bump start it more often than not. Speedo unit is held on with duct-tape.

I'd love a CB500RS, but don't want to sacrifice my own CB250RS, I doubt they'd handle particularly well compared to the original which is a beautifully balanced little thing.

I bought a parts bike for peanuts, and ripped off nearly all the bits I needed, and then recently sold the rolling chassis to a racer who is putting an XL500 motor in it to race it in post-classics. Of course I'm a numbnuts who left the pillion pegs attached to the frame; so now that one of my pillion pegs has dropped off somewhere I don't have any spares . Going to see him tonight to get them back off him lol.

Fucks plugs. Held together with duct tape?
Your table is waiting sir.

[xwhatsit]

Fucks plugs. Held together with duct tape?
Your table is waiting sir.

Shut up, prick
It's not a Suzuki so it doesn't count

[nudemetalz]

When I was younger, I had a Honda CB400/4. It had 85,000km's on it and was quite rough looking. The previous owner had put a CB450 muffler on as the original had rusted out.
Now, I did some really mean things to that poor old machine :---
Like.................
- Did a "Peace Symbol" up at the Sign of the Kiwi (back when I lived in ChCh obviously). The poor old machine sat on 10,000rpm while I got a friend of mine to help me turn her around in a circle. The clutch wouldn't work for some time 'til she cooled down.

- Then, I decided to find out how high she would rev in first gear (down Colombo St, I was a teenager you know). Got to an indicated 15,000rpm before she decided to valve bounce. However, she didn't die.

--Then, I decided to do a top speed run. I got her at about an indicated 160-165km/h when all of a sudden she started sounding really loud. I looked in the mirrors and I saw my muffler doing cartwheels behind me. OOPPS -So I stopped and bungyed the muffler back on and took her home.

Nowadays I'm conservative with my riding, but always think about that old dog, the 400/4 or when it rained the 300/3 or 200/2.

[xwhatsit]

When I was younger, I had a Honda CB400/4. It had 85,000km's on it and was quite rough looking. The previous owner had put a CB450 muffler on as the original had rusted out.
Now, I did some really mean things to that poor old machine :---
Like.................
- Did a "Peace Symbol" up at the Sign of the Kiwi (back when I lived in ChCh obviously). The poor old machine sat on 10,000rpm while I got a friend of mine to help me turn her around in a circle. The clutch wouldn't work for some time 'til she cooled down.

- Then, I decided to find out how high she would rev in first gear (down Colombo St, I was a teenager you know). Got to an indicated 15,000rpm before she decided to valve bounce. However, she didn't die.

--Then, I decided to do a top speed run. I got her at about an indicated 160-165km/h when all of a sudden she started sounding really loud. I looked in the mirrors and I saw my muffler doing cartwheels behind me. OOPPS -So I stopped and bungyed the muffler back on and took her home.

Nowadays I'm conservative with my riding, but always think about that old dog, the 400/4 or when it rained the 300/3 or 200/2.

Hahaha, that's brilliant. I think it's really good that the engine in my bike carked it early on in the piece. Taking apart an engine and putting it back together -- forking out money for the bits, too! -- really makes you think about the glorious mass of whirly-bits whizzing about inside, and you're loathe to do something that hurts 'em. I think having to do that rebuild makes me a hell of a lot nicer to the poor wee one-lunger.

Rat bikes are a good test of a bike's longevity and strength, however. Bikes like the CX500 seem to crop up all the time as rats, indicating that they indeed can stand an extraordinary amount of abuse.

400-500cc bikes seem to be a popular choice. Perhaps that size engine is large enough to be relatively unstressed in normal use, so they last longer; but bigger engines seemed to go into the bigger more sporty bikes that would die earlier from a crash, or because they were nicer bikes had more attention lavished on them.

[koba]

haha nice ones guys!

Later generation of rider here, hence the newer bike.

My one is an 88 gsxr 250, one of the 17,000 rev screamers, will do 20,000 tho!

Its known around the place a bit, especially having had so many (I forget howmany, but lots) previous owners. (icl Vasaline warrior)

Affectionatley she is dubbed "the black bitch"

Its got 2000 kays on the clock beacuse it got all the way round before the speedo cable snapped! that was a while ago now...

Runs like shit, but keeps running. had a blown head gasket for about 10,000 kays of me riding it, just got sick of topping up the cooland coz ya gotta take the tank off. Did the head gasket and couldn't believe it but the head was flat! after running semi-aircooled with a hard wired fan for about 3 months!

Tuff as fuck motor in the thing, just keeps on going thu all sorts of abuse (must admit to always being fastidious in changing oil tho)

Its painted an interesting mix of gloss and matt black, except the primerish spill effect where I painted half the tank in enamel which is, as I know now, petrol soluable!

Under the paint is black fairing, blue fairing, white fairing and probably more.

It was the first bike I ever really rode, but did it with no front brakes for ages because it belonged to a mate at the time and he didn't have the money to get a new lever. It spent most of the time with at least one control, or forks or whatever bodgied up.

Have ridden it home more than obnce as a 125 twin due to shit suzuki electrics.

I love it!

Otherwise its a mint example of a fine classic japanese motorcycle!

Currently for sale... any takers?