Don't want to start an argument,BUT

[Blakamin]

This 'road' enough for ya?

I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under

ahh, some people spent time making that.... only in america

[Sensei]

So many to choose. XT500H . RG500. PE400 .CBR1000R. etc SENSEI

[TwoSeven]

Maybe we should choose a short list for each decade going back to the 20s.

[NordieBoy]

I think vintage is anything over 25 years old (bikes that is).

Well I wouldn't exactly call my 1979 XR250Z a "vintage".

A beast - yes.

[scumdog]

An XN85, any other iron-head sporty - and of course a Sporty 'S'!!!! :cool2:

[F5 Dave]

XN85! Oh please!! How was this lemon a classic? It was just a spruced up GS650, overweight, underpowered & unreliable. Heck even the CX turbo was a better bike, the Kawasaki the pick of the turbos, but for a real classic of the era & same genre you’d be better off saying Wire Wheel Katana.

You didn't mean XR750 perchance?

[scumdog]

XN85! Oh please!! How was this lemon a classic? It was just a spruced up GS650, overweight, underpowered & unreliable. Heck even the CX turbo was a better bike, the Kawasaki the pick of the turbos, but for a real classic of the era & same genre you’d be better off saying Wire Wheel Katana.

You didn't mean XR750 perchance?

Nice fuckin' troll F5 , read any bike magazine test of the turbo bikes of the early '80s and you'll see that most of them give the XN a big thumbs-up, maybe not as grunty as the bigger cc bikes but best balanced and best handling out of the four brands made in the land of the rising sun.

And while I haven't ridden any of the others how many have you ridden?

[F5 Dave]

Only the Kat (not wire wheeled I admit). It handled great as long as there were no bumps. No corners helped too.

Yeah I remember the tests of some of the bikes, but the post mortem tests were a lot more derogatory after the turbo era disappeared as quickly as it arose.

[Motu]

My brother has an XN85 in Canada,over there a bike,or car I suppose is given classic statis and cheap rego if only a certain number were sold - I think less than 25 XN85s were sold over there so he gets cheap rego for it.Definatly the rarest of the turbos,I've seen all the others,but never an XN85.Oh,so it was a parts bin special - and the others weren't?

XR750? - that's more than classic,it's legend.

[F5 Dave]

There was an 85 hanging around in Wellington not too long ago, I saw it in 2 different places so presumably it could move under it’s own steam.

The wildest Turbo was the Kawi 1000TC which was a K USA creation.

Lets hope Speedpro doesn’t find this thread, he has a particularly evil thou turbo in a Macintosh. Don’t know if you could call it a classic but I wanna hit him up for a ride one day. In reality I’d be probably bottle given the chance.

[rodgerd]

*cough*Nifty fifty*cough*

No sillier than people who venerate Fiat Bambinas or Riley Elfs.

And I'd add votes for the likes of the RG500 and V-Max (although I guess it's harder for the latter to be regarded as a classic since it's still in production unchanged since introduction).

[scumdog]

Only the Kat (not wire wheeled I admit). It handled great as long as there were no bumps. No corners helped too.

Yeah I remember the tests of some of the bikes, but the post mortem tests were a lot more derogatory after the turbo era disappeared as quickly as it arose.

My point is: the XN85 was the ultimate in all-round performance/handling etc compared with the other factory turbo bikes, sure it ain't so good compared with modern similar sized bikes but what '83 bike is? and what other '83 scoot has held its value so well?

p.s. first road Suzuki with monoshock suspension AND anti-dive forks.