What were you doing in the '70s? *PICS*

[Blackbird]

It is indeed a tiger hundred barrel but count the fins, it's been machined down! It's an ultra-short stroke 350, with a crank that I made at varsity. Started life as a breathed-on 3TA motor which kept losing its piston crowns at high revs so I brought the piston speed down with a short stroke crank. I won't bore you with everything I tried but got it reasonably competitive in the end, running in the high 11's running on nitro. Because the short stroke killed a bit of torque, it was better at longer distances and I did a 30 second s/s mile on it with a terminal speed of 149 mph. It was pretty scary at those speeds as you correctly pointed out, the front end was fairly light construction and flexed a bit!

Fuel consumption was around 2mpg on 20% nitro. The Wal Phillips "injector" (remember them?) feeding the Shorrock C750 supercharger had a 3/16" main jet in it!

My road bike was a pre-unit T100 and the crash bars were essential for winter riding. God knows how often I arsed off it! It later had "ace" drop bars and I had a wonderful 2 weeks on it in '69 at the Isle of Man.

Mike - I preferred the 60's too, far less complicated. The main embarassment though was thinking and talking infinitely more about sex than actually getting it

Notalgia ain't what it used to be!

[RiderInBlack]

Primary-Inter-High School (Fuck Boarding) years. Sixth From was my reb year. I went Punk (Sex Pistols, Cash, PIL, The Members etc.). Had a mohawk (I'd have to staple 1 to my head now, as I surely cann't grow 1 any more) and a safey pin in me ear (shit I'm glad there is no photos of me that year). Didn't get my first "cage" until 1980. The all-powerful Bambi 500. I taught it to roll up hill and to jump fences. Dragged-off a Ford Mustang at the lights with it (pays to know the light sequence ), shit he was gutted. Raced a MKII escort back from the beach. When we stopped in town he asked me if I had a V8 in it, "Na, just the stand 500, mate"

[digsaw]

geeesh,mid 50s,short pants,hell too long to remember but it was fun,late 50s early 60s were fab and the dream is still there.I.O.M 2007 and it will be complete

[Motu]

Blackbird - I see it now.When I was running a 73 Daytona in my Rickman a mate picked up a Tiger 90 for a hack,we played around using my spare T100C parts in it,we got the damn thing flying,you wouldn't know it was only a 350.I went the other way and decided to do an ISDE motor,using low comp pistons and 3TA cams and a small carb...that lasted 2 weeks and I wanted my chainsaw motor back!

I had a Wal Phillips injector too,well,two! I only used them a couple of times - with no instructions I had no idea how to set them up and ended up flooding a lot.

[soundbeltfarm]

i was just a glimmer in the ol mans eye but come 77 i was born.
when mum came home from the home ( they stayed for a week in those days).
dad dropped mum, me 7 days old and my 2 sisters off at at home then he got changed and took off for 2 days on his bike with his mates.
mum always has him on about it. even too this day.

[soundbeltfarm]

i was just a glimmer in the ol mans eye but come 77 i was born.
when mum came home from the home ( they stayed for a week in those days).
dad dropped mum, me 7 days old and my 2 sisters off at at home then he got changed and took off for 2 days on his bike with his mates.
mum always has him on about it. even too this day.

[toads]

The only pic' I have of me from the seventys has me standing in front of my first car,an LIP Vauxhall,I'm wearing bellbottems an a purple shirt(something about Jimmy Hendricks I think).
Anyway you's ain't seeing it.

awwww, gww ornnn, I promise not to shriek with irrepressible laughter!, btw It's Jimmi Hendrix aka The Jimmi Hendrix !

[Motu]

Not only was it the bikes,hair and clothes - but the places we lived - the pads!

I gotta confess right here that I didn't leave home until I was in my 20s,my mother was laid back compared to those of my mates,we got on fine,so I stayed with Mummy until the end of the 70s.I remember coming home in the holidays over summer and finding her painting the house - it was only me and her at home,my brother had left for overseas some years earlier.Helping her was a friend from her work,and his little girl was there too,he was the same age as me - where've you been lately? she asked...''I've been in Taranaki for the last couple of weeks and am just heading north,I thought I'd just drop in to pick a few things up''....and I was gone 10 mins later - thick as 2 planks and skin like an elephant!!!

In those days inner Auckland (same in other cities) - Ponsomby,Grey Lynn,Parnell,Mt Eden was full of old villas used as flats,some cut up into 2 or 3,some just a house rented by what seemed dozens - they were thrashed more than the bikes we rode...I've seen under floor framing cut out and used for firewood,bikes in the house,lot's of bikes in the house,they were communal,everything was everyones - that's the main reason I didn't officialy go flatting,all I had was my bike stuff,no way was I going to share my ill gotten gains! In one old Ponsomby villa a mate moved into the outside laundry house,it had been made into a dark room,so he nailed a door to the wall and slept on that,we worked all night on bikes next to the tubs.As to what really went on in those houses? no way,my lips are sealed.

One old house in Taranaki we lived in had no plumbing,a 4 gallon tin was under the sink which we tossed over the bank when full...the milking stalls were converted into a bike workshop with a nice concrete yard outside.We found an old bath tub and filled it from the hot water cyl,which still worked...and had baths outside,sometimes.Then it was put in the seperator room and glassed in - classy eh.I finaly left Mummy's and moved into my girlfriends place,just a bach in the bush,you could touch the kauri trees outside the windows - the longdrop was outside the bedroom door,and there were glow worms in the bank by the bedroom window.The bathroom was on the front porch,and we filled the bath from an electric copper which we turned on 3 hrs before we had a bath - once run,no more hot.Before getting in the bath we had to go in and kill at least a doz cockroaches basking on the ceiling.$10 a week to live in squaller,it was fun,an adventure.

I think I've lived in more houses than I've had bikes - I don't even want to think about counting them,they were horrible - the bikes were the best part.

[Holy Roller]

Didn't get my first "cage" until 1980. The all-powerful Bambi 500. I taught it to roll up hill and to jump fences. Dragged-off a Ford Mustang at the lights with it (pays to know the light sequence ), shit he was gutted. Raced a MKII escort back from the beach. When we stopped in town he asked me if I had a V8 in it, "Na, just the stand 500, mate"

Sounds very much like my mate at Whangarei Boys High, The things we did in his Bambina, ever tried sleeping in the back seat of one of those things. All 6ft plus of me managed it. The weelkly routine was to get the axles welded up so we could rally it during the weekend.
My fist cage was a Hillman Imp purchased from a step sister in 81. First bike was in the same year a brand spanker GSX250EZ added a screen awesome bike.
An aquatance that was a friend of my mate had a CB900 loose as a goose now in OZ with a Blackbird I believe.

[What?]

...btw It's Jimmi Hendrix aka The Jimmi Hendrix !

If we are going to be pedantic (as I am!!), James (Jimmy) Marshall Hendricks was re-named Jimi (with one "m") Hendrix by his manager.

[Kwaka-Kid]

Whoa! haha some wicked pics have come of this! And yeah the pic on the CB250 is obviously 80's -my bad there, just showin the whole chopped off hair all of a sudden.

and Scumdog - you win mate! spot on, if ever i say it was a ford mistral everybody says what? i thought those 4 wheel drives only came out in the last 10 years?.. so its much easier labeling it the cobra rep. and yes it had a high rating in the NZ hotrod mag with the 350 chev in it, apparently it was quite a wheelie car too, thought i have only heard those extended stories. Do you like the hardtop on it too? home-fibreglassed and apparently still have the whole shell moulds somewhere at some mates place down the line, car was sold before i was even thought of i believe, anyways once again very well spotted.

[avgas]

Started life as a breathed-on 3TA motor which kept losing its piston crowns at high revs so I brought the piston speed down with a short stroke crank.
Notalgia ain't what it used to be!

hehe, i was too young to see one of these new, but the old man has a 3TA (complete with bathtub ) sitting in his shed in parts.
It was the $200 bitza box he sold in the 80's to pay a bill, it moved round Waihi Beach through god knows how many people, then ended back in his possesion for.......$200.
Right now it sits there retired with almost the worlds population of XS850s (also in parts)
In the 70's were the Z900's, cb900's and the RD's the bikes to own?

[toads]

If we are going to be pedantic (as I am!!), James (Jimmy) Marshall Hendricks was re-named Jimi (with one "m") Hendrix by his manager.

not pedantic, just love his music!

[Blackbird]

Unfortunately, I could only drool over stuff like Z900's. Got married in '72, spent the next few years building a career, getting married and raising 3 kids with no money for bikes

Started again in 1987 by seeing a dark blue Honda GB 400 in a showroom in Barry's Pt Rd and impulse bought it! My wife was so angry that she bought a piano at twice the price of the GB400!

Geoff

[Hitcher]

not pedantic, just love his music!

He only did a couple of albums and a gig at Woodstock, didn't he?