Motorcycles

I never had a drivers license in my life and was never even interested in cars. I Finally caved in and started learning how to drive only when I was 37. While I was practicing with an instructor I got myself a small 125cc scooter - it was allowed to drive one on learners license here - to get used to the city traffic and whatnot, also it was very cheap kind of transportation in all regards.

That’s when I fell in love with motorized 2 wheels; got my motorcycle license shortly after and got my first motorcycle. Exciting times that were; safe to say I’m still super hyped about them.

So without further ado I present to you my very first ‘steel horse’: it was a small Kymco DJ125S of modest 125cc.

This scooter opened my eyes and I had tons of fun just exploring the island, even went outside town to visit nearby villages and cities and it was very scary but very fun.

Sadly I sold it (and I learned later that it was stolen from the new owner! :-o ) because I though I will never want a scooter after getting my First Real Cool Bike.

So, a friend helped me to check and testdrive the 2014 Honda CBF600SA. Back then not only I didn’t have a clue what to look at when buying a motorcycle - I couldn’t even drive one! So the seller just brought it to my house, we parked it and I started getting actual motorcycle lessons :D

It had 41k km mileage but the overall condition was impeccable. I didn’t know at all back then what I want from the motorcycle, what type, how should it look and whatnot; if anything - most of them looked the same to me and the difference between ‘street’ and ‘sport’ was almost non-existent. In retrospective it was awesome first bike - powerful but controllable, heavy but balanced, and very comfortable to drive. I got very lucky finding that bike on a whim on local web marketplace.

So I drove several thousands kilometers on it and slowly started to understand how I drive and what I like to do - turns out I enjoy slow rides in general and enjoying the scenery takes the precedence. I also started to lean toward naked bikes - just liked how raw and minimalistic they look, but that wasn’t a fully formed opinion, just a hunch; it didn’t affect my judgement when I was choosing my next bike.

I’ll repeat myself but I regret selling that Honda a lot - it was a rare and good find; I’m happy though that it got into hands of an acquaintaince that takes very good care of it.

So, my next bike was an informed choice, and it was a pivot in a complete different direction: brand new Honda CRF300L Rally.

I have a lot to say about this motorcycle. It has some downside that don’t matter to me. It is a very popular bike so I won’t bore you with specs and all. I’ll just say that my CRF saw some stuff :D In two years I traveled almost 20 thousand kilometers all over the island; I got stuck in sand, I jumped over fallen trees, I logged hours on highway, I jumped on rocks and fell in any kind of terrain you can imagine =) The plastic fairings got more ziptie stitches than actual screws holding them, and the handlebar is quite bent, but I love how it looks and how it handles itself and how much stuff I was able to see thanks to the little fella. It even carried my sorry inexperienced ass through an actual enduro ride with guys on 90kg 2stroke beasts! (I failed miserably there but have no one else to blame but me and my non-existent skills :D )

People say the very first must-have mod on CRF300 is a replacement for excessively soft suspension; I guess I ride quite conservatively so I got no issue with that honestly. What I do find somewhat mandatory (at least for my style/routine) are:

• Hard protection for handlebars, like Acerbis
• Foldable mirrors (preferrably attached with separate clamps)
• Rear rack to hold any sort of a bag.
• Oil+filter change every 3000km (instead of 12000 as bundled manual says).

I do not use protective cage on this bike - I like it being relatively lightweight and I saw that whatever it is offered on the market protects mostly the plastic and not engine, which is quite pointless imho.

I usually put 70/30 tires in favor of offroad, so for time I want to drive somewhere with mostly pavements it is kind of wasteful; so ever since selling the CBF600 (and regretting it dearly) I ‘play around’ (no other word for that) with street bikes.

At some point I briefly had a 2009 Suzuki GSR600 - I really wanted a cool looking naked bike and one of the chaps from our tight local motorcycle community happened to sell one. Got it just for looks honestly, and its state was very decent, but after riding it for some time I got disappointed - the handling just didn’t “click” with me at all and it the overall dynamic was very… speedy. Sure it was “only” 600cc but it accelerated like crazy and most of the times I didn’t feel in control, completely different from equally powerful CBF600.

Also after a while I realized that I like not just any naked, but more of a ‘classic’ naked style, with round headlight and all. So this guy didn’t keep me enterntained for long, though I managed to beat it in shape some restoring some of the stock stuff it had missing; and I managed to sell it exactly for the price I got it, so our relationship ended up quick and without a trace :)

There is a visible trend of me going downward in terms of production years :D First 2014, then 2009; so it was expected that the next motorcycle I got was a 1999 Kawasaki ZR-7.

It turned out to be more of a ridable-project-bike than anything I had before; I very much like the classic-style look and it handles extremely well for such a heavy (240kg) bike. 750cc of air+oil cooled carbureted goodness, but the thing it was actually missing was its dignity as a proper street boy - one of the previous owners stripped all the rear fairings and a front fender and tons of other stuff like levers in attempt to make it look like a cafe racer; it felt to me like a wounded animal so I spent several months looking for 25+years old parts and slowly putting it all back together.

This is how it looked before:

And ~5 months later I think I managed to bring it to much more cool stock condition:

Sure it might not look like much but the subframe had to be reweld and sourcing the (quite large) parts all over the world was not an easy task for me.

Then again all this work turned out to be just a warm-up before the next project.

Short disclaimer: I watch anime past 20 or so years, and when I was just getting into this motorcycle culture I found couple of related anime titles to watch and ‘Bakuon!!’ was really memorable: it it quite absurd at times but the situations and motorcycles there are realistic and the bikes lineup was honestly awesome to me. Especially two motorcycles stood out to me: the 400cc Honda and Yamaha Serow.

Unfortunately they are rare find here so when I found a beaten up but affordable 1992 Honda CB400SF I just had to get it. Sure it is not the VTEC that Hane Sakura has, but the UJM style is there and that’s what I wanted.

Funny enough it was used in motorcycle school, much like the bike from anime; but it was the very first bike I’ve got that couldn’t even start. We had to put it on friend’s truck to bring it home, and after that it was just abysmal amount of time and effort put into it: the fuel tank had several holes it it, carbs were dirty and in dismay, when we managed to start it two cylinders didn’t work at all, the brakes were almost dead and the dashboard literally crumbled to parts inside. Mostly with the help of my experienced techie friend we’ve rebuilt all four carbs, the wheels with all the bearings, whole brake system, the dashboard and tons of other smaller stuff. Tank was fixed and painted over, and the brand new (yes they still make them) plastic fairings are sourced and painted in style as well.

I honestly didn’t expect so much work with it but more suprisingly how much fun I did have tinkering with it.

And it is super fun to ride! One would think that going down to 400cc from 750cc would feel underpowered and all, but the CB400 gives complete different vibes: instead of going 0-1024kmh in nanoseconds it revs to 10-11k RPM screaming like a racing bolide :) With a cutoff rpm at almost 15000 you start from traffic light like a rocket, shifting gear or two at redline but still not going over a speed limit :D And the overall handling is especially good since the bike it not that large nor heavy.

To be continued…