Motorcyclists: best/worst bike you've owned & best or worst bike trip...? (Harley, ride)

[mateo45]

A couple best/worst questions for motorcycle folks:
- What's the best (or the worst) bike you've ever owned, and why?
- What's your favorite (or worst) bike trip you've ever taken, and why?

Or maybe they go together, and some bikes are why a certain trip also became your "least favorite"!

[Ming_on_Mongo]

Originally Posted by mateo45

A couple best/worst questions for motorcycle folks:
- What's the best (or the worst) bike you've ever owned, and why?
- What's your favorite (or worst) bike trip you've ever taken, and why?

Or maybe they go together, and some bikes are why a certain trip also became your "least favorite"!

Not sure about "best" bike, but most fun trip was on an old 50's era Triumph Tiger, rented in Singapore while in the Navy and visiting on leave.

Of course the thing was always vibrating itself to death, and the return on the last day was all in 2nd gear, because the shifter just fell off somewhere, and was never seen again! But traveled with a buddy, also on a rented bike, an old Harley Panhead, and we both had a really great time otherwise!

[albion]

The Triumph Bonneville the best bike I ever rode. I wish I still had It.

[sunsprit]

Absolutely the worst: an "Indian" Fire Arrow 250, a re-badged and slightly modified Royal Enfield 250, of about 1952 vintage. Only 11 horsepower, poor lower end torque, vague shifting, almost non-existent brakes, and almost 300 lbs all up. Lights were miniscule, handling was not part of it's vocabulary, and it suffered from way too much metal of poor quality throughout the entire build process ... lots of weight, but no strength. The massive frame would even flex while driving in a straight line down a city street at 40 mph. It delivered about 40 mpg, so it wasn't even economical to operate (and a quart of oil consumption about every 200 miles). I bought it in 1965 for $125, and it wasn't worth it ... even a Honda Trail 90 would blow it's doors off and had better everything going for it ... except for that "english" mystique with all the screws and fasteners and whatsits that made for an intriguing and mystical visual experience.

Best overall: Moto Guzzi "loop frame" tourers, starting in 1969 and into the mid-1970's. Comfortable, reliable, durable, good handling, adequate to excellent brakes through the series, smooth motors, easy starting in all weather conditions, good clutches, excellent to superb transmissions, large fuel tanks/range, mid 50's mpg even when cruising at 80-85 mpg ... and with just enough "sportiness" to be able to keep up with a lot of sport bikes of their era in the twisties .... all at a very low price point compared to the competitors. I've seen a lot of these bikes go well into 6 figures on the odometers without using anything more than consumables (brakes, tires, oil & gas) and a throttle cable or two. My first one, a 1969 750 ambassador, went over 100,000 miles in my ownership and then another 80,000 in the hands of a hard-riding ex-BMW fanatic ... before needing a motor overhaul and general refurbishing. The bike never skipped a beat during that entire time, and needed only a few sets of sparkplugs, points, rotor, and distributor cap and plug wires, and a couple of batteries to keep going for almost 30 years.

Of course, anybody's 600cc sport bike will smoke this type of tourer off the road today ... but that's not what these MG's were about. Can't say how many times folks would tour with me on bikes like Kawa Ninja's for a day and wish they were riding my MG for the ride home ... especially their passengers. Almost silent, vibrationless, and very smooth relaxed riding compared to the tense ride of the Kawasaki with only a few minutes longer ride over a day's riding.

2nd Best series: Ducati 750/850 twins ... the milder versions of the 1970's, not the top high end performance models. Very smooth, easy starting with super handling characteristics, and excellent reliability. Unfortunately, the bottom ends weren't up to the high performance demands of the average road racer wanna' be ... so these motors got trashed prematurely by most who owned them. But, driven as intended, they'd deliver 100,000 miles ++ at 55-58 mpg before needing an overhaul. Handling, comfort, super brakes, wonderful power curves matched to an excellent transmission made for a sporting but road cruiser comfortable ride.

Best bike trips: 1970's-80's week to two week carefree camping trips, where I covered the USA West coast, state or nat'l parks ... leisurely setting out each day without a specific destination, just wanted to ride and look around, stopping when something of interest was there, or camping at some remote sites away from the crowds. Or stopping in and visiting friends along the way.

Worst bike trips: a very short, 4 mile commute into classes in Boulder where a Northbound left turning idiot at 12th/Broadway flattened my Indian Fire Arrow while I happened to be riding it Soutbound on B'way. A smart-a$$ law student (about to graduate with his JD), he left the scene of the accident to pull into his driveway a half block away and didn't have the common courtesy to see how badly he'd injured me as he left my laying in the middle of the intersection. He did, however, have an accident report form for his insurance company that he was filling out for the damage claim to his car that he was filling out when I got up to him at his car. Yes, I'm still pretty angry about this fellow after 40 years ... who smart-a$$ed the police about how he was going to get off from the "failure to yield right of way" ticket because he "knew the law" better than the rest of us and was going to take the case to court, even though he'd left the scene of an injury accident and failed to even call for help. Fortunately for me, the cops noted his beligerence and his comments about the law, and I was able to forward that to the state bar association where he was planning on getting his law license to join his dad's law firm. At least for some number of years after that, he was denied his application to take the bar exam, and his dad was rather disappointed. He did, however, get to pay me for my totaled bike. Other than that, I've never been down on a bike except a couple of times at very low speed on an icy slick surface without any damage to me or my bikes ....

I've ridden a whole bunch of newer tourers ... Gold Wings, Yam/Kaw/Suz big twins or multi-cylinder bikes ... and, for all the modern build quality and design, they just don't have the "magic" for me. They all seem to do very well for the owners, but I don't need 100HP (or more) and the handling/riding characteristics aren't what I want in a bike. For me, there was a lot more "fun" factor even when I was riding a 60's 30HP BMW R-60. The new tourer bikes seem like appliances to ride and operate compared to the older designs ... and the increased speed ability is wasted on the 75 mph highways or our lower speed limit back roads. I don't need ... and never have ... to "cruise" or commute at 100mph plus for any amount of time, although I have pushed a Ducati 70 desmo to 150 (indicated) on the highway a couple of times (and got that out of my system).

[Roaddog]

Originally Posted by mateo45

A couple best/worst questions for motorcycle folks:
- What's the best (or the worst) bike you've ever owned, and why?
- What's your favorite (or worst) bike trip you've ever taken, and why?

Or maybe they go together, and some bikes are why a certain trip also became your "least favorite"!

Never really had a bad bike, i did own a 64 Norton 400 electra and I had to tweak the carbs pretty often, eah bike always had it's own personality.
I would say my best is my 02 Bandit 1200s, after a few suspension mods it's been real good to me.

My best trip was up hwy 49 (gold country) nice roads and many things to see and do.
My worst was while on a trop through the mountians I explored a rest stop that wound down a narrow road to a river, I came around a corner just in time to get hit by 2 drunks backing up the wrong way, they drove off and left me there with a leg broken in 4 places and no cell phone reception, I sat there for well over an hour before someone happened along and summoned help. that was definatly the worst.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Best overall: Moto Guzzi "loop frame" tourers, starting in 1969 and into the mid-1970's....
2nd Best series: Ducati 750/850 twins ...
Best bike trips: 1970's-80's week to two week carefree camping trips, where I covered the USA West coast, state or nat'l parks ... leisurely setting out each day without a specific destination, just wanted to ride and look around, stopping when something of interest was there, or camping at some remote sites away from the crowds. Or stopping in and visiting friends along the way...
Worst bike trips: a very short, 4 mile commute into classes in Boulder where a Northbound left turning idiot at 12th/Broadway flattened my Indian Fire Arrow while I happened to be riding it Soutbound on B'way. A smart-a$$ law student (about to graduate with his JD), he left the scene of the accident to pull into his driveway a half block away and didn't have the common courtesy to see how badly he'd injured me as he left my laying in the middle of the intersection....
I've ridden a whole bunch of newer tourers ... Gold Wings, Yam/Kaw/Suz big twins or multi-cylinder bikes ... and, for all the modern build quality and design, they just don't have the "magic" for me.

Originally Posted by Roaddog

My best trip was up hwy 49 (gold country) nice roads and many things to see and do.
My worst was while on a trop through the mountians I explored a rest stop that wound down a narrow road to a river, I came around a corner just in time to get hit by 2 drunks backing up the wrong way, they drove off and left me there with a leg broken in 4 places and no cell phone reception, I sat there for well over an hour before someone happened along and summoned help. that was definatly the worst.

Yes, also fond of the early 'Guzzis, especially seventies models, like the classic-looking 850 El Dorado. Always lusted after a Ducati, but have no idea as far as reliability and maintenance, and mostly been spoiled by Beemers in that regard. Triumphs and Nortons are also very cool, except same issue, I'm not enough of a "wrench" to maintain 'em! But I hear 'ya re: the lack of "magic" in the new bikes, despite all the technology and "bells & whistles".

Best trip was also a cross-country one, along with a couple friends, one on a Norton Commando and the other on an AMF era Harley Electraglide (in blue!). I recall one incident on an open stretch somewhere in the midwest, where the 3 of us were riding staggered in the fast lane, when a fellow in a pick-emup quickly passed us on the right holding a can of beer out, looking kinda like he might drop it in front of the lead bike. But nope, he just handed the beer over to the first guy, then dropped back and gave another one to the next, and one to the last. And then just waved & drove off!

Although I haven't broken a bunch of bones like y'all, worst trip was also due to an accident, a freak high-speed wobble crash at around 65mph on a road in Baja, as a friend and I were headed back north to the border. Happened on a 1971 600/5 BMW(!), that I later read had experienced similar accidents, due to the very short wheelbase, especially when loaded with alot of gear in the back. Not surprisingly, BMW quietly came out with some modifications to that model in Mid-year of 1973, including a 2" extension to the swing arm!

Was lucky that I mostly rolled when the bike went down and I didn't break anything, but was just sore as hell for a month or so. We left the banged up bike by the side of the road in Mexico, and a couple days later we drove back down with a pickup, and amazingly, the bike was still just sitting there!

[driftwoodpoint]

I just have a little 250 Honda Helix. I belong to a group in Richmond, It's called SOS~ Seniors on Scooters. Cute group. It is 25 elderly men and me They are very sweet and we have a great time. I'm almost 60 so I'm not a spring chichen..LOL. They are polite and sweet and we meet for breakfast and take off every Thursday and ride somewhere.
I feel like a caretaker sometimes. They leave their signals on for miles sometimes and there are several I know not to ride behind.
Earlier in summer we went down to the Ohio River. We usually take some breaks on our rides. We pulled into a parking lot and one of the guys I guess just put his leg down too early and down he went. Several jumped off and helped him up. Later in the day we stopped at a park that you drove through a covered bridge to get to the park. I took off leading and I noticed half the group was not behind me. We had eleven riding that day. I pulled over to wait for them since the exit was on a curve and maybe they had to wait for traffic. But I found out that one of the guys had gone down in the covered bridge!!!
At lunch one of the guys leaned over to me and said, you realize that with eleven of us riding and two went down...20% of our group fell today. I laughed so hard ice tea was coming out my nose
I have enjoyed this group but I ride by myself most of the time.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by driftwoodpoint

I just have a little 250 Honda Helix. I belong to a group in Richmond, It's called SOS~ Seniors on Scooters. Cute group. It is 25 elderly men and me They are very sweet and we have a great time. I'm almost 60 so I'm not a spring chichen..LOL. They are polite and sweet and we meet for breakfast and take off every Thursday and ride somewhere.
I feel like a caretaker sometimes. They leave their signals on for miles sometimes and there are several I know not to ride behind.
Earlier in summer we went down to the Ohio River. We usually take some breaks on our rides. We pulled into a parking lot and one of the guys I guess just put his leg down too early and down he went. Several jumped off and helped him up. Later in the day we stopped at a park that you drove through a covered bridge to get to the park. I took off leading and I noticed half the group was not behind me. We had eleven riding that day. I pulled over to wait for them since the exit was on a curve and maybe they had to wait for traffic. But I found out that one of the guys had gone down in the covered bridge!!!
At lunch one of the guys leaned over to me and said, you realize that with eleven of us riding and two went down...20% of our group fell today. I laughed so hard ice tea was coming out my nose
I have enjoyed this group but I ride by myself most of the time.

LMAO.... the "Wild Ones on Scooters"! And did you ever imagine you'd become an obviously cool "Scooter Chick" in later life? So now y'all need to wear your "colors" (or at least a club t-shirt)!
Actually it sounds like a lot of fun, and I hear 'ya re: "leaving turn signals on for miles". I go riding with several different local groups in NorCal, and believe me, that problem's not just confined to the elderly or scooters....

[driftwoodpoint]

LOL, yeah we don't look like a real questionable group No one steps off the sidewalk when they see us. When we are all sitting outside somewhere having ice cream people walk by and smile. I guess I love to see the older gentlemen still with that adventuresome spirit.
This is my third summer with them, and yes, it's fun to be the young chick...LOL They were so careful what they said around me the first two summers. This summer the gloves came off and I am one of the guys.

[JFRRACING]

Originally Posted by mateo45

A couple best/worst questions for motorcycle folks:
- What's the best (or the worst) bike you've ever owned, and why?
- What's your favorite (or worst) bike trip you've ever taken, and why?

Or maybe they go together, and some bikes are why a certain trip also became your "least favorite"!

this is the best bike i have ever owned and we have enjoyed every trip we have been on. here's a picture of my bike.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/JFRRACING/003-5.jpg (broken link)