Motorcycles I have owned:

Back in the day I owned a Kawasaki 125cc dirt bike that I bought in pieces-I got it running and rode it a couple times. I learned quickly that even a slow speed crash hurts quite a bit. I also owned a Kawasaki 500cc triple street bike for a while. It went like stink but handled horribly-not the best combination for a novice street rider. I traded it for a car project after several months. I never took a picture of either of these bikes.

Yamaha SR250: In 2002 my oldest daughter started making noise about learning to ride a motorcycle. Our neighbors wife had just decided to quit riding so I bought her '82 Yamaha SR250. It's a small cruiser style bike and seemed like a good place for my daughter to start. She learned to ride quickly but she never took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation riders course so I never let her ride it on the street. After it sat in the garage a while I began to think it would make a decent "around town" scoot but it needed some work before I would put it on the road. I don't like the original "buckhorn" style cruiser bars it came with in fact I didn't like the whole cruiser theme, I thought it would look pretty cool done in "flat tracker" style. The buckhorn bars went on the shelf replaced by a basic bar. The front fender was removed, the turn signals replaced with smaller aftermarket units and the tail light was replaced with an old school chopper/bobber style light. All the unnecessary things like passenger foot pegs and passenger grab bar were removed. I found the suspension to be under sprung and under dampened for my big butt so I installed a 1.5" spacer on top of the fork springs and added heavier fork oil. For the rear I found some used Harley Sportster shocks, they were a little longer so it raised the rear a little too. I installed new tires and took it for a spin. It ran pretty well and was a fun bike. I put several hundred miles on it just for fun but it was just too small for me so I sold it to a lady that had just completed the MSF course. I gave her all the original parts too so she could put it back to stock if she wanted.

Stock:

Modified:

I always felt it needed a high pipe with reverse cone muffler and a solo seat, just never got around to doing that. I also should have chosen a smaller size rear tire but it helped the rpm at highway speed. With the price of gas these days I often wish I had kept it. I had about $800 into it total and it got 50+ mpg.

'82 Honda v45 Sabre: I found this bike in 2004 on Craigslist for $600. It had been layed down by a PO and in storage for 12 years or so. I rode it 60 miles home with fingernail polish on the tail light bulbs and too little air in the front fork but I made it ok. The v45 Sabre was a turning point in motorcycle development and set the mark for other makes to aspire to. It had innovations like a microprocessor controlled digital instrument panel, single air over coil spring rear shock with adjustable dampening, a race bike inspired frame, water cooling, shaft drive and anti dive front fork. The v4 engine made 82 hp from 750cc and had a redline of over 10,000rpm. It is long and very heavy at over 550lb but reviews of the day showed it to be much more nimble and quicker than expected. I really like the engine but hate the weight and chassis, to me it's truly a beast.

I did some routine maintenance and upgrades after I bought it and started riding it on weekends. Just as with the sr250 I found the suspension under sprung and under dampened so I installed Progressive fork springs and heavier fork oil, that helped the handling a lot. I messed with different pressures and settings on the rear shock but never got it where I thought it handled as well as it should.

I replaced the rectangular headlight with a 7" round unit mounted with a custom piece I fabricated. I removed the two horns on the front fork and installed a smaller horn off the side of the radiator. I rebuilt the front and rear brakes and installed smaller turn signals. I removed the plastic rear fender extension and fabed up an aluminum plate mount. I found the computer controlled digital dash to be very unreliable so I removed all that and rewired much of the bike to simplify it and make it more reliable.

After putting more miles on the bike I realized the rear shock linkage was binding so I tore it apart, cleaned it up and lubricated all the bushings. That made a large improvement in the way it rode and handled. The bad news is the day I did that job I took it on a short test ride and I ended up in a ditch and wrecked the bike. I was going only 45mph around a corner I was very familiar with and hit a pot hole repair patch. Normally that would not be a problem but this was on a road with several dairies on it and the large trucks had pounded the patched pavement into an 8" deep hole with the displaced pavement pushed to the far side so it was like hitting an 16" bump! I was launched into the air and landed on the shoulder in the gravel build up and knew I was pretty screwed. I went off the edge into the ditch, the front tire dug into the mud and the bike flipped end for end landing upright on it's wheels. I was tossed like a rag doll about 35 feet down the ditch and landed on my head and shoulders. I had plenty of time to contemplate the approaching impact. The good news is I had all my safety gear on and the ditch was full of mud. All I can say is that if you've got to land on your head in a ditch, make sure it's full of mud! It took a month for my neck and shoulders to quit aching but I am fully recovered with no ill effects what so ever. The bike has been pressure washed and pushed into the corner of the garage awaiting some time to inspect and repair it. I have purchased a replacement frame but lately I have been thinking about pulling the engine out and fabricating a custom frame for it in the new "super moto" or adventure bike style. When I get that far I will start a page on the project.

This is a pic I found of a v45 Sabre on the web, it is NOT my bike.

Here is mine when I got it home, faded, scuffed, lacking a tail light lens.

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