Previous Rides

[Eveready1100]

Had a bit more of a dig through the boxes.


^ Suzuki GS1000-  Nice comfy bike but had a really bad clutch rattle.


^Honda XR500- A real weapon in the dirt. A bit too quick really. Had a few good stacks on this one


^ Honda XL250R- I fell off this more than the 500, Had some weird handling quirks


^ Yamaha GTMX80  Great little number,this. Copped a real flogging and just kept going and going


Ah! The Grassgrub. Real story to this fella. I bought it off my neighbor, who had it from new. I rode it round till I stepped up to my Rockhopper and I sold it to one of my mates. He kept it till he himself had kids and they grew up with it, then I, by chance met him at a beach with my boys in tow, resulted in me buying my beloved Grassgrub back off him and my two grew up riding it.
Note -  I fitted it with pillion pegs so the little bloke could hang on a bit safer. Trying to get them to wear helmets was another story altogether.

[petejw1966]

how good is it 2 c those old bikes,
some nice pics there eveready.

i wish i had taken a pic of my 1st
xs a '78 250.

[Garym]

EverR......  Some great goldie oldies there........   I had the gt550 around the same time.... Loved it.. Sat on one a few months back, do they shrink in the rain ??     Or have I just got bigger    Loved the smell first thing when you start them up ad that familiar ping in the pipes..... 

[Eveready1100]

Here's a couple of snaps I found in my recent archive shoebox going back chronologically.


^ XS11 Special loaded up somewhere near Longreach


^ GPZ750 at Somerset Dam. Motor was shagged but would still pull 230kph


^ GPZ750 #2  Smoko break at Maleny


^ XS750 2D Replaced stolen XS11. Really nice exhaust note


^ My original XS. Went like a train. Hope the bastard who nicked it hurt himself on it.


^ Kawasaki Z650. Had a 720 kit in it. Good all round bike.


^ CX500 Shadow. Sweet handling, high revving motor. Hanco 2-1 pipe. Sounded like shit. Switched to stock system later. Much better!


^ Suzuki GT380. Bought for $150 with 11 months rego on it. Plus spare engine, saddlebags +2 helmets. Mobile smoke screen.


^ 1972  Kawasaki H2 750 triple. H2R spec motor. 38mm carbs, 11.02 1/4 mile at Surfers. Duke SS fairing.  If you think an XS is thirsty, try 16 mpg in cruising mode!


^  1974 Kawasaki H2 750 triple. Chambers, mild port job and 34mm carbs. Very toey motor. Rearsets, clipons & rickman 3/4 fairing.

The young fella (not me) in the photos is my eldest son, Phil, who currently rides a ZX10. You think I may have influenced him somewhat?
Shall keep searching my archives (photo filled shoeboxes) when more time becomes available.

[steptoe]

well I've got to say Pete,,my second GSX was a power house to behold,,
had to cut 1 inch out of my part the seat,, it would pull out from under you like in the cartoons,

if were going to start talking about top speed,, we need a whole new thread,,, no section,, no web site 

i forgot to mention it was my first out fit,, ,,with a cruising speed , of over 160,, loaded 

also tore a side plate of the chain in half on take off once, never took of that hard again

here's an old photo of some cicrle work with the GS650,, and a very young me

[attachment deleted by admin]

[petejw1966]

how cool is it to see the pics,
any1 else got more pics to put up.

melb, ive never seen anything like that before.   lol

great pic ken.

[FJR Ken]

Don't laugh,
A pic of my XS 30+ years ago.



Brother, Me and Dad.
When I had hair.

[melbxs]

GT380 was a wreck of a thing and smoked like crazy.

I knew nothing about bikes back then so there was no hope of me adjusting anything to fix it.

Excrutiatingly noisy too.

The X7 was a much nicer bike. It had a cracking powerband and it was as light as a feather. I'd buy one of those again if one came up (and if I had any money  ).

Forgot that I alos owned a shed exhibit - (never ran, but looked the part) - a Velocette LE.

[petejw1966]

hey eveready,
yeah it was, ever since i can remember i always
wanted a motor bike, back in the day when i had my mini bike
i had another mate riding an old honda 50 postie bike, and another
mate had the new yz80b i think it was,
i found a cpl of pics of my first bike





lol it was a cool bike for a 10 yr old kid.   

hey geoff,
the fastest ive ever been on a bike was my mates '86 gsx1100
that was a fast bike in its day.

[Eveready1100]

Hey, Steps. You make sure you hang on to her really tight. My first XS got stolen on my 25th birthday and is not an experience I would wish upon anyone.

Pete, it read as being a bit of a trip down nostalgia lane for you. Sounds like your little chopper thing may have been a Deltek or Deckson minibike. Both of mine had Victa motors but the first one had front springs , then I really got spoilt with the Rockhopper with the sprung seat as well!

Hey melb, what do you recall about your GT380. Mine seemed pretty quick for a smallish capacity bike, but used to smoke dreadfully when I got up it.

[steptoe]

my history started in '83,,,
with a XLX 250, till 85
     then 2 x GS650's that carried me for many yrs,,
     GSX1100 EF was the first "large" bike
2nd GSX1100 lasted 4-5 yrs, couldn't afford to rebuild bottom end,
'93 bought the XS

                                  and have hung on to it really tight     

[petejw1966]

hey eveready, thats one hell of a list,

i started off with a mini bike at 10,
it was set up as a chopper, had really long front forks
with no suspension, had a lawnmower engine that u had to tie
sum cord around it to start it, on a rainy day when i wasnt allowed to ride it,
i took it for a ride around the back yard and the bike fell on top of my foot,
the thing that u wrapped the cord around wasnt covered and ripped into my foot,
had 2 months off school from that.

nxt was a dt175 i bought when i was around 12,
my first rd registered bike was a 78 xs250 in 82'
i swapped that for a xt250 trail, i thought i stuffed the xs up,
but only over filled it with oil.
then got a honda cbx750, kept for a cpl of years, but that had 2nd gear problems.
was able to ride a trail bike honda xr400 for work,
then bought the xs1100 5 years ago, it was the cheapest bike in the trading post
on the day and after having the 250 i couldnt let it go.
wow that was a story and a half..

[melbxs]

Tiny list for me cos family, immigration and work took me off 2 wheels for a long time.


Yamaha YB100
Suzuki Gs550E
Suzuki GT250 X7
Suzuki GT380
Honda CB750 (never ran really)

XS1100RH

[Eveready1100]

This is why I reckon it'd take up a lot of room. Brought back a lot of memories compiling the list.
Just gotta get a photo scanner to get my old snaps digitalised.

In the Beginning

Deltek Grassgrub
Deltek Rockhopper
Honda XR75/RD125 twin Hybrid ‘71
Kawasaki KS125 ‘74
Yamaha AT1 MX 125 '72
Suzuki RV125 ‘77
Bultaco Sherpa T 325 ‘74
Bultaco Sherpa T / Suzuki TS 400 hybrid ‘71
Bultaco Alpina 325 ‘74
Suzuki TM125 ‘74
Ossa 250 Desert Phantom ‘77
Yamaha YZ400D ‘77
Yamaha XS650 C Chopper ‘76
Kawasaki H2 750 Triple (HOTTER) ‘72
Kawasaki H2 750 Triple (HOT) ‘74
Kawasaki KH500 Stock ‘71
Yamaha IT 465 ‘81
Yamaha RZ500 ‘85   
Kawasaki AGI 100
Yamaha DT360 ‘72
Suzuki GT380 ‘72
Honda CX500 ‘80
Kawasaki Z650 ‘77
Yamaha XS1100E ‘78
Yamaha XS750 2D ‘77
Honda XL250R ‘85
Honda XR500R ‘83
Suzuki GS1000E ‘80
Kawasaki GPZ750 ZX ’83 (Black)
Kawasaki GPZ750 ZX ’83 (Red)

CURRENT

Yamaha XS1100SF Special ‘79
Yamaha XS1100E ‘78

I seem to be stuck in a time warp

[Eveready1100]

I've noticed a bit of a trend lately on the Yank site where guys are putting bikes they've previously owned in their signature. At first, i thought it was a bit of a misnomer, or just Yank oneupmanship, but it got me thinking that it might be a good thing (maybe) to have a thread listing what bikes everone's previously owned, for anyone who owns bikes, other than our mighty XS11's to maybe cross reference if they are having hassles with "the other bike".
  Besides, we all know where our interests lie now, but how did we end up where we are today?
     I wouldn't like to see it in the signatures though as thay would be repeated everytime you made a post and that could chew up the sites bandwidth pretty quickly.
    It's just an idea. Whattaya reckon?

PS. I was looking through some old bike photos and saw a snap of my old H2 Kwaka. I remember getting a Lester mag wheel for the rear but a front was unobtainable at the time.Looked everywhere (no Internet back then) but never did get that wheel.  It's funny that nowadays, a lot of people would give anything to ditch the alloy wheels on our XS's to put on a set of wire wheels.