Time for my summertime Harley rant...

I've got:

1951 Matchless G9 Super Clubman

1980 Honda CX500 with a homebrew turbo setup

1983 Honda CX650 Eurosport.

The next bike will hopefully be something pre-WWII. HD, Indian or something German would be great.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Knew about the turboed honda. Would like to do something similar on one of my old 450s but too many other projects right now. I will definitely own a bike with a turbo at some point hopefully soon.

I would definitely suggest buying something old and slow as well.

My Matchless was the big bike in their lineup in 1951 with a whopping 25hp.

It's the most fun I've ever had at 40 mph.

It's not about how fast you go, it's about how you go fast.

It's also the loudest bike in my inventory. Not "missing baffle" loud but loud enough that when I leave for coffee at 8:00am on a Sunday, I don't let it idle very long in the driveway and I keep the revs low until I'm out on a main road.

Trans_Maro wrote: I'll just leave this here:

I thought I read somewhere that he now rides a Goldwing?

I like both.... Have fast and slow bikes. I still have the 89 Honda NX 125 I bought new in early 1990. I got my mc license on it at 14. It was slow, but a hell of a lot of fun. I barely broke 70mph downhill. I moved to 450s after that bike and would love to turbo my 82. It wasn't my dd for long due to an accident (now repaired) and only has 12k miles.

My loudest bikes are 2 stroke dirt bikes, but the loudest on the street is the speed triple with the optional full arrow titanium. It's really not that bad though.

I attended a 'motorcycle breakfast' which is more of a impromptu bike show yesterday. Literally hundreds of bikes of all types, but the majority were Hardleys.

As I sat on a curb and watched everyone roll in/out, I noted one peculiar thing about Harleys that was missing from all but the oldest of Asian brands: the Hogs all ran make-your-eyes-water rich. Stank of unburnt fuel, they did. Followed a herd of them when I left, and couldn't wait to ditch them. Good grief, can't anyone at a Harley dealership tune a bike?

In reply to ddavidv:

They're all EFI now, if they're rich it's because someone put a tuner on them that doesn't work.

The old, OLD bikes ran AMAL carburetors which are more like a pipe with a hole in the side than a real carburetor. Venturi? What's that?

The Amal from my Matchless sits on a shelf and looks nice. The good, Japanese Keihin carburetor that's on it now lets it start on the first kick, every time.

My buddy did the same with his '46 Indian Chief.

Shawn