I still have the first bike I bought when I was 16. '73 RD250. It was delivered in late '72 but is a '73 model. TLS front drum as it is the first of the RDs. The 350 started with a disk, the 250 didn't get one until mid '73 with the 'A'. This has been in my family since new.
At HBBB in 2013.
When I was 21, I bought an XS1100. Still got that too. And it's not long had another re-spray, back to original colours, well as near as.
.In '97, I bought my first new bike. In 2000, my mate put a sidecar on it. In 2011 the same mate finished a light weight sidecar for it, which I use for 'all road' touring - also known as 'Adventure Riding'. As adventurous as I like to get anyway. This is in Mungo National Park, Sept 2013.
A mate was clearing his shed, so he could finish a BSA Rocket 3. He gave me this, as he was never going to do anything with it.
It has progressed a bit, but not much. I'm up to the point where I need to send the fork staunchions for re-chroming. But this other thing turned up nearly 2 years ago now and I've sort of been distracted.
Bloody thing is a money pit. I even had to buy a bloody ute so I could take it places to ride. But I'm getting there.
A few years back, my ever patient wife finally relented and got her rider licence. It was very stop / start affair and we ended up buying her a new W800. Bloody lovely thing to ride. Trouble was, with all the stuff in her life, she wasn't riding enough to be confident or competent. The W went, as I figured the XS would do that job just the same. I WAS going to buy a DR650 (to replace my Kato 690E) but she convinced me otherwise and my sidecar building mate put me onto this.
.This thing is a fantastic touring bike. Even with stuffed steering ehad bearings & worn out tyres.
Now, if you've never ridden one of the injected Triumphs, I suggest you do yourself a favour, before you buy another bike. These things are fantastic. And this one is 12 years old. Whatmust the 1050s be like?
Bikes keep me busy. Touring, classic rallies (30kays, have a coffee & cake; 30 kays, have a steak and some more cake; 30 kays,must be time for some more cake. It's evening, we'd best sit down, have a few beer, a roast and...cake; who won 'first on trailer'?). Now I'm going to do some riding on a race track or two whilst everyone else on the race track races. Looking forward to it.
I started an Australian RD/RZ Owners register, with the desire to be a reference point for those wanting to buy or sell or get together etc. The rationale being that there are so many forums that we must be missing out on bargains, bits and advice. We'll see how it goes.
There's been quite a lot of other bikes over the years. Best ever bike may well have been a GPz900R - fast, steered, handled, stoppedand was comfortable all day. RIP
Most awesome was the KTM 950Adv that I bought in '06. 55000km in 2 years without any commuting. I was off work on sick leave. But it scared the shite out of me. 160km/h on a dirt road was nothing for the bike but, readmy previous sentence. Then it was a KTM 690E. Nearly as good, better off the bitumen. The chiphad 3 settings 0 was DR650 setting. 3 was normal. 4 was 'I think I'm gonna die'. It was as fast as the 950 to around 120k. And my worst bike? The one I lusted after for years. An R100GS BMW. Rubbish that I spent ages trying to get right and convince myself that it was a great bike.
These days I live in the Riverina. Good location as it's 2 1/2 hrs to Winton or Wakefield, 4 hours to Broadford, 5 hours to Eastern Creek and around 6 to Phillip Island. And, fingers crossed the shire council made the right decision the other night, there may be a circuit 15km away in the near future. Don't count chickens.
Anyway,
cheers
rayb
