This is a short page about motorcycles. My motorcycles and some others. Initially the reason was to put up some pictures of the Corbin seat which I ( September 5, 2000 ) had made for my new Kwacker W650.
Some recently discovered W650 links from the mailing list at Yahoo Groups.
useful vintage bike supply places:
insurance. Cheaper than the 100 cc street bike. I haven't done any country exploring on it since I am married and raising a family around Port au Prince. It's used as a town bike, but the long suspension is very nice on the terrain that masquerades as roads around here. I liked the power band of the 100 better. The 125 revs a lot higher, to 11,000 rpm, but the comensurate power band is so much higher as well. 5,000 rpm is basically the bottom of the torque band. And, it buzzes a lot in the high rpm's due to chinese looseness in the assembly. It will haul two people up the mountain to 1500 meters in Kenscoff, but a lot of revving is required to get around the diesel mini-busses. I put a peyizan basket on the back recently (called a pannier/pannye here) to haul vegetables from the country market. Strapped it onto the luggage rack with plastic pull ties.
I bought this in Cap Haitian, Hayti, in February 2001 and motored for 1600 kilometers over 6 weeks. It is a brand new version of the 1965 Honda Super 90.
First I called it "Super 90 plus", then realized that it was truly a "Super Cent". One of the great things about riding a mount like this around the third world is that the Moto Taxi drivers can relate to it.
It is a sport machine that they can imagine owning. Moto Taxi's are Honda Cubs, sometimes 70cc, more usually 50cc, and with the 3 speed semi-auto transmission. A clutch and a four speed make a real high performance machine. Well, 70 kilometers per hour is pretty fast on the roads there.
The following is an email reply which I wrote yesterday (Sept 5) to another W650 rider who asked about my plans for a custom seat.
I got back from Corbin today. They are about an hour from me, maybe a bit more. I got there past 10am and out at 4:15. They started with a gunfighter blank on a correctly fitting seat bottom. So, they do have the bottom which fits correctly, I don't know if it fits another bike. I find it hard to figure out what other machine it would fit. So, the bottom piece, whatever you call it, ( base I guess ) has been tooled for. The gunfighter mold is re-used for all kinds of bikes. I saw them shooting molds with foam goop. There are other molds which could be used, like the dual sport and one real flat one from some enduro models. So, Gustavo ( remember that name ) cut down the back hump first, then taped paper all around the seat base and we went back to the foam machine to pour fresh foam into the form. This method does not produce nearly as firm a foam, so we started with the gunfighter bottom rather than a blank seat base. About an inch of new foam remains on top of the gunfighter base, with a slight hump back to the passenger section. I will take a picture of the bike tomorrow and do a short motorcycle web page, which I have never gotten around to.
After I gave up on the R27 in 1973 I got a Vespa GS 150 from sometime in the 60's. That was a real pain in the butt to keep running, altho I loved riding it. In 1978 I got a new Yamaha SR500. I liked that bike, but sold it to my brother in 1981 when I got an XL1000 Sportster, the iron engine with the new welded tube frame.
In 1984 I got a big block Harley, the blockhead rubber glide. Also known as an Evo FXRS. I got tired of it around 1990 when all the dentists and crap took up Harleys as style items and started dressing their wives up as biker chicks. Sold it in 1994, got the R65 a couple of years later.
So this KHI Flying W is my seventh motorcycle.
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name: index.html created: Feb 1995 |
J. David Lyall J. David Lyall does not pretend to be an expert Moto Cyclist. |