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Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails


Tarheel

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Time traveler. Wonder what stocks to buy...now.

Started with tricycles and quickly advanced to two wheeler with training wheels. Invented ramp jumping along with my cousin. One day a dude came by and said great idea kids and gave us a bright new quarter. Evel something or other. The rest is history. No male autographs please.

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7 minutes ago, MookieStl said:

Too bad you missed the 50's, they were a hoot!

Yep....I have 5 older siblings, all born in the 50s. I  always said that growing up in the early 50s were the best years. My oldest brother, born in 1950, had a 65 Nova that he hot rodded, 427 engine, was always drag racing, never beat. By the time I started driving, 1979, it was expensive to go fast, so I got into motorcycles.

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14 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

I don't know how lousy of riders they were, I didn't hang around! 

Here are some specs.....

1973 Kawasaki 900 Z 1 Super 4 specifications, pictures, reviews and rating
General information
Power: 79.0 HP (57.7 kW)) @ 8500 RPM
Top speed: 211.0 km/h (131.1 mph)
Compression: 8.5:1
Bore x stroke: 66

 

I knew a guy who had a Z-1R TC.  Luckily he was a pretty good mechanic, because there were reasons for why they came with either a very short warranty, or none at all.  The bikes were semi-official, so not a regular model.  The turbo kits were installed in the US.  He claimed that his TC would indicate 155 mph with a passenger, which does sound possible.

 

One of the issues with those setups was that the compression ratio was a bit high for an engine with a turbocharger.  As a result, detonation was a big problem.  That co-worker tried to lower the compression by installing double base gaskets, and then he rigged up a water/alcohol injection system using home aquarium parts (pump, valves, etc.), which really helped, but even with that, running at top speed for more than a very few minutes would usually cost him a set of pistons, because he wasn’t able to entirely solve the detonation issues, and at top speed everything comes to a crisis point very quickly.  He went through at least two sets of pistons, so he found this very frustrating, as you would expect.

 

That was in the mid to late Eighties, and I didn’t have the FZR1000 engine in the FZ750 until the early Nineties, so I never did have a chance to see which bike was faster.  I suspect that the top speeds would have been very close, with the important difference that the FZ could maintain top speed for a long time, without any problems.

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37 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

By the time I started driving,

 

Brings up a good question/topic

What car did you learn to drive in?

 

I learned in a '63 Ford Country Sedan station wagon. 352ci, 2 speed auto, power steering

 

... no power brakes!!!!  If you needed to stop in a hurry [like when I came around a turn and there was a bulldozer crossing the road] you applied both feet to the brake pedal

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12 minutes ago, grasshopper said:

 

Brings up a good question/topic

What car did you learn to drive in?

 

I learned in a '63 Ford Country Sedan station wagon. 352ci, 2 speed auto, power steering

 

... no power brakes!!!!  If you needed to stop in a hurry [like when I came around a turn and there was a bulldozer crossing the road] you applied both feet to the brake pedal

The good ole days. My first car, 71 Cutlass I bought from my older brother. I was 15, and blew it up before I even got my license. Then a 66 Impala I bought from my older sister. 

But I learned to drive on my Dad's job sites, I was 11, 12 maybe. 1971 Ford F150 with 3 on the tree, and a 69 Ford 1 ton with a 4 on the floor. I remember when I first got behind the wheel in my high school drivers ED class, the instructor said "you've done some driving before"!

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22 minutes ago, Islander said:

 

I knew a guy who had a Z-1R TC.  Luckily he was a pretty good mechanic, because there were reasons for why they came with either a very short warranty, or none at all.  The bikes were semi-official, so not a regular model.  The turbo kits were installed in the US.  He claimed that his TC would indicate 155 mph with a passenger, which does sound possible.

 

One of the issues with those setups was that the compression ratio was a bit high for an engine with a turbocharger.  As a result, detonation was a big problem.  That co-worker tried to lower the compression by installing double base gaskets, and then he rigged up a water/alcohol injection system using home aquarium parts (pump, valves, etc.), which really helped, but even with that, running at top speed for more than a very few minutes would usually cost him a set of pistons, because he wasn’t able to entirely solve the detonation issues, and at top speed everything comes to a crisis point very quickly.  He went through at least two sets of pistons, so he found this very frustrating, as you would expect.

 

That was in the mid to late Eighties, and I didn’t have the FZR1000 engine in the FZ750 until the early Nineties, so I never did have a chance to see which bike was faster.  I suspect that the top speeds would have been very close, with the important difference that the FZ could maintain top speed for a long time, without any problems.

I have a feeling your FZR1000 would outran that 900, even with a turbo. And if the speedo was reading 155, probably more like 145 tops. Many are still off today.

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15 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

The good ole days. My first car, 71 Cutlass I bought from my older brother. I was 15, and blew it up before I even got my license. Then a 66 Impala I bought from my older sister. 

But I learned to drive on my Dad's job sites, I was 11, 12 maybe. 1971 Ford F150 with 3 on the tree, and a 69 Ford 1 ton with a 4 on the floor. I remember when I first got behind the wheel in my high school drivers ED class, the instructor said "you've done some driving before"!

First car I owned by myself was a 72 Cutlass! Ended up with two by the early 80's (one hard top, one convertible)  Loved those cars.

Shared a 71 Satellite Sebring (340) with my older brother prior to that. Didn't last long.

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14 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

There were Bimota kits with  Z1 900 engines that went to 140-150 miles per hour in 73 ,  it was still a Z1 900

-all modern 4 cylinder  inline twin cam bikes  including the Z1  are derived from the  4 cylinder  Giacomo Agostino  MV Agusta-  but these are very rare birds , a Ferrari class motorcycle -

 

$_57 (1)1977 MV Agusta 900S Classic Motorcycle Pictures

 

Bimota made bikes for a long time, and may still be doing it.  There used to be a great event in Parry Sound, Ontario, called the Sportbike Rally, and I went to it for years.  The attendance was small, maybe 400 bikes, but people came from far away to attend, including places like Michigan and upstate New York, as well as far eastern Canada.  They’d often ride in on relatively exotic bikes.  One year there were 4 BMW K-1s, as soon as they came out, and had rarely been seen anywhere.

 

In 1992, a 65-year-old dude called Max showed up, riding a Bimota YB-8.  Bimotas were complete bikes, but didn’t have their own brand of engines.  Instead, they used lightly modified engines from major manufacturers, Like Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Ducati.  The YB-8 used an FZR1000 engine, and was pretty fast.  A mechanic from southern Ontario had a portable Dynojet dyno, which he would bring to the rally.  There would be a lineup of bikes waiting to be tested, and all day long you could hear the sound of bikes being revved to redline over and over.  Hearing the revs climb, you’d subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, wait for the engines to blow up, but none of them ever did. 

 

There was a prize for highest horsepower, and Max’s Bimota won, with 118 rear wheel horsepower.  My bike had “only” 104 rwhp, but the top speeds of the two bikes turned out to be very similar.  Better aerodynamics on my bike?  Who knows?  As you would expect, the Ontario Provincial Police (equivalent to US State Troopers) took an interest in hundreds of sport bikes, many of them very fast, showing up in this town in Cottage Country.  There was sort of a gentlemen’s agreement that if the riders kept their speeds down on the major roads, the back roads would see very few police.  The major roads were those like Highway 11, the extension of Yonge Street, which starts at the shore of Lake Ontario and extends 1896 km/1178 miles to Rainy River at the Ontario-Minnesota border.  It may be the longest street in the world.

 

There are lots of back roads around Parry Sound, and the Rally included a poker run around the area, as well as other activities.  All that to say that some of those back roads were very lightly patrolled, if at all, so you could sometimes find small groups of bikes travelling at pretty high speeds.  As well as the usual awards, like Greatest Distance Travelled to reach the Rally, Youngest Rider, Oldest Rider, etc., there was an award for biggest/worst speeding ticket.  In 1992, the winner was a poor guy who got a $500 speeding ticket.  The rally organizer even got an OPP officer to hand him the award, which really rubbed it in, to his great embarrassment, and to the amusement of everyone else.  The cop was on hand because on Saturday evening we’d have the Thunder Ride, which went from the county fairground, where most of us camped and most of the non-riding activities took place, right into town.

 

The ride was 13 km/8 miles long, with a police escort in front and behind, but it ran a fair bit faster than the posted speed limit, and ended with a route around town, so that all the citizens could have a look at the cool bikes, from their front yards and the sidewalks downtown.  There would always be a few guys doing wheelies, which was popular in a sort of “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” kind of way.  The riders were well accepted by the townsfolk, because we were mostly at the fairground, just coming into town for supplies, and there was no rowdiness.  And they liked to see us spending money, since the town depends on tourism.

 

The Rally was so popular that some manufacturers, like Honda and Triumph, would have demo bikes available for test rides, and prizes to be won in a raffle.  The Rally was a great event, and the time I found myself travelling with Max on his Bimota, and Neil on his GSX-R1100, on  a very lightly-travelled two-lane road through rolling hills, will be forever remembered by me, and likely by Max and Neil as well.  We found out which bike was fastest, but apart from that, it was just great fun to travel at speed with friends, with only the occasional farmhouse to remind us that we were still in central Ontario.

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15 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

1973 Kawasaki 900 Z 1 Super 4 specifications, pictures, reviews and rating

General information
Power: 79.0 HP (57.7 kW)) @ 8500 RPM
Top speed: 211.0 km/h (131.1 mph)
Compression: 8.5:1
Bore x stroke: 66

I can confirm that 131.1 MPH is an accurate spec

Based on the speedo needle wallowing between 127 to 135MPH

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18 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

--------C'mon  Bill  ,  these guys must have been very lousy riders -

 

the Z1 went to 170 mph in 73  at Daytona with all but a stock bike and a fairing -------the endurance record  in 73 was 24h non-stop at120mph /stock  bike-  73 stock tires -  single disc brake , rear drum brake , 36mm forks , lousy 72  suspension -no fairing , 0 modification -

 

/https://youtu.be/sHpsB5ll9DI

 

you're  also  forgetting the  kawasaki  1978-----Z1R TC  ---1015cc with a turbocharger ---nothing could touch it  --the kit was about 1k$ and change , bolt on , no mods  into any Z1 ,  903cc  or 1015 cc with a  stock engine -----

 

1978 Kawasaki Z1RTC | Bike-urious

I had forgot all about this bike.

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On 10/30/2020 at 9:34 AM, richieb said:


I’ll have you know that in the mid 1950’s I was — well yes, I was alive — and Thanks for shooting the video -  

 I am sure you've had quite a few Muscle cars ---

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