Old Yamahas...

[RedLdr1]

I was digging through a box of "stuff" this morning and found a couple of photos of my first and second "new" motorcycles...

My first new bike was a 84 RZ350. That was my daily transportation around Fort Huachuca for about two years. Great for mosquito control but not very stealthy for sneaking home as it was quite the "Ring Dinger" even with the stock exhaust... It was a real blast to ride in the canyons of southeast Arizona...

My next bike was a 86 FJ1200. I traded in the RZ on it for riding cross country to Fort Gordon, GA, and back, for a 6 month Advanced Course. Plus I knew I would be going to Germany within a year or so after my class. Here she sits all fitted out for touring in front on my Mothers house in Florida. I spent what seemed like a fortune at the time for all the soft luggage... Note the high tech 80's style backrest... This bike was a blast on the Autobahn, I loved to go "Porsche strafing" with it...nothing upsets a proud Porsche owner more than being passed like they are sitting still....

I am looking and waiting to find the "right" FJ1200 to restore. My wife already knows, and has agreed, that it will be my third bike in the garage when the right one pops up.

 

[freezingalaskan]

That FJ1200 was a really nice machine. You are lucky to have owned one. Even luckier to get your hands on another one. It was one of the machines I would glance at when I was a wee lad.

freezingalaskan

 

[Bear]

Beautiful bikes! Sure love the 350 Cafe Racer.

 

[tawilke46]

My first new bike was a 84 RZ350

That looks like the kind of bike Kenny Roberts used to ride! Cool!

 

[ARKNT]

I bought an RZ350 on EBAY 5-6 years ago. It was not real nice but was fun. I kept it a year or so and then sold it after I got it out of my system.
They don't make em like that anymore.
Not real eco freindly. 2 stroke smoke and 24 MPG. It is worth it for the sound alone.

Brad

 

[suvcw04]

My first bike was a brand new 1966 Yamaha YL-1 100cc Twin Jet.
Thanks for the memory jolt.

 

[Warren]

Restoring vintage motorcycles can be fun and challenging. After owning my 1977 Yamaha XS650 for 35 years I am finally thinking about selling it. Frankly I have gotten to the point where I would rather ride my NT than work on my XS. Since I now live in Nashville I can virtually ride all year round so I no longer have those lonely cold winter months with noting to do but work on my project bike. The internet makes finding parts and bikes a lot easier than it was years ago and many new pattern parts are now available so you do not have to be satisfied with scronging through a motorcycle bone yard our swap meets for a part that might not be much better than the one you are trying to replace. Good luck finding that perfect FJ.

 

[ARKNT]

I used to own an XS650 also. 1975 model I think. I have a lot of good memories with that bike. Riding to Ill flat track races etc. Good times.


Brad

 

[Madmax]

I had a 1972 XS650 that I rode all over Sardinia and Italy in 1973. A few years later I bought a new 1981 XS650 Special II. I only kept it about 6 months as I just had to have a new 1982 Seca 750.

 

[larrylarry75]

You guys trying to lure me out of the closet? This puppy's sleeping under it's blanket in the barn, I bought it new. Like me, it's getting a bit long in tooth. Nothing that the boy racers would dig but at the time it would do 92 in the qtr right out of the box. Guaranteed to make the Brits nervous. I'm ready to sell it, 41 years is a long time to own a bike.

LL75 :tongue:

 

[elizilla]

My first bike when I started riding in 1998, was a 1981 Yamaha XJ550 Seca. It hadn't been cared for over the years - it had sat outside and was a corrosion nightmare to work on. It also burned a lot of oil and made my hair smell, but it somehow mostly kept running. A couple of my friends borrowed it to learn on. I eventually got tired of paying for insurance on it, and having to take care of it on behalf of the borrowers, so I put an ad in the classifieds and sold it to another newbie. There's always someone willing to buy a running bike for a couple hundred bucks, even if it's an obvious POS. The guy I sold it to, emailed me a year or so later and said he was doing a frame-up resto on it. I wonder what came of that?

 

[suvcw04]

I bought a brand new 100cc Yamaha YL2C dualsport in 1966 when I was in the Air Force.
Also a new 1978 Yamaha RD400, a new 1981 Yamaha XS1100 and a new 1989 Yamaha V-Max. My best friend had a XS650 and it was a great bike.

Yamaha builds some nice bikes!

So many bikes---so little time!

Sam

Mine was a '66 YL1. 100cc TwinJet. It had downpipes. If I remember right, the YL2 had up pipes.

 

[Warren]

You guys trying to lure me out of the closet? This puppy's sleeping under it's blanket in the barn, I bought it new. Like me, it's getting a bit long in tooth. Nothing that the boy racers would dig but at the time it would do 92 in the qtr right out of the box. Guaranteed to make the Brits nervous. I'm ready to sell it, 41 years is a long time to own a bike.

LL75 :tongue:

Very nice 1969 XS-1. These are very collectable. If you decided to sell it you should not have a problem finding a buyer

 

[windsinthehills]

My first 2 bikes were 1972 Yamahas. Upset my mother a lot when I bought a Yamaha 200 Electric while I was in HS. Rode it all over the Kansas City area. It was how I made it to see several great Jazz concerts. There used to be free concerts every summer. I remember getting on the bike to go see Kenton, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Jean Luc Ponty, Mingus, Earl "Fatha" Hines & others. My parents had me sell it so I could purchase sensible transportation, a bright yellow Gremlin After getting married bought an XS 650 for the daily commute to college. 45 mile each way. That bike was totaled when a conversion van with covered windows backed into me.