Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) New flat

There are some fabulous textile/kevlar options out there these days, Keeps us vegan bikers happy (and the cows)

Looks amazing!

Likely you will find that leather shrinks when not used. Mine did for sure.

But flashy though that bike is, whatever happend to the LJK Setright idea that bikes should be light and minimlist? Pal has one of the 6 cylider Beemers and its humungous. No way could he ever lift it if he dropped it. The OPs new bike is 350kg!!

That why I sold my K75S. The saddle was too high & it weighed too much. I prefer light and minimalist also.

John, looks like the OP has his knee bent and foot flat on the ground so perhaps saddle height is less of an issue for him as it was for me on the R850R which I found to be a very comfortable machine compared to more race oriented bikes of the time.

Howard... After 20 years in the garage loft are you saying my leathers have shrunk....surely not..! Or is there any other reason they might feel somewhat ..err..tight.. (-:

As for ever larger engines I think that started around the time that California introduced smog laws, and grew exponentially in terms of additional complexity and cubic capacity from then on to maintain power output while keeping time with ever increasing emission regulation. In my yoof a 750 Norton Atlas or RE SQ four were thought of as BIG bikes... (-: The largest capacity bike I rode was the first of Honda`s Gold Wing imports.

Yes I had a Commando 850 at the same time I had my first BMW 1200GS, and the latter was way bigger despite being a so called light weight off road capable bike. Might have been off road capable for McGregor and Borman but not for riders like me. Way to heavy and they claimed it was 200kg.( fuel tank and tyres filled with helium).

I still have a 1200 GS nowadays. OK I am older and weaker but I shudder to think of a 350kg bike and handballing it out of the garage or on a gravel car park.

Howard, I enjoyed the 850 Commando, I had one on loan for the TT week when it was a new machine, ran in company with a BMW R100RS who outpaced the Commando until the twisty stuff where I left it behind, though on the flat out sections that hydrolastic rear end got a bit loose to the extent I stopped to check if the swinging arm was about to fall off..nothing found. Pretty sure I could still manage to lift the R850RS..just, I did drop it a few times in the snow, fortunately I had fitted rocker cover guards, as can be seen in the pic.

While a sports car lacks a measure of freedom that a m/cycle can provide, in time Sumer riding trussed up in leathers and helmet did not compare to running with shirt sleeves and in comfort in the then new to me Morgan, though I suspect I will ever have interest in m/cycles..

Many years ago I had an 850 Gus Kuhn Barcelona replica, never could get used to the weird swing arm. I remember in desperation changing the bushes to no avail so sold it.

George knows we both enjoyed a BMW Boxer. Mine was an R1100 RT, I had just finished 6 years of Harley ownership, just sort of got over it and wanted a touring bike for long distances. The Harley dealer also sold Triumph and was just down the road from the factory at Hinckley and had good relations with them so I had a 1200 Trophy built but with a Daytona engine installed. At 1500 miles and just after it’s forst service it snapped it’s chain and tore a hole in the transmission so Triumph bought it back (later traced to incorrect service manual instructions for chain tensioning).

That did it for me with chains so off to the nearest BMW dealer and borrowed the demonstrator. Brilliant salesman who when asked if I could borrow one for an hour said ‘no, after an hour you will think it’s weird, after a morning you will think it’s interesting but after a day you will buy one. See you tomorrow’.... I took it back the next day and ordered one on the spot!

5 years and nearly 60,000 trouble free miles later (literally just tyres and one set of front pads) it broke my heart to sell it but the +8 had been built and there was no room for both. A wonderful piece of machinery that took me to Southern Italy, Central Spain, Bavaria and Scandinavia and multiple EU trips. For one summer I even commuted to our Brussels office each week.

BR
Colin

Had a 850 M3 with electric start back in the 70's, loved the Norton it just out handled most other bikes of the time. The wobbly back swing arm was not that noticeable at the time, as I also had use of a Z1 and a Honda CB350 and Japanese wobbly back ends was quite the norm back then. Progressed into Harleys until quite recently when the knees gave up and with it my motorcycling days.

The most outlandish, top heavy, with cardboard brakes and hard square tyres and at over 350k bike I ever reflected on why I bought it was my first Harley a 1990 Harley Ultra classic Electraglide. Horrible to ride in the wet worse 2 up fully loaded with 2 weeks worth of touring gear.... but loved every moment of it when barrelling thru the 53 tunnels on the side of Lake Garda with music blaring out of the quadrophonic speakers announcing our imminent arrival ........................in true Harley fashion it broke down in Switzerland with a clutch problem made worse by a newly adopted clutch setup that no Harley dealer had spares for.....those were the days.

I also got my first Morgan in 1990, could just squeeze the 2 into the garage, it was a 1985 4/4 with only 5000 miles it was the Times newspaper competition prize car and a fabulous spec car. Took it across to Ireland for a touring weekend it pissed it down so much that water was gushing up and down the floorboards every time I braked, to add to the fun as soon as I got off the ferry in Dublin the exhaust baffles failed and banging around in the box, no local garage/exhaust centres could help so a very throaty Morgan headed into the west. That was quite a year of motoring holiday incidences the Morgan at Easter and the Harley in July doing their bits to add to the fun.

Thirty years on and you tend to forget that Morgans at that time had a 10 +year waiting list and I paid more than new list price for it and Harleys were very few and far between, how times change.