Why do it

The What to Build thread got me thinking about why I own and work on motorcycles. I can think of several reasons and am curious if there are more and what is most important. In no particular order:

1. I like being perceived as different or “tough”
2. I like the small thrill of making it home safely after a ride
3. I love the sound of each engine, the smell of fuel
4. Working on bikes insulates me from my daily stress.
5. I like the satisfaction of having fixed/ restored bikes myself.
6. I like showing off my bikes and seeing others’ bikes.
7. I like expanding my mechanical skills.
8. Classic motorcycles are gorgeous.
9. There is a thrill in acquiring and planning a new project.
10. I like the camaraderie of owners.
10. Most of all - from the first time I saw a mini bike when I was 7 I’ve been unable to not think about motorcycles.

1. I grew up skiing. When I was a kid, I saw Franz Klammer win the '76 downhill by sheer will and reckless abandon. I used to go 70mph on skiis every day, and I know this because my friend trained with the US ski team and would go thru speed traps so we got calibrated.

In those days there were no helmets. Hair out. Sunglasses. Wind. The sounds of the rush of the skiis on the snow. Your pulse.

Riding bikes gives me the same feelings.

2) I like working with my hands and tinkering. I am not the most skilled, but I enjoy it. Even when I have to fix my own fuck ups. I spend all day on a computer and managing people (herding cats) so it is nice to actually do something and have a result you can touch/feel.

3. Nothong says "Fuck You" like a leather and a loud ass bike.

When I road race, it is never about winning per se. It is more about proving my work on the motorcycle has been effective in improving it's performance. I don't get a big ego boost from winning. My whole life has involved old motorcycles. My Seeley Commando 850 actually proves something to me about myself. The problems in making it become competitive, we not simple. Although because of my experience, I went straight to many of the answers.
As far as looking tough is concerned, my involvement with motorcycles was never about that. I just happen to be tough. My father was an ex-serviceman who liked to come home from the pub and fight. So I can stand toe to toe with anyone.

The biggest kick I ever got out of motorcycling was when I rode my Seeley Commando 860 up under the four leaders of a Period 4 historic race at turn two on Winton. It popped a fuel line and stopped- but it was there with the track wide open in front of it. - Every other time I have raced, I have had to battle to get anywhere near the front. If I am ever in that position again, those guys are toast. They would never catch me.

My whole life has been about motorcycles. When I was a kid, I used to hot-up Triumph 650s. But you can only do so much of that before the cops become aware of you. Motorcycles are the reason I failed 3 out of 5 subjects in my Matriculation exams and ended up at night school I actually had a happy childhood. My main jobs as a scientist were in defence production, finding better ways to kill people. We used to such things as running-up rocket motors and firing naval guns to test them. Developing a racing motorcycle is not much different. For any of you guys, if you have not raced, you have not lived. But if you are going to try it, don't start with a Commando. A Yamaha RD 250 is much safer and just as quick.

Riding a motorcycle was the closest thing to personal flight before those flying squirrel suits and Commando Cody rocket backpacks. Riding a machine that you've taken personal responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of is particularly satisfying and a machine you've built is even more gratifying.

...Because I've been obsessed with all mechanical objects since I was a kid. When something mechanical broke in my household when I was a kid, my parents had a drawer they put it in that was MY drawer full of things for me to disassemble and inspect. It was their way of keeping me from disassembling the television while they were out and about....

I've said before that If my friend had an old BMW motorcycle that he couldn't fix, I would have bought that to repair. It just happened to be a norton. I didn't go out and chose a norton at age 19 thinking that it would be the best bike around someday...

When I brought my Norton at age 17 I wasn't very mechanical in mind and all my mates at the time were buying Honda 4s and they all asked why didn't you buy a Honda they are more reliable etc etc, then in 79 I brought the Wideline frame off my mate and a year later started to build my Commando/Featherbed, it was a learning curve for me as well, my mates all ridiculed me about the task at hand but they didn't understand it was going to be my bike built the way I wanted it to be powerful and handle great and it was done with my own two hands.
Its been a great bike the way I built it, is very reliable and handles outstandingly, it was built by my hands and the best thing is still going as good as the first time I fired it up from day one and only a few small things have let me down like broken chain or a failed coil but that got me home running on one cylinder and 2 failed EIs so not bad for 43 years of ownership and my mate's well none of them have their Honda 4s and my Norton was a every day rider till 6 years ago it is now semi retired just like me but I still take it out when ever I want and it will be with me till the day I die, I have my newer Triumph Thruxtons but the Norton is number one, its no beauty queen and is showing its age but that's the way I like it.

Ashley

As a young boy a 500cc BSA appeared in our basement. My older brother told my parents he was repainting it for his buddy- turns out he had bought it from him. His buddy needed the money to buy something called a Black Shadow. The Shadow got disassembled in his mom’s kitchen and there it sat while it’s owner got hauled off to a place called Vietnam. Tour of duty ended , the mom got a call from Hawaii- “sell the Vincent mom - I’m staying here “ - I think it went for under $2k - likely way under.
So my brother broke the ice. While my dad was not into bikes he couldn’t play the “ motorcycles are dangerous card “ because at the time he was designing, building and racing 280cubic inch hydroplanes , one of which missed the kilo record by 7/10ths of mph - a hair over 103 mph at the time.
The BSA single went for a 650 twin - T-bolt maybe? That led to my sister getting a Honda 50 step through Cub - then a bigger one and then a Yamaha AT 1.
After a Steen mini bike with the ubiquitous Briggs motor my turn at dirt bikes came . Along with my brother we had a string of them - mostly Yamaha but my brother had the odd Maico , Ossa and Montessa for variety. The final one for me was a Husqvarna 360 Sportsman - the dual range 8 speed one. ( really wish I still had that one ) When the bottom end started getting a bit noisy I swapped it to a friend for his bent Commando which he had made into a “chopper “ by putting in really long fork stanchions which were all the rage in the early 70’s ( I thought it a sacrilege to do that to a Norton)and then he promptly ran it into the back of a car. Fortunately the long stanchions absorbed the energy of the crash and left the headstock undamaged. I built it into a Cafe style with Dunstall goodies a tank and seat built from scratch out of fiberglass ( I posted a shot of it in the embarrassing early pictures thread on this site ).
So began my love affair with motorcycles. I love to ride them, build them , ogle them , polish them . I love all things mechanical and have many hobbies and interests beyond motorcycles. I would love to do an E type Jag ( too much $$ ) or even a more affordable MGA but motorcycles are of a scale where I can hope to complete them and still have time for my other interests.

Like oOnortonOo (post #7 above), as a kid I fixed all things mechanical. It was a challenge I could not resist.

As a young mechanical engineering student, I drove a 1957 Ford with a 292 cu inch engine, and suffered derision from the Chevy 283 guys. Their thinking .... if they could beat me in a stop light drag race, theirs was the better, ...... never mind theirs would be smoking after 10K miles.

So I decided to use my engineering knowledge to build a 292 Ford to take them out. The result was an engine with an dyno estimated flywheel HP of 300 hp ..... not too bad for early 60's Detroit iron. My '57 tore up the Chevys, ..... I could pass anything but a State Trooper or a gas station, 4 mpg was the avg fuel economy. The car could stand the front end up so high on a drag race, I could not see where I was going, except to follow the white line outside my window .... sort of like a F4U Corsair pilot on landing approach.

Then, my buddy, introduced me to his 650 BSA rocket. I soon realized he got 50+ mpg and could take out my Ford. Why was I doing my 4 wheeler racing?

I got my first bike, a '62 Atlas which was a disappointment. I had 100 cc's more than my buddies BSA, but I could only slightly edge him out in the zero to ton. Then I got my present Atlas, also a '62, which was titled as a '63. I firmly believe the bike was a special build for Berliner's evaluation, and I lucked out when they released it to my dealer. It tore up the BSA's and Bonnevilles of my then biker buddies, it was the king of the road and I soon came to realize Nortons handled better than all else. I was hooked on Norton's.

I still have the '63 (or '62 special build) Atlas. The only changes I have made are for safety (TLS front brake and LED lighting), increased reliability, and decreased maintenance. I keep it going out of pride and reverence that such a machine deserves to be kept viable.

I am reaching the age where I may require a button bike. I cannot bring myself to buying a modern, especially a non Norton, but am contemplating a '73 or '74 Commando restore which I can fit with a CNW e-start.

Maybe I am merely trying to hang on to my youth.

Slick

4 mpg ...?!

That’s dedication...!

texasSlick said:

I am reaching the age where I may require a button bike. I cannot bring myself to buying a modern, especially a non Norton, but am contemplating a '73 or '74 Commando restore which I can fit with a CNW e-start.

Click to expand...

Do it.

It’s a beautiful set up that will not only extend your years of riding pleasure... and allow you to re-live your youth for far longer than what is considered ‘decent’... but it’s also so exquisitely made, it will bring even more pleasure to your engineering mind !

The most difficult thing as we get older, is to maintain the urge. If I was going to buy a modern motorcycle, I would buy myself a better car. It would be just as brainless but more comfortable. One of my friends mentioned ' if a car these days has not got chromed bumper bars, you cannot work on it'. The reason a lot of guys like Harleys, is they are completely rebuild-able. A Norton Commando is even better.

One of the things about road racing is 'THE RULES' are much easier to live with. There are not many countries where you can register a bike which has been built from scratch using a trick racing frame and all the best bits.

Slick I built my Commando/Featherbed for lightness, handling and power with its HOT motor its has a lot of torque and go pretty good but in 2013 I brought a New Triumph Thruxton and loved it and now upgraded to a Thruxton 1200S, this bike although heavier than my Featherbed Norton when riding it feels so light just like my Featherbed, the torque from the 1200HP motor, the Thruxton 1200 has a lighter crank compared to the other Triumph motors and it handle as good if not better than my Featherbed and its finger start, it comes with beautiful alloy wheels and has that old retro look about it, it's a well balanced bike to ride and Triumph have got it right and is so smooth to ride have done many long distant rides on it and just love it and would not hesitate to recommend it to any old school British bike owner and now has become my every day rider, my daughter will be getting my 2013 Thruxton when she gets her bike licence but the Thruxton 1200S is what I like best its great around town, great on the long hauls and outstanding in the tight twisties, with the price of old Commandos going through the roof I be going with a new Triumph whether a Thruxton or T120 1200.

Ashley

The problem with kids buying new modern bikes, is they do not learn much from owning them. When you build a bike from scratch, you learn a lot. The bike you build does not have to be the fastest on the planet. For some time now, I have been mucking around making bits for a frame for the Chinese pit bike motors which are based on the Honda CT110 motor. They are so susceptible too development, it is a joke. You can buy 6 speed gearboxes, 4 valve DOHC heads - stuff which when I was a kid, I could only dream about.
In the 1950s, the 125cc race class contained the MV Agusta Bialbero. What you could build now would be faster and possibly better. Life is about having fun.

Hailwood was an excellent rider, however he was apparently quite poor at giving feedback which would improve the motorcycle. A good bike makes a good rider - most of us do not have a father who would buy us a Moto Morini as our first race bike. Sheene was OK at developing race bikes, but he had many horrendous crashes while doing it. The trick is to become good without bending yourself while doing it.
I raced a shit-heap for 12 years before I got on a genuine 500cc Manx and found out how a racing motorcycle should handle.

All those guys who ride converted road bikes in historic races are kidding themselves. The real deal is totally different.

In Australia, there has been two riders who usually did not race overseas, but were really tops - Bill Horsman and Ron Toombs. Before either of them reached the top, their racing careers were really horrible. But with either of those two guys, if they were on the same race grid with you, you might as well pack-up and go home. Bill Horsman went to the IOM and first time there won the junior classic TT.