Mountainmonkey
Joined: 25 Aug 2014 Posts: 1 Location: Newgloucester Maine
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:40 pm Post subject: Retro rocket |
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Howdy,
I'm Mike Birnbach from Maine. My rig is a 1985 Honda VF1000R with a Motorvation FormulaII. To make a long story painful I'll let you know the riding tapered off after the boy came along. Motorbikes were always a big part of our lives and I was looking for a way to get my weekends back. Why not a sidecar 'eh?
Turned out big, heavy powerful bikes were not my bag, before the VF I rode a tarted up 1965 CB160 for four years and loved it. Anyway, I rode the VF like that for a couple of weeks and decided it just wasn't going to work. But it would make a great rig.
I stumbled across the Motorvation standing on end and covered in dust in the basement of a local bike shop and got it for a great price. Then I put 'em next to each other in the shop and thought "now what the heck do I do?".
Had the good fortune to meet Mike Marston just up the road a piece and he agreed to fabricate a subframe and brackets for the rig and we took it from there.
Since then I've been through some rear tires and put some miles on learning to ride it. Not for the faint of heart but it will hustle. It will also give me a good workout! Other than 20wt. oil Progressive springs and an extra inch of spacer the front end is stock.
I met a few of you guys at the Festival at Loudon this past Father's Day weekend and remember you checking out the rig and saying "Well, I guess you could do it like that".
No offense taken.
I've found this kind of thing can mess with my head. To the point that I got involved with racing sidecars and went up and rode around on an F1. Too much for me so I'm now restoring a short bike built to a Windle blueprint with GS1100 power. Now that bike has a good front end!
Crunching the numbers and watching the clock leaves me leaning toward liquidation and looking around for a more modern rig.
I got kinda sweet on a guys K100RS rig up to OwlsHead this weekend and think that might be right up my alley.
It's good to get in touch, thank you.
I'll try to get some pictures up but I'm sure I'll need some assistance.
All the best,
Mike |
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