This ad nearly stopped my heart when I was a teen.
I wanted to be the beardo
on that bike in the worst way…
That ad ran in the gun and motocross rags in 1978 or so. I remember it to this day. When I was a kid all I cared about were guns and bikes. And to a young teen…that was a big machine. I could only imagine the wonderful places that beardo camped out at. I was slowly assembling my camping gear - mostly cheap crap that I found in the Army & Navy and at WW Arcade. I had a cheapo external frame pack that was garbage from the day I bought it, a flint and steel… all I needed was the bike and a tarp and I was in business.
Of course in Advertising Land… it never rains. All your gear works perfectly and it’s a pleasure to use. There’s nothing but beautiful scenic backroads when you go exploring. And a 370cc one lung engine can keep up with highway traffic…
😂👍
I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then!
A street thumper! Cool, (now I think so). Around '78, I had a 1976 Honda 350 XL, it had no issues doing 70+ while Fed Big Brother still mandated the 1973 Arab oil boycott, 55mph top speed limit. Nobody paid any attention to it after the 1st couple years. You can't ticket everybody and Americans are always in a hurry, so the cops just used the law to cherry pick drivers of "interest".
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember that one or more of the rice burner brands had a street version thumper, but I never saw them on the street. I DO remember seeing British thumpers, but I had no interest in them. They all had Enduro versions. I did have a mild, brief interest In the Triumph, Bonneville 650 because it eked out fastest production motorcycle for one year, sometime back then.
Post 2008-9 the gods of something didn't like me very much, so after that financial shit show, my income never recovered, ended up selling assets and working for not great wages. SO, no more motorcycles for ME!
If I won the lottery (0 chance, since I don't play) I'd have some kind of Jap imitation Harley (real ones suck), some kind of jap crotch rocket, a 300-500 Enduro, a 250-500cc old school quad with manual 5 speed and a side by side 4x4 ute of some kind, despite my wifes protestations. As things are, there is about a 0% chance of me getting killed or maimed in my remaining years on a non car, motorized contrivance.
They can do it but it’s damned hard on them. If you want to do sustained highway speeds day in, day out, year after year… I’d want at least a 650 and would prefer a 1000 if I were to haul gear and passengers… but that’s just me.
DeleteI've given some careful consideration to an Indian Scout with windshield, saddlebags, seat, 1200 cc. I'd like to take an extended road trip on it, but I'm old and haven't ridden in many years. Traffic on the highway is pure death and destruction for a bike, what with the idiots and all.
DeleteStill, once I got out of the heavy traffic, there's the rest of the road.
That would be me too, but I was just jetting around San Diego County and environs.
DeleteI did out run a County Mounty coming home from 2nd shift ship yard rigging, at about 0100, once. He came after me because I was doing 80, on the freeway with an '81 500 XL Honda. Actually, I couldn't out run him until I got to my neck of the woods where I was able to "off road" him. I kept my dealer license plate advertiser installed instead of putting on my plate, it gives you plausible deniability. Of the few times I tried to out run da cops, I succeeded.
It's a romantic idea but a miserable reality. A '66 Chevy P/U with a camper shell worked much better. Four wheels eliminate a lot of negative, and miserable, two-wheel issues.
ReplyDeleteYup I just got old, maybe… but nowadays I want a camper and a bed and a furnace. My blood ran a lot warmer when I was a teen and sleeping on the ground was just fine if I had a ground pad…😞
DeleteMe too, but I got a proper camper, not a modified tee pee...
DeleteI had one of those two-strokes suzis and sorta kept up with fwy traffic.... I'd cease the piston every few months. Cost about $50 to rebuild each time. Finally learned... if you can call it that... just hitchhiked 'til I got close and walked the rest of the way.
ReplyDeleteBSA had a 500cc? that had big balls! I rode one once, mostly on the back wheel. The bikes doing, not mine. I wanted one, but I didn't. Them were the good old days. To be young & dumb again. lol.
ReplyDeleteI had a 1973 Yamaha 360 RT, an Enduro, (street legal) I used it both on and off the road. I could get it up to about 100 mph, but with mild street knobbies you dare didn't cross the Bot Dots separating the lanes, I damn near lost it at about 100 and never wanted to do that again. Great bike, easy to maintain and sipped gas but you had to add 2 stroke into a separate tank or mix into the gas. It was powerful enough to tackle rough back country and mild enough to enjoy riding roads. Wish I had kept it. Only bitch I had was it was a kick start and it had a hell of a kick when the foot bar came up and smacked the back of your leg if you didn't hold it through to the bottom and couple times had thrown my up over the handle bars because I was being stupid, it left a bruise, and stupid should hurt.
ReplyDeleteRoger that! I had the same bike for about 3 years! It was awesome!
DeleteLooking at that Suzuki 370, it appears to have street tires on a frame and set up as an Enduro, is that what dirt/street bikes are like in the frozen North?
ReplyDeleteThe enduro tires I grew up around were less aggressive than knobbies and they were great on the trail and okay on the street. They weren’t worth a hoot in mud…
DeleteIn the mud, let inertia be your friend, bring luck for safety.
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