TOPIC:

Similar to Jim Bilton's experience, I too was 13 in '69 when I used to hang out at the local Honda dealership all day just to hear the mechanic leave from work at 4:00 pm on his 750 four. Straight out of town on the Aurora Ontario side road and about half a mile down the road the speed limit changed from 30 mph to 50 mph. That's when he would open it up and I would close my eyes and listen to that 750 wind out until it was out of earshot.. I almost wanted to become a motorcycle mechanic just to be a keeper of those fours. To this day, nothing puts a smile on my face like a big multi-cylinder wringing out the rpm's. Now if I could only figure out how to put a Merlin in a 2 wheel frame. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................

This thread has got me feeling all nostalgic: but its interesting how as kids a memory can be seared into our memory forever (whereas now I cant remember what I did yesterday): As a lad of about 13 in the early 70's, I can clearly recall some RAF guys regularly turned up at the village Chip Shop, on what to me were fantasy bikes: there was a gold CB750, a Black Norton Commando and a couple of Kwak H2 750's.
Me and my mates on our push bikes would stand drooling over them, and wait ages just to hear them pull away, and with any luck hammer it out of the village: I could not believe anything could look and sound so amazing: controlled fury. The first time I saw a guy wheelie a bike was one of those lads on his H2 - lit a passion in me that still exists nearly 45 years later.

It's interesting to read how many here fit the very similar age group. There was a poll asking the KZ1300 owners how old they are, and the majority were in the 50-60 years bracket. Speaking of 1970, which is roughly the time when the super-bikes entered the scene, I was a few years behind but not too far at 7. I saw those shiny 4 cylinder bikes in magazines and I still see them when I close my eyes! It never left me. But we couldn't afford any of the Japanese bikes a few years later, and people were turning to old British and German barn found bikes. Many in boxes and cheap. One of our bunch traded later an absolute mint BSA 500 Goldstar for a 400 cc twin Kawasaki. That was an incredible upgrade at the time as per entering the advanced technology era of pushing a starter button vs. a kick start single barrel bike. If only we knew how things would change! Those old bikes are quite pricey these days. I had an AJS 500 cc single from 1956. It got a total rebuild, including custom machining of most the moving engine parts. The oldest were a German NSU and Ariel from 1930's, all restored to perfection. In the final years of our club we had a couple different Royal Enfield's, an Ariel, a Matchless, Panther, 1930's NSU, a Ural, Polish 500 cc Junak, and my AJS. I've heard that in earlier years there were many unique bikes there like Ariel Square Four, Vincent, very old Harley Davidson's and other. I purchased my running AJS for 200 US dollars, so imagine how happy my friend was when he got that Kawasaki for it! You could get an old bike in parts for literally pennies. Different times and totally different circumstances. Imagine, a bottle of vodka was $1 on the black market, and that was way over the regular store price. I wish I knew then how times would change!

Reminds me, the mechanic at the Honda shop had a buddy who would show up near the end of the work day to go for a ride with the Honda mechanic. This guy showed up on a Norton Commando. Watching him start the Norton from cold was interesting. It took me weeks to figure out what he was doing to the carbs to get the Norton running. I later learned he had to "tickle the carbs" which of course wet his finger tip with gasoline. Memories !!

A high school buddy bought a new 750 Commando. He stopped in where I worked and in the 10 minutes he was there talking to me it leaked several teaspoons of oil.
Nnever had to change the oil - just keep adding to it.