Re: [ST] RE: Previous Bikes

["Howlin' Dawg" <martinthebike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

198? Suzuki GT200-X5 Two stroke twin. Light weight and fast for its size. I 
bought it as a Pile of parts and had to strip and rebuild it before I could 
ride. This bike lasted me through my college years, carried me and various 
pillions all over the country in a cloud of blue smoke and ate three 
crankshafts while I owned it. I could never have sold it but got tired of 
rebuilding it and gave it to a friend.

197? Yamaha YB100 Two stroke single. Bought this as an apalling pile of poo 
for £145. Spent a few quid on turning it into a cafe racer (penniless 
student remember) and thought my girlfriend how to ride it. She used that 
bike for two years as a daily commuter with me occasionally thrashing it 
around the twisty country lanes near where I lived at the time. Eventually 
gave it to a friend in exchange for his help with moving house (he had a 
van). He promptly siezed it by adding two stroke oil into the fuel tank as 
well as the oil tank.

19?? Kawasaki KH250 Two stroke triple. Mwahahaha. What a noise! Somewhere 
around this time there was also a Yamaha 550 shaft drive twin which never 
did run. I eventually chopped it up and grafted the bodywork onto the 
GT200-X5. Amazingly it looked really, really good. Unfortunately I don't 
have any pictures of this hybrid. Swopped the Yammy remains and knackered 
Kwaker for a crate of Jack Daniels.

Moto Guzzi California III, Cream and Brown paint, foot boards, huge bars. It 
wouldn't even fit down the side of my house to get it into the garage. I 
felt rediculous on such a big machine.

Kawasaki GPX 250 F-8 Ninja. My first new bike. 100 MPH, 80 MPG. Tiny and 
light. Myself and the same girlfriend bought one each and toured extensively 
on them. I sold mine after one year with 24K miles on the clock for £500 
less than I bough it for.

1979 Moto Guzzi V50II. I loved this from the moment I saw it, despite the 
rust and orange peel respray. I eventually decided I liked it so much that 
It was taken off the roads and was treated to a ground up, no expense spared 
restoration. After the restoration it ran flawlessly for 30K miles in my 
hands. Eventually sold because I'd become used to bigger bikes but it stayed 
in the garage until 2002. I really wish I'd kept this one :O(

Suzuki 600 Bandit. When the first bandits showed up on the dealers floors I 
was hooked and had to have one. At last some real performance. at least 
that's what I thought. Fitted a givi screen, topbox, renegade can, dynojet 
kit and a K&N. This was an everyday commuter, two up tourer, took me out for 
my first trackday and sounded wonderful with the throttle pinned to the 
stop. Eventually I outgrew the suspension and it was time for some mods or a 
change. Then.....

Suzuki released the TL1000S. My jaw hit the floor. My wallet opened and I 
made the most expensive purchase of my young life. Within five miles of 
collecting it in Dublins city centre I hated it. It kept stalling and my 
body ached from the contortions the bars forced me into. When I got it home 
my girlfriend (still the same one) hated it too, convinced I would kill 
myself on the thing. I was devastated. What had I done. Later that evening I 
decided to take the instrument of torture out for another run on quieter 
roads. I returned pumped with adrenaline and wearing a grin that wouldn't go 
away. It was treated to a vast array of goodies, both performance and 
cosmetic but was also prone to the well documented quality control issues 
the TL was famous for. Strangely I always found the handling to be excellent 
if not quite GSXR750 standards. Sold it to a mate who turned out to be a 
git.

In 1999 I started looking around for a bike that my Girfriend and I could 
once again share. The V50 was physically too small for two riders and 
luggage and she refused to get onto the TL again after one too many 
wheelies. I had heard about the new Sprint ST but Triumphs are a rare breed 
in Ireland and test rides are a thing of myth. You buy before you ride!!! I 
joined this list searching for more information and eventually arranged to 
meet up with Belgian lister Marc De Vries  (you still here Marc?) when he 
visited Ireland. Marc and I met, chatted and then he offered to let me try 
his ST. So we swapped bikes and within ten miles I knew this was the perfect 
bike for me. A few weeks later a shiney new Red ST appeared in the driveway.

The TL then departed to be replaced with a Guzzi 1100 Sport. It sounded 
fantastic through its Raceco and Renegade exhaust system and it looked like 
absolutely nothing else on the roads. It was a great fun bike even if it was 
totally outclassed by it's jap contemporaries. This bike more than any other 
I've owned required a huge effort to get the best out of it. It most 
definitely made me a better rider. Eventually sold it to a guy who crashed 
it on his way home from collecting it from me. :O(

Then there was a brief dalliance with an Aprilia Futura. Man that bike 
impressed me. Out of the box it was an improvement over the ST in so many 
ways. However by this time my ST had been modded to suit me and the Futura 
wasn't up to the job of besting the tweaked triumph so it was sold to my 
brother in law.

Then the V50 disappeared to my 21 year old, vertically challanged cousin. He 
was delighted to find a 'real bike' that he could actually flat foot. It 
went to make room for a 2002 Speed triple. I spent a fortune tweaking what I 
thought was my dream bike to make it just perfect but somehow it never quite 
got under my skin the way the others did. Sold it just before Christmas 
2004.

Also at that time I sold my 1999 ST and bought a 2004 ST. I had  been 
looking around for a fresh mount and there was nothing to tempt me away from 
the ST. When I heard about the '05 I was intrigued but when I saw the specs 
and pictures I realised that it probably wasn't the agile two up tourer that 
I wanted, it was more of a comfy solo sports bike with accomadation for an 
occasional pillion. Pillion comfort is very high on my list of priorities as 
my wife (yes, still the same girl) loves biking almost as much as I do. At 
the moment the ST is the only bike in my garage. It will be joined by 
something else this summer. I did consider the Rocket III (WOW) but will 
probably get another Guzzi. They're addictive you know :O)

Howlin'
Ireland


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