"Too much bike" or nostalgia? 100hp 4cyl vs <50hp twin for leisurely back road riding

[JMHJ]

Here you go:

1983 HONDA VT500 - motorcycles/scooters - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)

Have fun.

[JMHJ]

On too much bike subject, I saw a post on here recently where someone said a GSXR something or other scared heck out of them. Maybe anything should scare heck out of you in that case... You can get killed on a slow bike. It's not all about having too much power.

[dorkburger]

I guess I was a bit vague. To me backroad is widely defined as anything below a state highway, from 25mph up to 55mph limit, with a lot of those landing in the 40-45mph posted speed limit range, twisty, sometimes mediocre pavement, sometimes narrow and/or no marked centerline. A prime example last summer was PA 414 that runs along Pine Creek in Northern/central PA. It's cut into a mountainside, very narrow and twisty, the posted speed limit is as low as 25mph in some spots but goes up to 35-45 in some other areas. I was on my GS1100E last summer on that road and it just felt super overkill/out of place. A bull in a china shop.

The ride thru Pine Creek Valley is lovely.

[LAB3]

Here you go:

1983 HONDA VT500 - motorcycles/scooters - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)

Have fun.

For that price you could probably pick up four or five bikes in that size range, rahab them and get 'em on the road. $5k is nuts!

[GS1150Pilot]

I still want a TW200 ... just sayin'.

[rphillips]

That's what I thought. The VT500 (V-twin) should be worth a lot more than the FT500 (single cyl.) but that price really seems waaaaay out of range for anything like that.

[zuluwiz]

I started riding on 2-stroke singles and had all kinds of fun on a TS250. Not a twin, but a really fun bike that you could take ANYWHERE. Could and did. Didn't need pavement. To quote Doc Brown: " Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads."

[rphillips]

That's what I thinking by backroads, "roads" where you don't need street bikes.

[gtem]

On the Enfield suggestion, they have certainly caught my eye, the prices especially catch my attention. There are a lot of potential candidates out of the newer "retro remake" bikes that could be a good fit, but I will say I briefly owned a 2001 Bonneville (bought it for $1500 with 1500 miles, needed the pilot jets cleaned out), and it was just way too sanitized feeling. Very smooth, quiet. I'm sure a slightly opened up exhaust would help the equation, but even then there's just this lost element of the true vintage "flavor" that modern bikes seem to have all refined away. Throw in fuel injection on all of these things and it really is a turn off to me personally.

I was talking to my brother about this today, how we should try doing a "throwback tour" both riding out first bikes. Me on my XS500 and him on his old CB360. He summed up in a single sentence what I wrote a whole dang substack article about (https://substack.com/inbox/post/108584692 if you're interested, totally free). "Feels like more of an adventure on the small bikes." Riding an actual old bike adds to the "adventure" aspect for sure, and I think that's a lot of what I've been chasing.

[Suzukian]

I got to ride a Laverda 1000 3 cylinder. The pistons fire at 120 degrees. What a beast!

Laverda 3 cyl 1000.jpg

[GS1150Pilot]

I just picked up my R1100R from the paint shop after having the tank redone. Rode it about 70 miles yesterday. Such a different ride from the Harley. Not as quick, but so much smoother over pavement, and sooooo quiet.

Speaking of early bikes, I still need to really dig in on restoring my brother's old CB900f. That was the bike that wooed me from dirt to the street.

I can definitely see myself buying something in the way of a dual sport in the next year or so. DRZ400s look really fun.

[GS1150Pilot]

I got to ride a Laverda 1000 3 cylinder. The pistons fire at 120 degrees. What a beast!

Laverda 3 cyl 1000.jpg

A customer of my dad's auto shop used to ride a Jota. That bike was incredible.

[Suzukian]

I spent a month in Oklahoma one year when I was a teenager. My brother in law was working for a Honda Dealership. I swept and mopped the floor, because it needed it, and the owner was so happy, he gave me a CT-70 and told me to stick to the "Farm Roads" and go where anywhere I wanted too. Those farm roads were longer than Connecticut! No registration or insurance required.

[GS1150Pilot]

Back in Ohio, we rode Trail 90's all over the place.

[LAB3]

Back in Ohio, we rode Trail 90's all over the place.

We used Trail 110's back in the 80's when I was surveying, the amount of abuse they received was pretty brutal but the darn things just kept going and going. Bulletproof little machines! Just recently saw an article on someone touring Alaska on one and you gotta admit, it would be hard to find a better bike to be in the middle of nowhere with and little to no support to get you where you wanted to go.