"until someone had me off it a fortnight ago"
Hope you're OK, Brian. What happened?
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Heartbeat bike? Wouldn't that be a BSA Lightening then? Or am I missing something?
... oh, you wanted to be able use it reliably - I'd go for the Yamahondukasaki option then.
Cheers
Les
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Heartbeat bike? Wouldn't that be a BSA Lightening then? Or am I missing something?
The later bike was a BSA, but the one Nick Rowan rode was a Francis Barnett.
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Ah, a Franny Barnett - I remember them. Yes I believe he did ride one of those.
... not that I watch the programme, of course.
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Driving happily along the Camden road in the inside lane when some in a Porche just in front in the outside lane decided to swap lanes to save two seconds.
Still got a poorly left hand with bruises/dislocation or something.
Bike just repaired so hope to be back on it tomorrow.
Long insurance claim stsrted for loss of no claims, damage to clothing, extra travelling expenses, general damages for injury/inconvenience etc. just starting!
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I once road tested a tidy CB250 Superdream when I was looking for a reasonably cheap commuter bike. Took it up a long hill on the road test route and, when I eventually struggled to the top, I turned round and went back down to see if the fault was with me or the bike! I discovered I had to keep the tach around 10,000 rpm all the time to keep up with the traffic. However, the 400cc version was quite a nice medium-size tourer and the 400-4 I had later was an absolute gem. KYC99N where are you now? (sigh)...
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I had an (aircooled) RD 250 Yamaha 2 stroke in '79/'80, a mate had a 250 Superdream which was so slow! 250cc was the boy racers class then, you could ride one on 'L' plates at 17. One of the mags tested all of the 250's at Thruxton, Honda Superdream, Kawasaki KH250 (2 stroke triple) and Z250, Suzuki X7 (2 stroke twin), Yamaha XS 250 and the RD250, all but the RD hit a brick wall into the wind at about 85 mph though the RD pulled to an indicated 100 mph. Really confirmed what my mates and I already knew. One mate bought the actual RD250 used in the test direct from the Yamaha importer (then in Chessington), I rode it home for him because he was still only 16 at the time. Those were the days.
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Buy the biggest cc you can aford to :1 Run and 2. Insure
Having had previoudly Yamaha Fazer 600, Diversion 600& 900 and Suzuki GSX 750F can safely say the 1995 CBR 1000F i,m now riding is the easiest of them all to ride.
Yes it's fast, 110 in second i haven't got the bottle to try !! The 135 bhp and arm fulls of torque mean i can ride it as a twist and go 170 mph scoOter all i do is keep it in top and it pulls cleanly from 2000 RPM, don,t even change down to overtake.
Largest bike i,ve ever owned with Honda's build quality and the insurance is the cheapest i,ve ever paid at £185 fully comp.
CB250 is fine if that,s what you want but you,ll soon wish you had bought something a bit more capable. Best of luck.
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>>I had an (aircooled) RD 250 Yamaha
The one with the coffin tank ? Loved those. I was never too struck on the LC though. Having said that, the LC and the X7 were after my time. KH, Hustler and the RD with the pear drop tank were my choices. The CB250 or the CB250N (Superdream) were crap. But do you remember the one in between? It was the Honda 250 Dream (no "super"). Big bulbous tank. What a POS that was.
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Although I had two myself, I never regarded two strokes as "proper" motorcycles. That awful buzz sounding like a bee in a Coke tin, oiled up plugs, holed pistons and new rings and a rebore every other week. Engines that reached a zillion revs in a second bolted into frames made of toffee and siting on tyres that had a wet weather phobia. I suspect that were all those seventies classics revived and put alongside todays bikes we would see what dangerous piles of poo they really were.
Good fun though, wouldn't have missed it for the world.
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KH250 and later an older 500 H3.
Omigod, those were so much fun. No cedibility, couldn't handle in the dry very well, never mind in the wet. But what fun.
Oh those halogen days.
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Hi Mark / Tom,
Yes I remember the Honda Dream, same engine as the Super Dream though only 5 speed, at least it did not pretend to be a sports bike like the Super Dream. I think there was an auto version of the 400 Dream.
Yes, my RD250 had the coffin tank, it was an 'E' model, one of the first production vehicles with capacitor discharge ignition, made it much easier to keep in tune than previous models which had points, if they slipped a holed piston was a possibility (the three cylinder Kawasaki's and Suzuki's had three sets of points!). The RD250A superceded the YDS7 and introduced reed valves, the 'B' introduced a front disc brake, the 'C' the coffin tank and a rear disc, the 'D' the cowl around the rear seat light and alloys as an option (alloys were available on the 400'C'), the 'E' seven port barrels, CDI ignition, more power, and the 'F' as per the 'E' though alloys were standard.
Contray to Tom's point I reckon that due to CDI etc the RD250E & F were probably the most refined 250's of the day, they redlined at around 8000 and did not have to be thrashed to make good progress, later 250 2 strokes such as the LC's, Kawasaki KR1 and KR1S, the Suzuki RGV, Aprilla's etc had the reputation for screamin' and smokin' making all of their power, 60 odd hp, in a narrow band.
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Somewhere in my vast collection of colour slides and photos I have one of me and Ball & Chain #1 on a Dream taken in Bali c.1966? (that was when the airport was just a grass strip and before the Australians realised the place existed, i.e. when it was worth visiting and hardly anyone has heard of it. We rented the bike for a week in the rainy season and fell off four times trying to an entire circuit of the island on what were then little more than farm tracks for roads. B & C claimed it was my fault, I claimed it was the lousy tyres.........
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....and before some cleverclogs says it, no, it was not the magic mushrooms....
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a "dream" in 66 ? I wouldn't have thought so. The UK one would have been more like '76. Although whether or not other countries had a similarly names bike earlier, I couldn't say.
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Sorry Mark, I was selling 250 cc Honda Dreams (navy blue with chrome square edged tank and gearshift on the "wrong" side plus WOW, electric starters) along with Benly 125 cc twin (black and chrome) for Gray & Rowsell Ltd of Worthing in 1963....we were one of the first UK dealers to entertain Hondas in UK as sales of Brit bikes slumped. There was later I believe an odd-sized 305 cc Dream, but I never rode that.
I am clear about that (a) since the first ones had main bearing troubles, and unbelievably - then at least - Honda recalled all sales and replaced entire engines, and (b) since we were all amazed that Hondas came with a full toolkit, spare sparkplugs and a little baseball hat -- compared with what UK bikes came with with, or rather didn't and (c) since I was fired September of that year to take up an abortive career in mushroom (not magic ones) farming (!)
Honda began expanding across it nearest markets (Asia) in the late 50's. That was why Japanese cars and bikes reached Australia long before they did Britain for example. Indeed their first target was the US market. When I travelled Asia for the first time in the 1960's Japanese bikes were everywhere, hence my Bali experience.
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The Benly I do remember, and it was a name they resurrected in later days, but I didn't realise that they had used the name Dream before.
You learn something new......
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I also vividly recall (this was just a decade and half after WW2 remember) the loathing that those bikes inspired in two of the older mechanics who had been captured by the Japs in the Far East and been used as slave labour on the Burma railroad. No fancy stress counselling in those days.
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I also vividly recall (this was just a decade and half after WW2 remember) the loathing that those bikes inspired in two of the older mechanics who had been captured by the Japs in the Far East and been used as slave labour on the Burma railroad. No fancy stress counselling in those days.
>
Even well into the 1970's the anti-Japanese feelings persisted among older people. I remember pulling into a filling station in rural Kent on a CB175 while with a mate on his Bantam (which he still has today, in bits in his garage) The owner came running out, purple in the face and gave me the biggest load of abuse I have ever been on the end of, threatening all sorts of violence if I didn't get that effing pile of Jap stuff of his forecourt.
The letters pages of the mags were often full of Brit v Jap debates that were quite heated, this at a time when the home industry had all but disappeared. Anyone who rode to work on a Japanese bike had to put up with the sarcastic comments about coffee grinders from the old boys who would then bore you to death with monologues about their Ariel Square Fours, etc.
There were also stories in the press that anyone who took a Japanese car into the car parks at British Leyland was likely to find it vandalised by the end of his shift, though I think that was more because of fear of the competition than any war hangover.
Attitudes have certainly changed in a comparitively brief period of time.
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"Long insurance claim started.."
Good luck - if they give you any hassle, I'd threaten them with Mark (RLBS)! :-)
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Perusing through my extensive library - one bookcase - I came across one of those coffee table books on motorcycles that people buy you at Christmas when they have run out of ideas and are aware you are some sort of hell's Angel type. A page devoted to the CB250 Dream pulls up some interesting facts, the bike featured being a 1967 model.
The engine was housed in a pressed steel frame, enclosed chain and pressed steel leading link front forks. It looks almost exactly like a 50cc Cub with a bigger motor shoehorned in. The text claims it produced 23Bhp, whereas today's CB250 only pumps out 18.5! With what looks like a single lead shoe front brake and 1960's tyres and suspension the handling must have bordered on the "interesting" at times.
The reason the "Dream" name hung on for so long was that it was apparantly a particular favourite of Soichiro Honda.
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Should be in here, somewhere...
www.bikepics.com/honda/cb250/
Also look for CB72 - how Brit bikers used to laugh!
Loved the look of those early engines, with the close finning (like Laverda). Probably why I like my Suzuki GS500, too.
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In the original version of the above there was Papa Romeo Alpha Tango in front of "in a Porche".
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I used to have one of the original Dream 250s, 1963 vintage, it was my first bike (and it was eleven years old when I got it). Fell off a couple of times going round corners before realising it had a square section rear tyre, as though it had previously had a sidecar attached. Very strange. I didn't know much about bikes in those days. It was known as the C72, with the C77 being the 305cc version. The CB72 Super Dream was the bike to own though, twin carbs and went like the proverbial. Most Honda enthusiasts consider that they haven't produced a decent 250 since and were sceptical (with good reason) when the Dream name was revived. I'd second the comments about the NTV650, not an exciting bike but extremely reliable and no chain to worry about. They do tend to be in demand from couriers and despatchers though.
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"with the C77 being the 305cc version"
I remember that (in the late 60's) being considered highly desirable, possibly because learners were then limited to 250's. Those early twins were nice engines, though...
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> In the original version of the above there was Papa Romeo Alpha Tango in front of "in a Porsche".
What else would it be (apart from something a lot ruder)? :-)
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