DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Bravo! A very nice job there.

Has it got an MOT yet? Were there any particularly difficult parts to get hold of? I hope that all the chrome plate is to a better standard than when they were new!

Been doing the final assembly of my old SS today, but was thwarted at the last when I was swapping over the oil lines from the old leaky oil cooler to a newer less leaky one, and the fitting sheared off the hose when I took it off the old oil cooler. Bah. Its' only been 12 months since it last ran before the enforced top end work.

Sailed through the MoT, chrome is show quality triple plated and bloody expensive!

Lovely little bike, so neatly designed and ver light.
Instant starter and sounds great.

Thinking of selling it to sponsor another bike adventure..

I'm in a bit of a bike-quandary at the moment - thinking about getting back into riding again, but really cant decide what direction to go in..
I have a couple of old bikes I inherited a few years back which are in storage and most likely won't get ridden (future living-room furniture/displays I reckon when we build a house big enough ) and so am kind of on the fence between..

1) something like a BMW GS that amie and I could both get use out of, and would be useful for riding to work and some longer journeys and things

2) something a bit older to blast around on dry sunny days (most probably Italian), like an MV F4 (early one with the gold wheels, 4 under-seat exhausts and plain silver/red paint) Ducati 916 / 996 or even my childhood dream bike, an 851!

3) something new to try and do everything, like the new BMW R9T or the ducati scrambler

Some pics for inspiration - you can tell option #2 (and in particular the MV) is winning right?..

Hello Smallspeed, this is a question that i have faced several times and there is no right answer. I suspect you know in your head that the right bike (and i am assuming like me you will only have one bike) 95% of the time is the BMW GS/GS Adventure. You can commute on it, you can scratch around lanes on it (i reckon on bumpy B-roads there is nothing better) and you can cross countries on it with all your luggage in a day without any bother.
I run a GS Adventure, and apart from the odd gloriously sunny day in the Alps or somewhere in the UK which has a decent surface and no traffic (....Wales, Scotland?) i think its the right thing to have. And it does have character.

But of course...the Ducatis (what's the plural for Ducati; Ducaties, Ducatii ?) do look so nice, and that's where your heart takes you sometimes. I would love an 851, but probably just to look at. And as for the F4, please avoid. It looks nice but the one i made the mistake of buying was the slowest sports bike i ever owned, it sounded rubbish even with carbon pipes, the suspension was too soft and lots of the detailing was in plastic. I took it to the TT for a week and after getting blown into the weeds for 7 days i returned home and sold it for an SP1!

So. IMHO. Buy a 1200 air cooled GS Adventure!

Smallspeed, this was my F4 (note: its parked-up, best thing for it..)


And this was my 916, which was a pretty good bike, i toured Scotland on it and here it is in Belgium (the 916 was a little under-powered if you want to do lots of track days)


And i reckon you should try one of these for a day before parting with any money. Hope that helps!

smallspeed wrote:I'm in a bit of a bike-quandary at the moment - thinking about getting back into riding again, but really cant decide what direction to go in..
I have a couple of old bikes I inherited a few years back which are in storage and most likely won't get ridden (future living-room furniture/displays I reckon when we build a house big enough ) and so am kind of on the fence between..

1) something like a BMW GS that amie and I could both get use out of, and would be useful for riding to work and some longer journeys and things

2) something a bit older to blast around on dry sunny days (most probably Italian), like an MV F4 (early one with the gold wheels, 4 under-seat exhausts and plain silver/red paint) Ducati 916 / 996 or even my childhood dream bike, an 851!

3) something new to try and do everything, like the new BMW R9T or the ducati scrambler

Some pics for inspiration - you can tell option #2 (and in particular the MV) is winning right?..

I guess those three will look good in the living room, or a short trip on a day when there's no rain forecast for 400 miles in any direction! I tried an 888 recently - I last rode one 25 years ago. Its true about not meeting your heroes; and in this case the 888's age showed.

Don't make the mistake of putting the R9T in the same class as some of the other 'retro' bikes like the T100/T120 Bonnies. The latter are a real taste of the golden age of British biking whereas the Nine has modern sports bike suspension, modern sports bike brakes and a grunty big-bore motor. It rides like a supermoto and it makes me feel like a Gixxer nutter again!



My pair.

>C

My beastie

HI - I've gone over to the dark side, and my original love of 2-strokes, raised on them from riding a Suzuki AP50 through GT125's X7's 350 Yams, still got my 350 YPVS and now this very rare Bimota V-Due. For those that know these bikes are hard to get right - this is one is different - wiring is a mess but I'm on it. Hope you like it.

Woo. Brave.

Direct injection two strokes are very, very sexy indeed. But only if they work properly...

Bought from the scrap man about 15 yrs ago and just started the resto

Goodwood, shoestring7 - some really interesting insight there! Weirdly (for most people) my heart was actually saying get a BMW, simply because I've always been a bit of a BM nut with cars and I do feel like I'd get more general use from something like a GS.. I did look at their big touring bikes (k1200s or something maybe?) but I think that's prob too big and fat for me - I'm not exactly tall and I have short legs so prob not a great match!

The issue is the italian sports bikes are soooooo pretty, however I'm not a fast rider or anything so 99% of the reason for getting one would be to look at it and not because it would go quick! I borrowed a friends 1098 a couple of weekends ago and barely warmed it up

I think I'm going to continue borrowing/hiring a few bikes this year and then think about getting something of my own in the spring (prob when everyone else is doing the same!)

Will report back when I've made some progress!

911hillclimber wrote:Very nearly finished this Honda restoration.

Facing the decision to ride it or sell it.

Ride it like you stole it

My current ride

Still a way to go!



From this...

1971 750 commando.Drunken Ebay moment about 3 years ago.Other bike is a Vincent Comet, in a wideline frame, currently being rebuilt.