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I have many hobbies, and yes, motorcycling is one of them. I never got a picture of my 1st bike, a Honda XL175, orange, K4, about 1976. This photo was kindly donated by a fellow enthusiast! I purchased this bike from my Father, who originally bought this bike to teach me and my Brother to ride. |
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Pictured left is my second bike that owned - and
XL250R. This was quicker that the XL175, and much more capably off road. . (Click on images for full size!)
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Moving on to "bigger and better" things, my 3rd motorbike was a Honda XL600, which had much more power, as this photo shows! I bought this bike brand new. To this day, this was my favourite bike, both fastest and best handling. It would do 160kph on road, and not much less on dirt! |
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My next bike was a Yamaha XT600 Tenere 1988 model, similar to the one pictured here. This was not as quick as the Honda, made a lot of noise due to a "power pipe", and had a long range fuel tank on it, making it more suitable for country runs. |
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After a while of lugging around big heavy big-bore bikes in the dirt, I decided to go for a change, and got a Suzuki PE175 enduro bike. This was my first 2-stroke bike, and it was a lot of fun getting used to the "power band". This photo was taken after Brian and I had completed a cross-country enduro down at Harvey (2 hours south of Perth). Brian also owned an identical PE175 (but I used to kick his but anyway). Brian is the one on the bike, and yes - that is me in the photo as well! |
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Then, the thirst for more horsepower overcame me. So I bought an 1989 Honda CR250 motocross bike. This was a beast, and by far the fastest of any of my bikes off-road, and fastest accelerating bike (but Honda XL600 had a higher on-road speed). Again I did not take any photos as I only owned it for 1 year, so I have borrowed this photo. The downside of these bikes is that they are too high in maintenance - I seized the engine! |
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My next bike: The 1991 Kawasaki KLR650 Tengai. This is a great bike, featuring water cooling, electric start, fairing etc. This photo was taken on 28/12/1996 when I rode it to Cervantes via Wedge island, including about 10ks along the beach. That is wedge island in the background. Brian rode with me on his BMW 850cc "Dakar" bike. I sold this bike on 31/1/1998 |
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Ok,
so after a long spell "between bikes", I finally got another one. In
June 2013 I bought a brand new Suzuki DR650. It's a pretty basic bike,
cheaper than the other brands 650's, but from all my research, they are
well renowned for their reliability. They seem to hold their value well
too, as the 2nd hand units I looked at were within a thousand bucks of
a new one! It's air cooled rather than water cooled, but has oil
cooler, electric start, and all the normal standard configuration. It's
fun to ride, with tons of low down torque, but perhaps not quite as
fast as my original Honda (or could it be that I weigh more!). The goal
for this bike is to do some weekend touring / camping. UPDATE: Since buying it, I added many goodies to it. Click here to view full specs and photos. I sold this bike in May 2018 as my friend with another 650 that I ride with was no longer riding, and my other friends all had much faster Honda CRF-450R's.... so my next bike? |
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So
in Jan 2018 I purchase a 2009 Honda CRF-450R motocross bike, from a friend of a
friend. It had a re-built motor and gearbox. It hadn't been started for
a year when I bought it, and the tank had split. After getting the tank
plastic-welded, it fired up fine, and it gos real well. Definitly the
fastest accelerating bike I have owned. It has lots of after-market
goodies on it, including a very loud exhaust by Ballistic, Pro-Taper
handlebars, racing rims, levers, oil cooller braces etc etc. Since
buying it I have fitted an Acerbis bash plate. |
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In
2021 a friend put up his 1995 Kawasaki KLR650 for sale for a bargain,
and so I bought it. Upon receiving it, I immediatly upgraded some
components, including Renthal handlebars, Bash Plate, Delkevic exhaust.
It already had knobby tyres, and so it was good to go! This is not as
fast as my DR650, but it's quite torquey, and has a nice soft ride. I
just love riding this old tractor! |
These pages were last updated on 8 Jan 2022.