I'm new, obviously, and chances are you guys are stuck with me.
I have always kind of been stand offish about bikes, but being into motorsports in general all my life (asphalt/tarmac stuff mostly and offroad only in the rally sort) I eventually can't help but bring myself to this. Living in california with enough crappy drivers anywhere in the state makes owning a bike a major risk, but after my fiances dad, her brother, and a number of other people got bikes I find myself wanting a little open air excitement. That said I'm the type of guy that can't leave well enough alone, and if it isn't broke it's not good enough.
There are two main things bringing me here. The first being heritage. My uncle road either a 77 or a 78 (have to call and make sure) kz650 back then (then being when they were new) and knowing my uncles inability to settle for anything less than the best, I'm of the oppinion that it really was the end all to be all of bikes at the time. This of course leaves me at a bit of a disadvantage. Starting off with a bike that has a fairly decent power to weight ratio, but not exactly modern in the sense of tire sizes concerns me a bit, but I suppose that's nothing a throttle lock for my first 6 months or so couldn't fix.
Secondly, my fiance's brother went and found a 73 Honda CB750. What a tank of a bike that is. Built like a Panzer tank, sturdy, slow, and technology from the 30s. I was going to have my own hands on fun with this bike until he showed up with what's basically a simpathetic restoration project some guy had worked on for several years, so I can't bring myself to force the kid to mess with it.
Ok, more about what I want to do. As I said, my uncle had a 650, so in turn I'm going that route. But being completely uncomfortable with carbueration systems and other seemingly old tech, I have plans to adapt an opensouced EFI setup I've previously used on my 300whp DD 85 Volvo station wagon. The thought of boost seems somewhat alluring, but building a motor with a little more compression than stock also seems like a viable (and most likely much safer) option.
I've been digging around on the forums and found some interesting information on the bike itself, and plan to use some of it, and I will likely end up messing around and coming up with something else in the process. It's going to be a long term process, more wrenching involved than riding for a long time, but the sooner I get my head in the more time I get to develope a good game plan.
Ultimately in about 2 years I plan to trailer the bike to Alabama (from california) to a Volvo event held there every summer, just so I can have a little fun with some of my friends. Raw speed is something I'm aiming at, but I'm more concerned with trackability. Custom swingarms anyone?
