The bike I most wish I still had is this 2016 Thruxton R. I traded it for my current 2019 Speed Triple RS which I don't regret but do wish I'd have been able to keep the Thruxton, too.
Would that be a Lewis Leathers jacket by any chance Sandi? I have one very similar I bought in 1983 and it still fits (with a bit of inhaling). The main zip needs repair which Lewis's can do for around £90. I'm thinking of digging it out for the Street Scrambler.
I had a go on one of these and I didn’t buy it as I couldn’t believe how much the front "dropped" into slower corners! Beautiful bikes though. Gorgeous.
The early GSXR's did take some getting used to. The "bad" one was the '89 1100k which got some very bad reviews, not helped by the fatal accidents in the 1300cc production TT that year. The consensus seemed to be that there was to much weight over the front wheel brought about by just fitting the heavier 1100 motor into the 750 frame, hence the model being heavily revised for 1990.
Coming from an aircooled GSX 1100 with a skinny 19" front I never noticed that problem Remember the old VFR 1100 with a 16" front? *that* bike fell into roundabouts. Not in a good way.
I went from a GSXR1100 to the Fireblade and that DID take some getting used to. Shorter wheelbase, 30+kg less and a 16" front wheel. The power of 900cc with the handling of a 600 making many of the 750's of the day almost obsolete.
I had a foxeye blade (95) and just had to learn not to use such agressive input. Kept running a bit wide on bends from contra steering too hard
I went straight out and bought a new '95 Foxeye model in the "Urban Street Tiger" colours after the first one got wrote off. The early Foxeyes are the best looking of all the Blades IMO.
I had a red one of those in the early 70's GRJ 44D. Had clip-on's and a sporty plastic front mudguard.
@Pegscraper, nope, good guess but it's a First Gear jacket that I bought from a local motorcycle gear shop. I bought it "bone stock" and had the rivets and patches added later. Those additions make for a fun story. I saw a really cool Rocker style jacket on the Dime City Cycles website a number of years ago. They offered one men's and one women's version. When I e-mailed them about the women's jacket they told me they had a guy named Mike make it for them. They called him to see if it would be ok for me to contact him directly. Mike and I connected via e-mail and he was more than happy to customize my jacket for me. I had collected most of the patches you see here but he had some for sale one of which was the large Ace Cafe patch on the back. So I placed my patches where I wanted them, took photos, and shipped my jacket and patches off to Mike in Florida. He also had all the rivets so we discussed the design of those one he received my jacket. It seemed to be taking a very (very!) long time for him to customize my jacket and when I checked with him he was quite apologetic. Turns out his "real" job was a weather man and he was hunkered down covering the news off a hurricane that was happening on the Florida coast at the time! So, with apologies for the minor thread derailment, here are the photos of my First Gear Rocker MC jacket. P.S. It might be sacrilegious to have an Ace Cafe London patch on my jacket when I've never been there. But even back when I bought that patch (and well before joining this forum), I guess I was drawn to the UK.
Great jacket @Sandi T. but as Dilli said, you've got to get that Thruxton now to go with it... you know it makes sense
That is one cool jacket. The patchwork and studding looks professional, maybe the Weather guy is in the wrong job! My Lewis is just as it came with no "extras" other than a 3 Legs of Man motif on the back which I had put on while at the TT in '89. It's in exccellent condition and well worth resurrecting I think. P.S. I've never been to the Ace Cafe either so don't feel bad!
It was that period post fifties/early sixties heyday and pre revival. My old man used to work at the garage on the corner. We lived over Moss' grocers on the Stonebridge Rd going down to the North Circular. '68/69 I think.* The year. Not my age
Beautiful. The last one I had was a '97 RRV in a similar colour scheme. By that time they'd grown a bit to 918 cc and were a bit heavier. Still a class leader though until the R1 moved things on again in '98.