NOTICE

I sometimes get random queries from complete strangers, like "What's my bike worth" or "Will you help me restore my bike". I'm always surprised that they don't come with a preamble along the lines of:

"Hi, you don't know me but I saw your web site (nice job) and wondered if you would answer a (few) questions for me"

After all, you wouldn't just walk up to a stranger on the street and say "Hey bud, how much is my car worth?". I'd probably start with "excuse me for bothering you" and go from there, conscious of the fact that I was asking the stranger to do me a favor by spending time with me.

HINT If you want to ask me a question, it had better come with a nice polite preamble or it's "Delete City", you dig? You have no excuse, even if you're totally illiterate you can just copy the preamble above. However, extra points will be awarded for:

Correct grammar and spelling
Effusive but sincere compliments on my web page(s)
NO HTML! HTML email is an abomination. HTML is for web pages. If you have AOL 6.0, you cannot send email without HTML unless you use the AOL web-email facility. Please do so if you want me to read your email.

Mr Manners

Oh yeah, to save everybody's time, see the FAQ.

For more on the topic of asking good questions, see: E.S.Raymond's treatise.

Also note, due to excessive spam, email from the following countries is now completely blocked from my inbox: ar, at, cn, co, cz, es, hk, il, jp, kr, ph, sa, se, sk, sv, th, and tw. So if your email address ends in one of those, I can't hear you. If you want to complain, complain to the spammers in your country.

Finally, don't bother to send me Word files and other unreadable proprietary cruft. I delete any emails containing attachments sent by persons not known to me and put the offending email address in my kill file.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this page is so that I can share pictures of some of my hobbies and interests with friends and family, and because I like the idea of publishing useful information (such as in the case of my motorcycle rental page. I don't really expect the general public to give a hoot about a 1964 Honda 50.

I don't run a business here, however, and so if you like these pages, thats fine, but I'm not soliciting motorcycle work, or luthier jobs, or bicycle building jobs.

MC Accessories

In March, 2002, I acquired a Fastbag (was a link to www.usfastbag.com but now, sadly, gone) but thought it could be improved. Here is a description of my modifications.

Other neat bits described here.

The Museum

The web site author. Must be 18 years old or be accompanied by parent or guardian to view full sized image.

1964 Honda CA100 Super Cub with only 900 miles, owned by William three sticks. William astride same.

1971 Norton Commando with Dunstall bodywork and replica Dunstall tank in alloy. The extremely trick, custom made tank is by Evan Wilcox of Ukiah, CA. Right-Front 3/4 view

Mods include: Sparx three-phase alternator and regulator/rectifier. Air horns. Boyer ignition. 18" Honda rear rim with stainless spokes from Buchanans. Thomaselli clip-ons. CRG folding rear view mirrors. Gustaffson tinted windscreen. "Comstock" head steady. Finned rocker and timing covers from "hortonmc" on Ebay. Single Mikuni from . Braided steel oil feed lines to rockers. Oil filter in place of "Atlas" points blanking plate. Sleeved-down master cylinder from Fair Spares. YSS shocks from EPM Performance. JC Whitney turn signals from the 1970's. Wolo "Bad Boy" air horns.

1971 Moto Guzzi Ambassador. A much earlier picture with William three-sticks. (He's now all growed up.) (Note plexifairing, now it sports a Bates.)

Mods include: "Field/Nolan" alternator kit. "Jump" steering damper. Heim joints in shift linkages. Oxford heated grips. Headlight relays. Sears-Roebuck air horns. Oil filter inline with feed to heads.

The back of it. The motor.

1973 Honda CB350F, just started fixing it up.

Side cover close up.

Somebody else's 1974 Honda CB350F, I'm afraid.

1976 Honda CB400F Super Sport with Shoei fairing, Marzocchi shocks and crash bar. Rear turn snigals re-located to make room for soft saddlebags for touring! Bike has about 40000 miles on it. I picked this one up in about 1982, with a crunched tank, king and queen seat, 6 bend pull back handlebars, sissy bar, and side stand tang torn right out of the frame! Oh yeah, and the cam chain adjuster bolt was snapped off. A real rat bike.

The most beautifully shaped pipes in motorcycling.

1977 Honda CB550F Super Sport. It's tastefully dressed in a Rickman fairing and clubman bars with Gustaffson screen, Corbin seat, and Raask rear-set pegs. Other upgrades include Fiamm hi-lo horns, and a radar detector mounting shelf. I recently replaced the front signals with smaller units that mount on the Rickman fairing.

This bike now has 55000 miles on it. It had about 4800 when I bought it in about 1985. I think I'm the second or third owner. The first muffler lasted 50000 miles, I replaced it with a decent used E-bay muffler when it finally started to rust through.

Honda 550F [right front 3/4] views.

1990 Honda CBR600F. A real rocket. 93hp. Ninety-three horsepower! 140mph top speed (as tested by Motorcyclist magazine in 1990).

Mods (not shown) include heated grips, frame sliders, and a "snakeskin" seat cover that hides some bicycle seat gel inserts.

The right side. Note clever use of reflective tape to cover crash damage inflicted by previous owner.

1989 Honda GB500TT -- Honda's 1960's British Cafe Racer. 500cc single. Rear sets. Bum-stop seat. Clip-ons. Dark Green with Gold Pinstriping. Lots of fun.

The left side.

1975 BMW R90S -- BMW's race replica/sport bike. 900cc, DelOrto "pumper" carbs, dual disk brakes. Daytona Orange paint job.

Mods include: easy-pull clutch, big alternator, electronic ignition, headlight relays, air horn, odometer reset clutch, Brown sidestand, Centech AP-1 Fuse panel, AM/FM rubber ducky antenna.

The The plaque the bike won at European Bike Day in Germantown, MD, in May, 2009.

Sold

1976 Honda CB360T, with Shoei fairing and Mac mufflers. Kate rode this one. A local bike shop was throwing this bike out, the owner had abandoned it. Needed coils, carb parts, air filters and air boxes, mufflers, battery, and a title. I found the original owner and he gave me the title! Scrounged the rest of the parts (except for air box for one side that I had to fabricate out of sheet metal, they are unobtanium from Honda), and . . . ta-da! (Thanks to Jerry S. for the fairing.)

Sold

1986 Honda XR200R. Three-sticks rode this one.

Sold

1984 Honda XR250. Bill rode this one.

Sold

1974 Benelli Tornado 650S. 9850 miles from new, second owner. Very good original condition. Boranni rims, 2 leading, 4 shoe front brake. 5 speeds, shifts down for up on the right. Electric start. Located in New Jersey, USA.

Theright sideshowing dented side-cover, the only flaw on this bike.

Benelli Tornado [Front 3/4] and [rear 3/4] views.

Benelli Tornado [Front 3/4] and [side] view, lighter exposure.

Sold

1979-ish Yamaha MX100. Three-sticks outgrew this and so it is was sold on, after we replaced the fork seals in 1999.

This is a great learner bike for children approx 8 to 14 years of age.

Sold

1983 Honda XR80. William Three-sticks outgrew this and so we sold it.

This is a great learner bike for children approx 8 to 14 years of age.

Sold

1974 Honda CB740K3 with 1974 Jawa Sidecar. 19020 miles.

VIN: CB750 2350247
Manuf: 7/74

Honda 750K3 [Left side] and [front] views.

Honda 750K3 left sidecover close up.

Bill on his home-made VW trike circa 1976. This vehicle was sold in the mid 90's when the cost of insuring it became silly, and I was into cafe racers then, anyway. Motor was a 1500cc VW, with big jugs to "bore" it out to 1650cc. Mods included high capacity oil pump with spin-on oil filter, headers. Rear end was from a VW Squareback, so it had bigger drum brakes than your standard Beetle drums. Front wheel started out as one from a Honda Trail-90 or something equally spindly, later graduated to a wheel from something bigger, like a Honda 350. Gas tank was (I think) from a Honda 750. Body was the back half of a Manx dune-buggy, with home-made seat back and seat cushions. Behind seat back is a rectangular gas tank good for a few more (five?) gallons, since a VW won't run far on just the (2.5 gallons of) gas in the CB750 tank.