Technically..it all started for me on a 1985 Honda Nighthawk 450. That was the first motorcycle I ever bought and was the one that I got my license on. I do not have a picture of it..it was sweet...Candy Red paint job...and slow as could be..not that I could tell at the time..not till my buddy went and bought a Kawi Ninja 600..then I knew it. LOL
I had sold that bike after a year, and decided to get into amateur mountain bike racing. I used the money from the 450 to buy a GT full suspension. I had fun doing that for a year, and then decided I wanted back into two wheels with a motor.
I bought a 1996 Suzuki Katana 600.....first new bike for me.
Started like this, with out the seat skin. I soon got over the teal paint job. Don't really know why I bought it...just thought it was better than the black, they also had in the show room, at the same time.
I then decided I wanted it to be silver..and wanted to "mod" as many things as I could myself. I spent countless hours sanding the wheel lips to get them to a polished lever...I started redoing the fairings...never got to the tank as you can see. I was big on watching " American Chopper"...back when it was cool to watch and the fab work they did was interesting. I made my own mirror mounts to get rid of the Katana mirrors and be able to mount some CBR style mirrors. This was also the first bike I ever redid the seats on. This was the first bike I swapped exhaust on and jetted my own carbs on too.
I never actually finished this bike, since I had started a separation from the first wife..and got divorced a couple months later. I took that bike and another** with me when I bought my current house and was finally done with the Ex.
** The week I had decided to split from my Ex..I had gone with a couple buddies to an HD dealer..and picked out an Sportster 1200 Custom..it was a divorce gift to myself. I got a sportster since it was as much bike as I could afford from HD, without going over the $10,000 limit I had set for myself. It came in three months later..I had wanted to wait for the 100th anniversary paint scheme. 2003 Sportster 1200C:
I had modded this bike to exactly where I wanted it. It was just enough to be my own..and not overdone..like a lot of HD guys do. I also relished the fact that my little " chicks bike" was faster than my buddies bikes.and they hated that. In fact, before the creation of the Vrod, the sportster had always been HD's fastest production bike...did not make as much power as the bigger bikes..but did not need to....power to weight ratio was waayyy better.
So, not too long after I was in my new house..I decided I was done with the Katana and wanted something bigger, newer and faster. I sold the Katana and soon after, ( Jan 05) bought my 2003 SV1K:
Basically bone stock..other than the chin fairing and seat cowl I bought with in a month or so. This bike was what I started track days on....what I learned to really ride on, and what I learned to really enjoy motorcycling on. Prior to this bike, my gear was a bomber leather jacket, work gloves and a Bieffe helmet. That all changed once I started doing weekend rides and track days.
Here is where I got a sweet deal on some Yosh cans..and installed them:
I had done my first season of track days on this bike..and was really having a hard time trying to learn on this bike. Others have done better on this bike on the track..but I could not. I also did not wanna push too hard, and mess up my nice new shiny SV. So, I bought, a beater 2001 GSXR 600 dedicated track bike:
Yes, in my house..I have no garage.
I did better on a bike that was more meant for the track and that I was not worried about wrecking it:
Sadly..the track bike had a bum motor, and I only did one track day with it before getting the motor rebuilt..After I tried a motor swap myself..that only took going around the block before it broke down...I think I messed up the timing..and caused it to drop a valve. I then had it professionally rebuilt.
But, the SV got some white wheels for a while..since they had good rubber on them.
The bike soon started getting modded and going through some changes:
This was the first round of changes:
Small stuff...red flames. Not too many were fans of the red flames..and some were color blind thinking they were pink.
I decided I was not a fan of the flames after a while either...especially when they started peeling off easily.
So, then it went through its first major make over.....changed suspension and brakes front to back( GSXR upgrades), added some neat bits, etc:
Sometime, around this time..I was also getting ready for my second season of track days, and got a dirtbike for offroading..many of my friends said what was good and fun way to get in shape it was.
enter the 1995 KDX 200:
I had it( the SV1K) like that for a year or so....was partially not changed for a while due to a little leg breaking highside in 2006.
That changed a lot of things..although I still always wanted to ride....it changed how aggressive I would be, on track or off.
During the time off the bike...I ended up selling the GSXR track bike and dirt bike(KDX) not too long after. I had to pay the bills somehow...NJ disability wasn't cutting it.
So, then I was there with just the SV1K, which I'll never get rid of..and my HD 1200 sporty. Once I got back on the horse, so to speak......The SV was winning out every weekend and the poor HD was just collecting dust. I loved riding it....but was not making time for it..so I decided to sell it too. I had an upcoming wedding, 2nd wife, coming up in 2007..and that was covered a good portion of the expenses.
(( I really wish I had this bike back..it was a great cruiser..and fun to ride.))
About that time, I had a crap load of left over parts from the track bike and donor bikes I had to get parts from...so what to do...build a street fighter. Take a pile of parts from this:
to this:
Around the same time I had finished the GSXR Street fighter..it was also winter..so I had decided I wanted to drastically change my SV1K. I was not trying to be Ricky racer every weekend anymore, and due to rising gas costs, I was using the bike for commuting to work way more often. That prompted changing from clip ons to bars. I was not happy with just those changes..I wanted to do a tail end swap as well. I decided I really like the newer style GSXR tails( which I actually hated when I first saw them). I decided I would go about mounting one of those tails to my Sv1K. Of course, right away, I figured out the SV subframe would not work...so I had to create my own custom subframe....so I did. This is what I ended up, and the way bike sits now..basically.:
I had title issues with the GSXR streetfighter project..and was never able to get a good NJ title for it. I tried using it for two track days this past season...but after rebuilding an ebay motor I had put in there.....other issues plagued the bike. Between working on that bike for two years and not being able to use it for anything, and doing all the work I had done to the latest SV1K makeover.....AND running a small custom parts business in there for a while..I was just plain burned out. I decided I just did not wanna work on anything anymore. I stopped making parts for sale.....finished the Sv1K to start riding it, and decided to try selling the hot mess that was the GSXR.
The bike never sold, in tact,so I started parting it out. That provided the funds to buy my latest toy, which would allow me to get off road again, and start ADV riding and taking advantage of all the land that was around me.
Enter the 2000 DRZ 400:
So these are the bikes I have now..the SV1K and DRZ 400. Both should provide a good season of riding fun and hopefully not too much working on them.
I also had a 77 CB750 project in there for a while too...but sold that when I decided I was done with "projects"
Never came to be:
Rendering:
That is all for now..hope you enjoyed.
You can see more about all the bike projects here:
http://home.comcast.net/~dougzweb/index.html
http://home.comcast.net/~dougzweb2/crp.html
As i'm hurtling down the pavement with Billy Talent blasting in my ears i couldn't help but think how cool it would be to see this huge pack of bikes flying down the slab. All from the same forum, some old friends and some new but all in it for the same thing. It really made the time go by a lot faster and made something usually boring turn into a whole other aspect of fun.
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