Some of you weren't born when I bought this

1985

Oh, I remember those.
An ex-brother-in-law had a 1984 model, the first model year they were available.
He even let me ride it.
Actually, more like insisted I ride it so that I'd be mightily impressed with it. :)

His didn't make it to 1985 in one piece. ;)

I had an 85 750. Of course it was about 6 years old when I bought it. But it was the one that started my V4 obsession. This was my last one. It wasn't the same with the Vtec but still had that same distinctive exhaust sound. However, I still like the gear whine of the 5th gens. I'll probably get another one of those in the future.

motokid wrote:

1985

Awesome man! I love bikes out of the 80s. Honda was putting out some great bikes in the early 80s, but mostly 750, 900s and the 1100F in 83 .... nothing in the 500cc class until the interceptor. I never owned one, but rode one and it was quite a different feel from an inline 4. I was thinking, this thing isn't even fast .... and I looked down to see I was almost at 85mph

Can I babble on here for a moment? ... you got me excited about this subject

84 was a pinnacle year for Japanese motorcycles. I don't know what the heck happened, but from 83 to 84, the bikes were light years ahead in just one year! Stiff frames, much better suspension and much stronger engines! Watching the Japanese technology in motorcycles was fascinating through the 80s and into the 90s.

In 84 we had:

The Honda interceptors of course. If I remember right, they had the 750 and 1000cc flavors too.
Yamaha's spectacular FJ1100
Suzuki's arm stretching GS1150E and ES
Kawasaki's mind blowing 900 Ninja and class beating 750 turbo WoW what a great year that was!!!

Here are a few pix of bikes I had back then

This was an 85 ... the first full bodywork Japanese sport bike! Smooth as your Grandma's sewing machine.



This bike came out in 85 and was a technological marvel. It rewrote the book on how to design a sport bike. Mass centralization baby!!

This is an 86.



... even though this is an 81, it's probably the most fun I've ever had on a street bike!!




Thank you , that will be all

And let's not forget the 250 and 500 Gamma, especially the Walter Wolf edition 500
The anniversary edition Suzuki 750 Katana, in Canada there were 200
the RZ 500 and FZR 400
83 the KDX200 and 84 the IT200, 85 Quadracer was killer, I loved the one I had

And then the crash, 1985 the Yen went nuts and prices went up substantially

That was good times back then

Your quadracer was sick! Remember this?

I thought that the 80's were great days for bikes. I bought a 89 GB500 new in 90. And a 89 Hawk GT in 92. I had a XT500, a XS650, and a host of other less notable bikes.
In 09 while looking at the WRR I found a pristine 88 Hawk GT with less than 10,000 miles for $2400.00. I bought both that day.

zone47 wrote:

Can I babble on here for a moment? ... you got me excited about this subject

84 was a pinnacle year for Japanese motorcycles. I don't know what the heck happened, but from 83 to 84, the bikes were light years ahead in just one year! Stiff frames, much better suspension and much stronger engines! Watching the Japanese technology in motorcycles was fascinating through the 80s and into the 90s.

In 84 we had:

The Honda interceptors of course. If I remember right, they had the 750 and 1000cc flavors too.
Yamaha's spectacular FJ1100
Suzuki's arm stretching GS1150E and ES
Kawasaki's mind blowing 900 Ninja and class beating 750 turbo WoW what a great year that was!!!

Here are a few pix of bikes I had back then

This was an 85 ... the first full bodywork Japanese sport bike! Smooth as your Grandma's sewing machine.



This bike came out in 85 and was a technological marvel. It rewrote the book on how to design a sport bike. Mass centralization baby!!

This is an 86.



Thank you , that will be all

Nice bikes!

I hope to get the fuel petcock sorted out on my Honda 86 NS400R soon, get the bodywork back on, and post some pics.
It definitely has full bodywork, even the side stand has a panel attached.
It also has a very nice Jolly Moto (Italian) full exhaust system, which is mostly covered up by the full bodywork.
It's a bit unusual, not too many bikes have a V-3 2 stroke engine.

Jolly Moto story: in 2002 my friend owned this bike in Europe. I was riding it on our way to the 2002 motoGP in Mugello
when it lost a muffler. So we stopped at the Jolly Moto factory on the way, got a new mufler and a factory tour, which
included a recently retired 250 GP bike. That was a very fun trip, almost 3 weeks on the NS400R over nine countries.
Oh, and all 3 classes were won by Italian riders at the 2002 Mugello GP races. Riding out of there with about 30,000 very
happy Italian fans was *interresting*!

deerHater wrote:

I hope to get the fuel petcock sorted out on my Honda 86 NS400R soon, get the bodywork back on, and post some pics.
It definitely has full bodywork, even the side stand has a panel attached.
It also has a very nice Jolly Moto (Italian) full exhaust system, which is mostly covered up by the full bodywork.
It's a bit unusual, not too many bikes have a V-3 2 stroke engine.

Jolly Moto story: in 2002 my friend owned this bike in Europe. I was riding it on our way to the 2002 motoGP in Mugello
when it lost a muffler. So we stopped at the Jolly Moto factory on the way, got a new mufler and a factory tour, which
included a recently retired 250 GP bike. That was a very fun trip, almost 3 weeks on the NS400R over nine countries.
Oh, and all 3 classes were won by Italian riders at the 2002 Mugello GP races. Riding out of there with about 30,000 very
happy Italian fans was *interresting*!

Yes - please - post pictures....PLEASE!!!!!!

motokid wrote:

deerHater wrote:

I hope to get the fuel petcock sorted out on my Honda 86 NS400R soon, get the bodywork back on, and post some pics.
It definitely has full bodywork, even the side stand has a panel attached.
It also has a very nice Jolly Moto (Italian) full exhaust system, which is mostly covered up by the full bodywork.
It's a bit unusual, not too many bikes have a V-3 2 stroke engine.

Yes - please - post pictures....PLEASE!!!!!!

Will do. Meanwhile:

http://www.dreamgate.ne.jp/NSR/specsother/ns400r.html

Mine has the red/white/blue/yellow colour scheme.
Note the weird tire sizes, not much selection still available.
Note also it's a 6-speed with a high final ratio. 6th would require cops-seize-my-bike speed here in Ontario.

This page shows the Canadian brochure, wish I had one!
http://www.ns400r.de/specs/NS400Specs.htm

It sounds similar to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pgwlINERRk
Although it was LOUD when missing the one muffler (passing through Italian little towns with narrow streets.)

OK, time to stop rambling on and on...

SheWolf wrote:

Your quadracer was sick! Remember this?

Wow look at that gear LOL, I want to go back to that time and ride that stuff again, there were some epic quad rides goin on, that must be Bruce's 87
I don't remember that pic cuz I made it over the log and was waiting impatiently about a mile away

Yeah that was Bruce's. Wazz flipped his Mojave trying to go over that.