In San Miguel, Suzuki 500 sitting in an art gallery

[jhwalker]

Looks pretty good...

[SonicVenum]

That's pretty. Interesting that it's in an art gallery. Reminds me of the Top Gear episode where the insisted vehicles could be art, and created an entire art installation based on vehicles.

[Tetge]

I had a new original 1968 Titan when it first introduced. That was the only year that it had the larger carbs and the radical porting and it was a real runner, except that Honda brought out the 750 four right then, and BSA the triple. But, I really liked that bike. Of course, I sold it for some reason. Some years later, I got a used 1968 Titan and it was just as strong running and as good as the first one. But, I had to sell it too. Then, even later, I found a great buy on a new later model Titan with the conservative porting and smaller carbs and it was a real disappointment. Looking at the frame, the one in the pictures is based on a later model, and, to me, it is a travesty. But, I respect the Titans, so my opinion may be biased. They did have a nice double leading shoe front brake on the originals, which I understand is still valued by vintage racers, but, it was nothing compared to today's brakes, and, because a two stroke has little engine braking, the brakes tended to fade if you used them hard. So, the brakes disappeared in Griffith Park and the bike scraped things (for instance the rear brake could not be used at times because the pedal would hit the ground), and, it took a wild and crazed rider to exploit the capabilities of the bike. Do not inquire about how I know all these things, because back then, as of now, I was never a wild and crazy rider.

I still have a soft spot for two strokes, and they sure are easy to maintain, but they are too dirty for our nice clean air society. Too bad since they are fairly light for their given displacement and they don't require valve adjustments or oil changes. They also make decent HP and torque.

[jhwalker]

I may keep track of this bike, just for no good reason..

[Tetge]

I like this bike much better, although it appears to be sized for wee people: http://www.banditnine.com/fleet/ava/

[jhwalker]

I like this bike much better, although it appears to be sized for wee people: http://www.banditnine.com/fleet/ava/

I like that bike too. Funny, yesterday in San Miguel a (wee) guy was riding something that looked like the off-road version of that thing. It looked very elegant, very polished aluminum, shiny, high-end looking components, the engine looked to be like a 125, I tried to catch it to get a picture but it was so nimble in the heavy traffic that I couldn't get a shot. It looked like it weighed 150 lbs. Very spare.