The motorcycle spotting thread.

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2.4 liters of Triumph pow-wah!!!! (Even though it's still less powerful than my 1.3-liter FJR --- but it's got half again the torque!)

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BTW, the Triumph headlights always remind me of the Office Assistant paper clip, with his little beady eyes. . . .
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I just found this at Wikipedia about that Triumph Rocket III.

The Triumph Rocket III is a British motorcycle made by the Hinkley Triumph factory and has the largest displacement engine of any mass production motorcycle in the world (as of September 2008), at 2,294 cc. The shaft driven Rocket III produces 200 N·m (147nbsp;ft·lbf) @ 2,500 rpm and 140 bhp (100 kW) @ 6,000 rpm. Despite its size and weight of 704 lb (319 kg) dry, it is described as having good balance and "light and easy steering" even at low speeds.


Ducati.


Ducati.


Harley.
 
From this weekend's Thunder Beach rally here at Panama City Beach. Click the images to get a slightly larger version.

Yamaha FJ1200


A pair of Bandits


Very clean, no drool marks


I didn't have time for the bike wash. . . .


Honda Pacific Coast, very weird fully enclosing bodywork


Yamaha XJ600S (I think)


Again, clean, no drool marks


Ancient singles, anyone?




I think this one was meant to look old


Tiny little single, with suicide shifter




Absolutely no clue on this one. No front brake, no signals or mirrors, tiny little headlight, single taillight on the right. I don't know this engine






Warrior! Giant 1700cc twin, with real brakes and suspension, supposedly.


The first time I saw one of these when they were new, I had to sit down to hide the bulge.


This guy apparently is annoyed by the typical wear pattern and low mileage of motorcycle tires.


Kawasaki's pipe organ


Yamaha XV750, V-twin shaftie.




Road-rashed Fireblade


Air-cooled bimmer. When he started it I was conscious of a similarty in sound to a certain aircooled 4-cylinder people's car.




A stunt show




They land HARD!!!!!


Do you really need a nitrous bottle when your bike is powered by a small-block V8?
 
Has anyone seen Ducati's Desmosedici replica? They apparently sold out of them in just five bloody hours... at about $75,000 a piece, not including some of the massive dealer markups! :ouch:

I'd love to see let alone run a few laps on Laguna Seca on one of these beauties! :drool:

If anyone spots one, please be sure to share your most excellent find!


BTW: Here's the Wiki listing for it, and the following was an earlier write-up on this bike from Diseno-art:

The 2006 Ducati Desmosedici RR is a road legal superbike built using the technology and aerodynamics of the Ducati MotoGP race bike. Ducati are the first to bring such an extreme top level race bike within the general publics grasp.

Power for the Ducati Desmosedici RR comes from a 989cc L-Four cylinder featuring 16 titanium valves, gear-driven double overhead cams, and quadruple 12 hole 'micro-jet' fuel injectors. Although it should be noted that the race bike and road bike have many different internal components. Most of the differences are a by-product of the compromises needed to allow the bike to pass European emissions and noise regulations, Others are to ensure longevity and reliability. A Ducati Moto GP race engine is toast after 400 miles, completely unfeasible and unwanted for a road bike.

However, the chassis components and hybrid carbon-fibre/steel trellis frame of the Ducati Desmosedici RR are almost identical to the race bike. Highlights include nitrogen pressurised 43mm Ohlins FG353 PFF forks, Ohlins four-way adjustable rear suspension, Brembo front calipers and magnesium Marchesini wheels.

The carbon-fibre bodywork of the Desmosedici RR features the first self-supporting carbon fiber tail unit fitted to a road bike, it also hides the unique exhaust which exits through the top. No chance of getting laden with a pillion.

The dash of the Ducati Desmosedici RR is taken directly from the racer and displays amongst other things, oil pressure, trip, fuel, air temperature and lap times.

As further proof that this is an exceptional bike with as few compromises as possible, Brigestone were drafted in to create tires specifically designed to fit the bike.

The Ducati Desmosedici RR comes painted in one of two color combinations; 'Rosso GP' (red) with white rear race number plates, or 'Rosso GP' with white rear race number plates and a broad white stripe on the side fairings. Whatever colors chosen the bike comes with Ducati MotoGP team sponsor decals to further affirm its racing roots.

Ducati plan to only produce around one Desmosedici RR per day with reservation priority going to Ducati 999R owners


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Back to pics. Sorry for the quality of this, but it was night, cell phone camera, under the sodium lamps in the parking lot at a local Walmart. I've tried to put some color back into it. . . .

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Cans were LOUD. I heard it coming at least 30 seconds before I saw it, and when I saw it, it was still exactly diagonally opposit the parking lot.

Back in the '90s World Superbike rules allowed 1000cc twins, but only 750cc fours. Ducati won 8 championships, so Honda decided to show that winning a championship wasn't so hard with a 33% displacement advantage, and built their own 1000cc twin. This is that bike. (Might be the second-gen version, I don't know it well enough to know.) They won in 2000 and 2002, and for 2003 the rules allowed liter fours.
 
I really am very sorry I have no pics, but seeing this thread has just reminded me of an epic bike spot.

Driving through Matlock Bath in summer, they had a temp one way system and this really loud bike pulled infront of our car at the lights. It was a 999 but this one sounded strange, it had a much more pronounced bass note. So me and my dad studied it abit more, it had team livery and the rider had a team kit to match. Then the penny dropped. We stared at the back end and realised it had no brake lights or numberplate mounting. At this point my dad was wondering who the rider was, this was an official World Superbike 999. We guess the rider was James Toseland as he lives within reach of that area and it is a big motorcycle gathering most weekends. He pulled away from those lights so fast and I nearly melted in the noise.
 
^

WOW - loving that Moto-Guzzi , Triumph , and the Custom built. all get a triple 👍👍👍
 
Wow, that looks like one hell of a bike.


It is indeed, and MCN UK timed it 0-180mph in 16 seconds.

Cyclworld did an acceleration test of all of the top bikes, (not the desmo) and the fastest rom 0-180mph was a Kawasaki ZX10R. 0-180 mph in 17.2 seconds. The desmo sure is fast, but at a cost!!
 
Highly impresed by the BSA's. I only saw 1 or 2 in this thread, if anyone has any pictures of one's theve seen, post them up! My uncle had a few, wish I had pictures..
 
Not your typical sighting...


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This is an X-Ray image of a Ducati 888 which I saw while visiting the Franklin Science Museum in Philadelphia. It was done by a couple artists from the UK, Hugh Turvey and Artemi Kyriacou, who specialize in creating images by taking X-rays of unusual objects.

Any way, I thought it was pretty cool so I snapped a pic to share with you all. 👍

(sorry about the flash spot) :indiff:
 
OK, I cheated. I visited the museum at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama on the Friday of the AMA race weekend. I "spotted" a few cool bikes in there, thought I'd post just a few. Pics in the post are 600 pixels wide, click them to get a 1024-pixel version.

If you don't know the Barber complex, the name comes not from the driving school but from the dairy company. George Barber has a little bit of milk money stashed away. OK, a ton of milk money! So he built a race track, a museum, bought at least one of every bike he can get his hands on, and at least one of every Lotus he can get his hands on. (Apparently not much of a car dude, but Lotus is a serious exception to that. Speed and Alain De Cadenet came here for the Lotus episode of Vistory by Design, and almost half the cars in that episode were Barber-owned cars!)

The lower level of the museum is their working space, shops, fabrication, restoration, and the warehouse. It's not usually open to the public, but this weekend it was. Even so, the wareghouse is not usually visible, has a big rolling door that stays closed. Just as we were getting in the elevator to leave we noticed the warehouse door was up. We couldn't go in, but they couldn't keep photons from escaping, so we had a bit of a peek. here's a 7-frame stitch of what's in there:



After they moved the truck thing in the middle of that pic, I noticed these two. I wish I'd noticed them better and gotten more shots because I've learned a thing or two about them, which I'll share in a day or two. Meanwhile, look and see if you can figure them out:



Other bikes seen in the museum:

2008 Bimota Tesi 3D (want!!!!1111!!11!):


Britten V1000, one of ten ever made:


That's the rear shock behind the front wheel:




Each exhaust valve gets its own header pipe!


Upper and lower wishbone front end, similar to BMW's Duolever:


The radiator is ducted, and lays horizontally under the seat:


Honda NR750, oval-piston almost-a-V8-but-it's-a-V4:


Ariel Square Four, with 2-seat eclosed sidecar:




1988 Norton Classic, twin-rotor Wankel motor:
 
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No bites on the second pic in my previous post, the two bikes from the warehouse.



Bike on the right is one of these:


with another cylinder tacked onto each end, for a 5-cylinder 2-stroke! It's built by the same guy that built this V-8 by grafting a pair of fours together:
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Supposedly he's planning a V12 based on Kawasaki's 1300 straight 6.

The other bike in the museum pair is German, a Munch Mammot, similar to this:
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Have a look about halfway down this page for technical specs.
 
Cool, a bike porn thread!

Well, this is cheating, because they're from an AHRMA (historic motorcycle racing) event at Barber in Alabama, in the paddock area. Well, the first one is on the perimeter road. . .

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'THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN RETURNS'! DA DA DA DA DA DAAAAAA


A Vincent black shadow.....wonders will never ceace! 👍
 
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"Badda-badda-badda-badda-badda-badda-badda-badda-badda..."

Loads of Harleys around here for some reason. We have neither the weather nor the long straights, but people love them!
 
A Vincent black shadow.....wonders will never ceace! 👍

Nope. Thanks for playing, we have a nice selection of parting gifts for you! :sly:

It's a BMW, I think an R69. Earles front end, which actually lifted under hard braking rather than diving.
 
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