[Wild-Bill]

I bought mine ('84 VF700F) back in '91 and rode it until 2000 when I sold it. I've regretted selling it ever since. I put a Corbin seat, rear-sets and Telefix adjustable clip-ons on it and it was good for 8 hour rides. Awesome bike.

[Mojoe]

i wish i could find an 81 GSX1100... like this one;

Congratulation! You have officially joined the "wishful thinkers" club.

I say that because I have heard it a gazillion times on here....wish I could find one, wish I had one, wish, wish, wish....

and then when I post up a pic of mine and say "I have one for sale, will make you an awesome deal, and even help get it to you..", that's it....game over. sometimes i get the impression that my "offer" results in nothing more than calling their "wishful thinking bluff".

take you pick.....a mint 83 1100 kat with only 11k miles on it, or a 84 or 86 (I have 2) 750 pop-up. so what's it going to be? going to do something about it, or keep wishing?

Heres some old Kats for ya....






and a GS

all nice bikes for sure, but I would not buy any of them unless I got them cheap. no longer original, and no longer a "collectible", imho.
even though they are extremely nice, it is someone else's "vision", and only desirable by who are attracted to said builders "vision".

in other words, a stock bike will have better resale value. this doesn't mean a stock bike will sell for more, but a stock bike will be more valuable to a great number of potential buyers. but damn! they are nice. I like the black one myself.

on another note, I am seriously considering modding mine and putting on a nice paintjob. I only kept it original for the resale value, but to be honest, serious buyers are just about as rare as the bikes themselves.

[Slofuze]

In a perfect world where I had 20k lying around and readily availabe parts......... this would be to my liking. There were only 500 made......

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8n6t0LQRD8"]Superbike Yamaha YZF R7 OW02 Noriyuki Haga WSBK SBK .avi - YouTube[/ame]

[jippah]

Congratulation! You have officially joined the "wishful thinkers" club.

I say that because I have heard it a gazillion times on here....wish I could find one, wish I had one, wish, wish, wish....

hm... i found one on craigslist out here in Hawaii...

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/mcy/2670621849.html

[il_ragazzo]

if we all lived in the uk we could put katana plastics on a gsx1400...

[Wild-Bill]

"First Real Sport bike ever made"
BullHockey! The VF750F was released the same year and the RC30 was available (barely) in '88. The The Z1 was out before '82 and I'm sure there were others. I hate when people throw BS out there and figure nobody'll know any better!

[loudnlow7484]

"First Real Sport bike ever made"
BullHockey! The VF750F was released the same year and the RC30 was available (barely) in '88. The The Z1 was out before '82 and I'm sure there were others. I hate when people throw BS out there and figure nobody'll know any better!

Sportbikes were a gradual thing. I think most credit the 85 GSXR750 with really creating the modern sportbike, but it all depends on when you started calling bikes "sportbikes" instead of just hopped up standards. Some, for example, claim the GPz900 qualified as the first sportbike, while others claim the old RZ350 was the first real sportbike, and others still claim it for the VF750.

[Wild-Bill]

The VF750F was a track bike modded with smaller carbs, smaller forks and a milder cam (plus lights, instrument cluster, etc.). It set a new standard in the market that way. The GSXR750, FZR600 and Ninja were playing catchup with Honda and led to Honda releasing the CBR Hurricane to match the inline-4 power delivery you got with those.

The RZ350 may actually own the title but I'd put it out there with the RC30 as not being particularly easy to get your hands on. The others were readily available to Joe public.

[loudnlow7484]

The VF750F was a track bike modded with smaller carbs, smaller forks and a milder cam (plus lights, instrument cluster, etc.). It set a new standard in the market that way. The GSXR750, FZR600 and Ninja were playing catchup with Honda and led to Honda releasing the CBR Hurricane to match the inline-4 power delivery you got with those.

The RZ350 may actually own the title but I'd put it out there with the RC30 as not being particularly easy to get your hands on. The others were readily available to Joe public.

The RZ350 was publicly available.... but only for two years.

In any case, the VF750 had a steel frame and a half fairing. I don't count that as a sportbike in the modern sense.

The GS1000S you could buy at the Suzuki dealer was as closely related to Cooley's actual race bikes as the VF750 was related to the VF750 racer, but the the GS1000 certainly doesn't qualify as a sport bike either.

[Nero]

I think the term 'sportbike' was mid-eighties. It's really a matter of semantics. A lot of fast bikes were on the road with full or partial fairings prior to the use of that term.

[Psycho1]

I think when most people hear the word "sportbike", the race replicas comes to mind. I've always liked the FZR750 and 1000. The 5 valve Genisis engine was a top performer in any cc class. One big problem with the older bikes is finding decent handling tires due to some of the lack of 17" front and rear wheels. Decent 16" front tires are still somewhat available, but finding a nice 15",16",or 18" rear tire that is more sport than touring oriented is a major headache.

[DClark]

The VF750F was a track bike modded with smaller carbs, smaller forks and a milder cam (plus lights, instrument cluster, etc.). It set a new standard in the market that way. The GSXR750, FZR600 and Ninja were playing catchup with Honda and led to Honda releasing the CBR Hurricane to match the inline-4 power delivery you got with those.

.

When the V-4's were replaced by the Hurricane series, I read somewhere (Cycle World maybe?) that the reason for going inline was economics- an inline block is cheaper than a V-4 block.
The Hurricane bikes looked like crap and probably had the same longitivity. I remember seeing them everywhere, even handled an insurance claim where one sliced into a Honda CRX, killing the driver. I haven't seen a Hurricane bike on the road in years. On the other hand, I do sometimes see a v4 Sabre on the road, I have even seen a few VFR500 bikes in the last few years.

[Thomas Dylan]

+1 for the Wes Cooley GS1000 but maybe a gear driven cam VFR might make a nice alternative.

[Wild-Bill]

When the V-4's were replaced by the Hurricane series, I read somewhere (Cycle World maybe?) that the reason for going inline was economics- an inline block is cheaper than a V-4 block.

The V-4 engine is more expensive but the reason Honda started putting out an inline-4 as their premier sportbike was all about power delivery. Even though the V-4 puts out plenty of power, it's at lower rpms than an inline-4. You get way more torque at the low end and a smoother cross-over to HP as rpms increase. The inline-4 is pretty weak at the low end but you get a sudden rush of HP as the rpms increase. That feels like the bike is making lots of power so squids (the major consumer group buying sportbikes) think the inline-4 is better. The more mature crowd (that tends to have more money) tend to prefer more relaxed ergonomics and higher torque/lower rpm engines to keep vibration and noise down. Hence the VFR series which is really just an extension of the VF series.

...I do sometimes see a v4 Sabre on the road, I have even seen a few VFR500 bikes in the last few years.

There's plenty of Sabres, Magnas and VF/VFRs still out there. They've got a hugely devoted fanbase and most who've ridden them either never let them go or spend years thinking about getting another. Look at me. I owned a VF700F and have ridden 80s Sabres and Magnas once or twice each. Here I am touting them as one of the greatest bikes ever. Right now I've got a V-65 Magna on the back patio waiting for me to put it back together. It's going to be a thank-you present for my best friend for watching my house in AR while I've been stuck up here in NJ.

[05RedKat600]

The only problem with the V45's and V65's were the crappy cylinder head oiling issues that ate cams like candy. Easy to fix, if you knew about it.