Idle Torque Bike Night

[Millietant]

I made the trip of almost 5 miles on Saturday evening to "Bike Night" at a place called Idle Torque.

Now, these guys are a business that makes "leather gear/clothing" for bikers. I've been a couple of times (mainly because there's a nice cafe adjacent to them), but as they're a "Tassles & Chaps" type of biker gear shop, catering to cruiser/chopper/Harley riders and the latest craze "cafe race scrambler brat bike" type of bike rider, I've never really had much interest in what went on there.

Anyway, a couple of pals persuaded me to go along and what a surprise, i had a really good time. My FJ was the only FJ that turned up and it generated a lot of interest  and so did Jim's Can Am Spyder - but the real surprise to me was the amount of 70's to 90's bikes, sports bikes and some real classics. Here's a few photo's to give a flavour of the evening - oh, and one electric bike turned up.....it rode in flanked by 2 nice Harley customs, ridden by mum and dad, protecting the 5 year old rider (they live in the village and kept him off the roads to get there) 

[Millietant]

Some of the nicer, and more weird/wonderful/unusual bikes that turned up - I'll let you decide for yourselves which categories they all fit into

The standard red CB 400/4 was ridden in by my pal Mike. Lovely bike, but he describes it as like riding a "Singer Sewing Machine" after many years on newer big bikes 

Apologies for not including photo's of all the chopper style customs that were there....they were all trying so hard to be "different", they were mostly just like clones of each other (except for a few).

[Millietant]

And here's one especially for you Bryan (Waiex 191)............. a custom cafe-racer-scrambler-brat-bike ......GN400 

[Greenlander]

I made the trip of almost 5 miles on Saturday evening to "Bike Night" at a place called Idle Torque.

Now, these guys are a business that makes "leather gear/clothing" for bikers. I've been a couple of times (mainly because there's a nice cafe adjacent to them), but as they're a "Tassles & Chaps" type of biker gear shop, catering to cruiser/chopper/Harley riders and the latest craze "cafe race scrambler brat bike" type of bike rider, I've never really had much interest in what went on there.

Anyway, a couple of pals persuaded me to go along and what a surprise, i had a really good time. My FJ was the only FJ that turned up and it generated a lot of interest  and so did Jim's Can Am Spyder - but the real surprise to me was the amount of 70's to 90's bikes, sports bikes and some real classics. Here's a few photo's to give a flavour of the evening - oh, and one electric bike turned up.....it rode in flanked by 2 nice Harley customs, ridden by mum and dad, protecting the 5 year old rider (they live in the village and kept him off the roads to get there) 

Thanks for sharing ! What an eclectic mixture of bikes , one that stood out for me was the black Vincent, and speaking of black I love the look on the guy's face looking at the black cat on the handlebars of the red Kawa 1100!

[Urx]

If you like that kind of thing then you'd love my friends garage contents (as i do)
Recently departed as it was a bit boring....a norvin ...yep featherbed Norton with a Vincent engine....
Current restored runabouts are a Brough ss80 a henderson and a 3 speed Scott.
More pedestrian modern stuff includes a Harris F1 Pantah an HP2 some other projects

Oh to be retired ....

[Old Rider]

Great report and pictures of cool bikes thanks for sharing 

[Motofun]

Before and after pics of my CB400F.  It's got ignition issues right now.  Your pistures have given me motivation to get them sorted out.

[melloncollie]

That red KZ1100 is a blast from the past for me, my dad had one in that color that I remember riding on it with him once or twice when I was a bean sprout.  It mostly sat in the garage during my life until he sold it to make more room.  Then of course the following year I show interest in bikes and he bought up 8 or 9 mostly KZs.

[Pat Conlon]

I had a lovely root beer brown CB500 that I throughly enjoyed. Yep, sewing machine smooth is a good description.

[Millietant]

My best buddy had one just like that, in 1981 Pat, and he asked me to help him "clean it up" over the winter. There were a few things he wasn't happy with (rubbish front brake, weaving at over 90 mph, looked "old", had spoke wheels when all the cool bikes had alloys) and he asked me my thoughts. What transpired was basically as follows - I don't know if I've posted about this bike before, but as it was my first major bike modification, I can't help but mention it again 

First, I suggested that we fit better brakes (twin discs), which meant better forks and we were already going to find alloy wheels; I also suggest we convert the bike to a rear monoshock (I was studying for my civil and structural engineering degree at University and Andy was a trainee mechanic and fabricator) and then figure out how to get some sleeker bodywork.

Andy, my buddy said he loved the shape of the newer 550F2 petrol tank and I said I loved the shape of the Z650 "ducktail". So... I drew up how the bike would look with those fitted and he bought some secondhand units and I started to work making them fit. To cut a very long story short, the bike got a CX500 twin disc front end (with reverse Comstar wheel), a home designed and built monoshock conversion, using a Spax shock absorber of the same dimensions as on a RD/RZ 350LC, but sprung and damped for the CB500, the Honda/Kawasaki bodywork with a Two-Four Z650 sports seat. A custom paint job, with a load of other cosmetic and practical upgrades (clocks, ignition, electrics, pod filters & carb jetting, Mater cylinder and brake hoses, throttle cables and switchgear from a CB 900, home-drilled brake discs/rotors... etc etc etc).

Andy liked the USA "sit up and beg" style, so we went with that, and also added a set of exhausts from a 550 K. Fitted with wider Metzeler ME33/99 tyres front and rear, the handling was transformed, with no weave at all, great stability and improved turning in/steering.  Here's a couple of photos of the finished article

[Millietant]

After riding it all year, Andy decided he wanted a more Sporty look and riding experience, so over the next winter, the bike got a 605cc big bore kit, a hand made 4 into 1 exhaust, CB 650 Z carburettors, low "ace" bars, CB 650 Z rear set footplates and pegs, brake and gear levers and a new paint job. That bike was awesome in its day, took a number of Bike Show trophies and was still around being ridden pretty much the same over 20 years later.

The bike was featured in one of the UK Bike Magazines in 2002 and in 2003, I got an email from the current owner with a load of questions about the bike. He'd seen the article and noted my email address. I often wonder where it is now.

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Dean, very interesting. Not sure about the angle of those 'sit up and beg' handlebars...looks painful.
The swingarm conversion on that bike would be the cat's meow. IIRC there was not much rear suspension travel with the stock setup. I didn't ride mine hard, just long cross country trips on that buttery smooth engine.
What a Great bike.

[Millietant]

Ha Ha, you're right about the suspension Pat, very little travel and no damping.

I think Andy agreed with you about the bars. At first he loved them, but after a 2-week, 3,500 mile tour of mainland Europe he started talking about changing the style and riding position 

As you say though, a great little bike for the times. That one got cornered as hard as anything else around us at the time - it was the bike I first got my knee down on (with skateboard knee pads duct taped over my leathers  :sarcastic ).