Anybody else have a motorcycle?

[Ulu]

View attachment 210434
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Gee, I could do that to my Nomad…

Except I hate black bikes. (Including the one I own.)

I wonder if there’s any suspension on that seat? This looks like one of those bikes that is only fun for a quarter-mile at a time. Maybe. I’m trying to imagine myself doing the hot shoe on that machine…

I’m at the age where my seat probably wants to look more like this one.

 

[RustyGold]

As much as I adore Kawasakis, that was one of their ugliest paint jobs, and it certainly deserves to be sanded down to bare metal and decorated appropriately.

It's an Eddie Lawson tribute bike... actually, it's a tribute to the Eddie Lawson tribute bike.

So much depends on the condition of the rest of the bike.

It was a four season bike that I put ~50kmiles on...carbs needed rebuilt, and it's sat ten years waiting. It was bought as a gap bike after my last HD blew up, I only planned on riding it until I rebuilt my Harley...then it got stolen.

I almost didn’t buy my first Kawasaki because of that myth about green motorcycles being bad luck.

The green bike being bad luck was a Harley thing from a particularly bad racing season back in the 1920s or 1910s. They changed colors of their racing bikes, and didn't sell another green bike until the early 2000s, I think it was.

 

[Ulu]

I remember Lawson well, & maybe it's important to some to pay tribute, but the colors still stink on ice.

Now I did want those mags, and the rear disc, for my bike.
That never happened.

I like green, a lot, just not so much that green, and particularly not with the royal blue.

 

[RustyGold]

Gee, I could do that to my Nomad…

I don't think so...I mean, you could duplicate everything on the Confederate Hellcat and stick in your Nomad engine...but I doubt you are going to come close to the power-to-weight of an S&S 124 (nearly 150 hp & tq) plus you'd have to fit radiator and plumb it in.

Check out this article for an overview...this is a well engineered production bike.

Confederate Hellcat

The complete frame of the Hellcat...

 

[RustyGold]

I remember Lawson well, & maybe it's important to some to pay tribute, but the colors still stink on ice.

Now I did want those mags, and the rear disc, for my bike.
That never happened.

I like green, a lot, just not so much that green, and particularly not with the royal blue.

Well, my year (2000) is purple and white, with gold separating, stripes...even more to love against that metallic Kermit green!

I also have a Freddie Spencer '81 CB900F...I don't care much for japanese cruisers, but I love my late '70s early '80s UJMs.

 

[Ulu]

I don't think so...I mean, you could duplicate everything on the Confederate Hellcat and stick in your Nomad engine...but I doubt you are going to come close to the power-to-weight of an S&S 124 (nearly 150 hp & tq) plus you'd have to fit radiator and plumb it in.

Check out this article for an overview...this is a well engineered production bike.

Confederate Hellcat

The complete frame of the Hellcat...
View attachment 210451

It was about the styling man. That is the ugliest thing on wheels.

It’s over-blown over/priced and it’s no wonder they only sold a handful of them.

Clearly Steve doesn’t need the money, so he is selling it because he doesn’t like it.

 

[Ulu]

Well, my year (2000) is purple and white, with gold separating, stripes...even more to love against that metallic Kermit green!

I also have a Freddie Spencer '81 CB900F...I don't care much for japanese cruisers, but I love my late '70s early '80s UJMs.

I remember fast Freddie. I don’t remember what his bikes were painted like though.

I didn’t follow Hondas.

Really, I never followed motorcycle racing or racing of any kind too much. I only knew about those guys because they somehow showed up in the chopper magazines and occasionally I bought a pedestrian copy of Big Bike or Motorcyclist.

By that time in my life, all I was reading was engineering and computer manuals, and my association with motorcycles was pretty much limited to commuting on the KZ900.

Somehow my boss convinced me to sell that motorcycle. I should blame myself. I followed it up with a series of boring Hondas that I bought because they were “a good deal”. I rode a CB 450T for a while that I only paid $700 for with 400 miles on the clock.

I hopped it up myself and it ran great. I put fatter tires on it, and when I sold it the carb needles were actually made out of box nails that I had turned to my own shape.

I also had an XL350 that I liked more than any two-stroke dirt bike. I stupidly traded it for a Honda trike that I traded immediately for two ‘59 Ford pickups.

That provided the engine for my ‘59 Edsel.

I sold both of those trucks fast, but I drove the Edsel years, until I had thrashed it through three transmissions and decided I never wanted another Ford.

Gee, what a trip down memory lane…
Even I am totally bored with me.

 

[RustyGold]

I remember fast Freddie. I don’t remember what his bikes were painted like though.

Mine looks like this, but with frame and wheels (and rear springs) powder coated red...

 

[Captain Awesome]

Mine looks like this, but with frame and wheels (and rear springs) powder coated red...
View attachment 210489

I miss my old 83'

 

[RustyGold]

It was about the styling man. That is the ugliest thing on wheels.

It’s over-blown over/priced and it’s no wonder they only sold a handful of them.

Clearly Steve doesn’t need the money, so he is selling it because he doesn’t like it.

Eye of the beholder and all.

They are still being made today, and the small runs were by design as it is/was a 'boutique brand'.

Tyler's is the 2nd? rev of their first model...and isn't entirely my cup of tea, either...but, I respect the heck out of it. My fave is the early Wraith...

...and the revised Wraith...

...but, I was immediately priced out of those.

The other models were a bit much for me, but as a machinist...a billet bike is fascinating.

P51...

F117...

Bomber...

... current iterations of any of those can still be built to order by Combat Motors, which bought up all the Confederate designs as the Confederate creator has started Curtiss Motors and will be focusing on electric motorcycles (bleh).

 

[Ulu]

Mine looks like this, but with frame and wheels (and rear springs) powder coated red...
View attachment 210489

Oh yeah? I would ride that! Very patriotic looking.

The CV carbs give me the shudders though. I remember ret-uning just two of them when I hopped up my Honda 450.

It would’ve gotten worse except I got lucky making carburetor needles and I stumbled onto the right formula somehow.

My first tries were abominable and I and I found out I was doing exactly what I should have been undoing.

 

[Ulu]

Eye of the beholder and all.

They are still being made today, and the small runs were by design as it is/was a 'boutique brand'.

Tyler's is the 2nd? rev of their first model...and isn't entirely my cup of tea, either...but, I respect the heck out of it. My fave is the early Wraith...
View attachment 210497
...and the revised Wraith...
View attachment 210498
...but, I was immediately priced out of those.

The other models were a bit much for me, but has a machinist...a billet bike is fascinating.

P51...
View attachment 210499

F117...
View attachment 210500

Bomber...
View attachment 210501

... current iterations of any of those can still be built to order by Combat Motors, which bought up all the Confederate designs as the Confederate creator has started Curtiss Motors and will be focusing on electric motorcycles (bleh).

I was only aware of those bikes up to the wraith stage, which I think happened somewhere right after the Honda Rune.

If I had enough money to buy one of those Bombers, I would just buy another house. Currently I’d have to mortgage this one.

In the end I think you’re going to wind up with a nice motorcycle that needs a lot of loving care that I can’t give them anymore. I want to Flog them and then pay someone else to wash it.

 

[RustyGold]

A couple years pre-covid, the used Hellcats were becoming (comparatively) dirt cheap...on the top end of my justification range. But, after Combat started building them (changes were made), the prices have shot up on the Confederates rediculously...which is why I believe this Tyler bike will go way beyond my budget soon enough.

 

[Captain Awesome]

A couple years pre-covid, the used Hellcats were becoming (comparatively) dirt cheap...on the top end of my justification range. But, after Combat started building them (changes were made), the prices have shot up rediculously...which is why I believe this Tyler bike will go way beyond my budget soon enough.

I was told Confederate had a much lower overhead as well as a much better contract with S&S. Of course the aluminum index being thru the roof for the past 2 years probably hasn't helped their practices

 

[Ulu]

Remember when Ed Roth built the Globe Hopper, and he said that he was tired of all that rumpety-rumpety Big cam engine stuff?

That’s kind of where I am right now.

The bike I have now is too big and noisy. I’ve discovered in my old age that it doesn’t have to be that way to be fun. My daily driver is a stock engined Tacoma. It’s quiet.

What’s fun to me is to have things that are purpose-built to my liking. I’m sure the guys that designed the confederate motorcycles felt Exactly the same way.

 

[Ulu]

Well I was totally mistaken. It seems that the Tyler bike is only up to about $15,000.

I paid $15,094 for my Nomad out the door 18 years ago. I paid cash and I didn’t haggle. I’ve been glad ever since.

I also noticed that it’s a 2004 which is the same year as my Nomad. It has 2000 miles on it, while my nomad has 52,000.

Also it’s in Massachusetts. I remember Cape Cod very well. Thick as pea soup. The Air Force used to have big corrosion problems out there by the seashore.

 

[RustyGold]

I was told Confederate had a much lower overhead as well as a much better contract with S&S. Of course the aluminum index being thru the roof for the past 2 years probably hasn't helped their practices

Makes sense...I didn't even look for what the Combat price was, but if it was significantly higher it would drag up the used market as well.

I tend to think it is a lot of people like me that desperately want a Wraith (or other), but have realized they will never significantly drop in price and are ready to 'settle' for a Hellcat. Increased demand pushing Hellcat prices out of (barely) affordable range.

 

[RustyGold]

Well I was totally mistaken. It seems that the Tyler bike is only up to about $15,000.

It's got a week+ to go...I predict at least a tripling the starting price, probably a quadrupling. That doesn't count the Tyler factor...which I have no idea if that adds something or nothing. It will go for far more than it did new.

...and there's a reserve.

 

[Ulu]

I was figuring it was gonna start out about $50,000

 

[Ulu]

It looks like the Steven Tyler bike only went to $16,700 and it didn’t make reserve