What motorcycle is this?

[Highspeed]

HS, do you remember Hodaka motorcycles? My next door neighbor had two of the things, and I'm betting he wished he'd hung onto them. Here's some OLD articles on them.

The first ( and last ) I heard about Hodaka's was a couple of years ago in a British bike magazine which had a very short article about a guy in the US who had restored one and ridden it coast to coast.

They were never sold in the UK AFAIK.

I screwed up not buying some bikes in the 80's and 90's

1) Triumph Tiger 90 - completely original early 60's bike with the deep valanced front mudguard and rear 'bathtub' enclosure. Rare as hell because in the late 60's everyone threw those ugly bits of tinware away and built a cafe racer so they didn't look like a dork. I reluctantly paid $100 for it, and when it continued to just run on cylinder I let it go for $200. I wasn't about to tear the engine down on a 350 Triumph to get it running right, I had an AMC Harley to feed instead. Worth a lot of money now.

2) Suzuki GT750 'Kettle' - what a piece of shit. I inherited it from a stoner who asked me to rebuild the engine, but then couldn't pay.
The crank seals had gone and it was pressurising the gearbox, common fault. Big heavy lump and not really fast considering it was a 750cc 2 stroke triple. Handling was awful, but then all Jap bikes of that era were like a shopping cart with a wobbly castor. Worth a lot of money now.

3) Harley Davidson XR-750 - there is no other motorcycle as far as I am concerned. Imagine a clattering old pushrod motor which makes 90 hp - stuffed into a tiny frame, which is just a support system for two wheels. Dear lord I love the XR. Give me one and I'll own the world.

I could have bought one back in the day, before they were worth £15,000 but I screwed up on that because at the time I was trying to get patched into a very notorious outlaw motorcycle club - who didn't want no stinking flat trackers ruining the elegance of their choppers with their stupidly fat back tyres and full dress garbage wagons. Peer pressure

[blackeagle603]

Harley Davidson XR-750

Be still my beating heart. I pitted some for a buddy who was working his way up the pro-flattrack ranks. He rode novice and traveled with an upcoming Expert who rode a Norton(who's still making his living with bikes). The XR-750 was the dream machine.

The Sprint 350 ERS pictured above was all this starving student could afford (or handle).

[Highspeed]

The Sprint pretty much rules the 350cc 4 stroke class in Classic road racing over this side of the Atlantic, with the Ducati's nipping at it's heels.

On paper the Duke's should be wiping the floor with the Aermacchi's - the engine design is way more sophisticated. But it ain't so.

Harley Davidson owned Cagiva as well, at one time. They made a range of 2 stroke street scramblers which were 'meh' kind of bikes.
They were notorious for problems with the electronic ignition pack and not very popular here. One I owned would occasionally start up with the engine running backwards ( perfectly possible on a 2 stroke ) which made you think before letting out the clutch