nsman, on 27 July 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

LOL, It can be done.  Now if you have a 1976 model it is NOT a 6 speed but a 7 speed. Here in the USA we only had the GS175/6A in 1975.  That engine was made only for 2 years.  1974 & 75. I never replaced my GS175/6A Bing but a 30 or 32mm Mikuni VM will work.  I also ran the 1976 and 77 GS125/7A. Back then we used to put LECTRON 30mm carbs on them and 32mm on the GS175/7A. I was a factory Hercules rider back then.  I still have several Hercules in my garage.  I have a 1972 Hercules K100GS, I also have a couple 1972/73 DKW MC125 .   I also have a 1975 GS125/6D, (2) GS175/6A, 1976 / 77 GS125/7A, (2) GS175/7A, GS250/7A and a GS350/7A (255cc).   I always found the 7 speeds hard to start cold.  I usually had to lay them on their side for 5 seconds before they would start.

Dwight_Rudder, on 28 July 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

You certainly are the Hercules go to guy with a collection like that!
Mine is for sure a six speed so a 75 it must be ,the date is marked on the steering head with a marker and is well faded.

Maybe start another thread mentioning "Hercules" and you may get some more responses but it may be hard to beat Dwights information!

BUMP.  I thought I'd give this thread new life.  I seem to see some creep of some questions about fairly new bikes lately and for newbies or the inexperienced, it may be better
  FOR YOU to post a question about newer bikes in the general forum or a manufacturers sub forum.  You're probably more likely to get answers there, too.

It really should be a sticky, not that being a sticky would change anything, nobody reads them, but it should be a sticky none the less.

Smacaroni, on 26 November 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

+1

I have been posting in the XR250/XR400 section even tho my bike is an XL. As it is an 1985 I think it 'maybe' more suited in this section as I have read the posts in this thread.

I have been getting great help in that section as well as giving it too as it is fairly active section. Most people are brand loyal so asking a question in the HONDA section seemed only fitting to me as they may have had the bike or simular one back ago.

When I think 'Vintage' I think real old.....like -1975 era not 1985+

That's just me tho.

I am a big fan of vintage bikes. The bikes I grew up with was a friends dads ossa and bultacca. I think it takes more of a rider to ride vintage bikes with the lack of suspension compared to moder bikes. The groups around the country that are bringing vintage racing back into the scene are not give enough credit. Raestore it... Ride it... Race it...

honda roboxl, on 28 November 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

Fortunately, the XR and XL are nearly identical, so there's a good bit of people who would be able to help you there too. This forum is full of people who want to help too, but it's a gathering place for those whom are part of the small crowd of people who keep alive a very small number of surviving machines from days gone by. Truth be told things aren't that different then vs now... suck, squish, bang, blow, still two wheels and most of the vintage bikes are running on the same tires as the ones rolling off the factory lines, BUT the more modern riders don't necessarily see it that way.

I like the idea of any pre-85ish being vintage, but think they should be air cooled too.
FYI-
For District 36 races any air cooled not disc brake bike (front and rear) qualifies.  This is for hare scrambles/cross country series.  They have both exhibition and Point (Blue Plate) races.  Look into it if interested and come race, not many competing/exhibiting at this time.  Super fun, low stress deal.

Few stories about the whole defninition thing around Vintage

few very large clubs almost died cause the founders thought that anything that wasnt a british scrambler bike wasnt vintage
PERIOD.
No CZ, didnt care about 4 inches of travel, 74 was modern....

then it gets to whats important in the classification - getting folks out to race the old bikes and have fun or worry about a perspective that is truly only valid based on the year you were born?

I digress...

This is how we break our classes out - around travel, technology and in our support classes, years + technological evolution
all with the purpose of grouping like technologies and capabilities together to get folks out to race - we also break these out in to skill classes and or age.  Premier classes = classes 1-5; support classes #6 and #7.

• Inter-Am - true vintage the bikes that started it all - usually pre-72ish
  
  
• Vintage - up to anything that has:  Air cooled, drum brakes, 4 inches rear 7ish max up front
  
  
• Trans-Am - that weird stage where the factories were screwing around with long travel on Vintage class bikes - aka 1976 CR 250 etc
  
  
• Evolution - Air cooled, Drum Brakes - NO LINKAGE - long travel - such as my 1981 YZ465
  
  
• Unlimited  - those early 80s, again where the factories took EVO bikes and started slapping linkage on the machines. - air cooled, drum brakes, and linkage okay here.
  
  
• Revolution   - (support Class)  anything goes - our transition into modern technology and the factories sorting things out - anything through year model 1989
  
  
• Sunset  -  (support Class)  anything through the last year of the sunset of the true 3 class AMA seasons or anything through (technology wise) 1993 - last year of the 125, 250 and 500cc classes

We are trying to get folks out to race and have fun - you can get on CL and get a Revolution or sunset class bike and run it for fairly low coin - try that with a true race ready EVO or Vintage class anymore....PRICEY...but hopefully they will come out with a Revolution or Sunset class bike, see all the old bikes and want one of the Premier class machines.  Bottom line we want folks to have fun - and race.

Thats what we do...and it works for us.

Vintage ask me in my 50s, ask my boys in their 20s = different answers.

HR

The Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club considers anything 20 years old and older as vintage.  This is from a collectors view point obviously though.  In racing circles that could be different I guess.

This seems obvious to me, but why not break the vintage section of the forum down into classifications by year?

Because there would be one topic in each classification.

Smacaroni, on 24 January 2013 - 06:44 AM, said:

I disagree. Look in the main page under "vintage". You will see quite a few that could fall into the category of post-74, maybe even a majority of them are not technically vintage.

Sorry, but I just have to illustrate this further:

Scanning down the 1st page under the vintage section, I see a '77 rm, a 75 xl, '85 XT, '83 XL, 85 YZ, 82 YZ, 79 XR, on and on and on. None of these technically qualify as vintage, but since they've nowhere else to go, they end up in the vintage section

There is but one post about some obscure carbs from early 70's Kawi's.

It seems to me that the "vintage" section would be the one getting very few posts. Look I'm not just trying to argue, but if people are complaining about being told what's vintage and what's not vintage, from a website programming perspective adding a couple of extra sections wouldn't be too hard. Seems like a reasonable request to me.

The term "vintage" as used here doesn't necessarily match with racing orginization's classification of vintage.   I don't think anyone needs to be heavy-handed here.  It's just that if you're asking a question about a particular bike, you're more likely to get an answer if you're in the more proper sub-forum.  There's probably a hundred ways to divide up ALL THE BIKES EVER MADE into specific classes.  Everyone, especially newbee's, should be aware of what works better and what doesn't.    It's possibe a TT'er with an old XR may get an answer on a question in the Honda 4-stroke area instead of VINTAGE but technically and mechanically, it belongs in vintage.  It's also possible someone in the Honda 4-stroke area would tell you to come back here for the question.  Just come as close as you can...but KEEP FIXING 'EM.

Yup, keep 'em running and unless it's museum quality, keep ridin' 'em. If you have one that's fresh out of the crate, it's probably best to display it rather than trailer it to the trails or track.

the dictionary defines "vintage" (pertaining to cars, etc...) as "representing the high quality of a past time". someone mentioned that D36 has a vintage class, that defines "84 and older drum brake" and my wife considers me a "vintage"...lol maybe it's "the bikes your dad would have ridden".

anyway, I like mid eighties off-road hondas (XL/XR/CR), it's amazing how rugged/bulletproof and competitive they were at the time. I have recently started racing enduros and hare scrambles on a '84 XR350R. while I'm only a C level rider and race against modern bikes (open class and super sr). I can tell you that it's not the vintage bike that is holding me back, it's the 80-90% rider part. these bikes can be almost as fast as modern bikes on trails, they just take more energy to ride. I'm starting to like being called "that guy on the old XR"...

Edited by cynicryder, 25 January 2013 - 11:34 AM.