Daily Rider classics.

[matty]

Anything modern or classic can be daily ride bikes, and one might ask what is or constitutes being A Classic . We could all start amassing criteria like 25 years or more age or we might say ten years old which would bring way more bikes into the fold.
Pages of posts on Classic bike criteria is not what i want to discuss here so decide for yourselves if your daily steed is a classic or not and by all means share your thoughts and opinions here on how good or perhaps badly it fares as a daily ride, and share too your thoughts on what is a good daily classic and why it stands out and holds its own in todays world. despite its age and Historical engineering .

 

[matty]

For me here in 2023 i kind of view anything car bike or pretty much anything even guns etc has classic status if it was made before the millennium, but for the sake of debate if we go 20 years instead and being its nearly 2024 ill go 2004 or earlier it also brings in some bikes that hold their own well to many modern bikes of today in most areas .
So in a clasic older bike you want to use everyday what do you need to look for.
Well everything new or old needs parts, and if you want to find them easily it can exclude a lot of older bikes unless you can or at least are prepared to match parts or make parts at times.
What kind of bike you want is personal choice and a commuter twin might not be your choice and a bigger multi cylinder bike might be what you want.
So i will share here a few opinions and choices of mine on a few different types of bike i feel are Clasics but very capable of daily use and a good chance of being reliable if sound and maintained properly.
A simple daily knock about you do not want to have much complicated valve adjustment on or complexity of design to present potential failiure points like timing chains warn head casing surounding camshafts etc.
I think a older two stroke can prove a good durable run about i ran several over multiple decades to comute 60 miles a day nearly everyday and two strokes are durable simple reliable and offer good performance even in 200ccs or so for typical comuting.
Fuel consumption if working them hard can be a little heavy compared to a similar sized mechanicaly more complex four strokes.
Back in the day i did starship miles all over europe and into maroco on t500 suzuki twin and yamaha RD400 and latter RD350 VPVs bikes and they were exellent. I comuted On DT250Mxs DT175MX and Two IZH Planeta sport 350s One i took out to 410cc, i still have these IZHs today Jamaha Designed and built engines russian bikes with Exellent frames and geometry with very poor brakes.
A simple comuter twin.
I will come right out with what i think are a reliable compitent comuter knock about bike the Suzuki GS500e its an exelent bike handles well simple and durable and would be my choice in twins of that or simple the GS500E is air coled but size for comuting . you could go with the Kawasaki ER500 twin which is exellent too but is water cooled which though not an issue i acctualy own a Kawasaki 500 Watercooled bike but having said that it adds to the complexity and the GS500E gets it for me.
A bigger use everyday Bike in the 650 850 twin catagory could be the Exellent well known Yamaha XS650 its cheapish and tough simple bike and though in my opinion not fantastic handling is good and i would have another in a heartbeat.
If you want to spend a bit more money, how about a Triumph twin of the Meridan and earlier era. Light great handlers and torquey with a history reputation and following you can not ignore.
In say a bigger multi its going to be Japanese unless you look into the italian twins like ducatis or guzis which if funds permited i would have a 750ss ducati or a guzzi s7.
So going back to jap multis , you can not ignore the Honda SOHC k real classic , and do not rule out the T150 and T160 triumph tridents and BSA rocket 3s, they were Britains answer to honda four and when running well are realy exellent bikes i have had 4 over the years and still have a 1970 today. and the handle better than the honda CB750 K4 too.
Now we come to my favourate jap multis of all time . the GS range by Suzuki from the 1977 GS750 onwards into the mid 80s and beyond in GSx form.
they are all good from GS750 GS1000 GS1100e etc i had GS1000 and Gs1100e and if i wanted a big old jap multi to tool about on i would get a GS probably a 1100e but would even have a 550 they are soilid old bies.
We cant not mention the Big XS1100 yamaha i had an XS1100 took it all over europe several times with Her as a pillion and it was tough torquey and reliable if a bit heavy.
whats your poison.

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[Madmx]

Anything modern or classic can be daily ride bikes, and one might ask what is or constitutes being A Classic . We could all start amassing criteria like 25 years or more age or we might say ten years old which would bring way more bikes into the fold.
Pages of posts on Classic bike criteria is not what i want to discuss here so decide for yourselves if your daily steed is a classic or not and by all means share your thoughts and opinions here on how good or perhaps badly it fares as a daily ride, and share too your thoughts on what is a good daily classic and why it stands out and holds its own in todays world. despite its age and Historical engineering .

Yes and it craps out every bike I have owned. Tw200 is the choice. Got a DL1000 and a Gen3 plus many non paper options. The tw is covered in mud. I knock the frost off the seat and full choke to go. No maintenance..just commute. I have tried at least 30 bikes for daily grind. What fires is what goes. My tuned A55 with sava tires was nuts in 4" of snow but out of 7 bikes it started and was angry about it. As angy as a street slick tire ported 50cc could be. The worst snow hoke ever! A dam moped followed by a tuned ct70 clone with a stroker 125 and kenda 120/90-10 street tire. 883 rubbemount on fresh dunlops rocked the snow.

Now it is mud and that crap turns to cement. Tempted to get a 250 clone. Tw are way to valuable for daily...my use. I total every bike commuting to work. Best was xt225 gave 6,000 trips to work...looks great but it is totalled.

 

[Madmx]

I daily a 81 550 maxim followed by an r100/velorex hack in 2017. Only beamer but dam a hand full of diodes and these might be the best bikes evev....your foot can hold you mikuni vm in place after a backfire blow the carb out. The brings . in a box. No screwdriver to tighten the clamp? Heck it's a BMW.

Best bikes to waste time talking. A ct70 clone and r100 hack done in camo.

 

[AwDang]

Vespa GT/GTS

/thread

 

[Hermit]

Honda's CX500 was my daily commuter/travel bike for 11 or so years - never needed anything but gas, oil and tires (and one fuse & one taillight bulb). It's not inspiring, but it's rock solid reliable. It's now 40+ years later and I occasionally see them running around today, so it would get my vote.