Paladin you are one brave man to ride in that kind of traffic. The wife and I got mixed on a weekend trip and wound up in downtown Austin and that scared the holy cr@p out of both of us!

i too did the l.a. thing for almost 15years on an 81 gn400, which btw is a thumper also.

it was an experince, and most certainly made me a better rider.

i've got some horror stories. but i also have some fun ones.  like leading a snake of at least 10 machines blasting down the 405 at about 40mph as traffic was at a standstill. i once had a california highway patrolman(who was spliting at the time) pull over to let me lead. because once the first on goes by cages are ready for others.

the wildest i would say is on the 405 north at about washington i hit pothole, normally not that bad, but i had a blown disk in my neck and it drove a shard of it into a nerve. it just killed my left arm. i started looking over my shoulder to the right hoping for a break in traffic. as luck would have it the guy behind me in a black camero saw my arm drop and used his car as a traffic break to get me over.  he stopped we chatted and he left without even giving me his name. i would have used it "on air" but had to settle for the guy in the black camero. i was glad he was there to assist.  

i loved that machine. but in the end 98,000 miles it just couldn't be kept together any longer.  good thing out of it was the savage.  

if you look at the pics i post you will see the chromed fenders i took off it and installed on my new thumper.

this may be real off topic a get this post kicked but do we have any two stroke street bike fans out there?

Goose wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


take this for what it's worth. unlike another forum, we talk of all kinds of machines. we like our savages but we understand it's not the only machine out there. we also get "off topic" on a variety of subjects.  the best way to gauge a topic is by how many people  if any respond. if nobody responds then maybe they thought it was too off topic.  i like the fact you can see how many respond, and how many just lurk.. hey lurkers you are free to join in any time and i hope we see some of you on the "ASH RUN"

my first bike was a 71 yamaha twin 100  it was a great bike and regret giving it to a younger brother when i joined the navy.

Goose wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:
I bought a new '67 Yamaha Twin Jet -- 100 cc 2-stroke parallel twin. (dual everything, exhaust, carbs, magnitos....)  Peak torque was somewhere around 9,000 rpm, peak power about 11,000 rpm, totally gutless below 5,000 rpm.  I got it up to 65 mph on the freeway.

In the '70's a buddy brought his Kawasaki 350 triple by the house.  I took off down the street, first gear, about half throttle, not bad....  until it hit it's power range and lifted the front wheel.  rolled off the throttle, took it back and told him he could keep the monster.

My '74 Yamaha DT175 Enduro was a two-stroke.  Rode it until I got married in late '86.  It was because of the YammerHammer that I insisted on a lightweight single for a street bike.

last bike i owened before the savage was a 74 gt 380 suzuki bought it used in 1976 had until 1982 will not bore with all off the details but in its final stage vetter quicksilver fairing bike painted to match first overbore k and n pod air filters three into one chamber intake port raised one mm would eat cb550 hondas for lunch out run cb750 up to the ton
ps also had a rd 400 yamaha talk about a wheelie machine

If you liked the Lobito, you would have loved the 360 Bultaco Astro. It was pure genius.