Matt's Moto Pages

How many bikes does one man need? Quite a few it would seem...

This is the other bike in my stable at the moment. I call it "Mad Max", cuz it is rough but it's got it where it counts. It is still a 1993 Honda CBR900RR under the Givi top bag and busted up bodywork. I bought it in far worse shape than this, fixed it up to make a useful commuter/tourer, and hit the road. Photo taken in California. 2002

2001-Current

My trusty 1977 Honda CB400F. The bike that taught me how to ride, work on bikes, and get in TROUBLE. Here I am at my family's house in New Jersey (Mantoloking) where I had ridden up from college in Washington, D.C. A friend named it "Thumper", which suits it just fine. I rode it about 20k fun miles, and it is still waiting for TLC in my Mom's garage.

1990-Current
I couldn't resist adding this "action photo" riding along the highways in Massachusetts. Nice sneakers! This was around 1990.

1989 Honda Hawk GT: the bike that really got it all going. I rode the hell out of this bike, and learned a lot on the way. It was my main street bike for many years, and got me started in racing. It responded very well to a little tuning, but on the track it was still limited... so I got a fully setup Hawk racebike...

1996-1998

My Race Honda Hawk: a great bike that showed me how focused a race machine could be. It was set up with ported heads, high compression pistons, HRC jet kit, rear Ohlins shock, Lindeman forks, Kosman widened front wheel, full RC31 bodywork, and no charging or starting system. It felt like it was on rails riding around Sears Point, but I never was good enough to extract all the performance it had. Fun manchine.

1998-1999

1998 Honda Superhawk: the all around best bike I have had. It was fast, fun, and comfortable. Problem was, it wasn't a Ducati, so it had to go.

1999-2000

THE BIG KAHUNA! 1994 CBR1000F: This was my cross-country bike. I bought it off a guy who worked at a cafe in North Beach, San Francisco. It had a busted fairing, and a few minor problems, but as it is a Honda and an over-built Honda at that, it took very little to get it going like new. I put about 10k miles on this bike on my cross country trip to Boston and back. I used a Ventura rack system and a tank bag.

1996-1997

1990 ST1100: the BIG big kahuna. I bought this one on a spur of the moment, I-need-a-bike-with-bags-I-can-ride-anywhere! feeling that coincided with a guy pulling up to a gas station asking if anyone was interested in buying a Honda? Strange how these things happen. I rode this bike a lot, and enjoyed many things about it, but in the end it was too slow, and too heavy for my tastes.

1999-2000

Here I am picking up my beautiful 1994 Ducati 916 near L.A., California. I drove down in my old VW GTI with a trailer I bought the day before for the job. The bike only had 4k miles on it, and even had original tires.

2000-Current

 This is two weeks later... the first of many times that I have had to strip the bike down to do some repairs. This was for the infamous "leaking radiator overflow tank" problem that has downed many a Duck. I still love the machine for its single-minded pursuit of speed. That, and it looks more beautiful than any other machine I could hope to own.

1990 VFR750: I almost forgot about this one! What a beautifully built machine. Amazing quality in every facet, like a Rolex watch. When it was new I had a photo of it on my teen-age wall, and I wanted one bad. When I finally got it I was a bit disappointed, as it was too heavy and underpowered to satisfy my then full-blown racing sickness. Plus the engine and components were so shoehorned in that working on it was not much fun. It certainly LOOKED cool, especially with the rear cowl over the passenger seat. I sold this and my Hawk racebike to buy the VTR Superhawk.

1998-1999
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