What Motorbikes?

I need help selecting a couple of motorbikes for my characters.

a) A Harley-Davidson (brand being a personal trait) that was the first bike for a poor college student at UPenn during the late 1970s. He or his father bought the bike used. The guy was athletic but not stocky. The bike was his transport mean, nothing hip. Decades later he (now very wealthy) still has the bike, fully restored and polished as motivational display at his workplace. He may occasionally drive other expensive or custom built Harleys nowadays.

The old bike needs to be recognizable with relative ease by a woman who knows squat about bikes but her late husband had owned the same/similar model and died in an accident while riding it drunk. She has exceptional memory and can remember small but relevant details for life.

My tentative research find so far is a 1969 HD Aermacchi Sprint SS350 but frankly I'm not sure if it fits the bill and I'm still trying to find something recognizable about it. I appreciate any suggestions and hints.

b) A hip, preppy, 18-19 yo girl has just gotten her motorcycle license and she wants to buy a new bike. She lives and goes to school/college in NYC and chances are she is a weekend warrioress. She is about 5'7", normal build, has played some sports like softball and tennis but not really athletic. Finance is not an issue. Initial find is a colorful Kawasaki Ninja 250R but I appreciate any suggestions.

Further, say this girl, after riding her 250 or similar bike for a while, sees a friend with a VRSCAW V-Rod or similar bike and decides to take it for a spin. Will she easily get her ass handed back to her or into something embarrassing? What will likely be her experience?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the info. Glad I've checked here as my research doesn't seem as useful as I've thought. Headed to research the ironheads and shovelheads.

The guy's bike is an ice-breaking plot device and all it matters is the woman can identify it and the bike fits the historical criteria. (Which means I'll have to be able to tell whether it's an ironhead or a shovelhead from the appearance.) It's a talk scene and not an action scene.

It's also nice to know the easy transition from a bike to another. I'm not at that scene (book, in fact) yet so I will still have time to study it.

Thanks again for the info and advice.

ironmikezero, thanks for the timeline and additional links.

LA*78, yes I'm thinking along the line. The woman will have to rely on other non-technical aspects to identify the bike.

I actually prefer the nicknames. She doesn't know bikes and what little she knows would've come from her late hubby. I think they calling it Shovelhead is more likely than Electra Glide or, lord forbid, something like VRSCAW.

From the few pics I've checked, it seems that Sportster has two separate (shorter) exhausts only on the right side. The Electra Glide has one long (maybe merged) exhaust on the right and a short one on the left. This will be a definitive difference the woman can identify. So far I like the pics of a 1960 Ironhead 900cc. I'll just have to browse through the other 1960s Harleys to make sure this exhaust design is unique.

slhuang said:

I'd go something bigger for the 18-19 year old. Something in about 600cc's, maybe a sport bike of some sort. A 250 is nice for tooling around or for a commuter bike, and a Ninja is probably as sporty as you can get for that size, but they definitely don't have the zoom factor and if finances are not an issue I'm not sure why she wouldn't go with something bigger. As you've described her I can't see her having trouble handling a 600cc bike.

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Good thinking. Got any suggestions? Hmm... gonna check what bike the T-Mobile girl drives.

mlharris said:

Just wanted to second what LA*78 said, I don't know much about bikes but my husband has an old Suzuki and I can pick them out easily on the road.

Since I don't ride in the front I can't speak from that experience, but from what I've seen riding well (and being able to switch easily between models and sizes) has a lot to do with confidence. If your female character is timid about the new bike she might have an issue with an unfamiliar ride even though she could handle it physically.

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Oh that's a great point about confidence. It adds a layer of personality. I'll have to think about that. If I do go the timid way and write from a rider's pov, I'll have to take a course like ironmikezero suggested and talk to the other newbie drivers.

Duncan J Macdonald said:

Try a Suzuki Hayabusa. It was the fastest production motorcycle the last few years, and it's not exorbitantly expensive.

--Duncan (current H-D rider)

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No, Duncan, it's prolly cheaper than a V-Rod. It's cool. I now have 3 for her: a Ninja ZX-6R, a Suzuki Hayabusa, and Ducati 848. But I'm not sure if a 1,340-cc bike is too much for a newbie.

WeaselFire said:

The choice bike then would have been the Harley Davidson Sportster, probably an XL, Ironhead engine. Maybe a 1974, in '75 they moved the gear change to the left so it's easy to tell the difference. But maybe not a poor college bike.

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I think I'm going for a Sportster. I like how it looks for a college teen. These Harleys all have very distinctive exhaust designs so it's easy to tell and write. But I think I'll opt for an earlier year, like '66 or older. The guy was poor and these bikes were supposedly rather expensive (I read somewhere a new '72 H-D Ironhead/shovelhead sold for like $2,000.)

WeaselFire said:

Cheaper would be a Honda CB250, smaller and less power (250 CC versus the Harley 1,000 CC). Good bike for your girl rider, a hotter bike might be the Honda CBX 1000. Hot bike, somewhat ill-tempered and one of the desired foreign bikes on the time.

That or the Kawasaki Z1-R. That was a great bike and the non-Harley folks lusted for it. Though it's a big bike for her. First time I tried one I almost fell over at a red light.

Jeff

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I will check out Z1-R. The Honda CB seems to lack the "zoom factor"(thanks slhuang) that a young girl would probably opt for.

Thanks a lot, guys.