Rocket 3 for me 
I was raised on rice rockets. But I have always admired the look of Brit bikes.
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My dad was a semi famous Speedway rider back in the 70’s
500cc methanol powered 110hp and NO BRAKES. None. Not fitted. None. No brakes.
He had balls the size of space hoppers in my view. The mad mental man. But I grew up with bikes. British and Japanese. I have a list of stuff we owned over the years. Sold most of it off gradually after he died and I had to pay the bills but my blood still runs 2 wheeled…
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My dad racing. Blue helmet
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Hell yeah Victork2! You are spawned from a gladiator. When my parents lived in the Republic of Kalifornia, my brothers and I loved going to speedway. Had the pleasure of seeing Bruce Penhall race a few times. Probably the only Yank to ever run with you blokes. If you didn’t have mud in the bottom of your beer cup, you were sitting too far from the track LOL.
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To be fair, my dad had a lot of faults. A lot. A great guy but badly flawed.
But man, watching him race (the one above is not a good example but its all that’s on YouTube) is bloody incredible.
I remember when I was maybe 10 years old going to a ‘golden oldies’ race night for all the old boys who had given it up years ago and my dad hadn’t rode a Speedway bike for over 11 years. He. Absolutely. Smashed. The. Lot.
Won every single race. I still get teared up thinking about that night. Only time I ever saw the true legend come out.
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Funny how I come back here and youre all talking Brit bikes and such. I picked up this over the weekend. Its a 2012 Bonnie T100. Its Only a 855 with Only 66hp. Boy, is this thing fun. I put 200 km on it before I decided to quit pushing my luck with the very dry rotted front tire. Disclaimer, The pic below is not my bike. But you would not be able to tell this one apart from mine. I cant get pictures to load right now.
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My new bike has ONE front disk and NO ABS. I have to use the rear brake all the time in conjunction to the front. Bottom line is I would have had a very sporty time trying to stop as you did. This could have resulted on me and the bike sustaining some injuries. Careful out there! I would let that neighbor know too! Move your flipping trash can!
Only?
That bike has 16hp more than mine… 
Btw I also have a disc in the front but a drum in the rear.
With a single disc you would may have had it easier, I think. You wouldn’t have had the excess and immediate front brake bite to lose traction up front and unload the rear, unless your death gripped that front brake. The extra rotor up front only helps when you use it’s power responsibly, which I royally messed up in that event!
I have practiced hard stops on the Ninja 250 as well, which is single front disk - and it has never been one to unweight the tail dramatically.
I grew up with siblings 
, and a father who was really in to sports (he coached rep hockey, (american) football and baseball before I was born - not all simultaneously).
So I grew up playing soccer and hockey, both of which I enjoyed but I really wanted to get into racing, karts probably - but that was “too expensive” (I bet cheaper than hockey was though…).
We were in suburbia so growing up with dirt bikes wasn’t an option.
Versys is 68. As Zack Courts reviewed “just the right amount of power”. It’s right on the money to where you can say that yes, you do want more - but you also don’t feel that you need more. The more I ride, that is how I feel too. The next bikes up for me would have been: Tracer900GT or a Triumph Tiger 800 - both of which cost 50% more roughly, which does feel like too much dollar for some extra power I only want, but don’t need.
Triumph has grown on me as a brand, and they execute modern classic way better than the route Honda is taking with the neo-sports/cafe designs.
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Looks like something Steve McQueen would ride…!
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How about 52 horsepower. I’m at the time in my life where just getting out in two wheels would be a thrill, kind of like when I first road a motorcycle almost 50 years ago. It has to look good though, and not raise the eyebrows of the finance manager much. Too bad the Himalaya is such a dog. But the Continental GT has the right looks and only costs around two RTX 3090s.
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THATS an RE? Wow!
OH! There is a Steve McQueen version of the Bonnie… don’t worry.
I would, but I hop between the RSV4’s crazy powerful brakes and this… I nearly ran a stop sign 
I am waiting on tires. The front is bad even with one eye closed I cant look at it. The rear is meh… Its killing me cos this time of the year is the best. Soon it will be too hot to even look at the bikes. By the end of May they are in storage. June to September is BRUTAL. Then in October starts the season again. Its backwards to the rest of the world. At least i get some good online sales when the seasons ends in US.
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Just remember that RE is made in India now and they have a reputation (RE, not india) for being slightly up and down on build quality these days, almost like a true british bike
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My Modern Classic British Bike was made in Thailand… Not that Triumph or British vehicles were ever known for Quality.
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As long as it isn’t a Japanese bike made in Italy…
No offense against Italy, but in the 1990s Honda built a few motorbikes there. And their quality was a LOT worse than the ones built in Japan.
My best guess is that all the Italians working there just hated their job. Assembling Japanese motorbikes in Italy. Every day they asked themselves “Why don’t I work for Aprilia, or Gilera, or Ducati, or Cagiva, or Guzzi, even Benelli or friggin’ Piaggio!”
(Insert highly Italian hand movements and Italian curse words here).
So they were distracted or something and it showed in the quality. Honda stopped producing there after a few years.
Its such a funny thing. When I was a kid (60s-70s) if you drove a Japanese car you were poor. Real Men Drove Muscle Cars. People see you in a Chevy Malibu and say… Poor ■■■■■■■! I remember the first Honda Civics and Datsun Coupes. You would not be seen dead in one of them.
I didn’t like the Honda
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But I liked the B210… Maybe cos I was too young to drive
And I LOVED the Celica
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