4T era

[masonmart]

I'm a child of the mid 60's and the devastatingly good 2Ts had only just started coming; YDS3, Super 6, Bridgestone GTR, Kawasaki Avenger. My loves at the time were the Honda CB77, the Goldie, Venom, Bonnie, etc., which I couldn't afford at the time but, Goldie apart, have now. Most of you guys are 2T lovers but there are incredible characteristics that these old 4T's have especially when you correct the original faults such as 5 speed for 4 speed gearboxes. They are pretty constant torque, relaxing, good on gas and can sound great. On the other hand they can vibrate really badly (CB77 apart). In the long run we were given superb 4T's like the CB750, Z1 and the current super sport bikes. I'm lucky in that I love both 2T's and 4T's
In car terms 2Ts just don't exist and that's good, 4Ts are the perfect driver for cars.

[Tobyjugs]

I like all sorts of engines.
Last year i was working with a man who races a Trabant and it was very fast compared to other cars of the era with similar size engines.

[steve63]

The bike mags in the early 80's would test a four stroke and say something like "it has a linear power delivery" as if that was a good thing. As far as I was concerned it just made them boring.

I don't think I've ever wanted to have a bike that's relaxing. As for mpg if you compare like for like then say for instance if there was such a thing as a 350 twin four stroke producing the same power as a 350LC in 1979 and being ridden in a similar way then in my opinion it would produce similar mpg figures. Again the mags would compare a VF400 against a 350YPVS and say the 400 was better but forgetting to mention the two extra pistons, 50cc and a couple of thousand rpm's to get there. I'm guessing they cost more as well. Don't see many VF400's about now do you?

As for sound, well a four cylinder four stroke with a nice pipe on sounds pretty good IMHO but twins sound like a wet fart and singles even worse. A mate had Ducati 748 and I thought it sounded like an XS250.

A mate of mine sold his RD400 and bought a 400 Superdream. After a few weeks he couldn't take anymore and got rid of it before buying a 350LC.

I had a 400 Four at the same time as a LC/YPVS. The 4/4 was about 2% as exciting to ride as the Yamaha but I used it for work.

I used to say I'm not buying a four stroke unless it's a big one. I kept my LC/YPVS and bought a GSXR1100H. I never thought that was boring.

I love my R1 and my VFR800 but the 4Ts of the 70/80's, especially the smaller ones, were overweight boring rubbish as far as I was concerned.