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« Last post by faffi on Today at 02:19:38 AM »
My obsession with motorcycles began when I got a wind-up toy the day I turned two. The first brand name I learned was Suzuki, followed by Tempo - a neighbour had a Suzuki AC50, and later a cousin got a Tempo 50 with a double saddle. It would take several years before I learned the first model designation, which was when the neighbour upgraded from the AC to a T500, but I am not sure if it was a 1967 /Five or a 1968 Cobra. Another couple of bikes that made big impressions on little me was the Honda CB750K (the rider had a full face helmet, the first of those I saw) and the Yamaha R5 350.
The most popular, or should I say common, motorized two-wheeler in the 60s and 70s was the locally (Sandnes, Norway) Tempo Corvette, a 50cc moped featuring a Sachs two-stroke engine. However, from the late 60s, more and more Japanese motorcycles began flooding the country. When I first began riding in 1980, age 16, I first got a Suzuki A100, but it was very unreliable after being hammered for 6 years by various teenagers, so I bought a new Honda CB100. I never gelled with the sound of two-strokes, nor the smoke they produced or the lack of engine braking, so getting the Honda was fantastic.
From the age of 16 until 18, you could ride a moped with no training. These where limited to 50cc and 2.5 hp and a single seat. Top speed was restricted to 50 kph (31 mph), but quite a few tuned their mopeds. The Suzuki AC50 and Kreidler 50 could both be made to go double of the legal speed. With a license for lightweight motorcycles, you could ride up to 100cc and 7 hp, limited to a top speed of 80kph (50 mph), but again many bored them out to 125cc and removed the restrictions. If you got caught with a tuned moped or lightweight bike, it cost a lot of money. The police used to be present outside various schools with a rolling road they used to check that bikes would not go too fast. I was dependant on my bike for transportation and kept mine stock and restricted.
Back to the AC50 and my neighbour. He was a speedway racer as well, and used to tuning, and his AC was tuned to within an inch of his life. He was obsessed of getting it up to IIRC 61 kph in, I believe first gear, but while it would do 60 kph, every time he went past the crank broke. He went through a lot of cranks, but not one survived going past 60 kph (37 mph). He would also sit for a half mile at a time, in first gear, on his T500 trying to get it to an indicated 105 kph / 65 mph. He never quite made it, but the engine held up. Redline was 7000 rpm, an actual 105 kph would require 11,600 rpm. How much of this was bragging and how much was honest, I cannot say. But I, and several other kids, did witness him repeatedly sit for half a mile with the throttle pinned in first gear, apparently with no ill effect to the engine.
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