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Vintage Ranking

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Scout63:
How would you numerically rank the following vintage standards and why?  Also add one wild card if you want.

Moto Guzzi Tonti
Norton Commando
BMW Airhead
Ducati bevel GT

Mine right now would be:

1. Ducati - coolness factor of 11 plus that sound
2. Moto Guzzi - overall excellence and so easy to work on
3. Norton - attracts old men like flies and polishes up beautifully
4. BMW - just so competent and one got me across the country and back when I needed that so badly.

My wild card is an AMF Sportser. I’ve never had one but they look the business.

Kane:
1. Guzzi Tonti. A great range of fun and versatile bikes, from the LM1 to touring bikes. Also my first bike, so I have a soft spot for them.
2. Norton Commando. A brilliant British classic, right side shift with a race shift pattern is pretty sweet, and an 850 to match the Tonti.
3. Ducati bevel drive. So unique and quirky Italian design, particularly with the glass sight window to see the gears, and if a later desmo model you have more brilliant Italian vision going on. I knew a guy who rode one everyday back in the ‘80’s and loved the bike.
4. BMW air head….I’ll go R50 for a very handsome design and probably easy to live with once sorted.

Wild card, how about a Vincent. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I know a guy who is working an extra job to swing buying a SuperLeggera, so why not? Errr…I just looked at what these things are going for, a bit hard to swallow. Would hate to drop it!

I guess I’ll amend my wildcard to something I would actually buy. 1967 Moto Guzzi V7, the first V-twin shaft drive, original loop frame and namesake to the current roadsters. The bike that started it all, and turning the ignition switch to start the bike will always bring a smile.

wymple:
Tonti. Why do we need a discussion? :thumb:

s1120:
If I real world need to live with and work on them?   

MG
BMW
Ducati
Norton.

Now just love, and coolness, and just damn the torpedoes have what I like the best no matter what it takes to keep them alive?

Ducati SS.  750 or 900
MG LM I
BMW R90S
Norton Commando

Wild card real life?  Suzuki GS1150ES

anything goes? Vincent

cliffrod:
A Tonti frame Guzzi tops my list.  That’s why I’ve kept mine through it all, no mater what.

After that, it goes to bevel Ducati & Norton which are much like two sides to the same coin. Both require more than the Guzzi.  Both bring more sexy romance than a Moto Guzzi

That puts BMW at the bottom of my list.  They may be “better” machines and more comparable to Moto Guzzi than a Bevel Ducati or Norton, but they don’t light my fire like any of those three marques.


Not sure what is meant by an AMF Sportster, because there was a fair amount of variation.  Maybe you mean an iron head & barrel Sportster?  I am a big fan and have a very late iron Sportster with alternator that’s a keeper.  Like the pre-Twin Cam big twins, they’re sophistication is better indexed to how the original design endured than to the latest upgrades & tweaks.  So many iron sportsters have been beaten & neglected into junk that many people never get to positively experience one.  Of the above bikes, it’s most akin to the Norton but it more visceral and grunt.  The normal small Sportster tank shapes how you ride, so it’s a completely different mindset than knowing you can ride for 3-4 hrs nonstop at highway speed.  Is it a “better” bike?  Probably not but who cares?  It makes me happy. 

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