I remember in the 80's some manufacturers cut displacement for insurance purposes. So in the US, you can find v45 (750cc) and some v40 (700cc) bikes out there.

Owned two VFR 500's back then. Very fun bike to ride. Lightweight and nimble, you could really throw it around. Pipey little things. Nothing really happened below 10,000 and with a 12,500 redline it had a narrow powerband. Reminded me of a 125 MX bike

Great urban street racer if you knew how to ride it effectively. Could dust off much bigger, faster bikes. Just get the holeshot and pick the sharpest corners and you had 'em. I shamed many a punk on their Gixxers with my little 500's

 

Hey:
It was not for insurance purposes it was for the Regan admin implemented big bike tariff, put inplace for HD motorcycles and pretty saved them from going under. It worked very effectivilly as they are still going strong, way better than back in the 80s. It was only applied to bikes 750cc < not made in the USA and is why Honda stepped up to produce the Goldwings in Ohio and others like Kaw LTDs in Neb and BMWs in SC, to avoid/get around the tariff. Many M/C Manf imports, were lowered to the size 700cc on popular model bikes made outside the USA to avoid the 40+% mark up and drove prices of all big cc used bikes up. All model prices went up and never came down ever since to recoup losses.

Dub

 

Thanks Dub for proving that I am one step closer to Alzheimer's

 

Just as a final aside to this thread, my mate Gerald didn't end up owning a bike for his winter project. But he did score himself a very worthy project.

10 points to any American member that can correctly identify this little project.

 

Do I qualify to answer ?

Sounds like Tommy Cooper and the steering wheel is in the proper spot too

I think the "mini.jpg" was a bit of giveaway TK !

How about this one ????

 

The Minilite wheels on there makes me wonder if it's an "S" model


Sprock. That's a Jensen Interceptor. Might be a big block Mopar engine under the hood

 

Here's one for the "World" players. My dream car. What is it?

 

not a bizzarini? looks italian to me.
a wild guess.

 

A/R Tipo? I can see why;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYvy0ocMts

 

Give the man a virtual bag of crisps

It made #15 on Top Gear's Sexiest cars.