They do say classic design never fades and that copying is the highest form of flattery in which case the 1980’s original Japanese bike designers must have got something right. Meandering around one of the Heptanese islands I have been struck by the number of copycat small monkey bikes and narrow engineered enduros – all are perfectly designed for the islands and rough gravel and pitted roads. This well used and sun bleached Skyteam ST200 model was born in 2007 and with 17HP is faster than much of the local taxi and tourist traffic. The ST200 looks like a slimmer love child created by blending a 1991 Honda XR250 and a 1993 Suzuki DR350 – nice to know that classic design lives on care of the Jiangsu Sacin Motorcycle Company based in Nanjing. But one question remains – now that Honda have announced the release of a new 125cc classic monkey bike following on from the success of the Grom, maybe design is going full circle with Honda recreating the Skyteam copy of a Suzuki copy of a Yamaha copy of a Honda original – I can see patent lawyers rubbing their hands together from here…
Tag Archives: Bikes
What makes a classic?
Sometimes it is the first bike you had, sometimes it the one you did a special trip on or the one you made another personal connection with, sometimes it is a bike you lusted after as a youth. I have always loved the angular style and square ‘in your face’ engine of the old and original K Series bikes from BMW. I found this, an unpainted aluminum tanked, 1989/90 K75C in Berlin this week… The bike was propped up under an industrial unit balcony, being protected from the worst of the winter elements, and after almost 30 years it looked like it would have coughed into life. From memory and new, it would have had about 70bhp so not much chance of me getting a (read ‘another’ German) speeding ticket, even if I had persuaded the owner to part with the flying brick…
So what is in my Africa Twin toolkit?
I have had lots of requests to make up toolkits for riders and my advice is almost always the same, you only need to worry and carry the tools you both know how to use and will fix the bits on your bike you know how to fix… That said, as promised, apart from spare tubes here is what I carry in my CRF1000L toolkit…
- 8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm and a 15mm open end and ratchet spanner (all these will do the chain adjusters, and all the remaining odd nuts and bolts on the CRF).
- Three MotionPro tyre levers (08-0284 12-13mm), (08-0288 27mm), (08-0286 22mm).
- Two MotionPro Rim Shield II plastic covers.
- 27mm and 22mm socket and drive (you will not break the rear axle torque with the MotionPro levers so either under torque your axle or carry these).
- 8mm, 10mm and 12mm long reach socket and small driver.
- HW5 Hex.
- 17mm Axle key.
- Flat and cross head screwdriver.
- Tube patches, glue and rubber gloves.
- Cable ties.
- Spare brake lever (53170-MEJ-016) – the only thing that has stopped me dead on the CRF is a broken front brake lever.
- All in a Kriega tool roll and wrapped in a Karrimore waterproof kit bag.
