FIRE TRUCK!!!

Nice looking fire truck!! It's too rich for my blood at $2500. I still have a few of my Grandkids cars. A Speedway pace car, Taxi  and a Ranch Wagon.

That pace car is definitely a sibling to my ladder truck

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What I never liked about the pedal cars was that you had to stop the motor at every light and then restart on the green.

How much energy did we really save?

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All air cooled too!  Now it's 24v EV plastic JEEPs and pink Corvettes!  Spoiled brats.

My friend Larry and I ran a 700 car show each Memorial Day in NJ . , there was a retired local guy thee that would display at least 100 of his 200 pedal car collection all restored.... some really unique styles.

I was watching that one as well, Ed -- did you happen to catch the $9000 Honda Z50 minibike? At one point, every kid in America had one -- now they're worth more than a limo.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1984-honda-z50j-6/

We are at a very strange inflection point as an economy. Late stage Rome springs to mind -- but really, it's just late stage any great civilization, complete with debauchery, moral turpitude, and a debased currency valuing increasingly weird things. $9000 for a minibike. $2500 for a pedal car. $85K for a plastic clown car replica.

Madness.

Visigoths at 6

@edsnova posted:

Visigoths at 6

I think you mean, "Visigoths ON your six".

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You guys are both wrong.

It's " Visigoths at VI ."

.

@Stan Galat posted:

I was watching that one as well, Ed -- did you happen to catch the $9000 Honda Z50 minibike? At one point, every kid in America had one -- now they're worth more than a limo.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1984-honda-z50j-6/

We are at a very strange inflection point as an economy. Late stage Rome springs to mind -- but really, it's just late stage any great civilization, complete with debauchery, moral turpitude, and a debased currency valuing increasingly weird things. $9000 for a minibike. $2500 for a pedal car. $85K for a plastic clown car replica.

Madness.

Guys don’t mind spending money to buy back their youth!

Honda reintroduced a modern version of the Monkey back in 2019. They are 125cc, fuel injected, 5 speeds. They are big enough for adults to ride. Current list price is $4349 + $300 destination charge. Try buying one at list, all the dealers are tacking on another $3-500 for prep, if they even have any available.

Honda also just brought to the US the Dax, which we remember as the CT70. Same deal getting one as the Monkey.

Nostalgia sells.

I don’t know how my dad came about getting that same pedal car @edsnova, but my brother had it in the mid 70s and then I had it in the late 70s / early 80s.
He stored it after our youth until he retired. When he stripped it down and restored it. I really don’t know what happened to it. Knowing him, he probably donated it.
Before they moved out to CA with my wife and I, they either gave away or donated all their possessions. All proceeds from the auctioned items went to the local chapter of the DAV.
The beauty of doing this while you’re alive is that you’re able to see first hand the impact you make on someone’s life.  Which in itself, is rewarding.

I never had a pedal car that I can remember, but I had a pedal tractor. I can distinctly remember thinking (at 3 or 4 years old) how lame it was because it had no engine.

I probably missed all the marketing at the time and don't know when Honda started calling the Z50 a "Monkey" -- but back in the day "flyover country kids" like me called 'em "Honda 50s", and they were the height of cool exotica for boys in the minibike demographic target sweet-spot -- far, far more sophisticated ("A 3 speed transmission!? What kind of alchemy is this!?!") than the Sears or Montgomery Wards minibikes with a 3-1/2 hp B&S and centrifugal clutch most farm kids had.

I guess I'm just slow, but to my eye, the $4650 street legal 125 cc Honda Monkey @LI-Rick linked is nothing like the Z50 in spirit, execution, or price. It's similar, insofar as it has an engine and a gas-tank between the riders knees and it's sort of small(ish) -- but I have to take off my glasses, cover my good eye, and squint really, really hard to see any similarity.

That Dax, though, appears very similar in form to the CT70s the older kids all rode and is instantly recognizable. I always thought the 70s looked exceptionally dorky. This one too.

Eventually (when the stupid fairy bonked us on the head with her puberty-wand), we all bought motocross bikes anyhow. Almost everybody jumped from a minibike to a motocross 250 (CR, RM, or YZ). I had an intermediate step from my '73 Z50A onto a '75 Yamaha MX100 (which was scaled like a YZ125, but had an underpowered 100 cc engine.)

I rode that bike until used air-cooled monoshock YZ250s got into the $500 range when I snapped up my first one. Water-pumpers were out by that point, but well out of any of my circle's price range. If anybody wanted more they just jumped up to an openclass aircooled MX bike -- but almost none of us did. My YZ250 was the first vehicle I'd ever been in or on that was better (faster and/or more capable) than any operator I knew. The limit to how fast one could go was not the machine, it was down to skill and/or ability to tamp down one's primal fears.

I was born without a self-preservation gene, and learned how to put what vestigial fear I did possess into a locked box on that bike. I did some things that were probably not generally thought of as being possible by the townsfolk of my hamlet. Those things were certainly unwise. I knew I was nuts, but I was self-aware enough to reason that I was highly unlikely to live long enough to get married or reproduce anyhow. If it wasn't this it'd be that. Racers and daredevils of every ilk were still dying at a pretty alarming rate, and at least a kid a year (in my town of 2000 souls) was dying in a car wreck. I reasoned that whereas everybody sheds this mortal coil eventually anyhow, dying as the pilot of an amazing machine looked like a pretty fantastic way to go. The need for speed never extended to formal motocross racing, because racing was on Sunday and we went to church on Sunday.

Regardless, on weekend afternoons, we'd be in somebody or other's timber or river bottom or gravel pit, wringing the necks of our 2-strokes. I wore a $20 full-face helmet with goggles, a duckbill and no shield, which was the extent of my protective gear. I crashed hard and broke a lever or bent a handlebar nearly every time I rode. It was well before the advent of the internet, so parts meant Genuine Yamaha until I discovered Dennis Kirk mail-order, whereupon I started ordering three-finger plastic levers in bulk because if they were going to break every time anyhow, I didn't want to be spending $20 (in 1980 dollars) per lever.

I'm convinced the primary reason I was a bilateral TKR patient in my 50s is mostly because of the things I did well before my 21st birthday.

We rode everywhere and any time we could -- I kept my YZ gassed up and tied down in the bed of my Chevy LUV 4-wheel drive pickup, so it would always be ready to go if there was a spare couple of hours and a friend ready to go.

Between 1978 and when I got married in 1985, I spent almost nothing on food or clothes. Every spare dime I had went into something with a motor -- car or motorcycle. I lived in a crappy apartment or shared a farm house (with no heat) with 4 other guys, mostly starved or ate frozen pizzas, and spent what I had on cars and motorcycles. I eventually sold the YZ to buy a street bike (a Kawasaki Z1 900) because I figured out that going 120 on the street got the adrenaline pumping more readily than going 70 in the dirt. Spending money to go faster has always made sense to me.

Spending $9000 for a minibike doesn't.

I get it, $9000 for a mini 50cc seems ridiculous. But this was a limited production for the Japanese market. It says only 5000 were made world wide. This is a rarer version of the Honda 50cc Christmas Special with gold chrome plating. These bikes have brought big money in the past 10 years. The popularity caused Honda to introduce the Monkey that was streetable 125cc. So, when this hit the market, people pay for them.

As a kid I cut my teeth on a Honda 50 trail bike. I was 14 when my Dad bought it at one of the first Honda dealerships in the Bay Area named Emery's Honda in San Jose. I had ridden a friend's Bonanza mini bike with a 2 stroke engine, but that was it. My Dad thought it would be a good bike to take hunting. I learned to ride off-road and got pretty good. One Christmas my Dad surprised me with a Honda 90 trail bike. He also traded the 50 in on another 90 trail bike so we both could ride. They both fit into the back of our International Travelall. We even took them to Alaska when we drove the Al-Can Hwy for the Alaskan Centennial in 1965. It became my mode of transportation till I bought my first car, a 1968 VW. I was lucky my Dad rode motorcycles as a kid. He owned an Indian Scout, a Henderson 4 cylinder. and an early Harley Davidson. I ended up giving the Honda to a buddy who didn't have any wheels so he could ride as well. I had bought a Honda 160 Scrambler. After a few years I ended up with a Honda CB 450, then I got into dirt bikes. My first was a 250 Macio that just ate money, but goodness it was fast.........!! I entered a few hill climbs at a place called Hall's Ranch and did ok. When Honda came out with the 250M Elsinore I sold the Macio and bought one. Great bike and it was fast and didn't break all the time. About that time I got into the Van scene and I moved on to off-road cars. A few years later I bought my first Hot Rod a 1931 Model A sedan. It was a project car that needed bodywork but a lot of the chassis was done. I still did some off-road bike stuff but I was looking for an excuse to buy a road bike. Something I could hop on and go for a long ride.My Dad had bought a 750 Honda and loved it. I jumped ship and bought my first BMW, a R100S. That lead to 8 more BMW's over the years and to my latest BMW, a 1600GTL. Along the way I learned to buy what you like. I've been pretty good at not spending crazy money on stuff that I only like for a short time. My wife would argue that point. She thinks I have too many hobbies and way to many interests. So I guess I'm still learning how to be more reserved with my interests. The great part about my interests is she knows where to find me, in the garage !! I don't play golf, don't gamble, don't drink at bars and most of my friends are pretty cool people. And I do believe $9000 for a Gold Honda Monkey Z50cc is crazy money.

Fwiw I had the toy tractor too.

@edsnova posted:

Fwiw I had the toy tractor too.

You townies had everything.

Never owned any kind of motorcycle

@edsnova posted:

Never owned any kind of motorcycle

from at least 1975-1990 there was no way to go faster for less money. Whereas, during that time-frame I hit both sides of the equation (I wanted to go fast AND I had "not much money") -- there it was, waiting to kill or maim me for a really short outlay.

@Stan Galat posted:

" there was no way to go faster for less money. "

You sir, managed to boil down why I was roadracing motorcycles instead of cars to one simple truth.

Bike was cheaper, getting it race ready was cheaper.  tires were cheaper, and there were only 2 needed, hauling it to the track was cheaper, entry fees were cheaper, I got more track time for less $.  there was only 1 shock instead of 4,  Ok, so there were 2 forklegs that had to be re-sprung and re-valved but that was way cheaper than 3 more shocks, springs, camber plates, roll bars, strut braces.  brake pads, cheaper, fuel while sometimes not cheaper per gallon, used less of it.. the list goes on.  I could easily have spent more racing motorcycles than I did..  but I could also see the line of diminishing returns. 

& @edsnova we have a similar pedal firetruck from my dad too.

In 1976 I owned a Honda 750/4. One of the fastest things in the planet. Some of the Kawasakis were also pretty fast. Finished my motorcycle riding in 2013 with a Ducati 916. I was always convinced that nothing was faster than a bike until I rode in my son’s Tesla Model 3 Performance with 510 hp infinitive torque and AWD. 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Mind numbing stuff. My neck still hurts. All of that performance for $55k. Incredible.

I test-drove a 3-cylinder Kawasaki 750 H2 in 1970 when I attended Northeastern University.  

It was incredibly fast.  

Not many people can say they've done over 100mph on Boston's Storrow Drive and survived.

That one, and my brother's Norton 750 Dunstall, convinced me to never ride a motorcycle on the streets ever again.

@Gordon Nichols posted:

I test-drove a 3-cylinder Kawasaki 750 H2 in 1970 when I attended Northeastern University.  

It was incredibly fast.  

Not many people can say they've done over 100mph on Boston's Storrow Drive and survived.

That one, and my brother's Norton 750 Dunstall, convinced me to never ride a motorcycle on the streets ever again.

Wish I would have learned that lesson sooner. Could have saved myself 3 operations and about a million hours of PT.

@550 Phil posted:

In 1976 I owned a Honda 750/4. One of the fastest things in the planet. Some of the Kawasakis were also pretty fast. Finished my motorcycle riding in 2013 with a Ducati 916. I was always convinced that nothing was faster than a bike until I rode in my son’s Tesla Model 3 Performance with 510 hp infinitive torque and AWD. 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Mind numbing stuff. My neck still hurts. All of that performance for $55k. Incredible.

You beat me Phill !! My BMW 1600GTL is a slower 2.9 seconds 0 to 60

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So maybe sales like the one below are what give people the chutzpah to ask $9000 for a 50cc Honda without flinching.

Here's Ian Tyrrell reviewing some of the modest offerings at the recent Paris exotics auctions. You can start at the beginning as he drones through the cheap stuff, but I've placed the start 'bug' for the video at the 20 minute mark where the star of the day goes on the block.

Note that the minimum bid increment in this game is set at $1 million. Why waste time, right?

If you're worried about the price of plywood and refrigerant getting out of hand, here's a whole roomful of folk who are not:

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I'm wondering... If you have 31M Euro ($32,391,745.00 as of right now), wouldn't you have 32M? He even gave them a chance to go to 31.5M.

Pre-C19, a furnace and A/C replacement used to be $10K. Then it was $15K. Now it's $20K-$25K*.

But I guess it doesn't matter because rich guys can still buy $32M toys, so I should be happy with my $6/dozen eggs... right?

_{*3/4" tongue and groove OSB is is still $33/sheet. R507a has settled in at about $20/lb, assuming you buy an entire jug (25 lbs, or $500/cyl).}

Stan, Trader Joe’s for eggs.  32 Mill Euro Ferrari I can’t help with.  😉

@Marty Grzynkowicz posted:

Stan, Trader Joe’s for eggs.  32 Mill Euro Ferrari I can’t help with.  😉

No Trader Joe's downstate, but Aldi has them for $5.19... assuming they can keep them in stock (they can't).

As a wealthy person once told me in the past. Everyone worries about money. The only difference is the location of the comma(s).

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@Stan Galat posted:

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...But I guess it doesn't matter because rich guys can still buy $32M toys, so I should be happy with my $6/dozen eggs... right?...

I don't think rich guys care how much eggs cost, or if you or I are happy, for that matter. They will always have eggs on the table, and that's all that matters, right?

They do care that their $32 million will be worth only $30 million next year.

Unless they find the right $32 million toy to buy — one that will be worth $34 million next year. Then, they can sell the toy (maybe if they need some money to buy eggs) and they haven't lost a dime.

I'm thinking most dudes who buy Lemans-winning 250 LM's aren't buying them to drive to Costco to pick up the groceries.

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Kawasaki 440 LTZ, I was 15, no insurance, no license but 2 jobs.

Honda 550/4

Kawasaki GPZ 750 (fastest 750 ever made at the time)

Kawasaki GPZ 1100, a beast .... I was 16

Honda VTX1800R bagger, bigger motor than several of my first cars, still have it.

@WNGD posted:

Kawasaki 440 LTZ, I was 15, no insurance, no license but 2 jobs.

Honda 550/4

Kawasaki GPZ 750 (fastest 750 ever made at the time)

Kawasaki GPZ 1100, a beast .... I was 16

Honda VTX1800R bagger, bigger motor than several of my first cars, still have it.

Dang, it's like we were in the same era, but you had nicer stuff.

• 12-22 y/o: The afore mentioned dirtbikes
• 16 y/o: 1975 Kawasaki 400 twin. Fine enough around town, bad on the highway.
• 19 y/o: 1973 Kawasaki Z1A900 with a Kirker pipe and a bikini fairing. Loved that bike, but it was hard to get the front wheel off the ground.
• 26-28 y/o: 1984 Yamaha RZ350 with expansion chambers, Weisco piston, and some carb work -- no problem WHATSOEVER lifting the front wheel, the trouble was keeping it on the ground.

A very long pause....

• October, last year: 2005 H/D Road King EFI 5 sp
• In the future (80th birthday): Triumph Thruxton 1200R

I'd like a replica boardtrack bike -- there are some stupid-cool motorized bicycles out there I'd love to hang on my wall.

Bikes -- it's a thing. It gets under your skin and doesn't ever really leave.

@Stan Galat posted:

Dang, it's like we were in the same era, but you had nicer stuff.

• 12-22 y/o: The afore mentioned dirtbikes
• 16 y/o: 1975 Kawasaki 400 twin. Fine enough around town, bad on the highway.
• 19 y/o: 1973 Kawasaki Z1A900 with a Kirker pipe and a bikini fairing. Loved that bike, but it was hard to get the front wheel off the ground.
• 26-28 y/o: 1984 Yamaha RZ350 with expansion chambers, Weisco piston, and some carb work -- no problem WHATSOEVER lifting the front wheel, the trouble was keeping it on the ground.

A very long pause....

• October, last year: 2005 H/D Road King EFI 5 sp
• In the future (80th birthday): Triumph Thruxton 1200R

I'd like a replica boardtrack bike -- there are some stupid-cool motorized bicycles out there I'd love to hang on my wall.

Bikes -- it's a thing. It gets under your skin and doesn't ever really leave.

A friend of mine's Father rode and rode very very well, into his mid 80's. He's had Gold Wings and his wife a silver wing for years

This is my new motorized E bike. Can do about 21mph. And believe it or not I get quite a bit of exercise on it. These things really extend your distance riding bikes. I live 2 blocks from First Landing State park in Va Beach. It has hundreds of miles of trails. In addition we can bike all the way to the Lynnhaven inlet on the Chesapeake Bay for great seafood and oysters. Im addicted.

I’m debating whether to get an e-bike or a PD-bike to fit on the back of my RV.

ps: My younger brother and I, circa 58-59.

I did a combo of the two. Similar to why I love the speedster it is classic but with the suby motor it has a modern flare and plenty of power. If I want a workout I do a spin class. This sucker does 40mph and I can get about 75 miles on charge. I do pedal when I'm on paved trails but even then I am doing about 15-20.

https://www.vintageelectricbikes.com/

@Joe Fortino -- SWEET!

These are the motorized bicycle board racer replicas I was talking about. This one is from Bull Motorcycles and uses what guys in that hobby call a "China Doll" -- the ubiquitous Chinese 2-stroke kits that power DUI conversion bicycles:

This one has less patina and more usability, I would think. It's from Sportsman Flyer and uses a Honda CG160 clone (Chinese), making it illegal as a bicycle, assuming anybody was actually checking. It's short money -- something like $3400. They make a 200 cc model as well, assuming you have a deathwish.

I think all of this is exceedingly cool.

Thanks @Stan Galat. I like everyone else here wanted a motorcycle (wife was a no vote) and this is what I ended up getting. It was more than I wanted to spend, but the quality is outstanding. They have  been around for years and the founder has a great story. Just waiting on spring to get back outside.

@550 Phil posted:

This is my new motorized E bike. Can do about 21mph. And believe it or not I get quite a bit of exercise on it. These things really extend your distance riding bikes. I live 2 blocks from First Landing State park in Va Beach. It has hundreds of miles of trails. In addition we can bike all the way to the Lynnhaven inlet on the Chesapeake Bay for great seafood and oysters. Im addicted.

You look like a serious biker there, Phil!

That bike looks a lot like the bikes some of my friends ride.  I bought a Specialized Turbo Vado 5.2 a couple of years ago, which is similar, but the battery is not removable and is hidden in the forward down-tube.  We started with the basic Vado road frame and then turned it into a commuter bike to make me sit erect to take the stress off of my neck arthritis.  I'm guessing the battery will loose some "oomph" around the end of the fifth year of regular riding, but it's still good for 50-60 miles when used prudently.  Nothing like my old Greeves 250 trail bike back in the 1960's, but then again, I'm a different me, too!

When I was a kid, I had neither the pedal-powered truck nor the John Deere Pedal tractor.

But what I did have, was my choice of two 1943 and one 1944 Ford Ferguson farm tractors and a 1946 Ford Cab over engine farm dump truck to tool around with.  

Starting driving just about everything when I was about seven years old.

@Joe Fortino posted:

Thanks @Stan Galat. I like everyone else here wanted a motorcycle (wife was a no vote) and this is what I ended up getting.

Totally get it, and it's stupid-cool.

The thing is: bicycles ridden on the street are quite nearly as dangerous as street driven motorcycles (I tend to think moreso), but they don't have the stigma. When I took my kids out on the motorcycle, I got the stink-eye from everybody in town. When we bicycled as a family 100 miles a week (or so), I was father of the year.

Wear bright clothes, a helmet, and keep your head on a swivel. Nobody can "see those things".

It's my personal theory that at least half of the MC fatalities reported all summer long are DUIs -- either the other vehicle or the rider. Guys riding on the interstate or a country road during daylight hours are never the guys killed -- it's always a guy leaving a bar at 2:00 AM. If it's during the day, it's at an intersection.

Again -- that bike is stupid-cool.

Cool stuff, my client built one of those Indian motorcycles for a friend of his. Let me see if I can get a picture. It was very cool.

Here it is: