uk army
 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HARLEY-DAVIDSO...item3ca7c0d343 Ran across this browsing

Interesting. A modern dirt bike with a Rotax engine; what exactly is Harley about that?

Really were's the Harley

Why would the British military have a Harley-Davidson motorcycle? :?: :roll:

Spud :)

When I was around 12 thru 14 years old I worked at a Golf Course picking up balls on the driving range. We had a Harley Golf Cart with some rusted out muffler on it. The Harley guys today would of been proud becuase that thing was darn loud and we got several complaints from the golfers.

That MT350 looks nice. Harley's made some pretty cool looking military bikes over the years that I've seen pop up on craigslist and ebay. I wish they would produce them for the public, however without the ridiculous 15 to 25k price tag or poor reliability. They also had awesome looking road racebike in the early 90's that I wish they would of made realistic to buy. I believe you could buy one but it was something like 50k which was almost twice the price of a Corvette during the time and I don't think it was street legal. I had a Buell XB-9 for a couple years and it was a perfect bike for flogging around traffic in the inner city and had some really neat features. However, it was constantly in the shop for factory defects like bad sensors or chaffing wires and I had to replace clutches and drive belts twice as fast as I would on my Japanese sportbikes

I'll give you a quick history lesson. Back in the early 80's the British army required a new motorcycle, the well known off-road company CCM put forward a tender, which they won. A company called Armstrong was formed to build them, this was the Armstrong MT 500, drum brakes, kick start, 500cc Rotax. When the army wanted to change the specs in the late 80's, CCM wasn't interested, so Armstrong and the rights to build the new bike, the MT 350 were sold, to guess who; Harley-D.

Jonathan.
P.S. They are slow, heavy and not too good on fuel, with limited off-road ability.

Wasn't CCM affiliated with Harley at one time? I vaguely remember some very troublesome Harley's that had CCM on them I think? I can't remember the time frame though, maybe mid 80's?

If I'm not mistaken I *think* the Canadian military had/has a few of these too.

You're thinking of AMF. Lots of people groan about the AMF years, but they saved Harley from financial disaster.

Yes, I remember the AMF years. Harley-Davidson was ready to collapse in 1969 when American Machine and Foundry bought it. AMF used to manufacture a lot of recreational products, but today it only operates bowling centers through AMF Bowling Corporation. AMF sold Harley-Davidson to a small group of investors in 1981.

Spud :)

Ahh, correct you are! Sorry about the mistake, it's my alzheimers kicking in :). I should have remembered that too cause I was looking at one once...

That's what i like so much about CHINARIDERS . Current info + history

I know it's been mentioned on here before but the smaller CCM bikes are re-badge Chinese.

Jonathan.

What engine do the bigger bikes use? Are they manufactured by CCM (the bigger ones). I like their retro line, btw

http://www.ccmmotorcyclesuk.com/imag...r-40-large.png

It seems like they actually circle track race the c-xr230 Chinese bike...

"C-XR230: 3 in 1: This superb lightweight multi purpose model has proven its pedigree with its success at the British national shorttrack series. The C-XR230 is excellent value for money, offering an enduro, supermoto and entry level MX machine in one punchy package, which comes with the luxury of an electric start as standard. The CXR230 is now E3 Homologated."

I wonder if it's the same bike as the Canadian Saga enduro?

http://www.ccmmotorcyclesuk.com/c-xr230-e/index.php

I am still after the Pitster XTR250, which you guys also get, through CCM

http://www.ccmmotorcyclesuk.com/x-tr250/index.php

The motors are Suzuki DR-Z400, I've seen the Retro range close up, the pictures don't do them justice, they're crap!! The spec looks good on paper, alloy rims, stainless exhaust etc.. but when you see them in the flesh "oh my god". The plastics and light brackets mud guards etc. are universal items hacked to fit, the alloy tank is about the thickness of a soda can.

Jonathan.