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What is a cult bike?
It's usually a bike that got no love from the public when introduced. Manufacturers create a motorcycle that is aimed at some segment that no one cares about. They are usually smaller machines that have none of the USA virtue for bigger is ALWAYS better. Over time a small group of riders found the bikes at give away pricing, (or much lower than the original MSRP) and bought one. This rider would end up with a unique motorcycle that no one had. It's virtues usually propelled it into an idyllic ride that the main stream motorcycles didn't have.
A key feature of these bikes is that they increased in value over a period of decades. The charms of a cult bike is their uniqueness as well as their ride character which propels them from a simple failed motorcycle that never caught on to a charmed motorcycle every true bike nerd wants to look over.
Cult bikes start off as failed motorcycles in the market. These are not older motorcycles that are rare to start and values increase over time. Your Ducati 888 may be a cult bike in your eye but this was a legend when first introduced and not a motorcycle that sat on the showroom floor as everyone walked past it to a much cooler new motorcycle. Cult bikes usually have some hook that grabs owners and pulls them in. Usually its low weight, great handling, oddly high spec components which priced them too high to start. These bikes were usually aimed at true enthusiasts. Those looking for more of an immersive experience in their motorcycle.
A few weeks ago I bought a cult bike.
The 1986 Yamaha SRX600. A one year imported sales disappointment. It was a tiny motorcycle that was not aimed at beginner motorcyclist. First it was a kick only motorcycle. That's right, no magic button to press when you stalled the cold blooded thing when you went to pull out from that stop sign into traffic, you were marooned. You push it over to the side of the road, fold up the peg, find TDC with a few easy prods on the kickstarter and then give it a real kick. This is an anxiety producing event. Yes this has already happened to me. I now know why riders back in the day would rev their bikes at stops. For FUCK SAKE DON'T DIE.
Why did I want this weird little bike? Well back iin 1986 there was a small Yamaha Dealer in Hudson Mass. The truck driving route would take me past their front window where this odd motorcycle sat on display. Small enough to be up on that window cill it gleamed and it had a shape that was unique to the times. There were no pull back handle bars and it wasn't covered in plastic like the onset of the modern sport bikes now becoming popular. It was like some modern MANX Racer. Clip-on's, single cylinder, kick only... I wish I had the means as I understood the concept of a super light sport motorcycle. Hey it had the same dual piston calipers on the front as a current '86 FZ600! At the time I was riding a Honda Interceptor 700. I had a great bike but this thing just tickled my imagination of knee down antics now seen on SuperMoto's.
Well FB marketplace got me one morning. There in the automatic feed listing weird motorcycles without me typing anything in the search field was an SRX located on Long Island NY. DANG! It looked clean. Then this statement, "Original owner". FUCK ME! That's worth looking into.
The FB advert photo
In typical FB Marketplace fashion. I mistakenly click on message seller and the default "Is this still available?" was shot off to him. Grrr. Then I carefully wrote a note stating who I was, what I was looking for and inquiry on the state of the bike. Is it being ridden or sat for years, etc. I got back a note a few hours later. It is sold.
Then About 30 minutes later I got a note actually answering my second note. He simply said sold to anyone that shot off FB's default message. The plan was on. It wasn't cheap but these things are increasing in value so his $4000 buck asking price was OK in my eye if the bike was as clean as the photos looked. I decided to take a day off from work on a warm warm and sunny early October Wednesday and go get the bike. The owner John planned to meet me at the Bridgeport Ferry landing in Port Jefferson about 40 minutes from his home. Then I could simply load the bike into my Jeep Gladiator pickup and take the next ferry back. This worked out great. Turns out John was a former racer at Loudon. He raced the old track back in the 80's. He actually bought the motorcycle on the way home from a race where I think he said it was Naults. There on the floor was a two year old left over SRX600. He said he was going to let his wife ride it but the bike ended up racing in a singles race one weekend where it didn't have enough poke to stay up front and it was retired to pokey rides on Long Island. With only 7100 miles on it I picked it up. Hmmm, that's about 200 miles per year on the thing.
Over to Long Island I went.
A quick look at the bike and a short ride aroung the large parking lot to test it's transmission showed it was good to go. Clean with a few nicks in the paint here and there from garage bumps and small stuff but super clean and most of all, original down to the crazy large blinkers and quiet exhaust.
On the truck it went and back onto the ferry after hanging out with John and his wife on that sunny day after a lunch at a fish place near the dock. A real pleasure to meet a fellow racer from his past life and share stories of life in the Haddock and current rides....
Back home the bikes tires showed a date stamp from 1982! Some old Dunlop tire he put on when he first bought it because the stock "radial" tires were terrible. The tires on that bike were made of dry wood. The dry rot was there and I was surprised he rode that thing to the dock. I bought some Bridgestone BT54 tires (Jap-tires for a Jap bike). Trying to find 18" front tires is a pain.
The brakes were wooden as well and new pads fixed that while I had the wheels off.
New tires and brakes with the reg sorted and off to the Vanilla Bean for lunch last weekend. The ride was superb with plenty of torque driving home a feeling of effortless acceleration for road riding. The bike spoke to me about its desire to lean deeply into turns and skip using the brakes. What a great lil bike.
Width of this bike and how tiny it is shocks me every time I swing a leg over it. I put my hat on the seat to show how narrow this bike is. A great cult bike!
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Originally Posted by SteveM
Was never much of a road bike fan as a kid, even then I thought my CR would be AWESOME with road tires, but the presences of the CX won my over.
