{"id":28574,"date":"2025-07-02T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=28574"},"modified":"2025-07-10T13:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:40:31","slug":"quantos-pistones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/quantos-pistones\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfQuantos Pistones?"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

The question du jour (and for several upcoming blogs) is as stated above:\u00a0 How many pistons?<\/p>\n

A thought occurred to me the other day:\u00a0 I\u2019ve owed singles, twins, triples, fours, and even a six (a Honda CBX, which was a wonderful motorcycle).\u00a0 There have even been (and are) companies that offer 8-cylinder bikes.\u00a0 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8: What\u2019s should be the right number of pistons for the perfect motorcycle?<\/p>\n

Man, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve owned a lot of motorcycles of varying engine configurations.\u00a0 This blog focuses on the singles.\u00a0 There will be future blogs on other engine configurations.\u00a0 What I’ll describe are my experiences with singles, and (spoiler alert) they’ve all been good.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n

Honda Super 90<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first motorcycle ever was a Honda Super 90 previously owned by Sherm Cooper of Cooper\u2019s Cycle Ranch in New Jersey.\u00a0 Sherm was a famous flat track and ISDT racer in the 1950s and 1960s.\u00a0 Mr. Cooper had customized the Super 90 I bought from him with an upswept pipe, a skid plate, and knobby tires.<\/p>\n

On my Super 90 in the 1960s. It was a fun bike. I wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license yet, but that didn’t slow me down at all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I owned the Super 90 before I had a driver\u2019s license, and I rode my Honda all over.\u00a0 It would hit 65mph given enough time and road.\u00a0 I had a lot of fun on that bike.<\/p>\n

BSA Bantam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere in my misspent youth as a goofy teenager, I owned a 125cc two-stroke BSA that actually ran, but not well enough that I was willing to venture very far from the house on it.\u00a0 I rode it in the fields behind our place for a couple of weeks and then parked it on the front lawn with a for sale sign.\u00a0 My first and only Beezer sold quicky.<\/p>\n

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A BSA Bantam on display in Australia. This one was way nicer than mine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Bantam was all black (I don’t know if that was its original colors), it had a lot of power for a small bike, and then it was gone.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t own it long enough to get a photo, but decades later when visiting a motorcycle museum in Australia, I did manage to get a photo of a concours condition Bantam.<\/p>\n

Honda SL90<\/strong><\/p>\n

I sold the Super 90 and the BSA Bantam you read about above, and I was\u00a0 a working kid, so I was pretty flush with cash but I didn’t have a motorcycle.\u00a0 I didn’t have a driver’s license, either, but that didn’t slow me down.\u00a0 I bought a new Honda SL90, a model Honda had just released, and I loved it.<\/p>\n

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A Honda SL90 just like mine (I never took a photo of my SL90). This one sold for about $3500 five years ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The SL90 wasn’t any faster than the Super 90, but it had that SL look.\u00a0 Honda had a series of SL bikes back in those days, including an SL175 and an SL350.\u00a0 I’d really like to own an SL350 today, but the prices on those bikes are in the stratosphere.\u00a0 \u00a0I rode the wheels off my SL90, and I kept it immaculate the entire time I owned it.\u00a0 You know, it’s funny:\u00a0 I can’t remember selling it.\u00a0 But I guess I did.\u00a0 I just checked my garage and it’s not out there.<\/p>\n

Honda Cub<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the families in our neighborhood had a welding business (I guess their welding business was good; they bought new Cadillacs every year).\u00a0 The guy who owned that business somehow acquired a 50cc Honda Cub.\u00a0 You know, the little ones with a step-through frame.\u00a0 I offered him $50 for the Cub.\u00a0 Suddenly, I owned a 50cc Honda Cub.<\/p>\n

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My 50cc Honda Cub. I only owned it for a short period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Cub had three speeds and a centrifugal clutch.\u00a0 I sold it a month or two\u00a0 later for $75 and considered myself a wheeler dealer.\u00a0 Seiko recently came out with series of watches commemorating the Honda Cub.\u00a0 I’m wearing that watch as I type this blog.<\/p>\n

Honda Cubs are still in production (new ones MSRP for $3,899.00, not including transportation to the dealer, California emission equipment, government fees, taxes, finance charges, dealer document preparation, electronic filing fees, tire tax, and, well,\u00a0 you get the idea).\u00a0 As I understand it, more Honda Cubs have been built than any other motor vehicle of any type.\u00a0 I’ve traveled a bit in my life, and I can tell you that Honda Cubs are everywhere.\u00a0 \u00a0The people who keep track of such things stopped counting when the total number of Cubs went over a hundred million.\u00a0 Soichiro outsold Henry Ford.\u00a0 Imagine that.<\/p>\n

KLR 650<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had always wanted a Kawasaki KLR 650, and in 2006, I scratched that itch.\u00a0 It was one of my all time favorite motorcycles.\u00a0 I used mine as a touring bike, and that touring sometimes included offroad excursions here and in Mexico.\u00a0 I had fabulous rides in Baja with the KLR.<\/p>\n

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I covered a lot of miles in Mexico on my KLR. It never let me down. It was the perfect motorcycle for Baja.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sold the KLR just because I was busy riding other machines.\u00a0 Looking back on that, I wish I\u2019d kept it.\u00a0 The KLR was a fabulous motorcycle.\u00a0 I think it made less than 40 horsepower, and that was all I needed.\u00a0 I could touch 100mph on mine.\u00a0 The ergonomics on it were perfect for me.\u00a0 I loved that bike.<\/p>\n

CSC 150<\/strong><\/p>\n

My CSC 150 Mustang replica was kind of my comeback bike after I crashed big time on a Triumph Speed Triple (that’s a story I’ll tell in a subsequent blog).<\/p>\n

My new buddy Umberto upgrading a preproduction muffler tab to the production configuration, while simultaneously demonstrating proper personal protective equipment use. Welker is pulling fire guard duty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Our CSC 150s parked in front of the Desert Inn in Catavina, Baja California Sur, about 330 miles south of the border.\u00a0 My bike is the fire engine red one, second from the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I caught a lucky break after the above-mentioned motorcycle crash:\u00a0 My buddy Joseph Lee told me about a new venture, the California Scooter Company, that was resurrecting the Mustang motorcycle.\u00a0 I consulted for CSC for the next 6 or 7 years, and one of my brilliant ideas was to ride the little 150cc Mustang to Cabo San Lucas and back.\u00a0 I and three of my friends did so.\u00a0 You can read about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Janus Gryffin<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never owned a Janus, but I spent a four day weekend riding one through southern California and northern Baja with the Janus CEO and his videographer (you can read about that ride here<\/a>).\u00a0 It was a Janus promotional ride that I talked them into doing, it was a lot of fun, it resulted in a couple of magazine articles<\/a> for me, and I had a hoot doing it.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Janus CEO taking the Gryffin offroad in northern Baja.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Janus Gryffin uses a CG-250 Honda clone engine (the same one used in the CSC TT 250: see below).\u00a0 I had a good time on that ride.\u00a0 Hell, I’ve had a good time on all of my rides through Baja.<\/p>\n

CSC TT 250<\/strong><\/p>\n

I talked CSC into bringing the TT 250 to America.\u00a0 On one of my many visits to Zongshen (in Chongqing, China), I noticed a 150cc motorcycle on a platform in their marketing department.\u00a0 It was a sharp bike, I knew that the CG 150 engine has the same exterior dimensions as the 250cc engine, and I asked the Zong wizards if they would make that bike for us (us being CSC) with the larger engine.\u00a0 The answer was yes, and the CSC TT 250 was born.<\/p>\n

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My TT250 On Mexico Highway 2 at the Rumarosa Grade. it was a fun trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Dangerous Dan with his TT250 in Baja.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bike was wonderful, and they initially retailed for $1895.\u00a0 They sold like hotcakes, and to this day, they still comprise the bulk of CSC’s motorcycle sales.\u00a0 I had a blast on mine.\u00a0 Many of the folks who owned CSC RX3 motorcycles also purchased the TT 250, and we ended up doing a ride through Baja on those bikes.\u00a0 They were awesome.<\/p>\n

CSC RX3<\/strong><\/p>\n

My last single-cylinder motorcycle was a 250cc RX3, imported to the US by CSC Motorcycles in Azusa, California.\u00a0 The RX3 is a Chinese motorcycle that looks a lot like a slightly scaled down GS1200 BMW.<\/p>\n

\"\"
My RX3 along the malecon in Loreto, Baja California. That’s the Sea of Cortez in the background. I covered a lot of miles on this motorcycle. It was one of the two best bikes I ever owned (the other was my KLR 650).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Joe Gresh (shown here in the Gobi Desert) and I rode RX3 motorcycles across China. It was the ride of a lifetime.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot of the China haters claimed that Zongshen copied the styling from BMW (hey, nearly everyone else did, too, on their adventure touring bikes in those days).\u00a0 There sure was a big cost difference, though.\u00a0 BMWs were going for $25K; the RX3 sold for $2895 when it first came to America.<\/p>\n

The RX3 proved to be a remarkably reliable motorcycle.\u00a0 We took a dozen Chinese riders on a 5000-mile tour through the American west, Gresh and I rode a 6000-mile loop through China, I rode around the Andes Mountains in Colombia, and we did numerous Baja rides with groups of CSC riders in Baja, all without a single mechanical breakdown (well, we had one guy break his gearbox in Baja, but he was a guy who liked to shift without using his clutch, so I’m not counting that one).\u00a0 The RX3 is a wonderful machine.<\/p>\n

I was one of the key guys involved in bringing the RX3 to America, and I’m proud of that.\u00a0 It was one of the high points of my professional life and my riding life.\u00a0 I wrote a lot of blogs for CSC and several books about my adventures on the RX3. I think the RX3 is one of the best motorcycles in the world.\u00a0 I wish the bike was still in production.<\/p>\n

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You know what?\u00a0 In searching for photos of my old twins, I found another single I’d forgotten all about.\u00a0 It was my Triumph Cub.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I never put the Cub on the street.\u00a0 I just rode it a bit in the fields behind my apartment building and then sold it.\u00a0 It was crude compared to other bikes of the era, but it was nice.\u00a0 It would be worth way more today than what I paid for it or what I got when I sold it.<\/p>\n

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Next up in our Quantos Pistone<\/em>s series?\u00a0 The Twins, of course.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

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