Identify this motorcycle

1200ts

1200ts

Hero member
Location
USA - Riverside CA
I received this for free this morning. Owner had died and many things were free for the taking or they were going to scrap if not gone by tonight.
Wife was moving and did not want anything in the garage.

I know what it is but how many out there can identify the maker, year and model?

And no, it is not a Laverda!


bike.jpg
 
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Piet,

I did not think it would be that easy to solve the mystery! I will try harder next time.

The bike is a 1968 Bridgestone Trail 100. The bike only has 1216 miles and was last on the road in 1971. It also came with a parts donor bike. My wife likes it as it is the only motorcycle she has ever sat on where she can touch the ground with her feet.

I would imagine that parts for Bridgestone motorcycles is nonexistent? The motor turns over and has compression but after sitting for 53 years, who knows what it looks like inside.

This is the first Bridgestone I have ever seen other than in a magazine.
 
Bridgestone no question, where's me prize, the others cheated.... smile. My first bike to ride, Bridgestone 90, pressed up frame and rotary selectable gearbox, think it had a lockable front brake? Sure it was an Ag bike in the day, battery was to power the point coil only, the "alternator" directly excited the head lamp... all from imperfect recall. Though this one is signature rotary side valve induction, for Bridgestone.....make my day Bruce, tell me GTR or GTO came with it... please. j

*** there is a full blown Bridgestone owners club and or forum, very clued up as like here. HTH
 
Sacre Bleu.... the colour oh no the colour....wheres the red colour.... skip the intro...the road ride says a lot...the owner rider is not a hardened 'stroker rider, always one or two fingers on the clutch lever, especially down the gear box, post long straight road. I lie he does one finger at times...j

 
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I am sure to be the Bridgestone guru of Laverdisti owning my 1968 350 GTR since the late
1970's. It is fully restored museum quality. Parts and owners are VERY accessible thanks
to an individual who is on the 'net as "Richards Relics". The bikes were generally in the
60's imported into N. America and not much beyond that. If memory serves Brit racer
Bill Smith imported only six 350 GTR models in the late 60's and were road tested in
"Motorcycle Mechanics". Very much like a Laverda they were quite under represented
compared to the Big Three as Kawasaki was late to the party. The distributor was based
in Illinois and traded as Rockford Motors. Build quality was quite good and reliability and
owner satisfaction were on par with the competition. Contact me for any other info as I
was an instant convert when I understood the technical and performance features of all
their models. See also 175 twins and the "scrambler", yeah,,, version the 350 GTO. Its a
keeper.
 
iis_iis said:
Sacre Bleu.... the colour oh no the colour....wheres the red colour.... skip the intro...the road ride says a lot...the owner rider is not a hardened 'stroker rider, always one or two fingers on the clutch lever, especially down the gear box, post long straight road. I lie he does one finger at times...j

Click to expand...
Yes John, there was a running 350 GTO but it was gone before I got there. I was out walking my dog this morning and it was very cold. Came to a house with lots of junk on the driveway going to scrap unless someone wanted it. He had a number of 1980's Kawasaki two stroke off road bikes that were already gone. No one wanted the Trail 100 as it did not run. By the time I pushed it one mile home with no air in the tires it did not feel cold anymore! I then went back and found the donor parts bike which is missing many things but still has the motor. The parts bike has Spanish Betor forks which I don't think is correct? Also got a complete 1968 Triumph Bonneville motor and a working Hewlett Packard VTVM.
 
My eldest brother had a Bridgestone 350. I remember it went pretty good, but had a bad habit of snapping crankshafts in half.

Mind you, he rode it pretty hard, trying to keep up with his mates Mach111, another of his mates had a CB350 twin ….. no match at all.
 
1200ts said:
By the time I pushed it one mile home with no air in the tires it did not feel cold anymore!
Click to expand...

Yikes! that is serious biker stuff... better man than me no question... maybe original unrestored for the BS100.... many strokers survive due to over oiled crankcase, the Kettle here ( Suzuki GT750K ), removed exhaust, torch into transfer ports...riding up and down the street 45 minutes later..laid up near 20 years. Nice finds Bruce, just what you wanted, more bikes to rescue... good man...not many of us left is there, a wry smile here. j

*** VTVM... one for the inner circle... lets see whom unmasks that item...no cheating on goggle... well not too quickly... bet it still works, save for any solidified switch lube etc...
 
Are these the bikes that had neutral fully down and not between 1st and 2nd and you could change directly from top gear straight into 1st gear and go boom or was that some other bikes?
 
Sort of Vince, Kwaka had an all up gear selector, on some models. The Bridgestone i rode had a small aux lever that changed the shift pattern ie you could go from top gear ( only 3 or 4 i think ) to first no problem, and over the bars you went if not hanging on.....tacho needle read "made in Japan" ..that was on the Kwaka... could be myth and actual all muddled in the mind here...j *** you can find neutral quick smart with an all up or down box... no guessing, for the elusive notch 1st and 2nd..
 
From Wiki. Re177cc Dual Twin.
The name "Dual Twin" derives from the gearbox. In normal use the gearbox was 4 speed "rotary" item. Changing up from 4th gear brought the gearbox back to neutral. A second lever, the "Sport-Shift", could be used to convert the gearbox to a conventional 5 speed gearbox (without the ability to change from top gear to neutral).[18]

Re GTR and 350 GTO

The six-speed gearbox was also a plus point, as was the ability for the 350 GTR's riders to use either their left foot or their right foot to change gear; the gear lever and rear brake pedals could be swapped around in order to allow this. However, the gearbox did cause issues for some riders, as neutral was located in an unusual place; at the top of the gearbox, as most motorcycles placed this gear between first and second.
 
It's a shame those easy-to-select neutral systems didn't catch on. At least some sensible standardisation happened for controls of bikes unlike 99% of every other thing ever made, phone charger cables anyone.
 
Vince said:
It's a shame those easy-to-select neutral systems didn't catch on. At least some sensible standardisation happened for controls of bikes unlike 99% of every other thing ever made, phone charger cables anyone.
Click to expand...
A few brit bikes had a "neutral finder", Royal Enfield comes to mind. Iirc, their gearboxes were based on an Albion design that went back several decades.

Thanks to the EU, phone charger cables are now standardised here, even Apple has been forced to switch to USB! USB-C(?) has been adopted by almost all appliance vendors, not only does it relieve the consumer, it also means not every single appliance is now supplied with a new charger, creating far less unnecessary critical waste.

piet
 
1200ts said:
Piet,

I did not think it would be that easy to solve the mystery! I will try harder next time.

The bike is a 1968 Bridgestone Trail 100. The bike only has 1216 miles and was last on the road in 1971. It also came with a parts donor bike. My wife likes it as it is the only motorcycle she has ever sat on where she can touch the ground with her feet.

I would imagine that parts for Bridgestone motorcycles is nonexistent? The motor turns over and has compression but after sitting for 53 years, who knows what it looks like inside.

This is the first Bridgestone I have ever seen other than in a magazine.
Click to expand...
Tank shape and rotary-valve were the giveaways. Went to goggle for the exact model, pressed steel vs. tube frame.

I vaguely remember Bridgestones in Oz, the 350s were especially popular. Never seen one on the road in Europe.

Did not Kawasaki take over the bike section of Bridgestone? I seem to recall early Kawasaki strokers to be largely based on Bridgestone designs.

piet
 
The bike relevance of phone charging cables comment happened after my Dinosause Phone died last month and I discovered all new phones now don't have the 3.5mm headphone jack that I need for my earbuds. I now need a Wi-Fi gadget in my jacket pocket that hopefully lasts all day battery-wise and that takes the 3.5mm plug and connects to the phone BUT it needs a smaller charging cable than the USB C all phones take, it's 100% more secure fitting. Close to one cable but not quiet.
 
I bought a new smart phone recently, has the 3.5mm headphone jack. Perhaps another Apple idiosyncrasy? like pre PSA European GM cars, with every button / control in the wrong place......
 
Samsung coped a huge backlash about deleting the headphone jack so they are apparently making a comeback on the latest megabuck units. They did it because it takes up space for who knows what and plenty use WiFi buds but I have moulded ones that reduce wind noise but are wired for music.
 
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