Spring means I dig my faithful steed out of the garage, and RIDE. Of course we have had a very mild winter, and I have taken a few short rides, BUT now these rides will be more frequent, and most likely a little longer. Since I last spoke of riding, I have added another motorcycle to my herd, (I don’t know if two equals a herd, but….). I ride my cruiser most of the time, but my lady friend prefers the ride of a touring bike. So late last year, I had a chance to buy a HONDA Goldwing. It may be old but, it was such a good bargain. The bike is a Silver, 1987 Goldwing Interstate. The cost of only $700.oo was too good to pass. I was looking at a Harley Davidson, similarly equipped. But, although it was a great buy, at $6,000.00 The Goldwing made more sense. I don’t know how much she will accompany me on a ride, meaning I’ll be on the cruiser most of the summer. By the way I rode that Goldwing home. A distance of 100 miles. Then we put about 800 miles on it the last month to month and a half of the riding season. No problems. Surprise. It seems to have truly been a good buy. I didn’t know what to expect for $700.oo, I figured if it turned out to be a lemon, I could get my money back selling the parts. ( A couple of years ago, I traded my Touring Bike, Trailer and all, for a pickup truck for her. In two years she drove the truck twice.) We used to ride a lot together on that old touring bike, but my riding buddies have either died or moved 1,000 miles away. (You don’t get much riding time with them when the distance is so great). Picking a group to ride isn’t easy. For us it has to be someone we both like, and have similar likes, and riding styles. By “riding styles”, I mean, we, my friends, and I, would ride a little, eat a little, frequent rest stops, etc. For example, we took a 224 mile trip, which we departed at 9 am. and arrived at 5-6pm. Like I said we stop frequently. Like, during that ride, we come across an airplane museum, so we had to stop. We stopped at Honda Dealers, for the couples riding Honda, Once at a Kawasaki Dealer, and One Harley Dealer for our Harley riders. Plus we stopped around 10 am for breakfast, and around 2pm for dinner. Not to mention the necessary stops. So here we go looking forward to a safe happy summer of enjoying the great outdoors; riding. Be sure you check your bike out. Be sure everything is tight, clean, and working properly. Take a few short rides before embarking on that long trip. And, although I have been riding for…..oh lets just say a long time. I still ride by myself a few times before I take off with a passenger. Then we take short trips, before we go on a long ride. (Of course, as I said earlier, a 200 mile trip may take us hours. Happy Motorcycling. That Is How I See It. Views: 164
Tag: Harley-Davidson
It’s Motorcycle Season Part Four
Sorry to take so much time on this but I do love my motorcycles, and I have a point to make. Being a single parent I didn’t have a lot of time to ride. But I still felt the need to ride. As mentioned before many years ago I met my lifelong mechanic. One day he called to let me know he had a 1973 Honda 350 that he had for sale because the owner had not paid or picked up the bike in the specified 90 days. I paid him $250.oo for it. It was OK it got me to work and occasionally when my sons were visiting their mother, my girlfriend and I would take off for a day trip. It rode really well and we had all kinds of fun on it. Then after 10 years on the job I got laid off, and had to sell it, in order to pay the rent. I sold it for more than I paid for it. Here again I was bikeless. When I got back to work I purchased a 1978. The bike was only 1 year old and only had 1500 miles on it. The bike was a Yamaha 650 Special. The year I bought it was 1979. I paid it off in a year. But the bank never sent me the title. They claimed they did. The bank was sold several times. and in 1999 I received the title. I still had the bike and was riding it daily. At the time it came the closest to looking like a Harley of any bikes. I can’t tell you how many miles I put on it. I put it in the shop in 2000 and had the motor rebuilt as I had stored it a couple of years. and the motor had locked up. I had special pipes put on it that made it a little louder. My youngest son wanted it so I gave it to him. He immediately messed up the carbs by putting in old stale gas. Then my oldest son wanted it and said he would get it fixed.. I never saw him ride it so I asked him where it was. He said a friend had it doing the repair. That was 10 years ago. He doesn’t know where his friend or the bike is. I still have the title. Next I bought a 1978 Honda Gold wing 1000. This one I paid $500.oo for. It was a bare bones bike. running, but no extras. I put a fairing, radio, saddlebags, and Air Horns on it. My girlfriend would take short weekend trips and I rode it to work. worse part about the Gold Wing was its stability on wet pavement. I sat pretty high. While sitting in the break room, at work, one day. An older fellow sat down and we started talking. He was telling me in his younger days he had an Indian motorcycle, but hadn’t ridden in years. We talked a lot about the fun I was having riding. The next thing I know he is asking me about the written and skills tests. I had no information for him on the test as I had grandfathered the new requirements. But he took the tests and passed. He borrowed a moped for the skills test. Soon he and his wife and I and my girlfriend were riding out to eat and just sight seeing. (He had bought a Gold Wing 1200. A really nice bike.) Soon another guy we worked with decided he wanted to ride with us. He passed his tests, and bought a really sharp Gold Wing 1100. Sometime later a friend of the first man who had gone to school with him bought a Gold Wing 1200. I met an older fellow who was giving up riding, due to health problems. I sold my Gold Wing for $800.oo and purchased his 1983 Kawasaki Voyager, for $2500.oo. [Just for the record I paid $200.00 for the Honda, and sold it again for $500.oo.} The Voyager was the ULTIMATE motorcycle. It came from the factory with fairing, removable saddle bags, an adjustable trunk. It would slide forward or back to make more room for the passenger. Queen/King seat. Air adjustable shocks with built in air compressor. AM-FM- Cassette player, CB Radio, intercom system. Fog Lights, Air Horns, cigarette lighter, and a compass. Head light adjuster at the flick of a switch. Individually adjustable (two piece handlebars). Computer to give mpg, miles before needing to refuel, miles traveled between stops, and I can’t remember all the things it would give you. And held the road much better than the Honda. It had a fuel injected in line six cylinder. No end to power. I know on one trip we were hitting 110 mph with a trailer on. (Don’t recommend this.) We talked about one day riding all the southern states during the winter and the northern states during the summer. We sometimes took weekend trips to other states just to say we had ridden in that state. We never got to take the southern and northern state trips. He retired and died one year later. One of the guys. knees went out on him and he couldn’t hold the bike up at stop lights. The other retired and moved to Florida. With no one to ride with I found myself riding less, and the 900 pound bike was getting a little harder to hold up at stop lights. My girlfriend wanted a truck so I traded it for a really nice truck. She drove it 2 times in 2 years. I was wanting to get another bike. But my place of employment had shut down. No work for me. No money. Then in October of last year the fellow we rode with that had moved to Florida located me. He had sold his farm up here, and wanted to know if I would look after his… Continue reading It’s Motorcycle Season Part Four
Motorcycle Season Part Two
I have never owned an Indian, Triumph, BSA, or Harley. These would be my favorites in order. My early riding years included riding these brands, but they belonged to friends, My one friend, whom I rode with most of the time, had a Triumph and his father had a Triumph. So by age 14 we rode together quite a bit. I would ride his bike and he would ride his fathers. So that is where I found a fondness for Triumphs. My parents would not allow me to own a motorcycle, and I had to keep them from knowing about my riding adventures. Most of which was on the country roads. After graduating from high school. (You didn’t think I got that far did you.) I was earning $66.oo a week pre-tax. Another friend of mine’s Dad bought him a basket case Harley. He had been working on it for 2 years and was still not riding. I was impatient and wanted to ride NOW. It was a 15 mile drive to work everyday. I did have a 1960 Chevy Convertible but I wanted to ride a bike. At the local truck stop, the owner began selling a new brand of motorcycle. I test drove one and really enjoyed it. This bike had a revolutionary new concept. It was a 175 cc, 2 stroke two cylinder, with oil injection. This meant you did not have to mix the oil to the gas and gave you a better mixture. A rotary valve engine, with a rotary transmission. This meant you could go through the gears in two ways. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Then return from 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and back to 1at. OR, you could go 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th, 1st. Without having to work your way down. There was also a lever on the left side of the transmission, you could reach down and shift it, now you had a 5 speed transmission, but the rotary was locked out. Oh yes it had a kick start. Which meant sometimes several minutes of wearing down your right leg trying to start it. (I sometimes cheated and pushed it as fast as I could, popped the clutch and away I went. The price for this motorcycle was $695.oo. This meant I had to borrow the money to buy it. Not having any credit history I had to have my brother, (remember he is 10 1/2 years older than me) co-sign the loan. If you remember I never liked buying anything I could not pay cash for. But I could not wait that long. I remember my payments were a whopping $50.oo a month. (About a weeks pay.) This bike was very versatile. Friends with their Hondas would get together for a small hill climb event. (Pretty small hill). I could beat them up the hill and had my girlfriend on the back. On the interstate, we could travel 105 mph with the two of us on it. And it would run all day like that. The first night I had it I made surprising discovery. The night I picked up my bike my friend, with the Triumph, and I went for a ride. We were doing about 60 on a country road, when we found ourselves approaching a busy State Highway. I released the throttle, but the bike did not slow down. It maintained it’s rpm’s and speed. Finally I panicked and clamped down the front brake. I went tumbling over the handlebars. Not really it just seemed like it, The bike nosedived and I went down. Not injured. I was about ready to take the bike back, and demand my money back. That is when I found out the little knurled knob I was playing with was a sort of cruise control. How it worked was by turning it you locked the throttle. It did take me a while to gain confidence in using the front brake again. I had this bike for about 4 to 5 years.before I sold it. I had gotten my money’s worth out of it. It was time to move up to a larger bike. Before I go I have to tell you this story. Being a youngster with this bike. At this particular time there was an outlaw motorcycle gang, I only use this term for your reference. They preferred to be called a club. Anyway some of the members were riding their Harley’s and I passed them like they were standing still. Suddenly one of the biggest bikers I had seen caught up to me, and pulled me over. He asked, “What you got there?” “You passed me so fast I thought my bike had stopped and started to get off” I told him it is a Bridgestone 175 twin. He kind of laughed. We talked a while. The last thing he told me was this. “Pay no attention to others who may try to put you down because you aren’t riding a Harley, the main thing is you are riding.” I saw these guys in town for a couple of weeks, while the trial was going on. They remembered me and would stop to talk. After that I never saw them again. Oh yes, they did get a kick out of one friend I occasionally road with. This friend was about 6 foot 3 in. tall, and weighed over 300 pounds. He road a Honda 165 dream. (not the same one mentioned earlier). But it was a comical sight. They never gave him a hard time either. He was riding. This is also the time I met my lifetime mechanic. He had taken over the Bridgestone dealership. He has owned 13 Harley’s but even though he hasn’t sold new motorcycles since the Bridgestone days. He does not recommend Harley-Davidson to anyone. He even refuses to work on them. WHY. I don’t know. Bridgestone 175 Twin (almost a BSA, It had the BS only missed the A) Bridgestone went out… Continue reading Motorcycle Season Part Two
