To put it away or not put it away...

[best]

That WAS the question... yesterday evening.
Had to wake up early yesterday for a meeting at church. A chile in the air so the thought that soon I may need to put the bike away till spring.
Weather said "partly cloudy" no talk of rain till Monday. As the meeting was finishing up, a guy comes in with rain drop marks on his shirt WHAT!? its raining?
No was the answer. Its pouring. Do you have rain gear?
Yes I did
Rain ok
Cold ok
rain plus cold ... Yuck!
45 minute ride home to get the cage for the ride to work or a 12 minute ride to work but showing up 2 hours early? Went to work.
Many thoughts once there.
1) feet hurting from to many miles walking in bike boots.
2) arm hurting from to many morning rides in bumper to bumper traffic (30 minutes of clutch work most mornings)
3) starting to get colder
4) don't like rain and cold at the same time
5) will save a little more on early turn in of plates.

Now comes the ride home...
Triffic is lite for some reason?
Take the off ramp to bypass what traffic was there
No traffic in the rotary
camber in this rotary is matched perfect for a bike I feel
twist the throttle a little more as I lean into the turn.
feel the tires grab and hold tight
feel myself get pulled into the seat from the turns force.

You know what?
I think I will ride till December this year.
That 10 seconds of the feeling of being one with the bike in that turn...
Lets go riding (can always add a sweater if need be *LOL*)

[Gooch]

I didn't put mine away ...... After 3 days of working 15 hr days it was nice to take a ride....even if it was only about 30 miles the road company was the best in a while...



this is my bro Todd who I haven't heard from in about 8 years. He opened a leather shop, moved to Florida and we lost touch. Back in the day when he was an up and comer, I sold him his first bike, a Honda 350 4 cylinder. He hit a deer and mangled it and I let him take my 650 Yammy special to the store one night for a pack of smokes. He came back raving about that Thumper and soon after had a collection of basket cases, including a hillclimber with an extended swingarm. Years later he patched and had an ol school sporty chopper. When addiction took its toll on my ability to be a bro and I started to run in circles that were going nowhere he made new connections and moved on.

Yesterday he tracked me down and we made plans to get together and do some reminiscing and split a lane for old times sake. This is his 53' Pan wide glide "parts bike". He's currently an owner/operator and brought the pan up with him in his furniture trailer. He bangs that slaphammer pretty good....was a riot watching him jam the traffic and dance on that suicide clutch.

He gets a load out back south the day after tomorrow, but we are gonna stay in touch and have a couple projects in mind that we can work on together even over the distance. I got some heads .. he has some seats and fenders...we are gonna pool our parts to build a delkron cased generator shovel.

Wow what a day.... brought back a lot of memories from the good old days.

[best]

and he being down south can give you a nice place to ride to.

Nice looking bike. I must have a taste for the old style as the classic design vs the standard vulcan hit home with me when I was buying.
Would give you all my extra parts but rice and US Steel don't mix well *LOL*

Your story has me thinking...
Went out looking for a friend and couldn't find any
Went out to become a friend and found them all around...
Maybe I should go look up some of the old budds.
hmmm maybe Sat afternoon I will take a ride to one of the parents' house and see where Don is living now.

Would be good to see his dad as well. hmmm? Even at 70 his dad will want to take the bike for a ride I am sure.

[BillJ]

One good thing about Texas is our 11 1/2 month riding season. We never put our bikes away!

Used to be, when you were looking at the bike rags, you could tell which bikes were from up north, because they'd have engraved rocker-boxes, flashy paint-jobs, and gold-plated stuff everywhere - the result of long winters with nothing better to do than futz with the bike. By contrast, bikes from the Southwest all had wide-glide forks, fat-bob tanks, and real simple design schemes - practical responses to long distances between towns, and a long riding season.

That long riding season will be especially handy for me, this year, since I may not be fit to ride before Christmas. Once I am fit to ride, I'm gonna want to make up for a lot of lost in-the-wind time!

[BillJ]

Now, that's the kind of bike I'm talkin' 'bout!

Good deal that you were able to hook up with your old road dog, Gooch. One more blessing of a sober life!

[best]

Stopped by my friend's dad's house today. Go to find out he had a small stroke about 3 months ago. Has trouble remembering things. Have not seen him for almost 30 years. Once we started talking, he was remembering things left and right. We gave a call to my friend. He was on the road...working. Met up with him, exchanged numbers. held him up from doing his work for just over 30 minutes *LOL* Dam it was good finding him. His dad was very joyful for the visit as well. Now all I need do is get him crazy like his brother so he will start to ride *LOL* Though Don and I were good friends before I found wheels, it still was nice to catch up with him after all these years. Who knows... maybe a job change in the future *LOL* He is running his dad's co.

ps... what is happening to time? His dad is 77 now.