Lots of Motorcycles

The poor fellow is getting bored from having a broken leg, so to amuse himself, he buys motorcycles. I think we're up to 17. Just Tuesday we drove off to Stayton where he bought a CB900 with a dual speed differential, which you can read about here, http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/honda/honda_cb900c%2082.htm -I don't know how to be fancy about it. He bid on a scooter for me, but so far they're not impressed with the offer. He is hoping to be back at work before the month is out. I don't think there's room for more bikes. Maybe he'll go buy a barn next.

His mother is 90, and thanks to her ear doctor, she can hear again. He put tubes in her ears, but because he also had a motorcycle land on him after putting him in a ditch, she had to wait 6 weeks while he healed. He had so many more things broken than Himself, but is 30 years younger and heals faster. He and his assistant are quite excellent, and knew how I could help and how to communicate that to me. Just me holding her head and petting her made a huge difference, or so she said later. It was harrowing for her because she had to stay quite still and with a guy poking things in your ears, that's a hard thing to do. I was very proud of her.

What's Up?

This was new to the bike garage in November. I am lobbying for no new paint because it has a decal that wouldn't be replaced, but the front fender is missing a bit, and there's now a new front fender, and Himself is insistent that the complete front fender, which is not attached yet, needs to be painted. The colors seem to match now, but I'm sure if it was painted, then nothing would match, so the whole bike would need paint. The original owner was a fireman. Look at this.



In March we went to a show in Idaho with a couple little 50 scooters like ours only more pristine and a nice-ish 250 Sears Puch. I don't know if there's a connection, but now we have one of those, which he found on E-Bay that turned out to be surprisingly nice. We had to wait and wait for that bike to come, because it was half the continent away, bad weather, had to find a shipper, and kept missing connections to get things going.



The 250 is like the first bike Himself bought when he was a teenager. Except his had two solo seats and was only called an Allstate. I have heard the story from three sources of how he tried to do a wheelie with it, and his friend Tom tried to cover for him by telling his mom they were playing basketball. Mom was not fooled. I think there was road rash. He refers to these bikes as Allstates. Maybe I should tell you now why Himself has had so much time to entertain himself with cute little motorcycles.



On Wednesday morning in Febuary, very early in the day, himself headed off to work, as he had many times before, through a light dusting of snow. About half an hour later, he came back very slowly. He was on the 250 Ninja. He'd fallen and broken his fibula, as we found out later. He's decided it was the wrong bike. His leg is healing very slowly, and the doctor keeps saying that's normal, but he's been off work, except for a week and a half when he tried to go back in May. He's been planing to retire at the end of October. We've been seeing more movies and eating out with him slowed up like this. We're going to Midnight in Paris this afternoon.

Like Humpty Dumpty

These photos are clues for Himself when he is ready to put all the bits back together again.

Katana Folly

Why? When some person, who knows how many owners ago, decided it would be just the thing to buy a bunch of "high performance" parts to soup up their Suzuki Katana, which already works perfectly, and goes faster than any amateur human ought to ride, what were they thinking? I believe it has been unridable ever since.

My brothers used to talk crazy about souping up engines of motorcycles, but it was all hypothetical, so I know a little about how that sort of thinking works, but it was just talk. An amusement to entertain themselves, which is where they are superior beings to whoever followed through on crazy talk by ruining this poor defenseless Suzuki Katana.

While Himself was off on one of yesterday's test rides, I got a call to bring the trailer and pick him up. Thank goodness he was all right. The throttle had stuck wide open when he was accelerating (just like a Toyota) and all he would say to me was that it went REALLY fast. He used the kill switch to stop the engine, and was able to just pull over to the side of the road. He thought maybe he would quit bad-mouthing kill switches.

Poor Himself! He tried so hard to make the thing work, fixing all sorts of mistakes and spending all his free time for the last month and a half to help out some kid who'd gotten stuck with someone else's mistakes, not to mention helping the once nice motorcycle, and he really had hopes. But no. The poor helpless defenseless motorcycle is still good for nothing except maybe drag racing.

September

Saturday was a Game Day for OSU Football, and cars and motor homes were parked in every available spot all up and down the nearby streets, fields and lots, but we kept hearing jets flying over. Finally decided it was football fans flying in, so I asked Himself to take a photo when he went by the airport to test drive his Suitcase Honda. Earlier, when we passed by one of the fields full of motor homes, we saw a helicopter parked off to the side. My theory is it was used to taxi fans from the airport to the tailgate party.

Second photo is tank and handlebars of the BSA, almost like red patent leather shoes. He added a little clock to the steering damper and a club decal to the tank.

Confused and Slow

This photo was taken by Himself of Someone Else on a club ride called "The Longest Day Ride". It was cold. The subject is warming his hands with the heat from his BMW's engine. Himself was happy to get soup and tea when he came home.

They aren't the Confused or the Slow. I'm that. I'm so confused. I think it's July, but it's not. I've been thinking that for weeks. I wonder what will happen to me when it really is July. Will I think it's June? I went to my doctor and she said getting off the gabapentin (for shingles damage to nerves) will probably help me be myself, so I'm getting off.

Yesterday Himself took me on the Gold Wing to Newport, where we saw the Pacific, watched a huge fishing boat dock at the cannery, drank coffee and wandered around, then took the river road to Toledo where we got gas and dinner. Poor old 1984 Gold Thing, it has 269,000 miles on it (we bought it new) and now a wheel bearing is making clicking noises. It's just now getting needy. Last month he replaced some fancy power transferring gear, but mostly the Wing just runs and runs with no complaint and no interference from humans except to ride it and gas it up. He says he thought he heard it before, but wasn't sure. He always wears earplugs when he rides. This time, even I heard it, after he pointed it out to me.

Bye 1967, Hello 1969

Another picture here of the beautiful newest bike, 1969 TR6. Himself had a mist green 1967 TR6, which he bought in 1967 because as soon as he saw it in the dealership's showroom, his white 1963 650 Bonneville, which was his first Triumph, suddenly didn't cut the mustard anymore, but he had to sell it when he went into the Navy. His dad was the Navy recruiter, and wanted his son to get an education, Navy electrician school. He learned he does not like to be shocked. When he got out of the Navy he went to school again to learn a different trade.

Now he has this bike, plus one similar to the 45 flathead his Dad had when he left home in the 30's. His 3rd Triumph was the '59 Speed Twin, so the '69 is his 4th, oh, I'm not counting a possibly '74 that is not very nice and hides under a sheet in the corner, which makes the TR6 his 5th. Right?

Gone, Darn It

I was looking for a picture of the red car for Mrs. Staggs, and getting scanning lessons from himself. OK. Here it is.



That was a fun car, and nice for squiring guests around, but I'm glad we don't have it any more. Now this bike is another story. For some reason, it got sold. Himself was just now kicking himself, again.



Here's another picture of it, along with a nice little truck we no longer have, but there is a good reason for that--it was only a two seater, and there were three of us. It was a nice truck, though.

Suckers are Gone

If you've seen this photo before it's because I like it a lot, and I can't figure out how to work Scanner, or I've forgotten how, and I can't find the camera, and this is cuter anyway, but it was fun going to the sucker recycling plant in the old truck and helping Himself drag the suckers, which we call twigs, out of the bed and into the pile for grinding into compost at the recycling plant. Oh! And I nearly forgot how the twigs were laying around on the ground under the apple trees on Sunday, and the boy across the street and a couple friends were playing guitar drums and bass and singing, when Boys paused long enough for our neighbor to enlist them to pile up the twigs in neat piles. Heidi and I were in and out emptying the truck bed in preparation. Such nice boys, and their band sounded pretty good, too. The neighbor boy is the drummer. Drums are a popular instrument on this street. I get to go to the dentist soon. Oh, boy.

Tiger Rag

Here it is, our newest bike--newest to us, just picked up today, is a very nice 1969 Triumph Tiger TR6R. Himself loved the 1967 he had in high school, and he says this one has improvements over that one. It needs original handlebars and a coil. It's too exciting not to talk about.

We are celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. Himself says he is exercising his heart. I asked how, and he said "Deep relaxation." Heidi (the miniature long hair dachshund) is helping him, by sitting on his chest and looking cute and alert.

Later...Himself is so keen and eager I don't think he wants to go away for our anticipated night at the coast, because the bike is not there. (He is checking it out thoroughly before driving it, so no bad things happen, like acid dripping onto the tailpipes.) I can hear it running now. Vroom vroom vroom.

Old Moon Old Bikes

HH, who I now refer to as Himself, because it rolls off the tongue more easily, bought a couple new motorcycles last weekend. A 1984 Nighthawk, which was already beautiful when he bought it, but he shined it up anyway. He is a bit sad that the once nice tires are old and hard, but mainly he's absolutely delighted with this. Buying it involved a lovely drive through the country to Pleasant Hill farm country. If you peer under the engine you see some bits lying on the floor behind it. Those are from the second bike he bought last weekend. AMENDMENT: The tires are still good, but they work better when they have more than 20lbs of air in them.



It's an early 1960's 125 Ducati Bronco/Aerea (depending on where you live). Or was. It is so sad what happened to this bike--neglect and abuse. Himself thinks he got it from a family member of the original owner. It has very low miles. It's about all there, not all there in the photo, but bits of it are scattered around on the floor, and it is evident that it was once a very nice bike.



Next is a photo showing the cute little bags he put on the back of the B31. OK, the photo is only of the left bag, but there is a corresponding bag on the right side. There are room for tools and gloves, but not much room for lunch.


I was trying to get a nice moon through the branches photo, but came out with this. In person the moon looked much bigger, and there were wisps of cloud around. After this photo the camera battery died but I put it on the charger and Himself took some photos of his latest additions, which you see above. Click on images to enlarge.

Friday

Today the weather is planning to warm up to 95F. Heidi, MIL's dog, thought hanging around with me while I watered flowers was extremely boring, and was only semi-enthused about going for a walk. Maybe she knows she has a hair appointment at noon. When she's all cleaned up and sweet smelling, I'll take her over to see her Mommy. I wish she'd be happier about visiting MIL. She's not keen. Guess she's too young. I feel bad for Mom when Heidi is more outgoing and friendly with about everyone else at the nursing home than she is with Mom. With her, Heidi's just, "OK, I've said hi, now let's go home," and Mom's all Heidi come here, lay down and grabs her tight and holds her, which Heidi doesn't appear to like.

These bikes are waiting their turn to get gassed up. A new seat came from England yesterday for the older BSA, more like the original seat that came with the bike. This seat is not as comfortable as it looks, and it's so ugly! The original seat and therefore the new seat, not the seat in the picture, has springs, which I think HH calls shock absorbers. Some of the required bolts were back ordered, so HH was looking through his bolt collection for something that would make do for now. He's got it on the bike, and it looks fine, but didn't sound completely satisfied with his jerry-rigging.