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.

Ducati Update

There are so many pictures I wanted to put here, but didn't have the time it takes with dial-up, so now with this fast internet, I can maybe make up for lost time a little bit. Above is the very beautiful Ducati 750 GT all reassembled. The owner took the tank, fenders and side covers to be painted. Aren't they lovely? Now I'll show you the engine.

As you can see, all the bits got back together. This was such a fun and exciting project! Too bad I didn't write this at the time, because Himself explained it all to me then, and now I've forgotten so much, but not the feeling of excitement through every step. You can see why, right?

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.

The Rake

Recently my brothers and I sold Dad's house, including this rake. We used to ride on it, mostly because it worked better with a weight on it, and originally, Dad drove the tractor and Big Brother pulled a rope to lift the tines to dump the cut hay in long lines, which we would then rake into stacks with pitch forks.

After a few years BB was old enough to drive the tractor, and LB and I sat on the rake, but weren't as clever with the tine-lifting, so an extension was put on the rope, so it was still BB who had control of the tines. When all the hay was in rows, we pitched it into piles, then into a wagon which the tractor towed to the hay stack just outside the corral. Then we pitched the hay onto the stack, which we would feed to Trigger, our handsome horse. Most all the work was done by Big Brother, but Little Brother and I did just enough to have fun and get our pictures taken. BB had hay fever and so was red of face and eye and not photogenic. This was Not Fair, obviously.

Only my Big Brother could ride the horse, aside from Dad, because BB was smarter and more stubborn than Trigger. I rode the neighbor's horse, Colonel, which was well mannered and smaller, when he was out of town. We never put the hay in the barn, because that would have messed up our basketball court. Besides, there wasn't that much rain, and Dad and BB put a tarp over the hay for when it did. Colonel and Trigger were fast friends, and looked very handsome together, being the same color pintos, both with brown circle-spots high-lighting their tails. I like to think my brother and I looked swell riding our pretty horses down the country lane just for fun and to exercise the horses.

For Avus

The following is written by Himself regarding photo's in last post:
The cylinder head you're viewing is from the front cylinder--(#2)-- of a early example of Fabio Taglioni's fabulous 750 Ducati bevel drive V-twin. It is the first one I've dug into and am quite impressed with the castings, quality control and mainly the beautiful mechanical design. Wonderfully made silent bevel gears are everywhere. The desmodromic update came soon after, and honestly, I'm glad I'm not dealing with that complicated "improvement"! I probably don't have to tell you this engine was the precursor to all the Ducati twins built since!

Next on the agenda--2 Goldstar 500's--One a very rare racer--I couldn't afford even the insurance!!!

By the way, I'm guilty of reading over the shoulder of Vita and really enjoy your tales and beautiful images.

Nice "talking" to you,
Himself--or--HH

Like Humpty Dumpty

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

April Showers Bring Slugs

This morning Himself took Heidi out for her first "exercise" of the day a little before 5:30 a.m., and good thing, too, because it soon started pouring buckets. He took off for work on his 13th (not all of which run) motorcycle, a relatively modern Suzuki. Maybe from the 80s? Oh, dear. Anyway, it was wet when he left, and here I am having finished my two cups of coffee, still waiting for pages to load, and the clothes drier to quit. Why does itunes keep popping up? It's a mystery to me.

I felt guilty setting new plants out yesterday, because I'm sure the slugs probably ate them last night, and if not, they'll probably finish them off this morning. I believe I need to buy a new little blue star creeper, because I see no sign of it now. If only these showers would spread themselves out to cool off some of the hot summer nights, then probably the slugs and the flowers would fair better.

This little bird is sitting on her nest in the parking lot of the repair yard where Himself works. He took us by to see them. The enterprising employees set some traffic cones around the eggs to protect them from being crushed by huge and heavy construction equipment.

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.

Hello Everyone

Just wanted to say hi, and don't know if I can get this to work well enough to visit everyone. Everything takes forever to load, then the connection gets cut off, so it takes an extra forever to reconnect. Oh! Gotta go! Love ya!

Ducati and Ducati

Himself now has two friends with Ducatis (is that the plural form of Ducati?) who let him work on them. He's very excited about getting this one running again. I'm excited because the new tail light came from Cyprus, except it was mailed from Greece, and had lovely stamps on the package, which I got to keep to send to a stamp collecting cousin. More parts are on the way from all over. Doubt if I get more stamps, though.

The other Ducati in the background you've seen before, and is a genuine basket case, which I'd like to put out in the garden and build an arbor for, like the neighbor's statue under an arbor. What do you think?

We now have dial up internet service, so I hope it will let me post this. I'd better not go on too long, in fact, I just got cut off because someone tried to call in on the phone line, but hung up after two rings?

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.

Last Ride of Summer

Himself declared this Lane County Tour to be the last this summer. He came home with these photos and couldn't say enough about what a great ride it was. Can you spot the U S Post Office in the top photo? I love finding these out of the way, off the beaten path post offices, and always fear they will close as cold blooded accountants implement cost cutting measures.

Notes About Outdoor Weddings

1) Make sure there's a level spot for the drums.
2) The band needs water, so remember to bring some.
3) Bring flashlights for packing up after dark.
4) It gets cold after dark, so bring a shawl.
5)

Music Man

Professor Harold Hill and Marion the Librarian have headed off into the sunset. It was fun playing in the orchestra pit with my friend directing, and other friends playing. Now we're looking forward to the community orchestra's next concert. Rehearsals start Sept 13. The last one didn't use any trombones, and only 1 trumpet, which was played by a guy who also played trombone in the pit of Music Man on the nights I had other things to do, and who generally plays French horn. They had a pianist who was the choirmaster for Music Man playing a Mozart piano concerto. A lovely concert, but no trombones.

I added a link. it's to the Vintagent blog, and very worth looking at. See it down there at the bottom?

Himself bought another motorcycle. It's a 100 cc little full size Honda called a Suitcase Honda. It is not a Motocompo. It is pretty cute. Pilots like them because they fit in their little airplanes. The Goldwing is still broken, but he has acquired some of the neccessary parts, I think.

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.

Birthday, and Gardens

Daughter, on her 19th birthday, given a ride to Thompsons Mill and Brownsville by Himself; our front porch with Heidi and sidewalk decorations; Himself and I on a garden walk through Schreiners Iris Garden yesterday.

Saturday Motorcycle Club Ride

The bottom photo was the first stop, Brownsville, on the Saturday ride. They left soon after I got there. Daughter and I had the follow car, which half way through picked up a really cute Bultaco with the trailer, because it was fouling plugs faster and faster, and from there took highways back to the fairgrounds. Someone counted 85 participants in this year's May ride. Everyone admired the route, the curves, the roads, the scenery and the ride which Himself put together and lead, until a Norvin broke down and only Himself would do to advise, so Friendly Neighbor from down the street who'd gone on one of the recon missions with us lead the rest of the way back even though he was on a 2000 W650 so had been riding in the rear, while Himself, plus the club president who was riding the

Lightning because his Speed Twin wasn't running, went back to check out the Norvin, which limped back home with the headlight off. Old battery, mostly. The top photo is Himself on his B31 leading the pack. My hero.

I've got to figure out how to show you what the Norvin guy drove to our house after dropping that bike at home. Here it is!

Nothing in Particular

I've been looking through old photos for pictures of MIL because she's Resident of the Month at the care center, and I found this 15 or 16 year old photo of the Gold Wing. It's currently out of commission. Himself has spent the morning looking for parts. I think he said something about a differential. I've seen pictures. Words are eluding me lately. I think my brain is full, and if I put in any more, something will spill out.

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.