Fifty years in the past, I used to be standing within the showroom of Ave’s Sport Store in Hurley, Wisconsin. I used to be goggle-eyed over the brand new Honda bikes that have been being filtered into the show space, alongside the 1973 mannequin Ski-Doo snowmobiles left over from the winter’s stock.
Like the opposite cash-poor gawkers, I lingered lengthy by the mighty CB750K4 that dominated the gross sales flooring. The four-cylinder CB500 was there, too. Each of them have been means out of my value vary. However there was hope, too. There was additionally a CB350F1. Decrease, lighter, and, better of all, cheaper than the opposite inline-fours, it was a poor man’s superbike. Launched in 1972, after I was simply starting my senior 12 months in highschool, it was what appeared at the least an inexpensive attain for me, and it grew to become a dream bike. But it surely was to not be, at the least not then.
Later that spring, I put aside my desires of superbike glory and acquired my first actual bike at Ave’s. It was a superbly completed blue and cream-colored 1974 Honda CL200T. It was extra inexpensive and whisper-quiet, however it appeared down on energy in comparison with a buddy’s older CL175. Irrespective of. That summer time, I used to be off and using with Gordon Lightfoot laying down the soundtrack in my thoughts.
After solely two years of using, I parted firm with the CL200T, buying and selling it in on a model new 1976 Honda CJ360T—an even bigger and significantly better bike. Apparently, I wasn’t the one one disenchanted with the CL200T; Honda dropped the mannequin after just one 12 months, and stored the CB simply two extra years.
I’ve many glad recollections of these comparatively carefree years with that CJ360T. However I additionally skilled nearly my worst, most poorly thought-out lengthy journey on it.
It was actually cool to have bought each of these bikes from two-time world champion of snowmobile racing, Hurley’s personal Steve Ave. Steve knew how you can go quick on absolutely anything. Ave isn’t the one World Champion racer I’ve met over time.
I met Ski-Doo manufacturing unit race driver Yvon Duhamel on the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus. He had received the snowmobile racing world title in 1970, and set a snowmobile land velocity file of over 124 mph two years later. After I met him, Duhamel was well-known as a world-class skilled bike roadracer for the Kawasaki manufacturing unit racing staff.
It was an inauspicious encounter, standing subsequent to him on the observe males’s room urinals. Nonetheless, he smiled from beneath his Fu Manchu mustache after I mentioned, “Bonne probability!”
Within the 50 years since that first Honda, I’ve owned 24 bikes and ridden umpteen extra, some within the line of responsibility for Final Motorcycling. There have been SOHC twins and fours, DOHC inline fours, two-strokes, four-strokes, air-cooled, air-/oil-cooled, liquid-cooled, V-twins, V4s, chain, belt, and shaft last drives, carbureted, gas injected—you identify it. As we speak, I’ve trimmed the stock to 13—eight Hondas, two Yamahas, two Harleys, and one Triumph. Vintages vary from 1973 to 2015. Amazingly, all run and journey.
You may marvel, in any case these years, what has confirmed to be my favourite bike? Primarily based on years of devoted possession, that title goes to my 1981 Yamaha XJ750RH Seca. I’ve had two equivalent examples of these nice bikes with possession of the 2 overlapping. All instructed, I’ve had at the least one Seca for 41 of 43 years for the reason that mannequin got here in the marketplace, and I nonetheless have one to at the present time!
On the white-knuckle facet, my 2002 Yamaha VMax is on the prime. Modified by Motorbike Efficiency in Madison, Wisconsin, however nonetheless road authorized, the large Yamaha has red-shift acceleration, vision-blurring prime velocity, and surprisingly good dealing with with a lowered saddle, body, and fork braces.
Usually, I don’t swoon for loud pipes, however the VMax got here with UFO four-into-two upswepts that can curl your hair once you wring that throttle. I keep away from doing it in residential areas and in hospital zones. My carbon fiber VMax is the actual deal when an adrenaline pump known as for.
When horsepower and refinement are known as for collectively, the 1984 Honda V65 Sabre I’ve had since 2011 is a superb choice. Just like the VMax, the Sabre can convey it once you need it, and, although they each have V4s, they’ve distinctly completely different personalities. The Sabre is the perfect Interstate machine I’ve ever ridden.
If you’ve had a motorbike that has been a part of essential milestones in your life and is related to fond recollections, you’ll be able to’t assist however develop some extent of attachment to it. Whereas it could sound a bit irrational to have an emotional attachment to any machine, it’s not a lot an attachment to the machine as to the recollections of occasions and other people it evokes.
On that rating, nothing comes near my 1974 Honda CB350F. Not solely is the bike that top college child’s dream bike I discussed, however it has reached 50 years of service. Ten years in the past carried me to an American Motorcyclist Affiliation land velocity file, which nonetheless stands!
After I acquired the CB350F at an property public sale in 2010, it had many issues to unravel simply to make it a dependable rider. It was much more unlikely that it might ever change into my fantasy race bike, not to mention attain the file books—however it did. Ridden in competitors on the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats in 2010 and 2014, “unforgettable” is the one time period that applies.
Shut behind that little black Honda is one other one, simply ten years newer. My 1984 Honda V30 Magna is excessive on my record of all-time favourite memory-makers. Although I by no means set a file with the Magna, I did journey it in competitors at Bonneville in 2009 and 2012. Acquired as a non-running lump, it carried me to 104.536 mph! The story of all these journeys to Bonneville with each outdated bikes is instructed in my e-book, The Unlikely 1.
All that mentioned, I assume UM Editor Don Williams mentioned it greatest: “My favourite bike is the one I’m on.”
At current, I’m engaged on yet one more outdated bike to take a crack at a file at Bonneville—a 1973 Honda CB500K2. I’ve been tinkering with the factor for a number of years now. As with practically every little thing in life, there are quite a lot of elements affecting this. So, we’ll see if my fifth journey to Bonneville ever occurs.
All of the Bonneville adventures took place thanks to 2 nice mates: the late Invoice Whisenant, long-time bike racer, builder, tuner, and founding father of Motorbike Efficiency in Madison, and Jim Haraughty, additionally a racer, builder, and founding father of Group MS Racing. Each of them have been land velocity racing veterans.
Quite a lot of issues have modified in bike design and using gear since I began using. Finicky carburetors have been changed by digital gas injection. Spark plug fouling battery and coil ignition programs with breaker factors have been ousted by high-energy digital ignition. Lock and fade-prone inside increasing drum brakes have been changed by highly effective disc brakes and ABS.
All that mentioned, a number of of my bikes are sufficiently old to be fitted with all that outdated, original-style tools. Having used that outdated stuff for therefore a few years, I’m accustomed to it, and, imagine it or not, it doesn’t appear all that dangerous. Nonetheless, I hold my factors file helpful simply the identical.
My battered armor-less leather-based jacket, snowmobile gloves, and $19 gold metalflake plastic helmet have way back been changed by actual, purpose-built bike using gear. I do nonetheless have some outdated using buddies hangin’ round, although.
Dean Massoglia and I got here up collectively from our bicycle and minibike using days. Tony Fransen goes again about 40 years with Dean and I, although not motorcycling the entire time. To at the present time, we frequently get collectively for the Slimey Crud Run.
Don Williams and I’ve every spent 50+ years behind bars—handlebars, that’s. He and I even began out on related bikes, every of us having owned one in all Honda’s ’70s-era 360cc parallel twins.
Trying forward, having labored in healthcare as a registered nurse and EMT/Paramedic and having seen how all of the sudden an individual’s well being and different facets of each day life can change, and capabilities we take as a right will be diminished or misplaced, I don’t assume the liberty of the street is assured indefinitely. For that purpose, my plan is to do what I can whereas I can, and be pleased about each good day.
I’m simply glad I can say after 50 years within the saddle, I’m nonetheless not saddle sore.
