Coop's Corner: Two Left, One Arrives

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Two Left, One Arrives

Well, maybe it wasn't really two; that would depend on your definition of what 'one' motorcycle consists of. The short version is, a few years ago I turned 3 Honda C105 55cc trailbikes into 1 good one. I had accumulated some additional parts and decided that this point I'd satisfied all urges regarding the rebuild of small, old Honda's. I have fun riding the one I've kept and it was finally time for the other two to be part of someone else's projects.

When they came home (from Wisconsin).....

The arrival? Mike's '82 RT100 BMW left his comfortable, safe home and followed me to mine (much less comfortable but hopefully as safe).

Having never owned one of the German marques it was finally time to take the plunge. The plan was that if a BMW ever did end up in my garage, it would be an older airhead and this one definitely qualifies. 86K and the clean, slight patina that's right up my alley. Anxious but unable to make the time for a ride yesterday when I brought it home, I finally, after a very busy day, got out for a 25 mile loop late this afternoon. Purposely dressing light, I was anxious to see how wind and weather protection might feel. For 45 degrees and no sun, it was a very pleasant trip. This one is going to be anxious for a real trip next season; that I can tell.

So, the garage has one less machine than it did a few days ago, but not necessarily more space. Those little Honda's condense amazingly well.

6 comments:

Erik RNovember 5, 2012 at 8:57 AM
Oh-oh, another one sips the Beemer Koolaid! So, you'll have to do a post about just how many bikes you still have! It must be a barn full.

I was wondering how you got the bikes on the trailer. Is that just a piece of 2x10? How much does it flex under the weight of a full size bike. I'm thinking of some type of ramp to load bikes on my trailer.
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TrobairitzNovember 5, 2012 at 11:16 AM
Congrats on the new to you ride.

I hear there is something to be said about the wind protection from a fully faired bike.
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UnknownNovember 15, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Coop:

I'm a bit behind with my reading. I also purchased a Beemer during September for my tour next year, so congrats on your new-to-you bike. The screen on my Beemer is not very good, too much buffeting. The screen on my Vstrom is great since I installed the Madstadt bracket. Send me an email re: your Death Valley plans

thanks
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
My Flickr // My YouTube
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayNovember 15, 2012 at 6:24 PM
Hey Bob, I've not had enough time yet on the RT to judge the buffeting but hope to remedy that this weekend; we're having some very nice November weather and I'm planning on some miles both Saturday and Sunday.
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)