Coop's Corner: 2 Stroke Day

Saturday, April 23, 2016

2 Stroke Day

We all received the email from Chip this week..."2 Stroke Day at Diamonds". Something I don't have, I'd most likely have taken the old Honda 400 (4 stroke) regardless since it's now based in St. Paul. Considering the ratio of 2 stroke motorcycles that exist AND can be ridden legally on the public roadways, the turnout today wasn't all that bad.

Mike's Peugeot was the first "one that smokes" though I had arrived a few minutes before him, me on a "isn't supposed to smoke." My guess is that it took Mike just a wee bit longer to suit up today than it normally does, usually we take turns being the first to show up.

Rod a.k.a. Mr. Majestic arrived only minutes later, the 3 of us now needing absolutely the hot coffee to warm up after our 40 degree, 6:45AM rides in. Hearing what sounded to me like a chainsaw, we all swiveled our heads up and down Central Avenue, expecting to see another arrival but there wasn't a vehicle in view. Then Jeff's modified Hodaka Trials bike peeked around the corner of the building (not a street legal machine), he standing on the pegs like Trials pilots are intended to do as he slowly rode up the sidewalk to where we were seated.

The People's Choice vote was taken and the People's voted for BOTH the Hodaka and Arie's H1 Kawasaki Triple. A coin toss went to Jeff's Hodaka, both 2 strokes conveniently near each other......

Jeff gave a fine speech, direct relatives were thanked for everything he is today, more distant relatives eluded to.....

I left right after the official results were in, spent time at mom's house sorting and stacking. After 2PM some time, I was home, changed and on Tran Zalp.

Best first gravel was Tushaus Hill Road in the Zumbro Bottoms State Forest.....

Are these real flowers or dainty yellow leaves opening up??

Weaver Landing....

I stopped for dinner at the Wabasha Dairy Queen, a place the Coop's once visited fairly often when we were out and about exploring. Today I was there solo but memories came back to me as I ate, memories with the family, the kids going back for ketchup, using their Tokens for ice cream, etc.

One memory was especially strong however. Back in the summer when Ben was 14, he accompanied me down to southern Indiana to bring the ST2 home. We rented a van in early June, drove down to Terre Haute on a Saturday, spent the night and then early Sunday were in rural Vincennes to pick up the bike, making it back home that same evening. Away from riding and motorcycle ownership for 20 years while the kids were growing up, safety and behaving oneself on a motorcycle somehow was a common point of discussion that summer in the Coop household. This was going to be a big change from baby lambs and an ornery goat. After all, there was a very impressionable young man present, soaking up everything.

Later that summer we were in this very Dairy Queen, long tables here just to my right with a very expansive view of Highway 61 which is 150 yards or so in the distance. While we were enjoying our Chicken Finger Basket meals, Ben and I facing the highway, Ben's mom and sisters with their backs to the highway, a couple of large Sportbikes were headed south (left to right) At a point on the 4 lane highway, maybe centered in this photo, both bikes lofted their front wheels and kept them high for about as far as we could watch them without us jumping up and spilling our fries.

The highway transitions just a bit to the north from 2 lane to 4 lane but there's another half mile or so to the south before the limit bumps up to 65 (72 the the low end of average actual). I could literally feel Ben's head turning to keep watching the bikes head south. My head turned just like his had and when I saw Ben turn back to me with his eyes wide, I knew that there would be something he had to say, most likely more than one something.

With great care and subtle though quick determination, I brought my finger up to my lips and saw a very large and most wonderful smile appear on Ben's face.

We did it.....message sent, message received.

Together we'd just had a very precious father-son moment.

16 comments:

TrobairitzApril 24, 2016 at 10:15 AM
Nothing like a little 2-stroke smoke to wake you up in the morning. It is good to see a Hodaka outside of Oregon. You never know how far they've travelled to find a home.

The Dairy Queen story made me smile. Funny how little places can bring back such a vivid memory. It is good it was still there for you to stop by and reminisce.
ReplyDelete
Replies
RichardMApril 24, 2016 at 8:35 PM
That's quite the collection of 2-strokes that showed up at Diamonds. You have quite the riding community there. I've only tried riding a 2-stroke once and I kept killing the engine when starting out. This was out in the California desert in the mid-70s.
ReplyDelete
Replies
motormikeApril 24, 2016 at 9:11 PM
I'm sure Choo choo Jeff was happy for the award. The Kawie is nice but Jeff had a lot of time in the Hodaka with several personal details.
Note: The Star Buck rejects have two Jeff's...Choo choo Jeff is a retired train mechcanic... Glow at Night Jeff.. work'd at a nuclear plant. :)
ReplyDelete
Replies
JasonApril 25, 2016 at 9:24 AM
I have a similar memory with my dad and a Norton, I believe it was yellow. No wheelies though. This weekend I get to chase his new Guzzi over the rivers and through the woods. Can't wait. We're staying in the Dells, maybe I'll catch you out there.
ReplyDelete
Replies
JasonApril 26, 2016 at 10:01 AM
I'll probably miss the Crud Run, I need to get home on Sunday to help out with kid duty and getting ready for the week. I can't wheelie all over creation any more, getting back just in time for work on Monday.

My dad picked up an 8-valve Norge, it's everything my V-11 wasn't. We'll have a Multistrada and a Road King in our group too. If it's raining all afternoon/ evening on Saturday we may make it down to Madison for the movie, and I'll keep Lone Rock in my back pocket for Sunday morning. I'm sure you'll be there bright and early so it depends on what time I get going in the morning.

I told Mrs. North that it's like Christmas morning, I can't wait to set off. Hope to see you there.
ReplyDelete
Replies
redlegsridesApril 26, 2016 at 7:49 PM
Cool motorcycles, I liked the hula dancer on the fairing.
ReplyDelete
Replies
David MasseApril 27, 2016 at 6:51 AM
What a great meet up.

Too bad there weren't any vintage scooters in the mix. That Vespa with the fender light is a beefy 250cc or 300 four stroke trying to pass for a vintage two stroke ancestor.
ReplyDelete
Replies
ElizabethApril 27, 2016 at 12:34 PM
Great looking bike! Love reading your posts, thanks for the share.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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)