Coop's Corner: Lost One Gained One

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Lost One Gained One

Mike is (once again) the proud owner of a 1982 RT100 BMW. I dropped it off at his domicile after we gathered for coffee this morning. He and Speedy have been missing it and I just haven't been showing it enough attention or deserved affection. I pulled up this one's spreadsheet and printed it out for Mike's reference ......exactly 1700 miles on it since he sold it to me back in November 2012.

Here's hoping that they'll put that many miles on it in one season instead of 3 it took me to get that far.

Rolled off the trailer, it took a bit for the cold-blooded beast to settle into a rough idle. I'd loaded it on the trailer last night and this morning it was covered in an inch of fresh snow. Today's nasty NW wind wasn't helping ANYthing to warm up. Mike had the downstairs parking garage door open and as I rode the still-rich-running German machine to his allotted parking spaces, I saw this interloper taking up what I'd expected to be BMW-space.

Now the word's out on this stealthy secret of Mike's (I never got this memo) He beat me to sidecar ownership and I'm quite happy about it. This of course means that a new T-shirt is called for, one that says "If you can read this, she's in the sidecar" rather than ".......she fell off".

Here's the one that took the Beemer's physical space in my garage. Dad's 1980 GS850 Suzuki that's been sitting very still for more than 15 years. He and mom had some very good times on this one....

Not sure what I'm going to do with it right now.....I've got time to think about its future. One thing is certain, it won't see any riding miles in '16.

18 comments:

motormikeApril 2, 2016 at 9:13 PM
The big GS is a handsome look'n bike.
Get'n it road worthy again may require some serious elbow grease and carb clean'n.. but in the end it would be well worth the time. I'm sure it has many " smiles " left in it. :)
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AnonymousApril 3, 2016 at 6:16 AM
didn't you put a bunch of miles on one of those
rmo
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TrobairitzApril 3, 2016 at 10:20 AM
The Suzuki is a nice addition to the stable. A good trade off for the BMW since it adds nostalgia from your father.
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SonjaMApril 3, 2016 at 11:44 AM
The Suzuki looks quite in good shape, given its age. I guess I'd lose the fairing but other than that a great addition.
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redlegsridesApril 3, 2016 at 4:45 PM
I wonder how good a tug that Suzuki would make.....hmmmm
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RichardMApril 3, 2016 at 5:15 PM
I'd lose the fairing on the Suzuki. I've never liked to looks of the Windjammer though I've never ridden anything that had one.
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AnonymousApril 4, 2016 at 6:47 AM
I'd keep the fairing, spent many miles behind one and thought they were great, ugly yes
rmo
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SheilaApril 10, 2016 at 1:47 PM
Awesome bike, love reading your blog. Thanks for the post.
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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)