Tryin' To Not Die

I was gonna leave a comment about the bike for Bo and Cissy below, but decided a quick Post in response might be better.
As I've said, actually winning the auction on the bike was kind of a surprise, so I'm still scrambling to try to tie up loose ends.
Back when we were still walking the CG halls I had a little Harley-Davidson Sprint. Years before they passed that now rescinded helmet law in Indiana I bought a helmet and wore it religiously. Pretty amazing to think about that now... a sixteen year old kid with no prompting from anyone else, realizing he needed to protect his head with a brain bucket.
When full-face helmets came out, I was one of the first purchasers. I bought a white Bell full-face and with it's darkened visor, looked like one of the Storm Troopers from Star Wars. I wore that thing for YEARS, then when I sold my 1100 Yamaha in 1984 I stored it in the garage. Other than taking short test-rides on bikes owned by others, I haven't ridden since.

Buying the Guzzi... (by the way, I've learned the double-z's are pronounced like "pizza"... "Goot-zee"), lead me to go take a look at the old Bell helmet out in the garage. To my chagrin, Mickey and Minnie apparently decided that was a pretty good place to raise their family. They chewed the padding and styrofoam shell and made a nest of it inside the solid protection provided by the fiberglass outer-shell. Oh well... I'm sure it's for the best because they have made giant leaps in helmet technology since 1971. (That Bell helmet was designed in such a way it broke collar bones during the accident sequence, and took a great deal of criticism for that fact.)
I was gonna have to buy a helmet for Sara Jean anyway, so now we'll buy two... and color coordinate!

They've also made great strides in other protective equipment-
Armored gloves. Armor for elbows, hips, knees, shins. Footgear.
If you want, you can buy gear and ride like one of the Knights from King Arthur's "Round Table".
When we go to buy I'll have to consider how much of that gear I'll actually wear... it'd be cumbersome and hot in the Summer. But the gear would also provide great protection against some of the horrendous injuries incurred by the folks I sometimes fly to the Trauma Centers in BigTown.

Since I haven't ridden in almost 30 years, (and had no formal training even back then... it was all "school of hard knocks" and I'm sure I learned LOTS of bad habits), I signed up for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's 2-1/2 day school. Two birds with one stone... it would teach me the good habits, and upon completion I receive a certificate that I can take to the DMV and receive my Motorcycle Driver's license. I signed up for, and thought I was attending a course this weekend. But at the last minute I got a note from the Course providers informing me the class was overbooked and they were shifting me to my secondary class date... next month. So I've got plenty of time now to carefully shop for whatever protective gear I'm gonna buy for the two of us.

Me... of all people!
I have absolutely no illusions about questions of safety with the bike...
I get to land on dark roads several times a month to pick up bodies mangled in motorcycle accidents. But like most "accidents" I also know most of these could be prevented by the operator, and in those that could not have been prevented the degree of injury certainly would have been mitigated if the riders had been wearing proper gear. (HELMETS, you Harley riders!)

Going through life entails making thousands of decisions about risk on a daily basis. I also regularly transport people who are hurt while in their own homes... (For instance, just last week I flew a 30 year old woman who fell down her basement stairs to the concrete floor below, fracturing her neck.)
So the question is not, "Is riding a motorcycle dangerous?"
Of course it is.
The question is, "Is the danger worth the rewards?"
And my answer to that is, "I think it is."
To all those expressing concern I say, "I feel your love and I'm warmed by it."
I promise we'll gear-up and ride as safely as we possibly can.

Now... another thought...
I know Clint and Bo have a bike. Any other bikers lurking out there in VK land?
Wouldn't it be great to meet somewhere, ride a while, then have a great dinner?
I'm ready. Sign me up!

What It's All About-

I've learned my lesson.
Until you're actually ready to buy, stay away from eBay!

Several close friends here are now riding motorcycles. I started thinking how nice it would be to have a bike and tag along with them. The fact that riding to work on two wheels rather than four would save me $5 per day in gas gave me all the excuse I needed. I decided Winter would be the best time to buy, but wanted to get a feel for the market right now. I've been fascinated by Italian bikes for years... Ducatis and Moto Guzzis, and the Guzzis are particularly of interest to me because their final drive system is a maintenance-free shaft, not a chain.
I went to eBay and entered "Moto Guzzi" in the search block. That was my mistake.

There was a bike there that was almost exactly what I wanted...
Fully faired, 1,000cc's, looking like a new machine, at a price I couldn't believe.
I bid on the thing and that bid ended up winning the auction. (The bike pictured above, although the wrong model year, looks exactly like the one I bid on. You can click it to enlarge.)

The bike was located in a little town near Erie, Pennsylvania.
I thought I'd have a couple weeks to go get it, but the seller just started a new job which will require him to be in Beijing, China by the end of the month. I had to go get the bike... like NOW.

I talked with my co-workers and got the time off. Then I called Cinders and TwoDogs, hoping to impose on their hospitality for a nights lodging, (and secretly hoping TD would consider coming along on the road trip!)
"You're coming to Indy? Great! You're driving to Pennsylvania? Want a co-driver?"
He read my mind!

We drove to Indy last Friday. Bright and early Saturday morning TD and I had breakfast, then picked up the "Penske" rental truck. We got on the road at 9:30 and the GPS lead us right to the seller's door at 4 P.M.. We visited with him a few minutes, secured the bike in the truck, and started back South-Westbound, getting back to Naptown at exactly midnight. Much of the drive was spent in the rain. Virtually all of the drive was spent talking about old times. (If you're reading this, we probably talked about you!)
But think of it...
I put myself into a "situation" by buying the bike, then called friends to ask for help.
They came through BIG TIME...
Two nights lodging and help driving almost 15 hours.

I know... you're not surprised at all, are you?
That's 'cause you're also a VK!
And that's what makes VK's so special, isn't it?

Hope to see you all October 9th... wherever we end up meeting.
In the meantime, take my advice-
Unless you're really ready to buy, stay away from eBay!

Another "Two-Wheel" Post.

For a while, they were everywhere in our community-
Hal S. had one.
Joe R. had one.
John T's oldest brother David had one, then passed it on to John's other brother Richard.
Bonnie R's brother David had one.
Bill F. had one. (It's how I met him.)
Gary P. had one but his was different... his was Robin's Egg Blue.
One summer day we heard a clatter and a loud scraping noise on Morgantown Road in front of our house and when we ran out to investigate we found Gary had clipped a mailbox, fallen, and had broken his collarbone.

Artwork... they still have a sort of "timeless beauty" to my eye though the basic design dates back to just-post WWII. I wanted one so bad I could taste it. I'd still like to own one if the price was right.
What freedom they provided to the kids that owned them then!
The only thing that approached the coolness of the Vespa was the Cushman Eagle. (Hawkeye had one very similar to the one pictured at that link, only his was gleaming black and had more chrome, and with a kind of Harley Davidson attitude, appealed to a different crowd than the Vespa.
Me? All I could afford was an old Cushman putt-putt and I often planned what I'd have to do to steal Hawk's Eagle.)

It's another of those hard-to-imagine memories...
Most of us were 12 or 13 years old, riding around on public streets on our scooters, knowing the chance we'd see a Deputy Sheriff on patrol was virtually nil. (And even if we did encounter a law enforcement officer, most of them turned a blind eye, not wanting to go to the trouble of citing us. I never heard of anyone ever getting a ticket for riding without a license.)
Those were Norman Rockwell days.
I'm glad we lived 'em.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chatting via email with Mr. L. I made the comment, "Since Echo and Shifty no longer are in Edinburgh, Vandy's Kids have nothing on the horizon to look forward to."
We need to fix that.
Got any ideas?

"Then Came Bronso... er... Greybeard"

You may remember the TV show "Then Came Bronson".
It debuted just about the time I got home from Viet Nam and the idea of a single guy motoring around the Nation on a bike appealed to me...
It was sort of a "Route 66" on two wheels. I liked the show and watched it regularly, but was disappointed in the fact that as usual, Hollywood mucked it up...
Bronson went motocrossing on his Harley Sportster, AND WON!
From that point on I watched the show partly to see how hokey the producers could make it. Others must have felt the same as me, 'cause the show lasted only one season.
Still, the music was good, as were the scenes of Bronson crossing the country on two wheels.

And there was another reason I liked the show...
Ron and I had made a Road Trip to Ft. Lauderdale in his big Pontiac Bonneville convertible the summer between our Junior and Senior years at CG, and we enjoyed the adventure. On the way home we discussed the possibility of taking an across-the-country road trip on Harley-Davidson "Dressers". We fantasized about the experiences we'd share... the two of us together riding to points unknown... wherever the wind would lead us, meeting wonderful, interesting people... stopping to work at odd jobs just long enough to buy enough gas to make it to our next exotic destination.

We were quite aware that actually doing it would take a chunk of change at the start...
Buying a Full-dress Harley would, for me (not him!), be daunting. Even a good used "HOG" would take the outlay equivalent to a VERY GOOD used car, and I was still working for minimum wage at the Frostop at the time.

My Mom expressed concern about the dangers of riding that far on two wheels but she needn't have worried...
It quickly became obvious that Ron's interest in his future bride would eliminate any hopes I had about the two of us riding up on our bikes and peering over the rim of the Grand Canyon.
I never saved a dime toward buying the big bike.

But I still dream of such a trip...
And Sara Jean and I MAY ACTUALLY DO IT...
(In a 28 foot motor home!)

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!
Got news?

The Pied Piper

Did ya ever wonder...
"The Pied Piper"...
What caused him to be "Pied"?
Did Soupy Sales or the Three Stooges get to him?
I had to look it up. Cinders, DJ, and GH will have an advantage here, as will those who know why Elizabeth Taylor's horse in "National Velvet" was called "The Pie".
The term "Pied" is related to "Piebald", and means "many colored".
So apparently the Pied Piper, along with playing the flute better than Ian Anderson, was a pretty colorful dresser.

All the above is tangential.
I drove to work tonight to find that while I was sleeping today in preparation for my second night of 10 in a row, crews had oiled and chipped the last two miles of road leading to my workplace. I was lucky in that it wasn't blazingly hot, so my tires didn't pick up the oily rocks and throw them down the sides of my car.
But it brought back memories I knew I could share with you...
I can remember like yesterday when they first oiled and chipped all the roads in the Sutton addition. I think every kid with a bicycle showed up to watch the crews and follow them as the oil truck first laid down a coat of tar, with dump trucks following and dispensing rock on top of the tar.
They may as well have been "The Pied Piper"!
As I recall, there were also a couple guys with shovels following along to add rock where dump trucks might not have laid down a heavy enough layer.
It was fascinating to watch, and more so because with most of the neighborhood kids watching it became a social event. I'm sure we all came home with bicycle tires speckled with spots of tar, and we probably had tar samples on shoes, other parts of clothing, and maybe even some body parts.

A fond memory for me, and I've shared it with you.
Traffic has been mighty sparse here lately...
Have you a fond memory to share this Friday?