These are my motorcycles, starting with the Honda SL100. It was my first bike, the one I got my license on back in 1973. I left a fair amount of skin on pavement over the years with this baby. Broke a toe once. Even left my impression on the front end of a car. Lucky for me I wasn't seriously hurt.
This next one was my Dad's CB 175. He got it the same time I got mine, which meant I rode it a lot, too. He never really caught the bug like I did, but he looked hilarious riding in his (polyester*) suit to work. The bikers would wave to him like any other, but they sure had big grins on their faces.
This one was Dad's too. It's a Harley-Davidson Servi-Car, aka Meter Maid bike, aka trike begging for a custom treatment. He had a few over the years, some stock like this, one was a chopper with a 24" over stock chrome springer on front. I'm still trying to find a picture of me on that one. It will go up when I do, promise.
This was Dad's, also, but I did ride it around a little. He had bought two Indian Chiefs, one was a basket case motor and the other was a chopper. Luckily, the chopper didn't have any frame work done on it (raked triple tree), so he managed to put together a fairly authentic looking Chief.
This next one was both my Dad's and mine, as this was the first Harley I bought for myself (from Dad). It's a 250 Sprint. I took it to the Harley dealer to get it running (we couldn't), and the guy there laughed at told me "get a real bike". Of course, he didn't realize it was an Aermacchi Harley-Davidson. Once he got it running, he was impressed. That sucker would fly. Unreliable as hell, though. I pushed it as much as I rode it.
Here's a close-up of the engine. Kinda looks like a Ducati cut in half, don't it? Ran like one, too.
This one hung around for a while, it's a Sears (as in Roebuck) 250. Made by Puch, it was a 2-stroke 2-cylinder that fired both cylinders at the same time. Straaaange. I blew it up. It was so bad we had to use a block of wood and a hand sledge to get one of the pistons free.
Here's one I had in El Paso for a few years, a Honda 450 Nighthawk. Sold it when I got an overseas assignment.
Same here, a Kawasaki 650 CSR. It hung around for a while, but another overseas assignment as well as deployments to Saudi caused this one to be sold.
This is what I'm on now, of course. Hopefully, there'll be no more overseas assignments of deployments to cause this one to go bye-bye.
Will it get traded in for another Harley? Possibly, but I'll need a helluva promotion to afford that. Maybe a Servi-Car is in my future ....
* Hey, it was the '70's.
2 comments:
I could have sworn I did a post a while back on all the bikes I've owned, but I can't find it any more. Maybe that was in a different life or something.
Anyway, we've had one bike in common. I had a 450 Nighthawk for several years. I loved that bike. Quick, nimble, great gas mileage.
Heck...who'm I kidding? I've loved all my bikes at the time.
Yeah, the Nighthawk was a good one.
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