A Cross Post

I posted this in my other blog and am seeing if I can just crosspost it to here .Usually I prefer to write different posts for each one but sometimes this works .So here it is: Christmas came and went.It's not my favorite time of year so I'm glad it's in the past.I did get out riding on Christmas day.It was a sunny warm day with temps in the mid 60's F here in NY.I got out on 4 bikes that day .An hour on each one to give them all a good winter workout.Gotta take it when it's there and use them 'cause you just never know when the next opportunity will present itself this time of year.Shit,it could start snowing like last winter and keep snowing right up to April so every day I get to ride is a bonus.I've also been painting lots.Did those paintings in the last couple posts and yesterday I did this.

I'll probably paint again today,it's too cold and wet out to open up the garage.Yesterday I pulled out this bike and got it into the garage.It needs new tires and I want to give it new crank seals before I put it up for sale.Figure I'll start my winter bike work with this one and finish it up then move on to the 1970 Yamaha R5 that I'm going to do next.

It's going to be hard to part with this bike but I need to start selling these things so I can head out west . Same thing with the camp,it needs to get sold and maybe even the little 1966 Valiant convertible .

I have to do whatever I need to do to get out of New York.I don't want to die on this piece of fly paper.So,today I paint in this lame attempt to keep me from going nuts with boredom.I'm thankful I have these outlets .Being able to build and create stuff really keeps me grounded .So,I bought a bunch of canvas,some 16x20,some 18x24 .The desert picture I just did is a 16x20 so maybe today I'll work larger.Who knows,I sit there and go blank then it comes to me and it happens with out plan. Cool,it worked !

Yesterdays Ride

It was a beautiful day here in New York yesterday,cold but beautiful.After writing the previous post I got suited up in my leathers,pulled my 1969 Yamaha out of the garage ,and,prepped it for a ride.Did the air in the tires and topped off the injector oil.

10:30 AM and I was off.Did some back roads thru the park near my house and got on the high way headed east.The bike was lovin it.She really likes the cold air which is why I ride my two strokes this time of year.It was a good ride out east to Manorville , NY on the Long Island Expressway.I was just cruising along at 65 mph in the right lane for the most part bringing it up to 70 now & then.Once out east where I got off the expressway I finally was in my element on deserted back roads.It was wonderful,no fucking cars or even other bikes. I had the place to myself and took full advantage of it.

Went here and there just blasting thru the woods .Stopped at a couple nice places that I know of to stretch my legs and rode. It sure felt good to just get out and own the road.Can't wait for the day I'm doing this out west again.You know,just going and not returning for a few days,wandering and camping out in the middle of nowhere.Well,for now this tease will have to do.

After a couple hours of having fun I started to see a front moving in from the south east.The clouds were gathering and on a day like today with the temps in the mid 40'sF once you loose the sun it gets raw so I went down one last road I like and started working my way west staying in the sunshine.

Took the expressway again but got off and detoured to the north and rode along the north shore from Port Jefferson west to Huntington where I live using back roads.It was a really good three and a half hour ride.The bike really needed this before winter.You know,having a fleet of bikes is work.They have to be run and run often or they turn to shit.It's a bitch but someone has to do it,yeah right ! I'm one lucky son of a bitch.

It wasn't foresight that made me buy these bikes when no one wanted them, it was love of the machines.Back in the day when I was bringing these things home people were giving them to me for almost nothing and even free sometimes.They all wanted Harleys.You know,the herd mentality , they all had to have the status symbol while I had no use for it.Now here I am with this collection of nice Japanese motorcycles with a few Italian and German ones thrown in for good measure.Motorcycles are my life,I breath them like air.There have been good things and really bad things in my life ,the one truly wonderful thing has been motorcycles and the people that they have brought into my life.Motorcycling has opened up so much for me,it has saved my life more than once,and it has kept me on a path of happiness.Well,it's a cold rainy day here in New York.Today there will be no motorcycle riding or garage work.Today I'm going to work on a painting.I like to paint,it also keeps me happy and centered.Soon I'll be starting to do some restoration and builds.Last night I was thinking about what to build this winter so I have something to sell to get money for the down payment on a house out in the desert.My first project will be to finish the nice orange DS6C that I did then get going on the 70 Yamaha R5 and then I think I'm going to do a ground up resto on this gem.I bought it as a keeper but I really need to get this down payment together so I think I'll be selling it.It's a real sweethart but I need to move west to live out the last chapters of my life.Check this one out.I bought it 10 years ago and just let it mellow in a nice dry garage.

Yes,it's original and yes that is the correct mileage.It doesn't get any better than this !So,that's it for now,time to eat some breakfast and smear some oil paints around on this big canvas that I have been working while I dream of the west and what lies ahead in the near future out in my garage.

Today I Ride (a 2 stroke)

Here we are in early winter in New York.The weather has been really warm and you know that I have been taking full advantage of that.This past Saturday I was out on 3 of my two stroke Yamahas cruising around town. Yesterday I had the T out for a great 4 hour ride. It was really warm out and sunny too so the T was the bike to take and do some distance.Today on the other hand is cool,temps in the upper 40's F so it's going to be a two stroke day.The plan is to head out to eastern Long Island and hit some good deserted back roads on my 1969 Yamaha DS6C.

It's early yet and the roads are still filled with assholes battling each other for 5 feet of roadway on their way to slavery so I'll wait a couple hours .This is how it is here in this suburban la la land.You have to pick your times to ride.There is a window between 10AM and 4PM where you can ride and actually enjoy yourself but before or after that it's really crazy here.They are texting while they drive these 7000lb suv's totally oblivious to what is around them.I'm on the high way in the HOV lane and I look over and see these idiots reading newspapers while they are going 75 mph It's scary out there.So,I limit my riding time to when the bulk of them are slaving away chasing their American dream fantasy of riches. There are some good roads to ride where I'm heading today and a 250cc two stroke is the perfect choice of machine to ride on them.I love this little bike.It's light and nimble .I can just throw it around with my weight and it responds like it's an extension of my body.It's fast enough to get on the interstate with .Back in the mid 70's I rode this very bike up from here in NY all the way to Newfoundland and back on a month long journey.That was a fun ride.Met the greatest people and camped in some really incredible places.In the 80's I was still traveling on my little DS6C.It had been stolen and I recovered it,found it in the woods all trashed.I got a couple parts bikes and put it back together to live another day and here it is up at my camp in the Adirondacks 400 miles from home.

This bike has been with me since 1971 or 72.I don't remember the exact year it's been that long ago.I like to travel on my strokes.I started way back in 1966 the day I rode my 100 cc Twin Jet 100 up to Boston from NY.I had been riding one year when I did that trip.Damn that was 49 years ago.I'll always travel on 2 wheels.Here is my 65 YDS3 on it's trip west to Los Angeles from NY in 1969 with me smoking a joint on the side of the road somewhere.I rode that thing 2 up across the country.

Ah,the good old days.But today will just be a short one day ride of maybe a hundred miles.No biggie,just a short ride to give my old girlfriend a workout .She sure is pretty isn't she

I've always traveled on my 2 strokes.My 1971 r5 saw a lot of action.This bike carried me all over the place from the mid 80's until I bought the Moto Guzzi 850-T in 2007

I still pack her up like a horse and go places .Last long ride on this one was in 2009 out to Mid Ohio .Well,it's warming up outside some now and it's almost safe to get on the road.It's 9:30 AM so I guess it's time to get ready,put on my leathers and ride my DS6C.