The Road

The Road

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Winter Begins

So,now it's starting to get cold.Winter is close at hand and I've been busy getting ready.Last week I got all six of my  insured , registered, and inspected motorcycles up and running. My two strokes love this cold weather so every year in late November I ride them up until the first snow. Some years I get lucky and can use them into the new year and some years only into mid December so it's important to me to get out and ride 'em. Today is crappy , cold and grey out with a forecast of rain after 10AM so no riding. Same for tomorrow but Thursday is looking good.It's looking like Thursday will be my last chance to ride the three oldest ones pictured here because snow is forecast for Friday and once that happens I can only use them after a good rain falls cleaning the salt off the roads.


I doubt I'll be getting to run these beauties again until April .Well,I have one day left to enjoy them as I ride each one for an hour or so then fill the tank with fresh high octane gas to store it .I'll lock them in my shed and pull out one of the project bikes I have been working on for the down payment money for a house out in the desert. I can't wait for the day when I no longer have to go thru this winter storage routine ! I think the first project will be to get that pretty 1966 Yamaha YM1 that I got from my friend Richard a few years back finished. You know,the one that came from the same dealership that I bought my very first bike from back in 1965 that also came with all the original paperwork signed by the guy who sold me my first bike ! This one is a keeper but I need to finish it so I can part with that pretty blue bike above.Don't need two of them and I really want this one. Then after the YM1 is done I need to finish that pretty 1970 DS6C I was building a couple years back .Never quite finished it then one of the side covers got damaged so now I need to re paint that .No big deal but something I need to do.


Richard is not well now,he has cancer and it doesn't look good .I'd like to be able to send him photos of his old bike all restored before he goes so I'm starting with it. It's the bike on the left in the photo above . It's close to being a runner . I saw Richard at a bike show back in August in PA. He told me then that he was sick.It was as if he was saying good bye .This is the part of growing old I don't like.Well, at some point all our numbers get called in this lottery we call life. Anyway,back to the bikes, the  1971Yamaha R5 has been the workhorse of my fleet for many years. I used her all the time riding out to Mid Ohio 600 miles away on the interstates fully loaded packed like a horse.

She went into semi retirement when I bought the Moto Guzzi 850-T back in 2007 but still remains in service year round. I usually ride the "T" in the winter because she has chrome cylinder bores and you can't let them sit for too long or they go bad.With constant use they are good for a couple hundred thousand miles as long as you keep the oil changed and don't beat the bike. So,I use her and the R5 for my winter riding.This year there is the new bike too,the 1988 BMW K100 RS. I just put those new tires and brakes on her and I want to keep them for travel next summer so she will only see limited use . Perhaps a short ride every two or three weeks of no more than 20 miles.You know,just enough to keep the fluids moving.It's almost a full time job taking care of all these motorcycles properly . Then we get to the new project part of this coming winter. I think I may bring this little beauty I bought back in 2006 home.I picked this up on Ebay for 256. dollars ! No one even bid on it but me.I was amazed at the condition when I went in my truck to pick it up.It only has 5000 miles on it !The paint is mint! the chrome is good ! And,it has good compression !!!!
I really like this bike and was thinking about it as a keeper but I need a house out in Arizona more than all these motorcycles.I'll keep some,the Moto Guzzi, the K100,the 69 green ds6c,the 71 R5. The fate of the 65 YDS3 is still to be decided,I'd like to keep her because I did my first cross country trip on one exactly like her.Shit,it even came from the same dealership where I bought my first two bikes just like Richards old YM1 but if I come up short she will get sold.These two photos were taken on that first cross country trip so very long ago in the summer of '69

But,like back then in the old days I'm coming to understand that in order to get where you want to go you need to let go or else you stay. That was true freedom in those days. Just a sleeping bag and one change of cloths.No tools,spare parts ,or any other bullshit like I carry today . Nope , just what was needed to survive.Look at that pack.It's mind boggling,we were two up on that little 250 Me and my friend George heading to LA from NY .We made it,used it while out there for a year then I rode it back east a year later. I got to get back to that freedom somehow . All I want to do is ride and camp ,travel the west and have a nice little place to call home with my wife out in the desert.