I don't remember exactly when this thing with motorcycles started for me, it was just always kind of there. I do remember though when I went with my Dad to get my first motorcycle. Some guy he knew was selling his kid's old bike. We drove out into the country to this guy's place, went to the barn where the bike was supposed to be and it was gone. The guy's kid sold it and didn't tell him. I was crushed. Easily in the top 5 worst days of my life. After that my folks surprised us with a CT70. They had us all stand in the back yard and Mom rode it down the hill on the side of the house, which is especially funny because my Mom doesn't ride motorcycles. I strapped on an old red 3/4 face helmet and drove it straight up a steep hill into my neighbors yard. I remember the first time I seized a motor. I was hauling ass down the road on a different dirt bike with my buddy Jared and it just locked up. I had no idea what happened but pushed it a couple of miles back to Jared's place and called my Dad. He told me he thought I blew it up and I almost started to cry. We fixed it though. Then there was the time my Dad let me take his Electra Glide around the block, the block was 7 miles around. I was so nervous I don't think I went over 40 mph. They were worried I crashed because I was taking so long. Another time Troy and I were blasting down I-35 outside of Duluth at 3 am doing speeds I won't mention without a soul in site when suddenly Troy went dark, no lights, no power, nothing. In our infinite wisdom we felt the appropriate shake down run on his new chopper was a few hundred mile ride in cold weather with no tools. We limped into a town, begged for beds and fixed it in the morning. Not many years after that Troy, Pops and I went to the Great Smoky Mts and rode Deal's Gap; broke my Dyna motor in there.
There's a million more stories, bikes, people...everything. It's always been all about motorcycles, it always will be all about motorcycles. It's given me the friends I have, molded the person I've become. I've never really been able to explain it, just makes sense to me. I know other people have hobbies and whatnot, but for some of us it's more than that. This is so much more to me.
I don't know who built the first motorcycle; but to you sir, from the bottom of my heart, this is your fault.
No comments:
Post a Comment