Saturday, March 29, 2008

Repaint - and thin no more!

I finally decided on the color. G.M. #1608 engine block blue! I was going back and forth on the color scheme and I saw an old Volkswagen (keeping with the German theme...well okay sort of) and I thought maybe I could find a color close to that. Well it was close, but not exact. But I like the overall outcome. I like bright colors if they're tasteful, simply because the brighter colors catch other driver's eyes quicker...at least I tell myself that. The engine block colors actually offer a wide variety of "vintage" hues that can almost, in some cases, come off looking pretty "period" to certain bikes. You might want to check them out.

But here is a warning. I have discovered that most auto part stores stock only 2 cans of each color. I bought each lot of 2 cans at most of the stores. If you want G.M. #1608 in Nampa, Idaho, you may want to wait a few weeks, there isn't any more available! The paint is pretty tough, it offers a nice gloss with careful prep and spraying and it should hold up to the elements as long as I take care of it and keep it clean and waxed. Here is how some of the pieces turned out.

The shot of all the pieces together was after I painted the trim color and striped it but you can see how it ended up. Now I must warn the average painter, spray cans do not offer the same quality that a paint shop (a person who does it for you with a professional spray outfit) offers. But what I ended up with is a 10 foot paint job. At 10 feet away, it looks pretty good.

But you still don't get this quality if you just shake a can a few times and start spraying a tank like a hairdresser would spray aqua-net all over Grandma's new Saturday hair do. No, you have to read the instructions and actually follow them. With this particular type of paint, it required that all the coats be sprayed within 10 minutes of each other and all within an hour. I didn't read that closely at one point and had to go back and remove some paint accordingly.

The other thing you have to do, besides putting on a mask and making sure the place is well ventilated, is you need to patiently work from left to right making smooth, even strokes that keep the can about 6 inches away from the item being painted, consistently. Your lighting is crucial too so that you can watch the reflection and see the dull spots. When you make a pass and can see the gloss in the light, you go back to the left and make another one just under it, making sure that you don't leave a dry band of paint in between the two glossy ones. If you do, you quickly come back and double wet coat that dry band (you are spraying in between the two glossy bands over the dull one at this point) so that it blends in with the glossy ones before they begin to set up. It takes patience, but it isn't that difficult. And best of all...IT'S CHEAP! We like cheap.

After I coated everything with several light coats I let it dry. Several light coats may seem to be a waste of time initially. My tendency toward impatience makes me want to lay on a heavy, glossy coat the first time. The problem with that thinking is that in order for the paint company to make a can that can actually deliver paint, they must thin it down considerably. Because it is thin, when you put it on thick, IT WILL RUN. So as any good prophet worth his salt would tell you, REPAINT! (or is that repent?...who knows).

Runs are not uncommon though. That's why patience is required. On an enamel based paint, after 2 or 3 days you can wet sand the runs out and any other little boogers...like the boogers with wings that will fly into your new paint job to get a closer look. After you've wet sanded them with a very fine paper, you simply respray with several light coats again.

I had to go to Hawaii...okay, got to go, so I rushed to finish the tins before I left. My wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in Kona and I knew that I couldn't touch the bike for 8 days so I wanted to use that as a curing time. I must confess that I thought about the bike while I was there. One night as we were drifting off to sleep and my eyes were staring off in some direction, my wife said, "you're restoring your bike right now aren't you?" Got me. Yes I painted and pieced this thing back together several times in my mind before I actually did it so that when it came time to actually do it, I had already thought the process out. And frankly, though I was having a great time (a bad day in Hawaii is better than most good days at home) I missed the ol' beast. I kept thinking how great that bike would have been to cruise around the island on.

Well, there you have it. A spray can job can turn out. I used more engine block paint (Cummin's diesel tan) for the trim, but didn't notice that it was a semi-gloss. Double check the sheens on the paint before you make your purchase to make sure they are consistent. I was disappointed, but after a while, I decided to stay with it because it gave it a bit of a contrast like the stripes on some of the early muscle cars. So I left it alone. The following pictures will show some of the process of laying down the trim color.

Now, please remember, this is a spruce up, not a restoration. So after the trim is painted on (by the way, I used very thin vinyl masking tape for this because it keeps the color from bleeding underneath the tape and it gives you a really nice clean edge) I decided that it needed a third contrasting stripe. I didn't want to use vinyl pin striping, because that would take away from the over all look. But I had never used a pin striping brush before. Do you know that all experts started someplace? There is always a first engine rebuild, a first piano piece, a first web-site, a first this and that. If you want to learn how to pin-stripe, what better place to learn than on a $40 paint job rather than a $400 or a $4000 one? I'll tackle that in the next blog.You can see the gloss that can happen after carefully prepping, wet sanding and painting with a double wet coat method. You can also see Daisy watching me, wondering why on such a sunny day we can't go out cruising in the sidecar. Soon Daisy, very soon.

Friday, March 28, 2008

To spuce up or restore?...that is the question!

When is a bike considered a custom? What is a rat bike? At what point do you cross a line between junk and simply "a clean old bike"? When does adding parts from other bikes and vehicles become ridiculous?

I love the straight old bikes with N.O.S. (new old stock) parts and ground up restorations. But if a bike show has the name "coucours" in it or includes caviar or champagne for refreshments, it ain't my bag. I don't like junk or animal furs hanging from things either, but I do appreciate creativity. I think most folks do too. I found both of these rat bikes on the Internet...hope the owners don't mind me using them.

So I needed to decide if I just wanted it to be funky or to have enough custom pieces on it to compliment an overall desired look. I love old, so I stuck with that theme. I also love the rat rod scene with the flat paint, rusted metal, retro decals, Von Dutch pin striping and wrapped pipes. So old with some of that mixed in was what I was after.

I scored a large upholstery hide on EBay for the seats for 99 cents. I've never done auto upholstery but my daughter knew how to sew, so I think I paid her a few bucks to do that. I won the 32 ford taillight ($8) and a luggage rack from an early 80's goldwing too (that was 99 cents too). I found some "dinky" marker/ turn signals on a clearance rack at Cycle World for $6.99. And though they are l.e.d. they look subtle, yet really light the place up when I want to make a turn. I found some bar end turn signals for the front for $19 a car horn for $12. I think I may add a marine dual trumpet 12 volt horn at a later date. But that needs to have a few dings, pits and rust in the crevices...sometimes new stuff takes away from the overall look. Then I stumbled on to a guy who had found a supply of NOS leather Harley mudflaps without the Harley logo. I bought three of those for around $3 a piece.

After making my purchases, I tore the bike down. The frame had
been painted brown (over the factory black) at some point in it's history so I knew I needed to take it back to black. Here is where I faced my first dilemma over how far I was going to go in either sprucing this thing up (cheap, cheap, cheap) or restoring it (engine pulled, sandblast, powdercoat, expense, expense, expense).

A restoration is like an onion. One restored layer leads to the next one...and so on. Fixing a bike up is making it look clean and functional, but stopping short of spending the big bucks. So I found tractor implement semi-gloss black paint in a bomb can, rattle can, (whatever) and shot the frame with that. It seems to be pretty tough, the semi-gloss hides imperfections and it comes with a fan spray nozzle to help you put on the smoothest coat possible. All I had to do was a little masking. And by the way, plastic trash bags are great for covering larger areas (engines, tires, etc.).

Just before I tore it down, I installed larger handlebars, but noticed that my new bar-end blinkers didn't quite fit. So my friend Don who owns an auto shop and restores vintage aircraft used his "Mega-Dremil" to grind out the ends and WE MADE THEM FIT! Making things fit is not a restoration...that's a spruce up. When you add things to the bike that weren't there in the first place, modifications become necessary. A restoration keeps things as they were intended to be. I don't like seeing ads about "restored" bikes that are really custom. Just call it what it is.

At this point in the blog, I haven't broken the news to Don that I plan to use spray cans for my paint job. He is one guy that I respect when it comes to restorations. One of the planes he restored is in a full color coffee table book of vintage war planes. This guy knows what he is doing.

I'm sure he'll understand, but what I am doing to this old beast doesn't hold a candle to the machines he restores...BUT LET'S REMEMBER, we're after cheap fun here! If money keeps you from riding that bike you want then maybe your taste is a little too uppity for your current budget. Start someplace and have fun. You can always spend more money later.

Now it is time to take the paint off the "tins" or in the case of the BMW, "tins and glass". The fenders are stock fiberglass and the tank is metal. Either way I want to remove as much paint as I can. The fenders have almost a gel-coat feel to the paint so taking it off requires sanding. I allowed some of the old paint to act as a primer since it was adhering so well. I did sand the edges down where the original pin striping had been so it didn't come through the final paint job. For paint removal, I used aircraft paint removal (spray can-Walmart) and scraped, sanded, resprayed, etc. etc.

Once I had the paint off and sanded down I made my repairs. I used lightweight Bondo on the tank to cover small dings and dents. On the fenders I first repaired the fiberglass before I used Bondo. Bondo doesn't bond two pieces together, it covers over a multitude of sins...that's all. So if there is welding or fiberglass repair to do, now is the time to tackle it. Then I took a good sandable black primer (I knew that the original color on the sidecar was black and I didn't intend to completely take all of it's paint off, so I wanted my base colors to all be the same...in this case, black) and shot the fenders and tank. I wet sanded everything after that and then repeated that process until I had it smooth.

Now with a solid primered and smoothed tank and fenders, it was time to choose a color for the top coat. I researched this because I was concerned about gasoline spillage on the tank. I'll have to be very careful when filling it with gas, but I still want a paint that will be as tough as possible. Then standing in a parts store one day, it occured to me..."ding" engine paint! It's tough, has some sort of ceramic in it and it is designed to withstand a certain amount of gas. Now all I had to do was decide on a color.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Modifications and Rattle Cans

As the snow began to fly, it was time to tear into the bike. But before I started ripping it apart, I needed to make a list of modifications that I wanted to make and then to determine, most importantly, how I was going to paint this beast.

"You can't paint a motorcycle with a spray can". "The "properly mixed" paint store kind has hardener and gasoline won't melt it". "Spray can paint is too thin and you can't get a smooth shiny finish, because you have to put on so much paint". I heard all the reasons to not do what I was seriously thinking about doing, but I was looking at the difference between $40 and $400 and I wasn't convinced I was wrong. So I did some research.

There are plenty of sites that encourage rattle can paint jobs and several even provide very detailed and helpful instruction. I think I googled "spray can paint jobs". You might want to try that to see what you come up with. I had painted an old truck and a couple of trailers with a traditional auto spray outfit so I knew about painting a double wet coat (that when you make smooth even strokes the length of the object being painted then return overlapping with the next pass so that there isn't a dry dividing line in between strokes). So I just read the instructions on the can and thought to myself, "I think that this could be accomplished".

But before I painted, there was repair and modifications that I want to make. I made a list of the things I wanted to change.
1. I didn't like the tail light assembly (it looked too 70's). It needed something else...ah hah, I'll go to EBay!
2. The back fender bobbed off too quickly...it needed to be longer to give it more of a vintage
look. I could use one from an older Beemer or I could try out my fiberglass skills (did you
know that BMW fenders from 1970 on are fiberglass?).
3. The front fender was broken and needed some fiberglass attention.
4. The solo seat needed to look more vintage...what to do? And after 4000 miles I noticed
that it could stand to be a bit softer.
5. The sidecar needed a luggage rack...mostly for the cool appeal. It also needed some
upholstery and every time I washed it or it rained a strong mildew smell came from the
seat area...had to check that.
6. I wanted handle bars that swept back a bit more...for looks and my back.
7. The pipes sounded good but I never liked how the post 70's Beemer pipes bend upward
just south of the foot pegs...it needed some chromed shark tail tips for the real cool look!
8. I've always wanted to know how to pinstripe with a brush and the proper place to test
one's skills are on a $40 paint job, not a $400 one.

So now that the snow was covering all the roads, I could talk myself out of riding the bike to work. Once I started I knew that this job would take me a few months. So I started with pulling it apart, carefully labeling all the parts, even the ones I didn't think would be put back on the bike. You know, things happen.

Here is the bike just before I started the "customizing". Notice the location of the tail light assembly and the length of the traditional slash 5 rear fender...that is about to change.

I wanted to modify the back fender when it was still on the bike so I could get the "look" I was after, so I built a form to lay my first layer of fiberglass on. I used galvanized sheet metal jammed into place using hard construction type foam to keep it tight against the fender. I then drew the new fender contour I wanted. I then pulled the metal out, cut the pattern out with sheers and then "jammed" it back into place.

At this point, I started to lay the first layer of fiberglass. You'll see that I've added about 4-5 inches to the length. After the first layer of glass was solid, I removed the rear fender with the assistance of my daughter's boyfriend. I lifted the bike while he slid the fender out. He was very helpful. She broke up with him. I'm sad...not about the break up, but the fact that he won't be there to lift the bike up at the point of re-assembly. Frankly I wish my daughter wouldn't date or marry until she's 27...not because I'm a conservative though, just because I don't think the guys who want to date her deserve her. Am I being biased here dads? That's what I thought...of course not!

Here you can see that the fender has received a few layers of glass and is now in the Bondo stage. It is beginning to take shape, giving me that extended length that I was looking for. You might also notice that at the top of the notch where the light assembly used to be has now been "rolled", glassed and smoothed. This will allow me to put any kind of tail light I want to there and place it anywhere on the fender I choose. I just put an EBay bid in on a 32 "Model-A" tail light and I think it would look real cool. This is getting fun...and dusty!

Trailer Queens or Fun Machines?


What do you want a motorcycle for? Do you want a restored "trailer queen" that only takes short cruises down parade routes or do you want a cool old bike that you can really ride? I found this picture of "the three amigos" on the web and thought, "there's the reason I want a sidecar outfit. I want a cool bike, but I want to go places!

When I was in China I was very intrigued by all of the Chang Jiang sidecar outfits. I heard from somewhere that most of these restored PLO (People's Liberation Army) hacks are purchased by ex-patriots (foreigners living in China). Here's a little rig parked outside of a 3-self church in Shang Hai...maybe it was the pastors!

It lacks the "cool" look of the old sidecars, but it definitely was in use as a practical and inexpensive means of transportation. I much prefer the restored army rigs. This (below) is a picture of one of the companies in Beijing that restores and ships these little rigs. Although from what I've heard, it is safer to buy them from the Stateside importers because they have taken care of the paperwork...but that you would have to check for yourself.

"Practical-vintage" is what I like. I like cool bikes that actually go somewhere. I bought the movie "Burro has three wheels" about the guy who heads out from Portland, Oregon in a new Ural sidecar. He winds up making it all the way down to the tip of South America. Now that's ambitious. His rig was a new Ural, but any vehicle would be "tested" on a trip that long. Most of us don't have the time or the money to accomplish such a trip, so my concern was to have a bike that will make a 300 mile loop without breaking down. South America is not in my plan, but Canada might be.

The Chang Jiang, the Dnepers and the Urals are all BMW copies of the bikes they all "borrowed" from the Germans during and after World War II. They've done an excellent job at copying them and have provided us all an opportunity to buy a cool looking bike for a low price that with normal maintenance and tinkering can accomplish some smaller trips. I wanted a distance bike though, that could go over 55 m.p.h. that didn't require constant tinkering. So I chose the real McCoy...a BMW. Generally, they can be had for about the same price, depending on the deal you strike.

I'm not being critical of these other bikes, but I would prefer to make cosmetic repairs than mechanical ones along side the road. And the BMW has proven itself to be a reliable motorcycle with a sufficient amount of cool to go with it. So that is what I bought. I've put about 4-5 thousand miles on the bike and my theory has held so far.

Once I established that I didn't want a trailer queen, but a clean, cool bike that starts conversations as well as starts when the button is pushed, I sat down to consider how I wanted to paint it. There's a lot of metal to cover, so the traditional means of auto painting could cost a little more than I wanted to spend. Do I want to do any modifications to the bike before I paint? Do I want to do some trim colors? Do I want to match the upholstery of the car to the bike and tie them together better? I had to make up a plan.

I drew out a picture of the bike based on a photo. Then I photocopied that sheet so I had several "blank" line drawings. I then proceeded to color different paint schemes with my kid's color pencils (they don't use them any more, but I saved them) to get some ideas. I ransacked classic bike magazines for cool colors and patterns as well trying to stay in the spirit of BMW styling yet wanting to add a little personal character to it as well. This is not restoring the bike, it is "spiffing" it up.

I started thinking about doing something that was very sacrilegious though. I shared my thoughts with a few BMW enthusiasts and they looked at me as if I had just sung the Star Spangled Banner like Rosanne Barr. I had committed motorcycle sin by even suggesting what I had in mind. I thought that a practical bike that doesn't require a heavy investment of cash might look just fine with a few body modifications and a paint job done with spray cans! Well let's just see what happens next.

Who's gonna ride in the sidecar?



After 3 very hot, windy and desert-landscaped days I pulled into my driveway in Nampa, Idaho. I had covered 1600 miles on a bike that I had only begun a relationship with a few days earlier, and now I felt a connection with my machine. As ugly and noisy and smelly as it was, I had accomplished a great feat in getting that thing home. I noticed a couple of things though.

One thing I noticed is that I seem to be attracted to head winds. I think that most of the time I had 20-30 mile an hour head winds pushing against me. With the bulk of the ol' beast and the bulk of my hulk, it was a battle at times to keep it between the lines. I noticed the same thing on a ride to Sturgis with my friend Thom.

We rode into, what seemed to be, a perpetual head wind the whole way, jealously glaring at the other bikers coming from Sturgis. Then when we turned around to head home, and you guessed it, the wind shifted and once again, we headed West into the wind! If you're riding a sidecar outfit and facing a headwind, my recommendation is to get low, drop the car's windshield, tuck your knees in tight to the tank and let er' go...you can't stop the wind.

The other thing I noticed is that a sidecar outfit is great to ride if you, like me, are a gawker. You know what a gawker is don't you? You're walking with your family and all of a sudden they notice you're not with them and you haven't noticed that they left...you're just fascinated by something or someone and you're staring at it. Can you relate? If you look up A-D-D in the Medical Journal, you'll find my pictur...oh look, something shiny!

Sorry, I'm back. I'm a gawker, a people watcher, and a "thing-noticer". I heard one time that Medical Doctors who have A-D-D or A-D-H-D tend to detect more cases of cancer in X-rays than those who don't suffer with this dreaded um...uh...oh yeah, disease. That means that when the "focused" doctors are looking for something specific, the ADD doctor is making designs with the persons veins and is looking all over the place and tends to see things because of their "inattentiveness". Now I don't know what this says about their bed-side manner, but that has nothing to do with motorcycles and how did we start talking about this any way?

Well a three wheeled bike enables you to gawk. You can check out the scenery, make eye-contact with the deer standing on the white line, check your watch, take a nap...whatever. And those cool little grooves they grind into the road on the yellow and white lines remind you that it time to check back in. The stability of the sidecar also allows you to not panic when a rabbit runs out in front of you because you know that you are most likely going to stay upright. I like that as a gawker. In fact, though I miss my cruiser, I would miss my hack even more. So if you're a gawker, buy a sidecar...you'll thank me.

So I arrived home and one of the first things I did was to get Ollie to see if he would ride in the sidecar. He wasn't real impressed with the straight-pipe noise, but being the fat little guy that he is, he was too afraid to jump out once I put him, so he endured it.

Ollie is the Scottie and Daisy is the mix terrier. Once Daisy saw Ollie getting to go for a ride, she hopped right in too. With Ollie's heft though, and the fact that he is the alpha male and naturally deserves to sit in the seat, Daisy was assigned to the floor. So we rode slowly through the neighborhood several times until they figured out what was going on.

Later we ventured into country roads near us where I could watch them carefully and ride rather slowly. Ollie likes the wind, but seems convinced now that when the motor shuts off, he's free to dismount and go exploring. This is not good if he is not attached somehow to the rig. Daisy, on the other hand is to afraid to get out until I say so. Here's why.

She was riding on the floor and leaning her head out right above the step of the sidecar. Little by little she trusted me and the bike more so one leg came out and then another. I realized that her invincible spirit needed a bit of adjustment if we were going to have any long term, highway speed rides so I thought I would help her understand the nature of sidecars and gravity.

At a very slow speed, I made a quick left turn, whereupon she proceeded to leave the car with very little grace and agility. She rolled in the dirt a couple of times (please don't write me any letters...no terriers were seriously hurt in this stunt...it was VERY slow) stood up, shook off, cussed me out in doggy language and then, true to her stubborn nature, refused to get back into the car. When I caught my breath from laughing, I got off the bike, picked her up and put her back in. Now she rides in the seat, spread eagle and keeps her eye on me. I've tried rolling her a few more times since, but now she sticks like glue...she may prove to be the best riding partner yet (besides my wife I mean, who by the way, never falls out even in sharp left turns).

Somehow copying the idea of the John Steinbeck book Travels with Charlie, won't be the same with a dog named Daisy...but she'll do better than Ollie (maybe I could switch their names). I'll ride until fall, but then I'm gonna pull this thing a part to see what makes it tick and while I'm at it, I'll give it a paint job. But what do I want it to look like? Stay tuned.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Angels in Pick up Trucks...

I made it to Colorado! I was thawed out after a cup or two of Joe and an egg McMuffin. I even entered into a pretty fascinating conversation with a fella who rode from L.A. to New York on His Harley. Isn't it interesting how an old bike can just get people to talking. Let me explain.

If you're reading this, and don't really like motorcycles, but you enjoy talking to interesting people, I have an idea for you. Plop down between 3 and 4 thousand bucks and buy a cool old bike (if it doesn't look cool to you, it probably won't to anyone else either...so make sure it's a conversation peice). Then ride it down to the local java joint or diner and see how many conversations it starts. Now please understand, you will not experience the same thing if you're on a high dollar cruiser and you're decked out in leather. I'm 6' 3" and a little overweight (my Doctor would differ on that) and when I put on the biker attire, well as my wife would say, "man, that's a lot of leather!" Well when I would pull up on my chromed out, loud piped cruiser and then haul 250 pounds of black leather off that sucker, women would pull their kids off the street. Men would grunt and nod, but never did any nice person come up and say, "wow that's a cool bike".

Old bikes attract everyone. Kids are my bike's biggest fans. Even young mothers with children will walk up and talk. Old guys that served in Europe come up and try and figure out the year of the bike, and skaters stop to say, "Dude...whoa"! I've had more people ask, "what's it like to ride in that sidecar?" I had one lady tell me that it was on her bucket list (you know- things to do before you kick the bucket) to ride in a motorcycle sidecar. If you enjoy chatting with perfect strangers then don't buy a big cruiser unless all the strangers you want to talk to have a lot of hair and leather (nothing wrong with hair mind you...wish I had more of it!). Just a shameless plug for conversation bikes, sorry for the diversion.

Well back to my bike. It wouldn't start. Interesting thing about conversation bikes, they will also include conversations you actually have with your bike...and those conversations usually are more colorful than the other ones you have with strangers about your bike. I tried everything and it wouldn't work. So I rolled it down to a little Radio Shack/Subway sandwich shop. The two business shared a space but did have a wall between them...they weren't selling electric sandwiches. The reason for stopping there was it was the only building for at least another 100 yards and there was a little piece of shade in front extending out onto the parking lot, and that summer sun was starting to assert its authority.

Here's where it gets interesting. If you remember my first blog I talked about the old farmer that stopped to help when my air cleaner hose busted (you don't see old guys stopping for just any bikers along side the road...he just probably wanted to look at the bike). Well I had two more old guys make comments to me about the bike that I now had strewn out over two parking spaces. Both of these guys taught me a lesson that day.

The first guy wasn't any help. Now if you're religious, this may sound offensive...I don't mean to sound judgemental my self...but let me make an observation. This fella looked like a religious sort. I don't know exactly what that looks like...he just did. He got out of his conservative, non-luxury, minimally equipped Oldsmobile and gave me a good look up and down. I was waiting for a comment about the bike, but all he did was give me a look like he had been weaned on a pickle and asked, "You're keeping your language clean aren't you?"

Well who the...um, who does he think he is? Was he more concerned that I adhere to his own list of behavioral and moral standards than that I was a person just like in him, and in an obvious tight spot? I think so. I didn't quite know what to say except "so far" and then I think I may have muttered under my breath "but if you don't leave it's gonna get ugly". It occurred to me that he probably thought, that he had just done a good deed. By pointing out my own need to be good (on the outside), he was somehow doing God's work. Isn't it the insides that need to get cleaned up before the outsides are affected? Don't know, just throwin' that out there.

Now there's a church near where I live that likes to do the same thing to us folks in tight spots. They use their reader board to remind the rest of us that we're all sinners. My favorite sign of theirs was "liquor is distilled damnation!" Well doesn't that just bless your innards? I pulled right over and gave my heart to Jesus on that one! I wanted to write them and congratulate them for telling me the same thing Jesus told his mother when she asked him to turn water into WINE in the Gospel of John, chapter 2. Imagine that. Or maybe not.

Needless to say, I wasn't much blessed by this old guys "unsolicited religous interjection". But I think he might have felt blessed by his own boldness and willingness to be a witness for righteousness sake. Hope he digested his subway sandwhich well.

Then another old guy came by. Now before I describe him...let me remind you of the scene; A very big, overly muscular (that's what we old guys call fat) fella, sitting in the parking lot of a very small town in Colorado, next to one of the very few buildings in this town with pieces of his very old, foreign made BMW (Japanese bikes aren't really foreign anymore...you will find Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda shops everywhere...but not BMW, or Ducati or Ural etc.) laying all over the place. And this fella has by now, no doubt, a look of angst and perplexity on his now red and sweating face. Would you want to start a conversation with this guy? I wouldn't. And I know him pretty well!

This old fella pulls up in a dodge pickup and yells out the window, "need a hand"? Now there's a question I can imagine Jesus asking instead of that distilled damnation thing. I looked up at him with a smile as my glasses were greasily sliding down to the end of my nose and said, "sure, I'm all out of options". Out in the middle of nowhere this fella gets out of his pickup, saunters over to me and says, "I'm a retired BMW mechanic, I've worked on a few of these old ones".

Yeah right! What in the world is a retired BMW mechanic doing on the outskirts of the Kansas prairie? He starving that's what he's doing! I haven't noticed any BMW combines or tractors, or even cars for that matter. He wasn't just passing through, he said he was from "around here". "Around here" may have been his "Northern hemispheric heavenly assignment"! He stepped out of the truck and I'm not kidding you here, within 25 seconds that beast was running. After I thanked him, and shook his gnarled (farmer-looking) hand I asked him if I could pay him. "Nah- just enjoy the ride", he said. I wiped my dripping face, turned back to start the reassembly process and he was back in the truck heading out of the parking lot. You know, he never asked me if I was keeping my language clean either. And no I didn't get his licence plate number.

Was he an angel? Well I'm not sure, but it seems there was a lesson to be learned that day for me. Am I going to be the type of person who "confronts" someone who's hurting, about their outward behavior without considering their interior condition or am I going to be the kind of person who steps in to help without asking questions...even help someone who looked as bad as I did that day? I think that only an angel could have seen through the grease and sweat and still would have been willing to help me at that point.

I really can't answer the question though, but I've got a hunch. My hunch is that I better do a good job on the restoration of this old bike (we'll be repainting this soon), cause if I can figure out how to get it to the "other side" I think there's a real good BMW mechanic there!

Monday, March 10, 2008

The morning after...

I awoke and wondered what in the world I was thinking. I wasn't sure this bike ran well enough to get out of the county let alone take off 1600 miles across country. Was this buyer's remorse or was it the subconscious finally getting it's way, screaming, "I told you so dummy"! I determined that I would need to paint over the interesting camo paint job before I left town...call me vain, but I remind you, I did not buy the bike for it's paint job.

I packed up the sidecar and tried to start it. After a while of learning the idiosyncrasies of this little beast, it coughed and sputtered its way to life. I headed for a Wal Mart and purchased some tan camo paint and some masking tape. I went around behind an old auto parts store and painted over the camo before I headed out. I then filled up the 5 gallon tank (and a 2 gal. plastic tank I purchased just in case), screwed up my courage and headed west. It must have taken at least 150 miles before I had a feeling of being in some semblance of control, but the beast was still runni....er...sput..cough...spit...spew...silence............... I was out of gas already. I looked around in every direction for signs of civilization and all I could see was sunflowers...really that's all. It was pretty out there, but also pretty desolate.

Fortunately, I had the extra tank, but I was surprised at how fast I had run dry. There was a head wind whipping me around and causing the little bike to suck down the gas. After figuring out that I needed to drop the windshield on the car, I had an easier time of it. I also had the custom made (expandable dryer hose) air filter system fall apart on me. After rebuilding that alongside the road, I was off toward Salinas, Kansas. This was the first time I noticed that when you leave the "retro cruiser-world" and take off the leathers and jump on an old sidecar outfit, any and everybody will stop to talk or see if they can help. I waved a friendly old farmer along though who wanted to help, and I was on my way.

I rode hard through Kansas, discovering ways of minimizing my bulk so I could keep from being pushed around. It was about 90 degrees outside and the Midwestern sun was beating down pretty hard, delivering a double punch of wind and heat. I was getting tired so I pulled off at a rest stop on highway 70 just shy of the Colorado line. I pitched my tent, blew up my mattress and laid everything out for a much needed rest. When you've ridden a sidecar outfit 500 miles in one day, you've accomplished something. But I was also getting used to how the thing rode.

As I was setting up camp at the back of the rest stop I was hearing this weird popping sound coming out of the corn crop just beyond the barbed wire boundary fence. I climbed the fence and went into the field a bit to investigate. I've not been around corn fields that close before, I guess. I had never noticed that they just pop for no apparent reason. Weird. Don't know what was popping but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't some freaky-like "children of the corn" that would come out and mess with my motorcycle when I was sleeping. Good news though, corn fields just pop...who knew (and I never saw any children either).

Ever been to the Midwest? Did you know that they have live radio weather broadcasts on outside loudspeakers at rest stops? I heard something about a storm moving up from the southwest and I had seen a flash of light on an ever darkening and distant horizon, but it seemed so far away. So I laid down for a much deserved rest to the sound of a weather alert and a popping corn field. I closed my eyes, told the corn children to back off, said a thank you and good night to the Lord above and then didn't open them again until I noticed the tent was on my face.

The wind was whipping so hard that the tent was bent down over my body. My weight alone was keeping the tent from blowing away with Auntie M and Toto and everyone. Then the hail started. Then I noticed that items I had left on the floor of the tent were now floating. I was in a Midwest summer sum-kinda storm and it sounded like a freight train outside. Then I remembered all those folks who lose mobile homes that show up on the T.V. news saying something about the sound of a freight train and I thought that I better head for the cinder block men's room.

Under the lights of the parking lot I watched the rain drain from the sky, dropping in sheets at an angle that got me wet even though I was well under a shelter. I had nothing else to do but watch and listen and wonder if my bike would run the next morning. After a few hours the storm passed, and I got back to my tent (that I had strapped down before I left it in the middle of the storm) and laid back down. I slept till some dang rooster (probably the corn children's pet) woke me up. I started the bike right up, packed my soggy belongings and headed for the Colorado line. I shivered and chattered my way 60 miles west until I crossed the state line and found a little town with gas and food. I needed some coffee, some gas and real good thaw. I figured that I would need about 45 minutes to get that done and then I'd head for Denver. But after breakfast, the bike decided it had gone far enough.

The Hunt


"Thar she blows!" said the ol' man of the sea (Hemingway butchered and paraphrased) not knowing that underneath the surface of that the puff of steam and glimpse of blubber swam a giant of a problem. The hunt is intoxicating and pulling the trigger is so exciting, isn't it? The delirious dream of conquering the prey overcomes most of the attempts of our sub conscious to shake us into reason and logic. Oh who needs reason any way.

I was now on the hunt. I told my wife that I was trading backwards and the good news was that the bike I would buy would be cheaper than the one I sold. I think I threw in a little bait too by adding to my sales pitch that the difference in price would about cover that bedroom set she had been coveting...er, I mean wanting. After 25 years of marriage, she's on to me now and can't be manipulated that easily. But how could she argue with that pitch? So we budgeted for what I would need to purchase and pick up my new (yet to be discovered) bike and with the VTX sold and money burning a hole in my pocket, I headed for EBay.

I wanted a sidecar outfit. Please don't ask me why...I don't know why...they're just cool. I dreamed of rides with the dog. I read that great little book by John Steinbeck called Travels with Charlie, where John set out in his camper with his poodle, Charlie, to discover the "heart" of America (Great little read to take on a motorcycle trip by the way). He named his camper "Rocianante" after the faithful steed of Don Quixote (Man from La Mancha).

If you're familiar with the story, Quixote's steed was an old gray mare that he imagined to be much greater than she was. I thought, "I'll name my bike "Rocianante" and together with Ollie (my version of Charlie and who you'll see pictures of later) we'll travel the country in pursuit of um...uh...well, something. Maybe like I'll make a quest of finding the ultimate Western onion ring or something sort of like that. Didn't Robert Fulgham set out in pursuit of the ultimate chicken fried steak once? Come to think of it, I think he even found it in Payette, Idaho of all places (think that was in his book "Uh Oh").

With a dream in mind I searched for days until I happened upon a little rig in the southeast corner of Kansas. I wasn't attracted by the looks of the bike, but rather the description and the seller's rating of its owner. He had done much of the work himself mechanically and had ridden it over 5,000 miles since a total rebuild, so after many conversations I decided to bid for it. I won! Um, I hope I did the right thing. I knew I could paint it, but it had to be strong mechanically to make the 1600 mile trip back home. Yes you heard that right...1600 miles, one way. Man I love adventure.

I flew down to Joplin, Missouri, met the owner at midnight, made the transaction and headed for the nearest town on a bike I had never ridden before. Now...have you ever ridden a sidecar outfit? It's a whole different animal. The front forks wobble at 25 mph, you can't lean in a turn and when I rode it away out into the dark countryside of Kansas at one o'clock in the morning, the headlight was stuck pointing down so that I could only see about fifteen feet in front of me.

Pitch black, handlebars trying to wrestle themselves from my grip and the road in front of me lit just enough to identify the frightened possum right before he squished underneath my wobbly front tire...I was scared spitless (no possums were hurt in this story)! I think it was the Franciscan monks who used to tie candles to their shoes to walk at night as a reminder that the Lord was a light unto their path not a torch into the future. Well, I would have made a great motorcycle monk that night!

I couldn't speed up because of the headlight issue so now two or three farm dogs were running along side of me, snarling and nipping at my heels. I couldn't see them, but I heard them and I tried to give it gas but I didn't know which way the road would turn...so I wobbled along for a few miles hiking up my left leg to stay away from teeth, listening for dogs, and cars and critters and desperately searching for some sort of light. Finally I saw the lights of Pittsburg, Kansas and though I couldn't see the road very well, I followed the light and the painted line on the road just ahead of me. I reached town, found a hotel, parked the rig, woke up the owners and fell into bed.

I was exhausted by the hunt and the kill. But as every hunter knows, the kill is just the beginning of the work...but that I'll worry about tomorrow morning. Good night. Whew!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

On the road of adventure


The Beast on the road to Stanley, Idaho. Here is the bike that in one summer I logged at least 4,000 miles on. It's a "heinz-57" beemer (meaning the frame, engine, tank etc. come from various donors). The sidecar is an old Chang Jiang. I don't think it is PLO issue (Peoples Liberation Army) I've been throughout China and have seen quite a few of these that may have been converted military cars, but it's hard telling what I have exactly. I think it may be newer because of the black paint I found over red oxide primer and metal, but either way, it is old. It has a 900 cc engine with mikuni (o?) carbs and loaded down for camping can go 75 mph down the highway.
I started motorcycling several years ago when I saw an ad in a paper, had a thousand bucks in my pocket, a hankering for adventure and a friend named Bill who could get anything running. He went with me to look at the old Triumph daytona (500cc) and he determined we could get it running, and I determined that I would look really cool riding it. He fixed it, I fixed up the cosmetics and I rode that smelly, noisy little yellow bomb around until it just got too tired. I took it in for a professional "assessment" from a Brit specialist near my home and never brought it back. I got the "bad-news/ good-news" report from the mechanic. Bad news- "this is gonna cost you", but the good news is one of the other customers will give you $1500 for it as it stands. I couldn't afford to not sell it. I never saw it again.
The road trips I had dreamed of (you know the Bronson type trips with the sleeping bag tied to the forks...I know Bronson didn't ride a triumph-I think it was an old sportster) never happened. New bikes were cool, but the romantic side of me thought the trip was much cooler on the old bike. So I started researching and determined that the old boxers (BMW) were a way to get the cool old look with actual dependability. I could venture further that 5 miles from a tool box for the first time and though it didn't look as cool as the Triumph, I could accomplish the dream.
So I located a nice 71' R 75/5 on EBAY and I pressed the buy it now button. I went to San Francisco to trailer it home ( I was visiting family anyway in Paso Robles...what's a little detour when a vintage bike is at stake?) and I began a relationship with BMW. I loved that little bike. It was dependable, fast, stable, economical and I could pack it like a mule and ride long distances. And I did. The Northwest mountains provide some of the most beautiful and picturesque riding available in America. I've ridden most of the Western States and I'm sure there are many places yet to see...but I love riding up here. I rode that little beemer all over the place, but started thinking that even though vintage was cool...maybe I was missing out.
I saw all of the amazing new cruisers on the market and I determined that what I really needed was a new road bike. I chose a new Honda VTX 1300 and the guys down at Canyon Honda in Nampa, Idaho gave me a killer deal...so I bought it. The bike, the service and experience were great, but I don't own that one anymore...I got bored.
I had the bike all decked out for riding and put about 6,000 miles on it over the year. On a trip to Walowa Lake, Oregon I realized that I missed the vibration, the smell and sounds of vintage tin. I think my wife thought I was crazy, but when I got home, I told her I was trading...not up, but backwards!
I was going back to vintage bikes. They're cheaper, noisier, smellier, less dependable and don't require a technician to fix. So the adventure of shopping for the new bike began. I don't care what you guys say about hating shopping...put four thousand bucks in your pocket and a nation full of EBay bike ads...and you will shop! In fact have you ever noticed that when you finally plunk down the cash...some of the fun is gone? It's like getting your deer or bull elk and then realizing no one is going to help you pack it off the side of the mountain. The "hunt" for the bike in my life had begun and I was leaning heavy toward another old beemer. Stay tuned now for how the hunt ends. Thanks for reading.