Well went through my "mail" this morning, had a newsletter from Apache MC in Phx, some stuff from a German friend that rides hard core adventurers in Africa mostly, and similar inbox stuff. Email to me is like getting a letter with a little square brownie photo inside. How much I anticipated that back in the sixties and seventies. Opening the envelope with a steak knife, reading the hand written note, taking the photograph out of its cardboard wrap, turning it over for the description on the back.
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| Stock photo of Triumph Bonneville |
My Apache newsletter (I'm subscribed to several from around the world) had a great little blurb on the new/old Triumph Bonnevilles. I really like that Bonneville line. The basic bike is pretty cool, but also can be dressed different ways. Kind of how we did it in the old days. You bought a bike and modified it to suit the use.
Another neat retro/modern bike is the India Enfield line. They are really modern incarnations of the classic British single, very true to what came off the assembly line in 1955.
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| XT 350 in dry Arizona |
That yellow YMUS Bolt we saw in Moncton was really neat, and the new FZo9 would look good in my garage too, next to a shiny V7 Guzzi.
At under 10K these new bikes are very appealing, its a critical price point and you get a lot of machine for your buck.
Much as I'd like to have several of these, of course I'm neither rich nor famous, and I got to thinking... I have some really neat bikes in my garage now.
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| VX 800 Gentleman's Express |
The VX 800 I bought last year was very cool in its day and still is. Its a VTwin, has L/C, a shaft drive, is pretty skinny, can be used for several applications and still looks great. With the help of some friends, I turned it into a classic "Gentleman's Express" sport tourer.
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| XT 600 Doing what it does best! |
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| 955 RSi |
I am pretty excited about that 955 RS. Again its a triple (did I mention I love those triples) and its rare and unique like my T Bird. Every time I ride the T Bird I just smile, it handles well, looks great and in its own right is rare and different.
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| Serow on the trail... |
Even that lowly DT 50L/C that I have owned since my Freedom Cycle days, is still sitting in the trailer right now. Yes, I know... its a 'fifty' and its a two stroke, but I have had some amazing rides on the little nifty 'fifty' and it has a very special place in my heart and memory.
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| Who says you can't ride a fifty in Baja CA. |
We are jaded, don't you think. Every year there are great motorcycles introduced. Some entirely new, some upgrades of an already famous model.
It's a global marketplace, we get all those fabulous bikes from Japan, Germany, GB, Italy, even Korea and now China (the new Japan?) Hundreds of bikes every year to drool over and hunger for. I used to kid that if I were rich I'd buy a Dash 8, re-do the interior to carry a dozen friends in luxury and bikes for everyone. We'd fly from one place to the other to ride!
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| Back roads of Alberta |
Of course I'm not, but still... I've got it pretty good (or bad depending on your pov!)
I guess the bottom line is I love my bikes and bikes in general. For what a Bolt, a Scrambler and an Enfield would cost to buy, (or one big Harley) I can have half a dozen fab used bikes that do different things and most of all, give me different emotions.
That's really what riding is all about, no matter what you have, what you lust after, or what you favor. It's the emotion that comes with it. You can be having a bad week, maybe your girlfriend just dumped you (not always bad) your car broke down, you just found out you have 6 months to live... maybe you got fired from your J O B or maybe you simply woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
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| T Bird overlooking French River |
That is the magic.
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