Another Summer In Review
BLEANINGS~
Another summer in review
Peter Egan
MOST OF US HAVE PROBABLY SEEN those inspirational gift-shop tracts (usually affixed to a piece of varnished knotty pine and hung on a wall) in which the anonymous writer tells us what he or she would do if given this life to live over again: “I would laugh more, make more friends, be kinder, learn to dance, take more chances, sing out loud, chew tobacco, learn Swahili...” that sort of thing.
Well, that’s always how I feel at the end of summer, when the first Canadian winds and purple-blue clouds come ,/ rolling down from the north, remind> ing me that my riding days, for this year at least, are numbered.
I always look back at the summer and wonder why I didn’t ride more, take better advantage of those perfect summer days, block out time on the calendar for weekend trips, or just think ahead and call my riding pals before 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning (“Gee, Pete, I’d love to go for a ride, but 1 promised I’d disinfect the back of the Caravan where our dog threw up and take the kids to a 9hour soccer game...”).
Anyway, with the frost now securely gripping the pumpkin, it’s too late for regrets, but it may be a good time for what W. Somerset Maugham called the Summing Up.
'Tis the season to sit in the garage, peering through coffee steam at your bike-or bikes, if you are so disposedthinking about what you did and didn’t do and what you may do in the future. The motorcycles, and their odometers, tell the story. Here’s how my own summer shaped up, mileage-wise:
For some reason, I didn't ride my Norton 850 Commando nearly as much as in past years, just over 800 miles in total. Maybe it was because each time I rode the bike for any distance, exactly two things went wrong, which is also the reason 1 didn’t get to the British Biker Rally this summer.
On my last ride, for instance, the brakelight switch broke off and the speedometer suddenly quit working, stuck in time (or space) at 18,000.8 miles. Looks like the rear-wheel speedo drive gear has packed up again. Or maybe it’s another case of Smith’s Revenge. Could be the drive cable. All three components work in unison to give each other bad reputations, so you never know which to blame. Ah, but the sound of that verticalTwin, and its midrange torque. Smooth on the highway, lovely to the ear, good to look at in the garage. There were about three good rides this summer, but they were short ones.
Perhaps it’s time for an all-out, neweverything rebuild, to restore faith and dependability. It is a fine thing to leave on a Norton; a finer thing still to arrive. Next summer. I'll try to do more arriving.
My BMW R100RS reflects another failure of personal planning. The Beemer, despite its comfort and sporttouring capabilities, never had a chance to open up and strike crosscountry this summer. Barb and I took our Big Tour this year in the Alps on a rented R100GS, while the poor RS sat home, draining its battery with the slow tick-tick of its electric clockwhich quit ticking in July, hands frozen at exactly 8:17.
1 did put about 1 100 miles on the bike, just batting around the countryside and running into town. No fault of the bike’s; after four summers of use, this high-mileage wonder (now 87,000 miles) is still the best allaround motorcycle I have ever owned. It goes fast, carries stuff, tours well, handles fine and keeps the weather off. Every ride ends with a quiet glow of respect for the old Beemer, and a sense that it was built to be real, longlasting transportation for actual adults. Next year, I hope to do some longdistance touring on the RS, with tent.
The Honda CB550-K is what everybody needs one of: A user-friendly bike that may properly be ridden in an open-face helmet, work boots and a denim jacket. Sportsters and Triumph 500s have this quality, and so does the old Honda Four. Casual fun, no girding yourself for battle or anointing of the forehead before each ride.
Another mere 1000-plus miles here, none very fast or far, but all of them comfortable, heads-up, taking in the sky and scenery. And not a single mechanical or electrical problem. Mr. Honda, rest his soul, may be proud of this little beauty. It lit up the errandrunning part of my summer, revived the concept of the random, spur-ofthe-moment ride.
I’ve already written quite a bit about my ZX-1 1, the newest of the brood. If there is a mood for every motorcycle, this is the one 1 rode when 1 wanted to feel like a cat on 2000 volts. Hair standing straight up, wired.
Besides being an espresso machine for the nervous system, it also handled the civilized in-town mode pretty well, so 1 put 3000 trouble-free miles on the ZX this summer.P
I iess my best rides of the year vcre on this bike-those few special tice-roamiiiij days where small tO\Vils. I~irms. hills and winding asphalt di sappear in your rearview mirror from dawn to long-shadow time and home. I IiIaiiaec(l a memorable few of these. but not ncarl\ enough. F\er\ summer has its main hike, its defining spirit. and this was it for 1994.
:\nd now I need a new rear tire. It~ eone. like the season and the scenery. in the rearview mirror.
ext year I'd like to do better. At the end of the ea~on I'd like to look back on at least one hi~ tour. (Greece? \1ex ico? I sic of NI an? ) But more than that. I'd like to plan ahead. et my work done and take many more short rides, so those sunlit weekends don't keep slipping through my fingers.
The clock may be stopped on my BMW and the odometer frozen on the Norton, but I have the terrible feeling that, somewhere in the universe, gears are still turning and the hands are still ticking away. In an ideal summer, correctly lived, every motorcycle should age more than its owner. E3
