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AggieDave

"Ride American"

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If you're head is planted too far up your butt and you can't understand that riding is what its all about and you don't appreciate that, then maybe its time you sell your bike. Hell, if you don't have the education to know where your bike was manufactured and don't understand that, then my point is proven. That especially goes to those of you riding a HD V-rod and still have that attitude.



I understand it is a rant - and you have your own passion...and that yuppies are the most annoying individuals in the world.......but, not all HD riders are yuppies and maybe they may get something out of it that you don't understand. There can also be casual riders that can't hit the road for a long haul due to other obligations in life. In fact, I would say most HD riders are guys that wanted one their entire life and couldn't afford a top end one until they hit a certain age. Hell, I can afford a bike right now but what I can't afford is to build a place to secure it at night in my back yard since I live in the city (and winter storage) OR the time to ride one (I barely have time for laundry these days).

Personally, I see the sport bike riders as more of the type looking for an image and trying to fit in with the crowd more than the HD guys. Those guys pretending to be an extra from biker boyz annoy the shit out of me.

As far as 'ride american' I could care less. I'll buy and ride whatever I like/want....and not give two shits what anyone else thinks.
_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

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Here you go.

It's a 1945 FL Knucklehead, one of only 681 made in the last year of the war. They has the most restrictions on any HD. No chrome, only gray paint, not even silver paint for the lifter blocks. As a civilian. you had to get special permission to buy one. It took me three years to restore it back to factory original, and it runs as good as any bike built today.



NOW that is a thing of beauty.
_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

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My 'mentor' was a guy back home that did engine work on top Indy cars...he helped / made me build a Triumph Trident from the ground up. I knew every inch of that bike inside out.



Including that shitty ex-Mini Cooper clutch that would leave you stranded the first time that you did a racing start against a bike with a wet clutch ? ;)

I used to live half a block from Norman Hyde, the man who designed the Trident for Triumph. He had some cool stuff going on in his garage on the side of his house. He built himself a four cylinder variant of the Trident that he called the quadrant. It was a 1000cc motor that he stuck in a frame frame to go pootling round the village we both lived in at the time. Cool guy.

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HOLY SHIT!! That 72 350 hit me like a huge freaking rock. In 72 we lived in Lemoore Ca., I was 11 going on 12. My dad was an AEC at the Naval Air Station. We lived off base out in the country. I had an Hodaka Super Rat 100. My brother, a Yamaha 125 enduro. There was a navy test pilot who lived down the road from us who had the exact same bike 100% to the color. He use to let us ride it when he was at home. He spent a lot of time down at China Lake. The guy's name was Steve and everybody thought he was the coolest guy ever. The guy was our idol. Hot wife, test pilot, 'vette, he had a harley and bought that 350 so he could ride with all of us who had dirt bikes. They had no kids. I think he was around 25yo. He always left after dark on sunday night to head back to China Lake and the test aircraft . Normally back by the following friday night. One week Steve did not show up on friday night as we would wait for him to come roaring down that road either on the dresser or his 'vette. Both equally loud. The roar did not arrive that night nor the next. By sunday it was learned that Steve went in with his aircraft. His wife cleared out the place and was never seen again. I guess she went back to where ever they came from. I have not thought of that weekend for such a long time. That picture brought back some of the funniest times of my life. Not only did I get to ride a 350 at the age of 11 but one of my best friends was a TOP GUN. Thanks for posting that pic.
"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

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Hmmm Gareth's bike is sick indeed... To the waving at other motorcyclist thingy... I try to wave to as many motorcycles/scooters as possible regardless of make and sometimes even cars or even little kids that stare at my bike that love the sound of the vroom vroooom vroooooom as they cross the ped walk in front of me. Sometimes I can't waive though because I am afraid to take a hand off the handle bar in a turn or adjusting my crotch or picking my nose or hand signaling to my riding buddy to stop at the next roadside biker bar;) A lot of other people wave at me, bimmer riders, little kids in ped walks, harley doods, crotch rocket riders, etc... I don't take in personal if someone does not wave and I do or we both don't or one does and not the other cause I figure sometimes other epople might be wanting to keep their hands on the bars or adjust thier crotch or pich their nose or signal to their riding buddy to stop at the next roadside biker bar;)....

Maybe people don't wave not out of friendliness but because they just do not?

Vrooom vroom!!!!!!!B| My FXDXI is the poop! if I had a choice though I would have one of everything!

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I dont just ride on weekends eithier. i rode for 225 miles on Thanksgiving and rode to work last night and froze my ass off on the way home this morning.



I stopped in a diner on the way home last week, peeled off my 7 layer of clothes, and got some soup. The guy next to me at the counter said, "Nice bike, getting ready to put it away for the winter soon?"

I said, "Put it where? That's my only vehicle."

Some people just don't get it.

Granted, I walk to work, so don't use it as a daily commuter. But if I go anywhere beyond walking distance, it's on my bike. That especially means Thanksgiving and Christmas when I have to go 60 miles each way to visit family.

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Small Block Chevy....
I think they made a big block version too...
B|



Nope...both are 502 big blocks with the nitrous kit for those days when 500+ HP is just not enough...

We did have one small-block 350 but Phil upgraded to the 502 recently.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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probably way to much ;) and dont drop her or it ill take 3 of u get he back on her feet! :D


edit: here are some ebay listings ;)

http://search.ebay.com/boss-hoss_eBay-Motors_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR8QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ3QQsacatZ6000





***

Not as 'bad' as I thought it was!

I mean if ya got a spare 40 grand burnin' a hole in yer pocket....why not!

Like 'Pops' said...for those times when 500 hp just isn't enought!B|










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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As a followup, maybe a few of you dig the pics, here are two of the slides from my dad's trip in south america, circa 1967/68.

Without him telling me, I don't know where the pics are, but I get a big kick out of them. My parents are currently restoring a few hundred slides like this.
There are more amazing shots than these. They slept ontop of the Temple of the Jaguar in the ruins of Tikal. Cool true story:They were making coffee in the morning around the campfire. This group of tourists comes through the jungle, had landed in a chopper. The tour guide is pissed off that two bikers are camping on the ruins. This American woman comes up to my dad and asks for a picture. She says, "Here I am at ruins in the middle of the jungle, this place that everyone tells me is impossible to get to without a chopper, and what do I find? Two other Americans on motorcycles!"

Anyway, I keep bugging my dad to write a book about his trip, as it predated even Easy Rider by a few years and these days there are enough riders that would love to read a book like that about a trip that probably could not be taken anymore.



On the topic of the rant, I almost went ballistic last night: I was flipping channels and saw some bikes on the Travel channel. Stopped to look, they were talking about the ride to sturgis...and who were they interviewing? Paul Mitchell.....like freaking hair style mogul Paul Mitchell. And he is all talking about feeling the freedom of riding. All the while he looks like a Hollywood makeup trailer version of a really chic 'biker' I am thinking you have to be sh#tting me.

So you know, I think I hit my limit. Everyone's reason for riding is cool with me. But a big middle finger salute to whoever thought that cashing in on the trend and promoting it on the travel channel with Pual Mitchell was good idea.....cause it is a F-ing horrible idea. Who knows maybe he finds peace on the road.....but come on....are they marketing retarded? Do the yuppies even believe this kind of crap? That is like having a 19 year old vegetarian talk about the freedom of eating beef. Arrrggghh, I flipped the channel before I got anymore pissed.

enjoy the pics
--
All the flaming and trolls of wreck dot with a pretty GUI.

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First....GREAT PICS!

I bet your dad's trip was a fantastic adventure!
You have to have 'bike blood' in you and all the heritage that goes along with it!
TOO COOL!



2nd~

That wasn't Paul Mitchel, it was John Paul DeJoria,
his partenr... and the real spark plug for the corporation.

I've met him several times and it's not exclusively a marketing ploy, he rides...A LOT!

The first time we met, he was sponsoring my now wife in an around the world Air Race...We rode up for a meeting on my bike, and all he wanted to DO was talk bikes.
I've seen him riding with Leno a few times on the Love Ride, and ever ran into him once at the "Hogs Breath" bar...and you don't go in there promoting hair care products!

If you're ever tooling around Malibu...the guy next to ya at the stoplight that looks like a Bee Gee's reject, might very well be Bazillionaire John Paul.

Give him a wave..he has Cred!;)






John-Paul [url "http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.partsmag.com/0409/Event-Report-Sturgis-0409/peter-fonda-p4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.partsmag.com/0409/Event-Report-Sturgis-0409/Sturgis-2004-0409.html&h=139&w=211&sz=10&tbnid=RCTogWKk6dYJ:&tbnh=66&tbnw=101&hl=en&start=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJohn%2BPaul%2BDeJoria%2B%26start%3D60%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2005-11,RNWE:en%26sa%3DN"/url] at Sturgis










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Yeah, I have some motorcycle blood in me. We still have that bike too :) Someday I will restore it.

On the Paul Mitchell thing...hmmm, I guess I will reserve judgement. In certain walks of life you are expected to look a certain way to represent your company and I guessyou can do other things while looking that way. But I would really wonder if their view of riding was the same... To each his own, I am just dubious.

Of course then again, I think Jesse James is a jackass punk too. Particularly as he was lecturing on the way to Sturgis "if you cannot carry it in a pocket you don't need it" as a montrous caravan of trucks follows him down the road, TV cameras rolling.

Anywho, point remains, I ride with people not bikes. So if I don't wanna ride with you, it is because of you, not the brand of anything you own ;)
--
All the flaming and trolls of wreck dot with a pretty GUI.

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Someday I will restore it.

***

Do it!

I LOVE those old bikes!B|


Fix it up.....
I'll get my BSA together...with a couple of old
T-10's & B-4 containers....we can ride up to
some DZ like we just rolled out of the
Time Tunnel!;)










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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