Inception

I guess the best place to start... is at the beginning.

I've always thought motorcycles were cool.  If there's one thing I've learned as a biker, it's that little kids love motorcycles.  That, and my dad - easily my biggest hero - has always been a Harley enthusiast... In 2006, he was finally able to get his first HD - a Heritage Softail Classic... And it didn't take long before I caught the bug too.

There's a whole lot of scheming and plotting and disappointment in there... but in 2009, I got my first bike. I traded a bass amp and cab for a 1972 Kawasaki S2 (and also here), 350cc triple cylinder.  That didn't run.  And had sat in the same spot in a family friend's garage for over 20 years.  I messed with it a little - cleaned the carbs, new battery, changed the plugs... Never was able to get it running.  But I knew there was really a market for those old triples.  I found a local guy who traded me a '77 Kawasaki KZ1000 for it plus 200 bucks.  The KZ ran, but definitely needed a little TLC.  I figured I was going to have to do some work on either one, might as well be one with a bigger engine that actually ran.  I only had it for a few days because... My boss at the time had a Kawasaki '76 KZ650 that was street ready - he rode it to work from time to time.  He fancied himself a handyman so he offered to trade me his 650 that was good to go for my 1000.  I thought that sounded like a good deal, so we had a "bring your bikes to work" day and made the trade.  What I really (thought at the time that I) wanted was an old Honda Goldwing GL1100.  I know, I know... Goldwings are old man bikes.  But before 1984, you could take the fairing and all the stuff off, and they actually looked pretty tough... Kind of like an older Honda Valkyrie... because essentially, that's what a Valkyrie is - a Goldwing without all the hardware.

Anyway, I found a guy on craigslist who was interested in trading an '82 GL1100 for my newly acquired '76 KZ650.  I threw the bike in the back of my dad's truck and drove out to meet him... The Goldwing was in pretty rough shape - the plastic was all busted up and stuff... But it ran and all of the important stuff looked ok - I was planning on taking most of the plastic off, anyway, so I didn't mind.  Did the trade, and took the Goldwing home.

On the way home, some lady in a Lexus slammed on her brakes for no apparent reason in front of me, which forced me to do the same... which caused the bike in the bed of the truck to do a bit of a nose dive, and that popped the fork seals.  When I got home, there was fork oil all over the bed... Just had to add it to the list...

I stripped the Goldwing down and tried to do some basic maintenance on it... And some stuff to make it look cooler, because... really, that does matter!  The further into it I got, the more I found to be wrong with it.  I did fashion up a pretty badass cylinder pressure gauge adapter, if I do say so myself!

Ultimately, I never really was able to make anything useful out of it... For a lot of reasons, not the least of which was leaving for Basic Training.  After sitting in my parents' garage for over a year, I got the Goldwing put on craiglist and was able to sell it "as is" - I think we got $250 out of it?  Which, at the end of the day, was about what I had in it so... I was happy.  The guy texted me a few days after he took it home to tell me he'd got it running smooth, so that was pretty awesome.  I asked him to text me pictures when he got it done.  I'll be surprised if he does, but I'm glad it didn't just get scrapped.


I should pause here to make two points... First, all of those trades?  S2 -> KZ1000 -> KZ650 -> GL1100... all happened in about a week!  Movin' and hustlin'.  Second, I think it's only fair to say that I had a lot of help in tearing into those bikes and getting them cleaned up... My good friend Stephanie spent a lot of hours in the garage with me (workin' hard or hardly workin') from the first bike on.


So this brings us up through the end of 2010.

In January 2011, I got my enlistment bonus from the Army.  Which I promptly spent.  I'd had eyes on craigslist in anticipation, looking for a Honda VTX1300 or a similar metric cruiser.  I would have loved (and still would love!) to have a Harley-Davidson, but that just wasn't a realistic option at the time.

I happened on a 2000 Honda Shadow American Classic Edition Tourer (VT1100T) with less than 5800 miles on it, up in Delaware... Talked to the guy a few times and decided to go have a look at it.  My buddy Travis drove me up there on a dark, rainy evening in February and we met with the dude in an Arby's parking lot... Had a look, took it for a spin, and decided to take it home.  The guy had the original owner's manual, all the packaging from the stereo system he'd put on it... even the original advertisement from the dealer (even though he was the second owner.)  He had me sign a bill of sale and everything - which felt very official, but kind of silly sitting in a booth in Arby's.  The only thing that was a little sketchy (read: hilarious and awesome) was the license plate - it was way too late to go to the BMV and get a temporary tag.  And he didn't want to send me home with his legit plates... So he snagged some scrap sheet metal and clear plastic from his job, and made a high quality color photocopy of his license plate... drilled holes in the plastic and metal, and stuck the copy between them.  Bolted it all on, and you'd never have any idea.  I totally forgot about it until I got close enough to touch it.  It definitely served its purpose...  I even rode it a few times when I got it home with the photocopy tag!

Travis was nice enough to take a picture of me on my new toy before we headed home haha

The drive up had taken about an hour and a half but was all highways.  I didn't really want to take that way back south, so we set the "Avoid Highways" options on Travis's GPS in his car, and I just followed him home.  Which was an adventure in itself.

We drove through some of the most hood areas of Baltimore at the time of night when you don't really want to be there... I was just happy that most of the totally reputable and savory individuals out on the street seemed more interested in his Lancer than my bike heh... I also almost hit a cat.  Otherwise, it was a really pleasant drive through hills and back roads.  I would like to get up that way another time during the day.  I mean, not so much the hood, but some of the back roads and the twisties up in Delaware.  But that's something for another post!

After getting my first motorcycle home, I did a little more research on that particular model... Turns out the ACE Tourer is a model that's pretty hard to come by - in all, only around 6000 were made.  It's equally difficult to track down fitment for parts.  Honda made so many different model Shadows around the same time period that it's nearly impossible to know if a part will fit - even if a website claims it will - until you try it.  And then, in the process of replacing the battery, I came to find out mine was actually manufactured in 1999 as a 2000 model year... So, while it is a 2000, all the fitment is to 1999 specs.  It certainly makes things fun...

Anyway, so there you have it - how I came from a bass amp and cabinet to a nearly 40 year old bike to what I ride today.  If you're interested, here's a little photo gallery of the bike from the first couple weeks of me having it... Obviously, as this blog goes on, you'll see pictures of it and any changes I make, accessories I put on, etc.  I've already swapped the seat and have new bars waiting to go on but, again... those are subjects for later entries!

Thanks for reading!  Ride on!