May 5, 2012 — I don’t really pay much notice to Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, Columbus Day or other major drinking holidays, but this year I got to have a Cinco de Mayo adventure that thankfully didn’t have anything to do with being left for dead in Mexico.
I’ve been hinting at it and talking around it for months, but now that my Honda CB750 project bike has sold, it’s time for a new machine. That new machine, funny enough, will be a scooter. Scooters were what first got me into riding, and with the exception of last season, I’ve always had a - Read More -
Over the weekend, I finally sold my 1981 Honda CB750 Custom. It took just shy of 21 days. That’s by far the longest I’ve ever taken to sell a motorcycle or scooter. Then again, Chicago is a very different market than Minneapolis/St. Paul. I think the appreciation for older Japanese bikes just isn’t here the - Read More -
At this point, my home shop is about 50% set up, but it’s still allowing me to get a lot done. It’s become an inspiring, energizing place where problems get solved and motorcycles get fixed. After successfully buttoning up the CB750, I’ve turned my attention back to my GL1100. Late last season I’d swapped the handlebars on the GL for a black set of superbike bars. These gave me a much more aggressive riding position than the stock touring bars, but without making me lean way over for clip-ons or clubman bars. While pretty comfortable, they weren’t quite where I wanted to be on the bike.
March 10, 2012 — Winter this year was eerily mild all across the Midwest. We moved from the Twin Cities to Chicago just after Christmas on dry roads and without a single flake of snow. Spring approached early, with rain-washed streets and mild temperatures greeting us in early March. This particularly sunny Saturday morning had - Read More -
I work in an industry where “done” can sometimes have a very subjective definition. So one of the things that I really appreciate about working on mechanical things like motorcycles is that “done” is a very objective thing. As Matthew Crawford puts it in Shop Class as Soulcraft, a motorcycle “either runs or it doesn’t.” - Read More -
There are really two kinds of motorcycle repair jobs. There’s the bolt-on-bolt-off stuff, then there are the in-depth repair procedures. For me, both are fun in their own way, but the bolt-on-bolt-off jobs are great for near instant gratification. After kicking off 2012 with an inaugural ride of my Honda GL1100, I was really jones’n - Read More -
[Update: This bike has sold. Thanks for playing.] Well, we knew this day was coming. This project is officially done, so it’s time to move on to the next chapter. This bike threw a lot of curve balls at me, but I’m definitely better off for the experience. And really, that’s what buying this bike - Read More -