I don't own a motorcycle myself but I retain a fondness for them from when I was young and thought I wanted one. So on occasion, when I run across an interesting one, I'll snap its photo, probably, as with here, with my Iphone's camera.
This is a Triumph cafe racer. You don't see cafe racers often, and this is a nice one.
"... I retain a fondness for them from when I was young and thought I wanted one..."
ReplyDeleteI had one when I was younger and KNOW that I want one.
I had a dual-purpose (or Enduro) type of motorcycle when I was about 15 years old that I drove up and down every dirt road I could find in the area. Everybody else seemed to be interested in either the faster Japanese street motorcycles or the cruising Harley type of motorcycles, but I always liked the dual-purpose type of motorcycle (like a Jeep or pickup with two wheels).
When the price of gasoline went up a number of years ago, I almost convinced myself that I could pay for a motorcycle with the money I'd save driving back and forth to the farm.
There was something appealing to me to be able to hop on a motorcycle, roar out to the farm, drive down a muddy road, and then through the pasture to check the cattle. It would have been kinda hard to go fix fences on it, but you can't always have everything.
My rules for life include: everybody should own a motorcycle, everybody should own a Jeep (a real Jeep not one of those SUVs), and everyone should build some sort of boat sometime in their life.
I've owned Jeeps twice. They're one of those things that every couple of decades I become convinced that I should buy. My Jeeps were built in 1946 and 1958 respectively. I also had a long Toyota Land Cruiser (1974) at one time.
ReplyDeleteA boat, I confess, is something that I'd never try to build, as I have almost no interest in them. I don't know why. A person almost couldn't give me a boat, as I just can't muster up enough interest in them to want to own one. Having said that, I've had a kayak and I do have a canoe. Canoes are pretty serviceable, so I suppose that explains that.
When I say "build a boat', I'm really talking about something like a pirouge.
ReplyDeleteI built one out of some plywood and some ripped down 2x4's one time so I could throw it in the back of the pickup, slide it into a farm pond, and go fishing or duck hunting. I'm not a big fan of things like bass boats or ski boats, but I kinda like the idea of a simple, practical boat that is easy and inexpensive to build. Plus, with a pirouge, I can pretend like I'm 13 yrs old again and I'm going gator hunting when I'm floating around the pond trying to catch a fish.
And, if I ever find myself living in a swamp or marooned on a deserted island, I now know how to build a watercraft that will help me feed myself or escape to "civilization".
There's also some sort of metaphor to life when you build a boat (or pirouge), it starts out so flimsy that you are sure that it will fall apart, then it gets stronger and stronger as you add each piece, until you end up with an unsinkable boat (or something like that).
I had a 1975 CJ-5 and always really wanted something like a CJ2A. But, I'd really like to have a Willys pickup since I've already owned a Jeep.
My second Jeep was a CJ2A. First year of civilian production, 46.
ReplyDeleteMy first Jeep was a M38A1, the military variant of the CJ5. I have a photo of it up here, or maybe on the Lex Anteinternet site. I had it when I was 15, which is amazing to think of as I wasn't old enough to drive. I probably kept it until I was late 16 or maybe 17. The CJ2A I had when I was in my early 30s. I bought it from a very good friend of mine who was moving to D. C.
Recently, I ran across a cheap Land Rover I passed on. Probably from the early 60s. I didn't realize they're worth a fortune.
All in all, if I was to buy another one of these types of vehicles, the old Toyota Land Cruiser, say one from the 60s, would be my choice.
I don't know what a pirouge is. My mother used to talk about having a "batteau", which is some sort of small boat.
I think I misspelled it, a pirogue is a small flat-bottomed canoe-like boat (or a Cajun canoe). They say you can pole a pirogue across wet grass, so after I built mine I waited until we got a heavy dew on the grass and actually poled it back and forth across the yard (it helps to keep the neighbors at arms length when you do stuff like that).
ReplyDeleteI've got a long list of old vehicles I'd like to own and Land Cruisers are included on that list. It's been a long time since I paid close attention, but it seems like there was something about Land Cruisers and engine swaps (like Chevy V-8's and transmissions) and their suspensions being easy to modify. I always liked the look of a moderately lifted Land Cruiser with about 33" mud tires.
The six cylinder Toyota engine of that era was a copy of the Chevrolet straight six. They were still using that engine in 74, which is what my long Land Cruiser had in it. It was a great 4x4. I don't doubt that they'd take a short block Chevrolet, but I'd be happy with that six.
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