Happiness, the fairy tale.

We went down to the RMV or We'll Tax You For Life Central, as it is known in Massachusetts, and got the tag for the bike. He put it on and took her out for a spin. We went to pick up Loli at work, he on the bike and me on the car behind, but she would not answer the phone so we had to go home and park it as it was getting dark. The learning permit he got does not allow for night driving. It was very satisfying to see him riding on the bike we had work on so hard and being able to see the looks that people on the streets would give him. A guy stopped on the sidewalk to turn and follow the motorcycle as it sped down the street. Four young girls, 8 to 10 year old, stopped playing on the sidewalk to run after it for a block. It brought back so many memories of my first bike. I can't wait to get my Virago on the road. We have a little more work to do on it, but she sure is a looker!

There is nothing as satisfying as creating, fixing or working on something with your own hands. When my son bought his motorcycle I was a bit apprehensive about all the work required. I must say, though, that now when I look at it I feel a sense of pride at the amount of work and sweat we put into it. It is a 31 year old bike so there are going to be problems along the way. We had to remove the carburetors twice already. We have adjusted them several times and now we need to change the spark plugs, once again. A couple of days ago, the weather improved and he started her to take her out for a spin and the rear wheel locked up. When we were working on it we cleaned the wheel well and inspected the shoes. I knew they would need replacing but for the moment just put them back until the bike was ready to ride. When the wheel locked we had to remove it. The pads on the brake shoes had come off completely and so they had jammed together against the metal. We replaced the shoes on the

It has been over twenty years since I sold the Virago. My son is now close to being 21 and he found the love of motorcycling through a coworker. He saved up his money and bought a 1980 Kawasaki KZ550 LTD. I negotiated for him with the seller and we were able to pick up the bike and a second 1980 KZ550 for parts for $300.00 for both. We rented a storage space and started to work on the bike. He had an idea that he wanted to pursue and started buying the parts as he had the money. We stripped her down to the bare bones, took out the engine and transmission and painted the frame black. We removed the air box and replaced it with individual air filters. He bought 12 inch ape hanger handlebars which I thought would be too much, but must admit look and feel really good. We took the exhaust pipes and cut out the baffles, wrapped was was left and added shorty mufflers. We painted most of the engine black and polished the rest of the aluminum. We replaced the springs with shorter s

After changing the solenoid in my Virago a couple of times I decided I was not going to do it again. So I rode for a few months with a screwdriver in my pocket and started her that way. I got quite good at it, I could get it at the first try, sometimes faster than with the starter botton. I got a job as a salesman and would ride from the house to the job every day, my tie flapping in the wind like the team flags do in cars these days. It got pretty loud sometimes. The time had come to get a car so I went to a dealer and traded my Virago in for a Ford Escort. I know what you are thinking, AN ESCORT? Well they were fairly new at that time an very economical and something that came very handy very soon, it was a station wagon. I say it came in very handy because a few months after I bought it I had to move out of my apartment. I packed all my worldly possessions in the back and drove around like a hermit crab for a couple of weeks. Finally, I found a new shell...er... house with a v

A few years went by before I was able to purchase another bike. This time it was a more powerful machine, the 1984 Yamaha Virago 920. This was a beautiful motorcycle in a deep purple, almost black color. It had a comfortable seat and a powerful V-twin engine. The only trouble with it was that the starter solenoid needed to be replaced often. I purchased this bike from a private seller. It had been sitting for a year or so and I was able to get it at a relatively good price. When I bought it, it was meant to be a recreational vehicle only. I had a Chevy pickup that I drove daily and used the bike only on weekends or nights when the weather was nice. Living in Miami, Florida at that time a got a lot of opportunities to ride it. However, a few months later it became my only means of transportation. My pickup was involved in an accident one night and became incapacitated (the front was bent to the right so far that it looked like half a pretzel). Some idiot ran a stop in the middle of

I was 20 years old when I bought my first motorcycle . It was a 1980 Honda, 125 cc red beauty, which I paid cash for and rode out of the showroom in Alexandria, Virginia. I can't remember the cost, but I remember I looked at it for a couple of months while I saved my paychecks to be able to get it. I got on and, without a single lesson drove it out of the parking lot of the showroom and right onto the pavement. Or, should I say "into" the pavement? I remember how embarrassed I was. I tried to make a right turn into the street and pulled back on the handle to turn, pulling the accelerator with it. The rear tire spun and the bike ended on the ground. I picked it up, got back on and cooled my red face the rest of the way home. Soon I was riding along everywhere, rain or shine I was always on that bike. I went to the softball games on it, my bat sticking out of my backpack like a flag pole. I would get up to 85 miles on the expressway and felt I was on top of the world.