During my formative years, no where was always my favorite place to be.
Everything that made my life worth living was on hold until spring thaw!
I had few options to fill my time. I sucked on ice skates and was never interested in skiing. Being a good Catholic boy, I held off on sex until I was married (remember, I mentioned days of my waisted youth)!
So, I did what all my Catholic buddies and many future priests did while trying to fend off sinful desires of the flesh: I drank like a fish!
This didn't help things as it only increased my depression over not being able to ride.
During a notably bad Saturday morning after, with my head pounding and my stomach turning into knots, I felt I wanted to do something more than suffer and puke my day away while waiting for the evening binge to begin.
I gave this as much thought as my diminished brain function would allow.
I decided to stop by my favorite motor cycle shop and see what's up!
This seemingly minor decision started my life's obsession as a dedicated, life long biker.
I can remember this day as if it were yesterday....
I literally came in from the cold....
Visiting Burt Ive's Motorcycle Shop on a cold winter's morning would warm the heart of any biker.
As I walked into the dealership for the first time, I immediately thought I died and went to heaven. My headache immediately softened to a dull pounding and my stomach felt ready to take on the day.
Burt welcomed me at the door and left me to amble around and check things out.
My senses were on overload!
Oil stained floors had their own special aroma. Mix in the smell of fresh wax on the used bikes sitting gleaming in a perfect row on the show room floor, then add the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the shop smells of old oil, Marvel Mystery Oil and gear lube and you'll have an idea of what a real motorcycle shop smelled like. It was enough to make a hardened biker smile.
Looking around I saw all sorts of motorcycle parts and accessories hanging from hooks in the wall, in no special order. Cases of oil were on the floor waiting for riders to buy them. On the wall behind the parts counter were pictures of old riders and road racing events.
But, best of all some of my buddies were hanging out there! We told lies and kicked tires until Burt came over to welcome us. Please note: I said welcome us. He never, ever tried to sell any of us motorcycles. He didn't have to. He just let us hang out knowing eventually something would come into the shop that we just had to have!
This is the way it was done In The Day.
I bought four bikes from Burt and brought many of my buddies to visit the shop. Eventually, they bought bikes there too.
My first two purchases are ones I'll never forget.
My first Burt bike was a 1964 Harley Davidson Sportster H. This was my first "real" motorcycle. The motor had five years worth of grunge on it, but it didn't leak all that much oil and started cold on the second ignition kick. It had a touring tank (rare to see even back then). She was powder blue and just had the look I wanted, the sound I wanted and the Harley shake! I had to have it!
Over the ensuing two years, I learned how to fix a Harley again, again and again. I wrenched for a good part of a Saturday afternoon so I could have a reasonably long ride on Sunday. Finally, when I sent a connecting rod through the lower motor case, I knew my Harley fixing days were over. Time to visit Burt and pick out my next ride.
It was early in December. The snow cover was gone, but there was still a nip in the air as I walked in to Burt's show room. A BMW R69S caught my eye. The odd looking Earls Fork looked cool. BMW boxers were reliable, easy to maintain and handled great. I was ready to go for it until my buddies convinced me it was an old man's bike.
Next, a red and white BSA Lightning became the target of my lust. I really liked that bike; but, reliability was a problem. Lucas "The lord of darkness" electrical systems were exceptionally unreliable and the late 60s and early 70s BSAs were known to have connecting rod issues. I ruled the BSA out.
By early spring, I was ready to lay my money down on a new Sortster. I drove to Burt's, cash in hand, all set to deal. As I walked into the show room a beautiful, candy apple red, CB750 caught my eye. It took my breath away! This bike was among the first of the 750s bikes to be delivered to New England Dealers. It had a sand cast cases and was one of the most beautiful things I ever laid my eyes on, second only to to Bridgett Bardot's lips!
My passion for this bike blinded me to the fact it was tall, wide and was really a big mans bike. After the rush wore off, I realized I picked out something that really didn't do it for me, so I sold her to a good friend and moved on. But one thing I'll never forgot about my CB750: every time I rode her in those 4 crazy months of my life, it was like riding a wild Irish Catholic Virgin, hell bent on making up for lost time.
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I wrote this little blurb to give you an idea of the kind articles I'm hoping to see you forward for publishing in our members only section of our site.
I chose to talk about about what bike dealerships were like in the day, to bring the flavor of the times back to you.
Sights, smells, time of year and sounds help paint a picture of what it was really like to ride in the 60's and 70's.
Hopefully it will stimulate your own good memories of days gone by and even better than that: maybe it will inspire you to share these thought with the rest of us!
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It's amazing to contemplate: It's only January and our club is going full throttle preparing for next season. Most clubs hibernate through winter mounts, but not us! We are well along in our preparation for out Bike Blessing. To aide in building up our membership, we are forming groups of riders to represent different geographic areas and develop team strategy to get the word out: Check out the NLMC! The Windham chapter, chaired by Bubba Gowen already has several members and a meeting set to discuss strategy and possible future rides.
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Come join the fun. Thursday night @ 6:00 dinner and @ 7:00 business meeting.
See You There,
Gray Beard,
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EXPO January 2009
On January 4th 2009 the Club attended the Hartford Expo to show the Clubs patch in a different area of the state.
klay
