A bike Coming Home?
When I was 20 in college, I happened to go with my brother to Scotter Therapy to get his scooter fixed. While he was talking to the mechanics, I ventured around their motorcycles junked out back and found a cool looking 1973 Honda CB350F. Knowing nothing about bikes or even how to ride one, I asked them how much for the run down cycle. They said $100 and oh by the way, it doesn't run and we don't know where the keys are. Cool, I said. I'll take it.
So I pushed the baby home, which was about 2.5 miles, excited the entire way. I figured that living with a mechanical engineering student and chemical engineering student, I could figure out how to fix her.
Well, we finally did. Mainly that the carbs needs to be cleaned. Hooking the bike up to my buddy's car, we jumped her and she light up. She sounded ugly, but I was thrilled.
After testing her out by taking her for a spin around the block, I drove it over to my girlfriend's dorm to show. After nearly getting killed on the way over. (Car ran a red light and almost took me out, another car decided to do a U-turn in front of me, and another person decided to get out their car and proceed to walk across the street in fron of me. Lesson learned: Be safe and have protective gear). I finally got to my girlfriend and we went for a quick ride. Over the next year and penniless like most college students, I did what I could to get the cycle tuned up and painted.
The following year, I took her up to chiropractic school and within the first two months the electrical system went shot. After taking her to a local bike shop, they politely informed me to come back and get the bike fixed when I was done with school and had lots of cash. They estimated it would cost anywhere from $250 to 1000 to fix. So I held on to her for a few months until I found a guy back near my hometown, who worked at a HD shop, who wanted to buy the bike. I brought the bike home and the guy came over and picked it up for $225.
Jump ahead eight years. Two weeks ago I was back home visiting the folks and stopped by the HD dealer to see if the guy still had my bike. It turned out the guy moved away and sold the bike to another gentleman at the dealer. I left my business card for the guy to call me and let me know how she was doing. A few days later the guy finally called me and let me know that she was running just finally, had few upgrades, repainted black and oh, by the way, since his daughter doesn't want it, I could buy it back for $250.
This weekend I'm heading back to visit the folks and take a look at my old baby. If all looks well, I plan on bring her back home the following day.
I let you guys know how it goes.
Matt Amman
Edited by - Tri18 on Sep 01 2006 09:21:35 AM
