Easy Rider and Chopperguy

I went for a ride with some fans of the site last weekend. The chopper ran great. I met James down at Easyriders of Minneapolis while getting my flat fixed. If you go down a few blogs you can read all about that. We met up at a Denny's on Friday night. Most people wouldn't think of this place as a biker hang-out. Then again, they do have posters of BSA's and Triumphs adorning the walls. I have met a few bikers there as well. The staff certainly treated me well, admiring my knee high boots and never letting my coffee cup get empty.

While there, James told me all about the problems he has had with his Captain America replica. He has one of the nicer looking Panzer/Paughco made replicas. I won't get into details here, but he does not have kind words about Panzer. He loves his bike, but it continues to nickel and dime him, not unlike just about every other chopper I know of. The Captain looks great and he thinks he may have finally worked the bugs out.

I followed the two of them to a little out of the way biker bar called Cahoots. This place seemed straight out of a movie. Bikes lined the curbs on both sides of the street. You walk in and you see nothing but middle aged, working class bikers drinking beer, playing pool, and listening to the live rock and blues band. They served me tap beer in a plastic cup. I like dives a lot, but this seemed to go above and beyond. This place did have one element that made it very endearing to me. I didn't see a television anywhere in it. These days it seems that you can't walk into any bar without having a television within sight. Another thing that makes the place one in a million, you can get Sonny Barger Beer.

While at the bar I got to talk to my other companion for a while. Rob has a chopped Suzuki Intruder. Now I tend to swear by American V-twins (for simplicity of maintenance) and the old British bikes like the Triumphs of the 60's and 70's. I have nothing against Jap choppers and in fact strongly encourage people to chop anything and everything from Indians to Schwinns. Rob's bike makes a great case for Jap bike chopping. The lines on it don't look all that radical. The bike sits low and has extended tubes out a raked tree. But he has also put some money into the engine as well. To put it as bluntly as possible, when he hits the gas, he gets gone.

My chop behaved very well that evening. Both of the guys had electric start and James had complained at one point about having to kick it on a couple of occasions. Of course I only have the kicker. When we came out from Denny's I did my usual routine of flipping the kill switch, turning the petcock, "tickling" the carb to give her a little juice, and then kicking her over. She fired right up on the first try. Again at the bar, it only took a couple of kicks for her to fire up. It doesn't always work that way. The first start of the day often takes a dozen kicks or so. Still, nothing like getting her to fire right up to make a guy feel big.

A very good night. We don't have too many of those left up here. The last few years we've had a few days as far out as November. I don't see that happening this year, but we'll see. A man can always hope.

93

I like the results of road patching, but I hate getting chunks of asphalt down my shirt. I still refuse to get a front fender!

93.

My wife commented to me the other day, "It's amazing who will wave to us on the road." She had noticed that day how a lot of people on Jap bikes would give us a wave or nod, but the Harley riders tended to sit solid in the saddle, hands firmly on the grips, staring straight ahead. Now I have my own theories about this. I used to tell people to never expect a wave from a chopper rider. Old choppers can offer people some difficulties, especially those that suffer from front end flop. Of course some of us need to reserve our hands for giving signals as well. I myself have recently taken to using the Satan fingers when giving signals. Just today I glanced back and noticed my wife using my "Satan Signals" as I approached my turn. And of course we have probably all heard how you should keep both hands on the handlebars.

All of this provides good reasons why a Harley rider, especially one on a chopper, wouldn't wave. Now before I alienate a whole bunch of my fan base let me state, I don't care if you wave or not. Personally, I grew up in a rural area where all of the farmers tended to signal to each other even if they didn't know each other. This has carried over to my riding habbits. So now for the debunking. My chop suffers from some degree of flop. As stated before, I use hand signals when turning to let other traffic know my intent. I also often ride one handed, using the free hand to do such things as clear bugs from my goggles, pick bugs out of my teeth, dig a bug out of my nose, or bug my passenger. Sometimes I just want to give it a rest and so I set it in my lap while the right hand continues its job. Don't get on my case. If people can drive a car and talk on the phone at the same time, I can certainly take one of my hands off the bars for a few minutes. I will give a wave to other riders as they approach. Just my style. For those of you who choose not to, fine. Some people expect that kind of road recognition, and you have no excuse not to give it. So next time my wife sticks her fore and pinky fingers up into the air in the good ol' rock star Signus Satanicus, at least give her a little thrill and nod your head.

On a seperate note, since my site gets a lot of traffic from all walks of life, I would like people to know that I have started the search for a new job. My previous experience rests mostly in the Graphic Design arena. If you know of any jobs in California, Oregon, Washington, or in Santa Fe that might fit the bill, please, send them my way. You can check out some of my work at http://www.napstudios.com/. Nothing like shameless self-promotion.

93 y'all.

Wednesday I went down to the garage with the idea of riding her to work. The rear had gone completely flat. Once again I loaded her onto the truck and hauled her down to Easyriders of Minneapolis. While hanging out in the shop a man came by and started staring at my bike. So I did what I always do, and started telling him about it. He mentions that the bike looks familiar to him, that he thinks he has seen it on a website before. I tell him that I run easyridermovie.com and find out that he had sent me an e-mail a couple weeks previous. He had come by the shop to pick up his Captain America replica. So we talked about choppers, the joys of riding a rigid, and possibly getting together some time to go for a ride. So sometime in the future you should see some shots on this site of a Captain America replica in action.

The next day I cruised down the road thinking, "Wow. I have had great luck this year, never once getting caught in a heavy rain." After work I went to start the bike and noticed the big, dark rain clouds moving in. One of my co-workers joked, "I hope you have rain gear."

"Rain gear? I don't even have a fender!"

On the third kick, I felt a few drops. On the sixth and final kick, the drops had started coming with some regularity. Before I had made it through the first intersection it had started raining. Within five minutes a torrential downpour had soaked me. I had purchased a set of goggles this year. I had found them invaluable for keeping the crap on the road out of my eyes. I found out that in the rain, these things fog up really quickly. I switched to my sunglasses. One of the nice things about going for a ride in the rain; you get soaked in no time and once you get completely soaked, it doesn't matter anymore. I still prefer riding on a sunny day.