Scooters of the Hippodrome

Here is my first bad-ass true, street-legal, righteous street bike, a Honda 305 Scrambler. I'm the smiley geek and my high school buddy Goody is participating in Washday Saturday. We had just cleaned his and were preparing for a little summer afternoon putt. This bike was a pretty fast number in it's day but was followed up a short time later by the bigger and quicker Honda 450. It was okay, though, because all my 305 buddies could climb hills like no 450 could. Although I was a little young to get a license or permit I was able to ride it quite a bit in the rural areas near our suburban home. Of course there were a few traffic cops who recognized me from several blocks away, so the bike was constantly performing rapid U-turns and getaways. Once it was unable to execute a proper landing after flying over a jump with a black and white car on its tail and we were taken home by the local CHP guy. A later mishap that involved a case of unwise velocity and an errant hippie that U-turned his Toyota in our path resulted in a sudden stop against the side of the Toyota. The bike was totaled and I was laid up all summer with a bum leg, but it was that last 5 seconds on that bike that has caused me to drive a bit more responsibly ever since. I see these bikes at almost every "classic" bike show and shop and am reminded of the fun times way back so long ago.

Here is my first Evolution Harley. It was an 1985 Softail without the chrome engine. Having learned from the 1981 Wide Glide, I left this one alone and got about 65,000 good miles out of it, then five years later sold it for a grand more than I had paid for it. Can't ask for much more than that. This bike carried Dana and me on many of our first rides back when we were "new." This picture shows the bike in the Colorado National Monument loaded with my stuff only for a "solo" trip. You can imagine what it looked like when we added Dana and her stuff? This pic was taken on one of my first "real" attempts at touring. I left home near San Francisco and visited Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before returning home totally pooped out. It was a solo trip and I can remember almost every mile of it. I hit big rain, snow, thick fog and temps of over hundred degrees. The bike performed flawlessly and with the addition of the $19.00 clip-on windshield, was a pleasure to ride. I spent most of the time on smaller two-lane roads and after a day or two of letting my back and butt return to normal, I was ready to go again. I let this bike go after the addition of two more bikes to the stable and haven't seen it or heard anything about it since. I believe it qualifies as a Great Bike.

My 1989 Springer was kind of an impulse thing. At the time of purchase I had the 1988 Dresser and the 1985 Softail, but when I saw the arrival of the Springers in 1988 I liked them. In 1988 they were all black but 1989 arrivals had many colors and I found a deal on this one. I picked it up for about $2,500 less than I had seen them at my local dealers so I jumped on it and grabbed it before someone else got it. It is a fine ride and handles well. It is a comfortable bike (after I took off the concrete seat that came on it and put my old 1985 Softail seat on it) and has been very dependable. I have been offered $6,000 more than I paid for it, but I need this thing; although I am a huge fan of the "dresser" type bike, I probably would not feel right without a cruiser for shorter trips. I have owned this bike longer than any of the others and I'll probably keep it until something new catches my eye (like the new 1997 Heritage Springers.) This bike has been a strictly local duty bike and has not branched out much farther than San Diego or Nevada. Great for a three or four day trip, it is easy to service and care for. Dana likes to ride the Springer when we're on the open road but doesn't much like jockeying it around parking lots or congested areas. I rode it down to Del Mar for the week-long bike fest there in late 1996 and at the end of the week I remembered why I like the dressers so much. It took me a week for my butt to feel normal after that trip.

Until I get a photo of the bike here scanned, you'll have to look at the road instead. The bike that is SUPPOSED to be here is a nice one that is still roaming the streets after 100,000 miles. My first true "luxury" bike, a 1990 Ultra Classic Electra Glide. This was an unexpected spur-of-the-moment purchase which occurred as I was helping a friend get a bike of his own. I had a friend who had to travel a ways to get a bike as all local dealers had nothing. He took a train ride north and I agreed to meet him, take him to the dealer, then do the break-in ride with him on his way home. I picked him up at the train station and an hour later we were at the Harley shop where his new bike was waiting. On the floor was a new "Ultra Classic" which was similar to my then-current Classic of 65,000 miles, but it had extras, such as a CB radio, intercom, four speakers for the stereo, and........ a cruise control. There were other improvements like the new CV carburetor, higher-output alternator and things like that. I ended up putting the grab on this jewel and over the next three years took it to Alaska, half of Canada, back to the east coast a couple of times and down to the tip of Baja. The bike served me well and other than a problem with some roller bearings in one of the lifters at about 70,000 miles, it performed well. We did have a little problem with a large oil spill on the roadway in Mexico, but I can't fault the bike for that. If nothing else, that situation netted a new custom paint job a short time later. This bike was like an old friend and although it was only a few years old, seemed to be getting tired. As it was with most of my bikes, I soon just happened to be in the right place at the right time and stumbled upon a new 1995 Anniversary Ultra Classic Fuel-Injected dresser at a time when bikes were unavailable. Instead of using the money I had for re-conditioning the 1990 Ultra, I got to talking to the sales person and an hour later, after the service crew had inspected my bike, I was offered $10,000.00 trade-in towards the new F.I. Ultra. The cost of the 1990 had been $12,500 and after 100,000 miles it didn't take much to figure out I'd never get that much for it if I didn't take it then. So after a quick call to Dana to see if she agreed it was a good deal, another bike was added to my list. I really hated to see that bike go, but I got to watch over the next few weeks as it got a new engine and tranny and all needed repairs. It turn out it was sold to a "friend of a friend" so it worked out okay. I'll always feel that this particular bike was the "friend" in the bunch.

Well, I finally got a photo scanned and was able to get it posted here. For you guys that liked the gurl that was here while waiting for the bike picture, don't worry, you can still visit her. This is a 1997 Harley-Davidson "Ultra Classic" fuel-injected (I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess) dresser. This bike was still new, only a few months old when I had a slight problem with a blind lady driving a Ford Taurus that ran us over only a couple miles from home. The irony was that I had just had the dresser down to Mexico on washed out roads, dirt detours and a thousand miles of asphalt, and after all that I get nailed at home. The bike was totaled and I was banged up, but I had no broken bones and her insurance paid me for every cent I had in the bike, including the original cost, tax, license, all the add-ons and a little more. Anyway, I had ordered this dark green and black paint scheme because of all the bikes I've had, there has never been a green one. I liked it a lot and when this photo was snapped the bike was three weeks old and had 2,000 miles on it. I was hoping that I would have a little better luck with it than I did with the '95 Ultra. The two were virtually identical with the exception of some unseen engineering changes. It ran well and its performance was very good for such a bulky V-twin. During the third week of ownership I took a 300 mile ride and a 260 mile ride as a shakedown run for the upcoming Mexico ride April 5. The bike got a consistent 49 - 51 MPG reading and ran like a top. The later trip to the races in Del Mar and down to Baja again was a lot of fun and this bike made it very enjoyable. I wish I had more to say but it didn't last that long. At today's Harley prices though, one feels as though he backed through the showroom door. Hey, leggo of my arm!!!