Warning - GoldWings Reproduce!!!

Classic Goldwings

Help Support Classic Goldwings:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

brianinpa

Well-known member
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
6,107
Reaction score
5
Location
Lebanon, PA
Last Friday at the age of 75, my dad failed to safely negotiate a 90 degree turn and was awarded an express ticket ride to the hospital. Right in the corner of that turn was a big @$$ rock and the front wheel was introduced to the rock in a bad way.

image.php


Thankfully he landed in a wheat field so he suffered no road rash, but he is a bit sore. The first words out of his mouth when I got my mom to the hospital were: "I am done riding," so I didn't need to have the argument with him that it was time for him to hang up his helmet. If the bike had suffered some kind of mechanical failure, I wouldn't have considered it, but after speaking with the local police officers that were on the scene, his first comment was that he was "day-dreaming" and forgot there was a turn :shock: I will miss the times we spent riding together, but I am thankful that is all I will miss.

So, yesterday I became the owner of a Honda Helix, so do not leave a pair of GoldWings unsupervised or unprotected in your garage at night... they reproduce!

image.php


He has had a few other minor scrapes with it through the years, so the plastic is showing it's age. I wanted to take it apart just to give everything a thorough look-see and I was really surprised. Nothing wrong other than the front wheel.

image.php


A little soap and water goes a long way at removing 27000 miles and 22 years of dirt :BigGrin:

image.php


So, now the fun begins for putting it back together, finding or repairing broken plastic pieces, and making it mine. When I am done I will have a new in-town ride that will get me 70 mpg and at least 210 mile between fill-ups. If I only use it for going to/from work, that tank will last roughly 10 weeks! :smilie_happy:
 
There's more to it than just that... my mom has been saying things to me about some of the things he does and I've been seeing the same things. He's just not meant to be on two wheels any more. The accident happened about two miles from my house, so he was on a road that he has traveled numerous times in the last 16 years. The skid mark going into the turn was about 75 ft long, so he moving when he realized, too late, he needed to turn. My mom's been trying to get him to give it up for a while as well - Now it the time.
 
Strangest contrast to that...
six decades ago, as a college student, my dad was on his way across town, when a 75 year old gal in a brand new '59 Caddillac turned left in front of him. He watched the vespa get swallowed by the steel whale, and rode the rest of the way back out of the intersection hanging onto the 'bullet' on the passenger side front bumper. He acquired a broken leg from that, and because of the scooter's loss, well, he retired from riding.

In February '76, his father died of a heart attack... the kind that's an outpatient treatment solution today. A few months later came The Great American Smoke-Out... he quit smoking that day, went down town, and up singing in the local barbershop chorus. in '78, he took up bicycling... within a half-year, he was riding the 15-mile local bike path every morning before work. From 1984 until 2009, he rode his bicycle to an average of about 20,000 miles a year... I rode with him on weekend rides, and full-week rides across the state.

in '88, I rode home on my first motorcycle... a '76 KZ400, that I'd purchased in baskets, and reassembled in a buddy's garage. Neither he, nor my mom were particularly pleased, but I'd taken initiative to make it entirely roadworthy, took ALL levels of the MSF's RiderCourse program, and passed the DOT test on a 1000+ cc category, then purchased my own jacket, helmet, and insurance, so they couldn't argue much.

He rode on the back of my motorcycle exactly twice. I think he was scared both times, reliving the ride that could've ended his life... and while he reminded me that 'motorcycles are dangerous'... he never told me not to ride. He knew I was a very careful cyclist, not just on the motorcycle, but on bicycles as well. My bicycle then (and still) is about four times' more expensive than any motorcycle I own, and I'm perfectly comfortable sitting on the bike seat, both feet in the pedals, standing still (balanced) at a stop light. Can't quite make a motorcycle do that, but I can get really close.

Anyway... fast forward to fifteen years ago... he started experiencing heart and back problems, which put a fairly quick stop to his bicycling. After a few years of being stuck in a 'cage', he met a new neighbor, who zipped around town on a 115cc Honda. Not long after, my dad wound up with his own 49cc Chinese (Schwinn-branded) scoot, but as you can expect, it never ran right He cussed it for two seasons, then came home with a 115cc EFI Honda. At 75 years old, he did what I thought he'd never do- He went out and took the motorcycle test.

Unfortunately, he rode it a little bit over two seasons before heart, lung, and back issues slowed him a bit. He's 80 now, and still gets around fine on his own, but he won't be riding the 115.

I've been tossing around the idea of buying it, just because he bought it. That, and it's a great little scooter... but not until he's ready to sell it. A guy has to have his stuff, even if he can't use it.

That being said, ever since getting his license, he doesn't quite talk to me in the same scolding tone as he used to. Also, he thought I'd made the right move by going from the CX-500D to the GL-1200. He thought that it suited my 'carry stuff running errands' needs, had impressive performance, but a quiet and smooth style of a 'gentleman's motorcycle'.

Which in retrospect, is one of the greatest things he's ever said to me on the subject of motorcycles...
 
Top