Other Peoples Bikes

This weekend I went down to LA to help my brother move do the family reunion thing. Since Sony was moving, I was helping out and was luckily tasked with riding his two motorcycles over to his new place. He has a ’87 Honda CB 1100 I think. I’m not sure. Apparently they only made that model for two years and it feels like a touring bike, with a very upright posture but oh man it was such a pleasure to ride. Totally smooth, great suspension, responsive. You could forget about the bike and just enjoy the scenery. I hope the Interceptor is as smooth. The other motorcycle was a Le Mans edition 850cc Moto Guzzi not unlike the one pictured below.



The Moto Guzzi was like flying a really old jet fighter, like before they had that whole aerodynamics thing down. Built as a racing bike for an large oval track the bike is very narrow. The handling leaves something to be desired but when you pull on the throttle you just go, go, go. Crazy fun. At idle it just sits there and rumbles from side to side. You can actually feel the pistons firing and the bike moving left to right in sync. Sony was saying they took the racing version of the bike, slapped some ligts on a few thousand and sold them to the public. I’ll be honest, I was a bit scared opening that bike up. Especially in tennis shoes and jeans.

What it made me realize is that this motorcycle thing, for me, may not be the passing fad I once suspected it was. So going back to the source I’d like to thank Big Eric for selling me his GPZ for such a reasonable price (did you ever even cash that check Eric?) for Sony for setting the deal up and keeping my thoughts on motorcycles through the years and lastly Dushan for teaching me to ride back on the motocross track in the dessert when I was twelve. Hrm, maybe it’s time for a dirt bike...