September 25, 2019
I don't remember the movie but Clint Eastwood said, "A man has to know his limitations" in it. I always remember that when one of my machines needs the attention of an expert. I heard it in my head when my big scooter, pictured above, had its lights go out. As near as I could tell the problem lay in the miles of electrical wiring inside the scooter. Fortunately there is a shop nearby that will work on it so it sits there now. Hopefully it will be home soon.
This past weekend Linda and I took a road trip to Plymouth, Mass. We took some side trips to a scooter shop in Connecticut and Battleship Cove to see the USS Massachusetts. We needed a little away time and also got to see our youngest Grandchild. The weather was fabulous and we had an outdoor day in Plymouth at a farm festival.
I had the chance to take the 1991 Honda Nighthawk for a ride today. The sun was glorious and the temperature just right for a hop around the area. I don't have to go far at all to find roads that are both scenic and enjoyable to ride. They start right down the street. There are farms and woodlands and the roads curve, climb and drop in a most agreeable way. The Honda is just right for them.
Tomorrow we will travel down to Long Island to see my Mom and Sister. Tina will be leaving next week to return home so we want to see her again before she goes. Hopefully traffic will be light.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 9, 2019
I had planned for several weeks to attend the first annual David Gabriel memorial ride starting in Wappingers Falls. What I hadn't decided until almost the last minute was which of my three motorcycles I would ride. A few days before the event I ran my options through my head and settled on the big Kawasaki.
I had already taken the Honda and CF Moto scooter on group rides while the Kawasaki languished in the garage. I also felt that its engine size would save me some work riding among the Larg...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 28, 2019
In the video above you will see a great gathering of motorcycles for a very unique event. This past weekend there was a motorcycle rally that included a ride across the Walkway Over the Hudson. Until 1974 this bridge was a railroad crossing. In that year there was a great fire that ruined it for further train use. Ten years ago it reopened as a pedestrian/bicycle crossing named Walkway Over the Hudson State Park. It's part of the Ulster and Dutchess Rail Trail that runs through a portion of b...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 6, 2019
As I noted elsewhere, I think, my biggest motorcycle is my 1983 Kawasaki 750. It is pretty impressive for a thirty-six year old bike but it shows its age occasionally. One way is that the speedometer is wildly optimistic. I knew it read ten miles per hour too fast but didn't realize how far out of whack it really was until a couple of weeks ago. Linda was following me one day and told me how fast her Civic's speedometer read. Mine said sixty-eight, hers read fifty-three. I decided that was to...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
July 30, 2019
The last couple of weeks have seen more motorcycle riding than I have done in a while.Last weekend I took off to Kingston to do a Poker Run. It was during the heat wave and the only thing that helped was the breeze as I rode. The short story is that I didn't do a good job of reading maps before I set out and never made it to the start of the ride. No problem though. I rode on Route 32 into the Village of New Paltz, came back over the Mid Hudson Bridge into Poughkeepsie, and home, for a very n...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
July 15, 2019
As I noted in my last post I was getting back on the bicycle again in preparation for a local event. Twenty years ago I used to ride regularly with the Massapequa Park Bicycle Club. The move to Deposit and a change in life style ended that but my bike has been sitting in a corner mocking me since then. Lately I've been riding every day that I can on a route around the neighborhood. It has a breathtaking down hill run followed by a tedious climb of about sixty vertical feet on each lap. Doing ...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
June 10, 2019
It's always sad when someone leaves this earthly plain but we all go sooner or later. Two weeks ago my Dad passed away and the hole he left will be tough to fill. Dad began his motorcycle career before I was born, reputedly on an Indian Chief. He became a motorcycle dealer in the mid 1950s and carried on doing repairs until about 1977. Other interests took over and he moved away although the remains of his shop were moved into the back of his garage at home. After skiing, bicycle riding and b...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
April 19, 2019
It was with a heavy dose of resignation that I began the process of selling off excess motorcycles in my garage recently. I just had too many bikes on board and not enough reasons or opportunities to ride all of them. I had also pretty much settled on three that I used more than the others so the selection procedure had unconsciously been made. First to go was the Honda Rebel. It was just too compact for me to sit on comfortably and it had design compromises that I just couldn't live with. Ju...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
April 12, 2019
Finally. The good weather is returning and I even got out for a ride. It was warm enough last Sunday for me to drag the 1991 Honda out of the garage and go for a spin. Despite having been idle since October the Honda fired right up, settled into a steady idle and took off like it had only been used the day before. It isn't that nice on the roads yet. Everything is still kind of brown and the trees are vacant of leaves. I'm still suffering from Winter Rust on the bike and took it easy on the c...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
January 31, 2019
We are in the grip of a Polar Vortex and it's pretty cold out there. I saw about five below during the night without the wind chill. My dogs are not happy about the combination of cold and snow on the ground but go out anyway. We even have a water pipe that freezes and we lose cold water in the kitchen. This will end in a couple of days, thank heavens, but it's not a lot of fun while it's here.
We have been down to Long Island twice in the last month to visit the Parents. Mom fell bringing in ...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
