October 19, 2019
My big scooter is back in the garage! As I suspected, but feared worse, it was a wire that was rubbed through and couldn't carry current anymore. The only consolation in this is that the young men at the shop I took it to had to invest a great deal of time removing all the plastic panels and chase through all the wiring to find it. I rode it home and it hasn't lost a step, running as well as always. A longer ride is in the plans before Winter shuts us down.
This past Thursday we drove down to Long Island to see Mom and take in Octoberfest at the parents favorite restaurant, The Oak Chalet. The atmosphere was extremely festive, the food was as good as ever and the Accordion player they had for the night had everybody singing. Mom and Dad have been frequenting this establishment for a long time and many members of the staff came to Dad's wake and funeral. As Mom said, "I feel at home there." It was a memorable evening.
I was all set to take in what is probably the last motorcycle event of the season this morning but with one proviso, temperature. I won't ride below forty degrees for any distance anymore and the thermometer rung in at thirty-six at the hour I was supposed to leave. Cross that ride off the list. It was about an hour away and even further north so it could even have been colder yet. Plus they were going to ride in the Catskills at higher elevations so I can only imagine what the temperature would have been. So except for my rides in the area the long riding season is over.
The Holidays are looming and we will be traveling near and far. I'll be relating how the trips went.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
October 14, 2019
Yesterday I had many options to go on a group ride but picked the one closest to me. It was supposed to be a benefit ride for a charity and I was glad to go. In the morning I fired up the big Kawasaki, pulled on my leather jacket and took off on what was supposed to be a day on the road.
It was a fairly lovely day with a brisk temperature and leaves are beginning to change color around here so I peeped a little on the way to the start. I arrived at the park where the ride was scheduled to star...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
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...
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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.
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.
