cowpuc

I shoulda known something involving all you folks that work so hard at fund raising for St. Judes would have been right at the top of the attendance list Mom!! THANKS FOR YOUR HARD WORK!!

Hey there Mr. Video man - AWESOME PICS!! Looks like you guys are getting er done! Thank you for giving us the honor of sharing that WARM hearted gathering with us!! WAY COOL!! Mr Visitor man, if you are reading this, we would be thrilled to make the acquaintance of another friend of Davids, any friend of that rascals is a future friend of ours for sure - jump on here and say Howdy!!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL pic there Van!!! That mother of yours really has good taste and she showed it by her choice in marriage!! , Obviously your father is a GREAT man!! Beautiful!! CONGRATS on saving that scoot thru all these years my friend - THAT is priceless!! As for me, I was born with some defective chromizones so my dad (he was a sports guy) didnt have to energize my bike addiction - I came from birth with it.. I was born during the day and age when "liking" motorcycles was taboo. While attending kindergarten I got into a lot of trouble cause I didnt "fit" well with the rest of the children my age, they were all into collecting base ball cards and stuff while I would sit at my desk and draw pics of choppers (sounds funny but I am not kidding - it really happened this way). My parents had 7 children (I was second born - have a sister 1 year older than I) all of which, other than myself, were normal - playing sports and all that. Wasnt enough money to go around so my severe needs of spinning wrenches always got set on the back burner.. My early years of wrenching found me dragging home bicycles, cutting front ends of hollow forked Huffies and sliding the cut Huffy fork tubes onto Schwinn solid forks to manufacture choppers. I probably had over 20 neighborhood kids with choppers by the time I was 8 years old. I also noticed that my neighbors old rototiller had a side shaft Clinton motor on it and came up with the genuis idea of finding one of those motors and mounting on my pedal bike. There was a store called "Strevel's" about 7 miles from our home in Fruitport whose owner was into selling used mowers out front of the store. I would ride my chopper bicycle up there at least twice a month just to look at the side shaft mowers. At first, old man Strevel would actually come out and start the mowers for me to show me they would run (I would just sit there smelling that burning fuel and dreaming). Wasnt long though and he wouldnt even come outside. My parents bought me a used 10 speed pedal bike for my 9th birthday. A few weeks later my grandfather, who was actually the only person who really understood me back than, gave me an old kickstart washing machine motor (probably all of 1 horse power - wish I still had it - it was COOL) and I went about the task of cutting the center post out of my 10 speed to prepare if for the wash machine engine. My dad came home from work, saw what I was doing and thats when I received my 1,000,000th whoppin from him. He later came out of the house (had apparently talked to my mom about anger management), apologized for smacking me. About a week later I was helping him on his linen route, he got a big smile on his face as we pulled into a tire company (Atlas Tire in Grand Haven Mi) where he had rugs on their floors and said he had something to show me. We went inside and there sat a GORGEOUS 1959 Sears/Allstate/Puch moped!! My dad told me that if I paid for 1/2 (I worked unloading trucks at his linen company and I also had a paper route) he would pay the other half. I will NEVER forget loading my new (to me) Sears moped into the back of that old linen truck - I FINALLY HAD A REAL MOTORCYCLE!! There were rich kids in our area who had mini-bikes and stuff that I would ride any chance I had but, THERE IS NOTHNG LIKE A GEAR HEADS FIRST BIKE. About 2 weeks after we got the bike home the old girl decided it didnt want to run.. This time it was my mom who walked over to the high school parking lot (our yard was all sand and we had no garage) where I had the top end off my moped and started yelling things like "that thing will never run again" (the old Sears mopeds had a lot of shrouding on them so the pile of parts she started yelling at me about was actually 85 percent shrouding - it wasnt that big of a deal). I had torn ALOT of mowers apart during my early years and I just KNEW the old bike needed a set of rings and sure enough it did. Most folks probably will never believe this but Sears actually sold quite a few motorcycles back in those days and their parts supply was second to none!! After my parents had calmed down and I had stuffed all my moped parts into a box, I talked my mom into taking into sears where I bought a new set of rings, a base gasket and the cutest little tin head gasket that a gear head has ever laid eyes on. I roughend her tiny little bore up with sand paper, cleaned everything up real good in gas, lubed it all down and stuck her back together.. I will NEVER forget the look on my parents faces as I drove across our front yard on my freshly rebuilt, first motorcycle. Having finally found the real me, I purchased my second bike - a gorgeous 1967 Bonanza BC1300 two years later. It took me a while to save up for that one cause every time I could gather seemed to go into running costs of my Moped. What I really wanted at the time was the full fledged chopper that Bonanza offered with the Hodaka Ace 100 motorcycle engine it - I simply could not come up with the money for it and the sharing costs that my parents did on the Moped was a one time shot. My Bonanza was ok but the 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds that Bonanza advertised in their flyer was really where I saw myself (oh yea, I collected bike flyers back than and also sent away for info that was found in the bike mags of the day - I still have a LOT of the flyers I collected as a kid - I can probably did out the poster of the Bonanza Chopper and snap a shot of it if you would like - I used to DRUEL over that thing). Here is a pic that my little sister took of me way back then. I still have the frame of my first bike - the 59 - sitting in my basement. Not to long ago I noticed a later model of the same bike for sale for a couple hundred bucks. Tip and I went over to Grand Rapids and drug it home. My plan is to use this later model Moped as a parts bike to restore (not repaint and all that - just put it together in its perfect patina state) my original first bike to rideable condition and then use it as a daily rider.. My defective chromizones never did get better and I have suffered with it my whole life. I have owned hundreds of bikes thru the years of many makes/models and engine configurations. I can tell you from first hand experience that I KNOW how you feel about that gorgeous picture of you and your dad - there is NOTHING like that first bike! Oh yea, I raced bike starting at 16 years old, my final embarrassment for my parents came about when they saw my High School Graduation pictures, everyone of my peers appeared with a suit coat, mine choice of clothing was, well,, me..

WOW - down right PURRRRDY!! Welcome back Daitan and looking forward to seeing you out there too!!! Puc

pusuh shhiaeth montoye etootsx translated = I cant talk right now my beard is still tangled and frozen in the snow blower!! 3 weeks Fool, ya got yourself 3 weeks and its SPRING!!!!!!

Right there with ya big guy!! Those were probably also the days when my biker buddies would tease me about having the only "bagger" Chop with an 18 over front end cause I always showed up at the parties with grocery sacks of brew hanging over the rear seat being held on by what ever happen to occupying that seat!!

seamstress making a good living by sewing Polar Bear ears onto Penguins which created a completely new species of wild life that the great Wizard himself honored with the name of..

If I pulled a trailer a guy by the name of @Brake Pad wouldn't be able to pick on me any more. Knowing Brake Pad, he would get bored and start picking on somebody like @Eck. Eck wouldn't be able to handle Brake Pad's picking on him constantly so he would use his magical Moderator powers to make an attempt to control even the weather. @Flyinfool would then get upset with Eck for infringing on him and his Wisconsin White Washing Machines monopoly on the weather controlling market and the Fool would panic and start pushing buttons and pulling levers. The Kanucks wouldn't be able to close their back door fast enough to respond to the huge demand for cold air needed by the White Washer and all the cold air up at the North Pole would be instantly removed and warm air from Australia would be drawn up to the North Pole. @Aussie Annie and @Quickstep would suddenly find their gorgeous bikes frozen to the spill over from the ocean tides that went crazy, each bike would have a Great White Shark frozen across their windshields. @StarFan and his friends in Iceland would have to change the name of their home country to "GreenlandIce" because the force of the weather shift would be so great it would sever the ropes holding the island of Iceland to the bottom of the ocean and Iceland would drift over and connect itself to Greenland. That guy who created the internet and wrote the book that warned all of us that this was going to happen would suddenly become King of the altered world and he would instantly decree that only touring bikes that still had cassette players be allowed. Because of this, the only thing unchanged by me getting a trailer would be that 1st Gen Yamaha Ventures would still be the fastest bikes on the planet.... So,, do you still think I should get a trailer? Well,,,, do ya?

You might wanna check on your programs list and see if you have "Adobe Flash Player" on the list. I am almost positive this is a must for You Tube.. If its not on there, you can download it free, I redid mine on firefox not long ago, I just googled "Firefox Adobe Flash Player" and loaded it up. Worked perfect.. Hope this helps!

If you ever decide to give Highway Treasure Hunting a try when you are out CTFWing, there are a couple rules that go with the game that you will want to remember. Ist of all, check the legal requirements for doing so. Some places allow it, some don't. Another big rule and one that applies greatly to places like Nevada and Utah is that someone still has to keep an eye on your motorcycles fuel gauge. Running out of fuel on an ick-spressway in temps above 100 degrees can be dangerous. While those out of gas times when below 100 degree's have a very strong odor of pure embarrassment, when you get over 100 degrees those embarrassing feelings are multiplied somewhat by other feelings of not only embarrassment but also the unnerving feelings that you and your passenger are going to die from heat stroke. Tip and I had violated the second amendment of the treasure hunting rules and had lost track of our fuel usage during this latest exploit. We hadnt even thought about it until one of us noticed the flashing red IDIOT light on Tweeks dash. We emptied our two quart "get out of jail free" spare bottles of fuel into Tweeks and started the process of running Tweeks at exactly 58 miles per hour, coasting down hills and basically begging God to not let us be found looking like one of those skeletons seen on tee-shirts that have "Yea, but it's a dry heat" written on them. When we finally pulled into Wendover and that idiot light on Tweeks dash had turned into a light that appeared to now read - YOU TWO NEED TO PAY BETTER ATTENTION. It occurred to me as we pulled into the first fuel station off the ick-spressway in Wendover that maybe distracted riders from Highway Treasure Hunting weren't as uncommon as I had once thought they were. I noticed that this particular location had fuel prices that seemed like they were trying to get an deserved cut of the profits made from a long day of treasure hunting. We risked having to engage the 2 human power auxillary motor that Tweeks carrys on her back and we rode down the road a little farther and to see if we could save some of our precious earnings. We were all very happy to find gas down the road for almost a whole dollar per gallon less!!

Fellow travelers who were following Interstate 80 on that day were having a lot of fun taking pictures of Tweeks, Tip and I as we hustled along the interstate with our gear hanging on Tweeks backend and a couple sleeping bags stuffed between the two of us. I am not sure whether or not those same travelers had ever seen CTFWers who were also Highway Treasure Hunters before but they didn't seen to appear that way. We had ridden about a half an hour in this new seating position before the three of us found a place where someone had placed a truck stop along the highway. The girl behind the counter at the truck stop seemed real understanding as we asked if they had a lost and found area for things found along the highway. She called the manager to the front desk to make the decision as to whether or not the store could take on the responsibility of caring for the two sleeping bags that sat there patently waiting for an answer. The manager decided that it was probably in the best interest of the two orphaned bags to stay under his care. I was somewhat relieved to hear his final answer because their company did make for some somewhat crowded seating positions on Tweeks but, we will always remember those two orphaned sleeping bags that we rescued.

I could feel the difference in Tweeks attitude as the three of us pulled out of my daughters driveway the following morning. Tweeks is different than a lot of her kind in that she has an actual Adrenaline gland hidden somewhere deep within her mechanical/electrical systems that reacts every time she gets excited. The adrenaline mixes with her gasoline and 20/50 weight oil systems somehow and she develops some almost human like attitudes when she knows something special is about to take place. I have felt this attitude many times in her fairly short life and I was feeling it now. It was 7 a.m and we were working our way out of the Sacramento area and headed toward Donner Pass. Having ridden the area where people like @Condor and @EasyRider call home and knowing from experience that anytime a motorcyclist can catch the area during pre-rush hour it it works in that same motorcyclist best interest. We had taken the back roads out of Wilton, found our way up thru Rancho Cordova and came out not to far from Folsom Prison all while discussing a quick trip up to Glacier National Park. Feeling the increase in Tweeks adrenaline levels, I could tell the old girl liked the sound of that so Tip and I decided we would go with her as she CTFW there. Knowing that the state of Montana, which holds within her porfolio that well known park called Glacier, was north of us, the three of us grabbed a heading that would hopefully land us safely up in that region. Wanting to double check our internal compass headings, we stopped at a fuel station near Donner Pass, fed Tweeks, got re-acquainted with human road grub and borrowed a map from the station attendant. After looking at a genuine map of the United States, the three of us were amazed at how much east and than north we would need to travel in order to link up with the Great State of Montana's Glacier NP. Having had our fill of getting cold up in the northern mountains of California and noticing how close we were to the heat of Salt Lake City, we made the decision to hi-tail it across the ick-spress way to Salt Lake. I had been stretched out on Tweeks back, had gotten a pretty good suntan going on one side of my already tanned stomach and was just about to roll into a slight side saddle position to try and catch some rays on the other side of my body (if you don't do this you can return home from CTFWing looking like a creature off Star Trek) to equal my tan out when something caught my eye. As it drew closer I could see that what ever I was looking at on the side of Interstate 80 was not a natural growth from the concrete. One of the really fun things about CTFWing is having the time to stop and see what those little objects found on the the sides of highways are. This has become a form of boredom breaking for the three of us thru the years of CTFWing. It may sound crazy to all but a few fellow CTFWers, probably only CTFWers who also enjoy things like treasure hunting with one of those metal detector apparatuses will really find any value in this little section of the story. Tip and I can get caught up in CTFW Treasure Hunting to the extent that we sometimes will go for hours just looking for treasure. Its not normal, it can even be a little dangerous (I once stopped on a busy 6 lane highway out near a place called Mount Royal in New Jersey to pick up an old motorcycle helmet that had fallen off another riders bike - I will never do that again) but, if you are careful, highway treasure hunting can be a lot of fun and can actually help with a decease known to CTFWers as Ick-Spressway Depressive Disorder or ISDD. This treasure hunt revealed what appeared to be a couple sleeping bags, one of them brand new, inside of someones plastic carrying case. I instantly felt sorry for those very friendly sleeping bags who had gotten separated from their rightful owners - probably some crazy folks out CTFWing - and could not find it within me to just leave them laying there in the hot Nevada desert sun.

Having spent some time with the kids followed by a quick trip down to tour San Francisco (never did get to ride on a trollie car like they used to show on the Streets of San Francisco - bummer), our feet started getting itchy for real open country CTFWing. A day or so of sitting still in traffic when you have a perfectly good CTFWing motorcycle sitting between your legs can get to you. The kids were sad to hear we would be heading back out but they also knew we would be back. I jumped on VentureRider.org and announced an emergency Meet and Greet at a local Ice Cream Shop - a place called Leatherby's in Elk Grove California, just in case any VentureRider.org members wanted to join us for a farewell ice cream fix. I made the announcement on VR that ALL VentureRider.org members were welcome to this, Tippy and Pucs first official Meet and Greet. There are over 12,000 members registered at VentureRider.org and I figured if we could even get 10 percent of those 12000 people to show up we could have a really fun ice cream party. Later that evening when Tip and I pulled into Leatherby's, I was shocked to see the place packed with people! Unfortunately, they were not all people who had responded to our late invitation BUT, there were a couple of great VR families that showed up! @Condor and his lovely daughter came to scratch the ice cream itch with us, Condor was able to give me a pretty good run for my money on gobbling down some amazingly tasty Banana Nut Ice Cream. If you have been following this somewhat lengthy ride story, you may recognize Condor as being the same person who had helped me put that plate of Gravy Covered French Fry's back at Mount Hood out of their misery - that Condor, he is good buddy!! The other people who showed up for our impromptu Meet and Greet were a lovely couple who also happen to reside in this region of California. @EasyRider and his wife were also at The Dalles Rally, Tip and I had gotten a chance to chat with them just a little while attending the rally and we were hoping that somehow we could have an opportunity to meet their family, we were very glad to see them all at Leatherby's. These amazing people have been pouring out their hearts by being adoptive parents for many years - they are also great American Hero's in the truest form. Their presents and friendship at that little meet and greet was a blessing beyond words! @EasyRiders second to the youngest sat next to Tip and I and we had a blast watching him gobble ice cream - he could almost compete with Condor!! Easyrider presented me with a gorgeous patch for Tweeks that perfectly describes a true CTFWers outlook on life - to this day, Tweeks proudly wears her patch from EasyRider that declares for all the world to see, "Ride To Eat - Eat To Ride"!

I had no sooner gotten Tweeks re-shod and put back together and those two grandsons of mine showed up. They were both pumped up about having their Grandpa around for a couple more grueling days. We boys were given an hour or so before dinner was gonna need to be eaten so we wondered over and started picking dirt bikes out of the tree in their front yard. The three of us rode and played until it got late and the dinner bell rang - it is amazing how time just seems to evaporate when I get around these two young California champions and it brings such deep joy to my heart to be part of their young lives while we evaporate as much time together as we can! My second born daughter joined us for dinner. While we were eating, we all got talking about how fortunate Tip and I had been that those two Texas Hero's of ours, @bikerjohn and @Squidley, had rescued us when Tweeks stator had decided to go on a vacation of its own way back in Texas. It was my second born daughters graduation that we were ultimately trying to get to so I mentioned to her just how fortunate we had been. Her and I thought we ought to do something special for those two Texas Cowboys. We decided to put our feeling to song, we walked out by the pasture behind Dead-Eye and Earth Movers house and sang a quick thank-you song to those two Great Texans. It was not until much later that I discovered that one of those beautiful horses in the background had heard our singing and decided to join in with a whinny in perfect timing!

My daughter had long since gone to work by the time Tip and I walked out into her kitchen to see how many eggs and how much bacon the young lady had left in her refrigerator. Having spent the better part of 35 years of marriage raising those four kids has to have some form of benefits and, the way I figured it - being able to rob the contents of one of their refrigerators had to be written in that benefit package somewhere. Tip finished frying the last couple eggs the kid had and I dug around and scrounged up a half a package of bacon in her freezer, we ate real well that morning. After breakfast we left a note on her table to let her know that we two loafers had eaten her last couple eggs and would try to replace them when we came back, our daughter loves us and knows we are good for dozen eggs. We headed towards our grandsons, Dead-Eye and Earth Movers, house down near Wilton California. When I pulled onto their little ranch, I heard Tip start laughing. I joined her when I looked at what she was pointing at - I had left their dirt bikes hanging in a tree in their front yard when we left for The Dalles - now there were two dirt bikes and two bicycles hanging in that same tree!! Their dad told me later that those two boys LOVED my storage idea and had been hanging their bikes there since the day they had gotten home and found what I had done! The new 65 dollar Full Bore rear tire I had ordered was sitting in my Son-In-Laws kitchen waiting for me as I walked in the door. Tip had started a load of laundry when I announced that I was gonna go out and start the process of prepping Tweeks for the ride eastward.. I walked outside, dropped the tent off Tweeks rearward rack, looked down and could not believe what I saw!! That Metzler 880 that I had been bragging about (it had lasted a lot longer than any tire I could remember) was coming apart at the seams! I thought about all the mountain riding Tweeks had just endured with Tip and I on her back and I shuttered to think of what could have happened had that tire had let go while we were hugging the corners on some of those twisted Northern California mountain back roads just a couple days earlier. I had gone over the tire carefully before we had left The Dalles (I even checked CMCoffeys and the other bikes before I left too, I cant stand having flat tires when on the road and don't want my buddies having them either). I have had to ride fully loaded touring bikes down with flat tires and it is NO fun!! I checked the air pressure again in the bad tire, it was perfect. I looked for any sign of something that may have caused the tire to come apart and could find nothing - THAT was really really strange! I was very happy that the new tire I had ordered had gotten delivered because there was NO WAY I would have trusted the one that Tweeks was wearing for even a short ride into town to try and track down a new one!

I think Tip and I actually camped on the outskirts of Bristol last year on our way home from the International (I know, your gonna yell at me for not camping in your yard but it was 2 a.m. when we finally shut Tweeks off and dropped the tent and we didnt wanna bother you guys).. Anyway, THAT area has some of the most gorgeous views known to man,, too:big-grin-emoticon: That wasnt the spot I am trying to find though.. Awawhoo and I found the one I am referring to years ago during a long weekend she had from school in Greenville.. We had left Greenville the day before - went west into Georgia and than CTFWing into the northern Georgia mountains. It was the second day, late in the day and we came to this little Northern Georgia Mountain town that was right on the border of Tennessee - Georgia flags flying on one side of the little main street and Tennessee flags on the other.. I am telling ya bro,, the mountain roads we took shortly after leaving that little town were AMAZING! Some of the most outstanding riding and views known to man!! :big-grin-emoticon: Isnt it funny how some of us feel the same way about all motorcycles,, I feel the same way about them,, I simply have never met a bike that I didnt love and have yet to find a place that doesnt somehow come out to be the greatest place on the planet to be riding em!! I am one screwed up mess I tell ya!! I even LOVED riding Death Valley,,, lights disconnected, full moon night, 105 degrees,, UNBELIEVABLE!!! Like a different planet!! Like you and everybody else, I need spring,, really really really bad!!!

This is interesting Duey.. I had a conversation with a couple guys from Italy when out at Sturgis a few years ago. One was on a KLR and the other on a Honda XL.. They had rented the bikes in Utah somewhere and found their way to the Strugis Rally in South Dakota. They were telling me that Harley was the only Touring bike they could find for rent (seems like there a lots of Harley shops that rent scoots) and none of the shops had one available out west because it was rally time. They said that they could not find a metric rental place that handled anything other than from the big "Trail" bikes on down to the mopeds - they took what they could find and headed out.. I hope you are able to find what you are looking for and will be watching this thread, with curiousity, to see what you end up with!!

:group cheers: Oh yea!! Ya got that right Randy!! Speaking of your neck of the woods, many years ago my daughter and I were playing around in the mountains of northern Georgia. We came to this small town whose main street was the actual boundary of Georgia and Tennessee - Georgia on the left, Tennessee on the right.. Shortly after leaving that town in a westerly direction, we started winding hairpin turns while working along the mountain side that made the tail of the dragon look like a flat - straight highway!! As I recall, there were signs posted that said "no trucks" along the trail! I have never been able to find that place again (part of the problem of CTFWing) but would LOVE to know where it was as it is definitely on my list(s) of the most beautiful spots on earth!!!

Now THERE is an idea that I haven't seen yet!! Hmmm......

she was the type of Russian women who actually shaves her legs, a rarity within the small Russian village she had originally came from. She had lost the straight razor she used to shave her legs and came back to this forum looking for it. The razor was no longer to be found because @pbjman had picked it up. He, @vzuden, @mrsteve, @bongobobny, @Drews and @Brake Pad were now using for

You lop eared frost bit varmint Fool,, thats the confounded stuffed Robin I stuck in that tree when I was there working on the White Washer while you were deer hunting last year - I left em there hoping he would fool the Fool into thinking that Spring had sprung and the machine wouldn't get tinkered with until late in the fall of 2015..

Congrats on the Wedding Anniversary to you and your lovely Bride you Old Seadog you!! I hope you two are out celebrating the day away!

You know what I have found that really helps in those situations PB? Close your eyes and use the force!!

If it truly needs springs, it might not be a bad idea to drop a set in - its really not that big of job. Having full travel of your front suspension is best for the bike and for you! Lots of unpredictable riding surfaces out there, about the time you hit a series of stutter bumps when you are hard on the binders trying to keep from smacking into some kid talking on a cell phone while they just pulled out in front of you,,,, well, trust me, you will be GLAD those Progressives are sucking up road chatter instead of getting bounced off the road... Hopefully that new scoot is PERFECT and needs NOTHING!

Sissy or not, any needle poking that happens to ol Pucster is when there is a genuine MD on the sticking end and even then, only with a lot of talking me into it!