Time Travel

I pulled out of the driveway this morning not realizing that I would be taking a trip back in time before I returned home this afternoon. Honda never intended their motorcycles to be able to go back in time, and my Pacific Coast isn't a motorcycle capable of time travel; except that it helped me travel to my launch point that would carry me all the way back to 1960. This particular Pacific Coast can only go back in time to 1990… My MV Agusta can fold space and time but it can't go back that far either.

I rode the PC into the back woods of Virginia in search of several different things. The first of which were gray squirrels. Yeah I know there isn't much of a connection between motorcycles and gray squirrels until you realize that I just happen to be a passionate squirrel hunter.

In my younger days I hunted everything, mostly two legged deer… but as time passed deer and turkey hunting was just too much work. Both required a lot of special gear and a real dedication to be successful. But squirrel hunting was a lazy mans hunt. Squirrels are plentiful most years, and if hunted with a 22 caliber rifle or pistol, they're a challenge to stalk and shoot. Never mind that they're exceptional table fair in a stew or southern fried. By the way they don't taste like chicken, but the flavor is very mild and not at all gamey.

Riding to my friend's house; my route carried me by one of Virginia's many wildlife management areas. And this particular one was one I had become very familiar with over the last twenty years or so. I took the opportunity to ride in and just sit for a few minutes and count the bushy tails. This year looked like it was going to be a good one in the cycle of squirrel lives. However squirrel hunting didn't have a thing to do with time travel.

My second and real purpose today was to visit my friend John and see the new additions to his exquisite collection of antique motorcycles. After some coffee and discussion over some Chibies, Yamahas and other items, we moved to the driveway where John introduced me to a nice running example of 60s Honda Super 90. He then; with a few deft kicks of the little kick starter; fired it up. The first step in time travel…

As you can see the Super 90 isn't very big comparied to the My Pacific Coast...

Ok I don't know what the smallest motorcycle you've ridden lately, but I haven't been on a S90 in some 40 years. I remember the invasion of motorcycles from Japan, with displacements from 50cc all the way up to 250s. All of these small motorcycles had a very direct impact on motorcycling and many of us who are now the elder generation of motorcycle enthusiasts. Hell I used to drag race a Honda S65 and achieved hair razing speeds in the 1/8 mile of 60 mph.

John slightly rolled the S90 out to the drive way and told me to take it out for a test ride… little did I know that today I was to be the subject of John's time travel experiences.

One of the first things you notice when you swing your leg over the Super 90 is it doesn't have any weight, I mean it just doesn't weight more than about 100 pounds. And after getting off a 500 pound motorcycle it feels like a bicycle…

Out here in the very back country where John lives there isn't any traffic and no chance of running up on a police car… so we rode ala 1960 no gear, no helmet and armed with smiles that come from deep inside old men who are playing like children.

We rode up and down the road most of the morning, the longer the S90 ran the better it got or the better I got at manipulating the little controls with my big feet. Step two of time travel…doing it enough to forget your age; you start to feel younger with each few feet you travel. The little S90 sheds years from memory; I started to feel more like 16 than 60.

Ok so here we are racing up and down a country lane at a break neck speed of 40 mph; I'm doing my best "Mike Hailwood" impersonation and laughing the whole time…it's impossible not to smile when you're riding one of these steel horses of our youth.

As soon as I got on it and started riding, all kinds of memories of high school and the adventures in motorcycling I had as a teen on Long Island, came flooding back to me. When I was 16, a motorcycle like the S90 wasn't considered small by the owner's standards, we traveled Long Island's full length and width. Back then traffic wasn't like today, and speed limits were well within the capabilities of the little motorcycles. The modern motorcycle, as we know it today, matured from these little machines and the flames they inspired in riders around the world…

What a day, I spent it with a good friend, and traveled all the way back to my youth. the next time John said he had an MB5 he wanted me to try, I know I have to be real careful now I may not come back from another trip back to my youth; after all I had hair again and being a teenager again was fun…