Journey from the past

[GoldOxide_imp]

Can't wait to read it [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=3454]PB. Scans of images would be a bonus, even if no motorcycle is shown.

Last night in a basement I just resurrected an old audio turntable from 1981 and so far the restoration is coming along splendidly. There is some satisfaction piecing together a part our your life that is worth revisiting.

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

From the past! OK, here we go. I've always liked bikes. I can remember ordering a Triumph catalog by mail when I was about 12 years old. I pored over it until it fell apart, but there was no way I could come up with any kind of motorized cycle. Drafted in 1968, I managed to avoid Viet Nam. I'm in Thailand, stationed on a U.S. Army tugboat in 1969. A new guy shows up, and like me he's an engineer and we both work in the engine room. We become good friends, and the talk turns to bikes. He rides! So does his whole family. His Dad has an older Triumph and a Road King. He asks me if I ride, and I say, Oh a little, not much. Then one day, we find out that it is possible to rent a bike at the sleepy little seaside resort of Pattaya, just a few klicks up the coast road. At the next payday, he's chomping at the bit, let's go, c'mon. At the vendor kiosk on the beach road we check out the row of pretty new Honda 350's. We pick two, and I'm crapping bricks. I don't know how to ride. How am I going to get out of this? My buddy puts on the mandatory helmet, starts it up, clicks it into first, and zoom, he's out of there. I get aboard mine, helmet on, and the vendor can tell this is not going right. He comes over, and like most of the service people around, can speak enough English to do business. He can tell I don't have a clue, and he gives me a quick lesson is how to ride this thing. OK, into first, clutch out, go a little ways, stop, do it again. Then go again, shift into second, and hey, I'm riding. I click it into third and fourth, and I'm headed down the road. A few klicks, and I see my buddy stopped by the side of the road. I pull up, and he shouts out some exclamation of glee, and zoom, he's out of there again. After that, we'd rent bikes for a day almost every month. Fast forwad, I'm still in the army, but in Virginia.My buddy has got out and lives in Michigan. I have my car there, and I leave VA and head to MI, where we meet up. He lives in his childhood home, a small farm near Owasso, MI. I stayed there for three weeks, and during that time he and I rode all over the local place, he on his Dad's Triumph, me on his new Triumph Bonnie. I also went with him and his whole family on a vacation ride around Lake Superior, both of us two-up on his Bonnie switching up driver/pillion. Took nine days to get around the lake, camping every night in a KOA campground. I am still in contact with my buddy, and several years ago, he came out to visit me when I lived in California. I took him sailing to Catalina Island and to Ensenada, Mexico on a six-day jaunt.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Love reading ol' stories like these.

Thanks Charlie.

[Cormanus]

Good story, Charlie. Thanks.

[Nachodaddy]

Great story, Charlie! Thanks - made my day!

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

One of the best things about riding is the friends you make! Glad ya'll liked it, U R welcome!

[GoldOxide_imp]

Thanks for your comments.
You probably would not read this story if our Ferret was not stuck at a gas station with his battery going dead, post # 9171 [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3268&page=918]http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread....8&page=918

At a later time, I will make a full version - thank you Cormanus for the idea - of this exciting trip with more details, especially through the former iron curtain USSR, and how the idea and the birth of this bike started...

Every time I visit Poland, I search for the pictures that are "hidden" somewhere, but so far without any success. There were no pictures taken when the bike was being assembled, but there should be a few pics of the bike ready to ride, plus pics from that trip...or these might be buried in my basement storage boxes here in Canada ????
If in PL this summer, I will take pics of my very raw garage with very basic hand tool, no bench, no bench vise, all original and untouched since 1981, when I suddenly left.... for Austria, then finally Canada.

The full story is coming within a week or so, as I have some errands piling up and running behind schedule after recent holidays.

Any update regarding this, [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=3454]PB?

[peterbaron]

You really grabbed me by my throat...have to dig in my basement boxes ...and then do some write up, long and slow process
If any pics left or found it will be a few of a ready bike, unfortunately no pics were taken during building this bike.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Dang. I guess the journey to the past is paused.

[Nachodaddy]

Charlie Bravo, I enjoyed your post and a small part of it reminded me of something from my past, but not to do with motorcycles - just with cheating death. When I was 19, the Air Force saw fit to send me to Thule Air Base, Greenland. Arriving in August, I got to experience the Arctic winter in all it's glory before the first Coast Guard ice-breaker ships started opening up the channels for our re-supply ships. That was when I learned the Army has a navy. The tug-boats that guided the supply ships in were Army tugs run by soldiers, who were sailors. Wrap your head around that, twenty-year-old Airman! One day our commander announced that the tug boats were taking tours for base personnel and I jumped at the chance. It was a great ride, and we got to see many wonders, but best of all was when the captain, an Army Warrant Officer, asked if we wanted to walk on an iceberg. He pulled the tug up to a huge iceberg floating in the Arctic Ocean and put a ladder against it. Up the ladder we went and walking around the iceberg. It is hard for me to believe now, but we didn't have any kind of special foot wear, like cramp-ons, to keep us from slipping and, if we'd slipped into the ocean, we'd probably have been dead before they could fish us out. We were wearing hard-sole smooth bottom boots and no one slipped. Any way, we strolled around the iceberg awhile, then back to the tug and to the dock. And, in case anyone has any heart-burn about boys having all the fun, the only women on Thule at that time were the female nurses from the hospital, and several walked on the iceberg that day.
Walking on an iceberg floating free in the Arctic Ocean is one of the highlights of my life, thanks to the US Army's Navy. And Charlie Bravo, it is nice to meet one of those special soldiers who were sailors, again.