Bay Area: Alice's Restaurant (Woodside, CA)

[Gone in 60]

I've noticed that any time that I don't wear earbuds and can hear the sounds my bikes make at low enough speeds that wind doesn't drown out mechanical noises, I am bemused by what I hear. The Triumph makes a sound like Mom's old sewing machine. The Enfield makes a staccato belt through it's Indian-made mufflers, and the CB1100 makes a low thrum through the Staintune. Each engine makes it's churning, tapping way through life.

When I took a shake-down ride on the Triumph last weekend after completing the valve shim changes and related cam removal, I thought I purposely rode through the slow streets without any earplugs to listen carefully. I thought I heard something different, but pulling off and putting ears next to the running engine, it was all my imagination.