The true beauty of this motorcycle. (another LONG read)

[LongRanger_imp]

Guth so glad to see you had a early fondness of sports cars, I did also (because my older brothers always had car mags. around the house) I was way to young to drive but could
cheat by getting a motorbike. Did have a couple sport cars but that's another subject .

This is really funny and sort of weird (and I promise you that I'm not making this up). Just last night not long after I typed up my post about my old books, my wife and I were watching a few episodes of Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee". In one episode, the actress Sarah Jessica Parker was his guest for the show. She asked him if he ever cared about a motorcycle (Seinfeld is a huge car nut). Jerry replied that he has several motorcycles. Then he went on to tell a story of how when he was young, he obsessed over whether he should become a "motorcycle guy" or a "sports car guy". One day when he was a teenager, he was at his father's shop and it happened to be raining that day. One of the guys that worked for his father was a "motorcycle guy" and had just arrived for work. The guy was soaking wet and the then teenager Seinfeld asked him "So today, don't you wish that you had a car?". Apparently the guy just looked at him and said "Nope, just wish it wasn't raining".

Seinfeld then went on to talk about the old TV show "Then Came Bronson" and he reenacted the opening scene to the show. He stated that when he first watched the opening to Then Came Bronson it was the coolest thing he had ever seen in his life. Needless to say, it was a pretty entertaining show.

In society, markedness, by its own definition, is necessarily fluid. We each have our own first experiences at different times. Therefore, the CB's of the 1970's, which many of us identify as "real motorcycles," can never be identified as "real motorcycles" to a teen growing up today. His influence, his reference point, is contemporary. Instead, the plastic-shrouded, tail-in-the-air street fighter will be his "real motorcycle," and our beloved CB's will appear as relics. I suppose in the same way that I view a Vincent or early BMW with a heavy Earles fork as a relic.

I had this exact same thought. For me, one of the coolest things about the CB1100 is that it has a direct lineage, both visually and historically, to my Dad's 1970 CB350. That bike was one of the coolest things that I had ever laid my eyes upon at that point in time (heck, to me it still is, lol). I'd love to have a CB350 just like his sitting next to my CB1100 out in the garage. Now that would be awesome.

That was a great episode. I was particularly taken by SJP's reaction to the car Jerry picked her up in (mid-70's Ford station wagon), just like her mom had when she was growing up. She waxed poetically about the clicking sound of the turn signals, and fell into heavy reminence once she heard the horn. For those into classic cars, especially exquisite vintage sports cars (not the Ford wagon!), this is a series not to be missed.