"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54)
07/21/2016 at 11:48 • Filed to: two wheels good
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"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54)
07/21/2016 at 11:48 • Filed to: two wheels good | 1
| 1 |
“What goes around comes around.” This saying applies to a great many things in life. If you’re nice to other people, other people are likely to be nice to you. If you help a friend when they’re down, that friend is likely to help you when you need it most. If you pound a tetherball as hard as you can, that tetherball is likely to fly around the pole and smack you in the face. And now, I’ve had two motorcycles come back to me, too.
Read on Right Wrist Twist or continue below
The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a.k.a. LS650, a.k.a. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , is a small cruiser – too small for me, to be honest. Yet it’s an excellent and popular choice for smaller riders, particularly new ones. It’s low enough for them to flat-foot, and light enough (381lbs wet) to not feel overwhelming after the small 125s and 250s of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Yet unlike another short rider favorite, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Savage’s 650cc single cylinder engine provides adequate power for all types of riding, including the highway. My old CM250 Custom, on which the Rebel is based, would have Scotty call me from the engine room and say “I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s got, Captain!” as I tried to maintain the speed limit on the interstate. It was for these reasons that a number of years ago my girlfriend at the time, Pam, bought a 1986 Savage off Craigslist.
Looks great. Too bad it didn’t run, but we knew that going in.
She got it for a song because it was in non-running condition. The previous owner was completely honest about having run out of oil on the Maine Turnpike, and it had never run since. But the engine wasn’t seized, either, so we figured there was hope. The tires were old and dry rotted, so she replaced those. Because Pam had no motorcycle license when we started this adventure (she later took the MSF course, as all new riders should), she couldn’t get insurance for the bike to register it. That seems kind of backwards to me – how else are you supposed to get the experience to be a safe rider besides riding? But that’s the way it was. So we registered and insured it in my name instead. I already owned and insured my Honda Silverwing, so we just added it to my policy.
Meanwhile, I’d brought the Savage over to a nearby biker buddy’s house, who was convinced that we could rebuild it together in his garage. It’s like an oversized lawn mower single cylinder lawn mower engine. It’s so small that it fit in the trunk of my Miata for transport to the machine shop to get the cylinder rebored for a +1 size piston. How hard could it be?
Really, I’ve been here. But I didn’t try on any wedding gowns.
We were only a couple of miles away from this place that the internet has made famous. Yes, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! really exists in Windsor, Maine, where my friend lives. They have an excellent hardware section, which we raided more than once to replace rusted or busted bolts and such.
A year passed, consisting mostly of not working on the bike, and goofing off while we were. There was frequently cold beer involved (we were close to Hussey’s, after all). My friend also had a sweet R/C car track, which was a frequent distraction.
I vividly recall one work session where, out of blue, he asked me, “Do you wanna shoot a gun that’ll KICK YOUR ASS???” So I did. Don’t ask me what his hunting rifle was. I know almost nothing about guns aside from how to be safe around them and what I’ve learned watching !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . There wasn’t even a target, just a big pile of dirt to catch the bullet. It did not kick my ass, but it did have quite a kick, and I was thankful for his insistence that I brace the stock with my shoulder before firing.
As you might expect, the work on the motorcycle (there was a motorcycle here?) was haphazard at best. Eventually, pretty much when my friend finally wanted that part of his garage back, we got it all back together again. And with a bit of cranking, it started, and it actually ran! Mission accomplished.
I broke down halfway home when the freshly rebuilt motor let the magic smoke out. A lot of smoke. It never ran again.
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Take Two
Rather than dump any more money into the old Savage, Pam decided to 86 the ’86 and ended up buying a 2001 model from another old friend of mine. It belonged to her husband who had recently passed away. I’ve never needed a death certificate to register a motorcycle before or since. That was weird, but necessary to certify that she could legally sell his bike. Once again, we registered it in my name rather than Pam’s, for the same reasons as before.
Second verse, same as the first.
This bike was a runner. The back tire was bald and the front was dry rotted, but no problem – we’d just swap over the new tires from the ’86. The Boulevard S40 you can buy new today has barely changed from the original 1986 model – a 5-speed transmission has replaced the original 4-speed, but that’s the only major difference – so most parts are interchangeable. We drove down to Massachusetts, and I rode it back to Maine. Halfway back, I discovered that while the Savage has no problem maintaining 65mph on the interstate, the vibration from the single cylinder was making much of my body go numb at those engine speeds. We bailed off the Maine Turnpike, and I found the bike to be perfectly happy at 50-55mph, which is what most state highways in Maine are posted outside of populated areas.
Read on Right Wrist Twist or continue below
It had now been so long since Pam took the MSF course that she had to remember how to ride again. From time to time, I’d ride the bike across town to the Augusta Civic Center parking lot. This is where she’d taken her course, and she practiced on the range while I watched and gave advice. We did this several times, but the confidence didn’t seem to be building. As a single mother (of the little guy sitting on the back of the bike with me), she didn’t have much time to go riding. She probably would’ve felt better if I was with her, but I was at work when her son was in school, so that never happened.
I’m going to skip a chunk of my personal life here. Suffice it to say that I moved out, we split, and she didn’t have the interest to try riding again on her own.
Third Time’s A Charm?
Fast forward a bunch more years. Once again, I have a garage to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and a significant other – my wife, Elana – who, after hopping on the back with me a bit, would like to learn to ride her own bike. Since we just bought the garage house, this has been way down the list of priorities in life. But it bubbled back up near the top when Pam offered us a package deal on both bikes for far less than she has into them. She’s selling her old house, and they were taking up space in the garage. Despite me having enabled her to sell them on her own, she was never able to – hence the super low “just get them out of here” price.
How could we refuse? So this past weekend I hooked up the trailer to Elana’s Ford Flex and drove to my old home in Maine to pick them up. It was strange to be back there. So many memories – not all are good, but many are excellent, and I always loved riding in Maine. Pam’s new significant other helped me roll the bikes onto the trailer and hold them while I tied them down. We took her car to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for lunch (I’d never heard of them but they’re big on the east coast, and in the Middle East of all places), and then I brought the Savages to their new home.
We’re still unpacking. Cut me some slack for the mess.
The plan is essentially the same as before – put the 2001 bike on the road, and hang onto the 1986 bike for parts. Elana doesn’t care for the saddlebags, so I’ll take them off. I’ll definitely swap wheels and tires to put the good rubber on the 2001, and check everything rubber for cracks or leaks. Pam assured me that I used fuel stabilizer when I parked it way back when. If I’m lucky, a new battery may be all it needs. When they were sitting on the trailer side by side, I noticed that the ’86 Savage has a few extra holes at the back of the stock muffler than the ’01 does. A Savage with a stock exhaust sounds more like a sewing machine to me than a motorcycle, so we may consider swapping mufflers. But ultimately that choice is up to Elana. It’s her bike, after all.
As for the 1986, RWT ‘s Kate Murphy has given me bad ideas about doing a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! conversion. I’m not sure. At bare minimum, it needs a new engine (I’m not going to try rebuilding this one after it’s blown twice) and new tires. It’s also missing a few parts that I lost over the years – my bad. So most likely it’ll remain a parts bike. But not definitely...
Here’s the funny part. Despite me moving out of Maine five years ago, both of these bikes are still legally mine. Pam never sold them or registered them in her name. So what goes around comes around. There won’t be any sales tax, because I can’t sell them to myself. I can certainly “give” the 2001 to Elana to put it in her name if she wants, but until she has a motorcycle license of her own there’s little point to that.
A biker is born. Don’t worry, she has gear.
If the smile on her face is any indication, I don’t think that will take long. She was so enthusiastic to sit on it she couldn’t even wait for me to get it off the trailer first. After rolling it off the trailer and into our garage herself, she confirmed that the Savage is a perfect fit for her, and that she feels completely comfortable on it. Not bad for being a sight unseen purchase for her, and that’s even before I’d tried to start the engine.
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Which runs! Pam was right about the fuel stabilizer. Five years in storage, and the Savage was easier to start (off a booster pack) than my PC800 after a single winter slumber. Elana is itching to try riding it around the yard. I’d better get to work.
THShorn92 - Left his car in America
> Justin Hughes
07/21/2016 at 14:57 |
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Have a buddy with an 88 Savage I have started working on with him. At 6'5" it is way to small for me, but my better half isn’t big on bikes, so I will take wrenching on his for now.