by Lee Meyer |
|
I
have been putting off the bike storage thing hoping for a
last late fall ride. Now that it is almost Thanksgiving and
there is snow and ice everywhere, reality is setting in.
That last ride will not happen. The frigid ice storm is upon
us once again. There is nothing we can do about it, so today
I fired the beast up and rode it onto a trailer for the trip
to my storage garage. What a bummer. About once a month I
will go over to visit my bike this winter, peel the cover
off and fire it up. While the engine warms I'll stand back,
give it a look and admire it's exceptional coolness while
muttering some obscenities about this nasty
climate. This has been a
tough fall for me, and I am sure it will be a difficult
winter. I've been doing quite a bit of thinking lately, and
I've decided some changes are in order both professionally
and personally. For reasons having to do more with forward
growth and learning, other than financial, I am now employed
at a different South Minneapolis shop. I am looking forward
to the future at my new location with its new challenges and
things to learn. I have also decided to sell my
bike. In 1993, when the
first Kawasaki ZX-11D came out, I just had to have one. My
wallet, however, told me to get screwed. The dream bike had
to wait. A year later, a friend bought a '94 model. Man, was
it cool. I seethed with envy. I still couldn't afford one,
new or used. Unfortunately, my friend crashed his new ZX
with only 900 miles on the clock. The front end was shot,
forks actually broken, wheel bent, etc. My buddy got his
bell rung pretty good too, but wasn't permanently damaged.
It turned out he did not have full coverage insurance on the
bike; he did not have the means to fix the bike, and he
would never feel comfortable on it again, anyway. The deal
was made. I could afford a wrecked ZX11. My dream bike. It
was a mess, but it was mine. Several months
later I ran into some financial problems, and the toys had
to go. I had to eat. I recovered enough to buy a 1989 ZX-10
-- the closest I could come to the Almighty Lord of Speed
without killing my recently recovered wallet. I rode that
Kawasaki for about a year. In late winter '95 - '96, a guy I
knew with a nice 1993 ZX-11D stopped by. He needed some cash
and had decided to sell the bike to a dealer, cheap. I told
him to hold his horses for a couple of hours and called my
bank. Mr. Banker said sure, and the next day I again had my
dream bike. Life was good. Now, two years and
thousands of miles and dollars have gone by the big
Kawasaki. It is still going strong and wearing better
brakes, forks, shock, pipe, etc. The time has come to let go
and put what seems like a member of my family up for sale.
It's not for the money this time, but another member of the
family needs some attention. My 1964 Plymouth dragster
hasn't seen a quarter mile track since the early seventies.
It's time to put new life into the beast and return it to
the strip. The ZX-11 is complete and in need of nothing but
large amounts of open road and plenty of premium fuel to
drink. Sooner or later
Kawasaki will build a ZX-12 that will be so wicked and scary
that I'll be standing in line to buy one. Until then, if you
or anyone you know has a GS1100E Suzuki that's not too nice
for sale, give me a call. Enough mindless
rambling. Next time we will actually try to fix something
here at the Rocket Doctor's. See ya. -Doc M.M.M.
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