Mick Gets Onto His First Bike
It is Spring of 1993. I am in my Toyota Camry, stopped at the corner of Horton St and Wellington Rd in London, ON Canada, facing west, waiting for the light to go green. Nice day, I have my window down. There is a Honda Goldwing in the left turn lane, and an empty lane between he and I. I am not paying any attention to the 'Wing; it sounds something like a Singer sewing machine at idle. Suddenly all hell breaks loose. An old Harley RatBike pulls up beside me. Perhaps it is an IronHead, or maybe an old Shovel. It is loud. It is shakin'. The rider is not wearing much more than a leather vest, jeans, and a cigarette.
I had never in my life wanted a motorcycle. Nothing against them, they just never entered my mind. But that thing lit me up. My immediate thought was "I gotta get me one of those". By mid-July I had taken the motorcycle course at the College and bought my first bike, a 1985 Yamaha Virago XV500K.
Mick Gets Onto His First Sportster
The next year I gave that bike to the gf as a birthday present and bought a 1985 Honda Shadow VT750C. A few years later another Shadow, a 1997 VT1100C brand new, then at one time or another three 1985 Yamaha Virago XV1000K project bikes.
Throughout those years Steve from the Sportsters Club deigned to speak with me. He even invited me to go on club rides. I won the 50/50 draw when I rode a Honda, and they let me get away with the money. And on one ride a Sportster broke down and the guy rode bitch on my Honda for the rest of the ride. But the day finally arrived. I went to Steve and said "I think I need a Sportster". A few weeks later, it is the Fall of 2003, I had a 1998, 883 -> 1200.
Mick Gets Onto His IronHead
Then something happened and I had to have an IronHead. I don't know what it was. In our club Steve has one, Bob has one, Lindsay has one, Ken has one. I needed a winter project. Mark's neighbor Sandy had a 1980 that he was willing to part with. A meeting, a visit to the bank, another meeting, an exchange of cash for Iron. It is a bit more than a decade since that fateful moment at Horton and Wellington, now the Fall of 2004, and I have my IronHead.
Mick Learns About Motorcycle Maintenance
With each of my bikes i have bought and studied the factory manual and any aftermarket manuals i could get my hands on. I took a 12 week night school course on motorcycle maintenance while i had my second bike. I am not a mechanic. I am not an expert on motorcycle mechanics. I have learned a lot from good guys on these forums, and i am glad to share. But there are others who have deeper understanding of this stuff than do i.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, like the look, sound and feel of original Harley Davidson Iron.
For more about me check out my website:
http://mdawdy.webs.com
The original IronMick Intro post with comments:
Click Here, eh.
Yours Truly,
