Juan-Manuel, thank you for the nice words but I have never thought of myself as anything but a screwball. When I look at all of those on this forum that have accomplished so much by their dedication and focus I cannot include myself amongst them. Yes, I guess that I have a lot of stories because I tried a lot of things that weren't on the track to riches and success. I lived with a brother that was a successful and highly respected doctor, one of my sisters was a great nurse, one was an executive in the Dept. of The Interior, two nieces are nurses and three nephews are highly rated medical techs. The only thing that I can say that was a bit successful for me was some art ability that I inherited from my father and a knack for designing things at Boeing. I never worked hard for any of it like they did. I guess that I just used what I had. My brother surprised me just before he passed away when he said that he always envied me for the free life and flying that I was able to do. And most of my life was spent with family members shaking their heads at the Goofball in the family. Like my old black friend, Levy Green, would say, "Dat's Jest De Way It Is."
I had a '48 Harley 45, gear shift on the left side of the tank, foot clutch, big black leather saddle bags, a bar with three lights , and a hard rear end (mine. too). I'll try to find a picture. I wish that I could find the picture of my date and me arriving at the Spring Prom with her on the bike in back of me and with the train of her beautiful white gown stuffed in one of the saddle bags. She didn't ride side saddle either but she arranged things properly. We caused a little riot when we rode up and had to repeat it so they could get pictures. She was a great little sport and a lot of fun.
what year would this be? Hells Angels weren't around till '48. .......... and what have you got on your feet? .
Thanks, Jim. I was just thinking about the fun I had at around midnight when the girls were cramming for finals. The women's campus was at the north end of the campus complex and the dorm buildings had terraces that stepped down between the dorms. The buildings were fairly close together and the terrace went down to the woods. It was fun to get the bike at the top of the terrace between the dorms, rev it up, cut the ignition while the throttle was still open. and then turn on the ignition with full throttle. The reverberation of the backfiring between the dorms was marvelous, kind of like a WW2 attack. It was easy then to coast down into the woods and make it out to the main road and drive along like I didn't hear a thing. One day between classes I got stopped by a campus cop and all he said was, "ONE OF THESE DAYS!" That day never came around, luckily.
anyone riding a Harley with suicide shift is a 'biker dude'. You didn't buy yourself a Honda. But yeah, that bike with those shoes is a little 'oddball'. .
It might be oddball now but it wasn't then. You rode your bike in what you had on because you weren't trying to be anybody, it was transportation and got me from place to place. There were only two of us with bikes on the entire campus then but we were tolerated.
We saw a classic Biker Dude when a car load of us was stopped in the traffic going into the Wake Forest/ Duke football game. Then came a Harley Hog between the cars, slowly chugging along. He went past us and we got a good look at his bike and outfit. The bike was fully dressed with tassels hanging from the handle bars, mud flaps, lights all over, and studs around the edge of the leather seat. The Dude had a black cap with a white bill and white straps and complete with a 50 mission crush. His black leather jacket had studs down the sleeves to his black leather gauntleted gloves but best of all was the back of his jacket decorated with silver studs that spelled "BUCK". His huge kidney belt had the same name in studs on the back of it. Someone in our car yelled, " Hey, BUCK, as he slowly chugged ahead. He stopped and pushed back to us with a questioning look on his face and said, " Hi. Do I know you guys?" Of course the answer was ,"We don't thinks so." His answer, " Gosh, how did you know my name?"
My high school geometry teacher was in that movie. He was one of Lee Marvins gang. Told us great stories about making it. He inspired some of my misspent youth. Not really the role model Mom had in mind.
The guy and bike are both just wannabe losers. The guy even has a stolen 'participation' trophy tied onto the bars. Bob Parks was the real deal. .
More oddball. My bike buddy wore a thick knit cap with fluffy ball on the top, blue and white , knitted by his mother, to match his bike. She was kind enough to knit me one in red and white to match my bike and it really helped during the winter when it snowed. Our trusty steeds turned into four-legged creepers then, two wheels and two legs. Days long gone.
We never rode very much on the open roads, it was mainly going from class to class on the Duke campus. The snow was fairly well packed on the roads but still kind of dicey. All of this brings back things that I haven't thought about in years like coordinating the left foot with the right hand to get a smooth clutch to throttle action. Another thing that came back was trying to hold the bike on a hill with the front wheel brake and trying to kick start it while it was slowly moving down hill backwards. I tried to keep a chock in the saddle bag. I recently had a ride in a Tesla and couldn't believe how much is done or already done for the driver. I felt that you could start a trip ( punch it in) , go to sleep and it would wake you up when you got there.
Not yet and I'm not sure that day will come as soon as some think. Seems that Autopilot has a problem detecting motorcycles from behind .... and children. Hey, c'mon, nothings perfect. >>> Just for the record, I am Tesla fan, but NOT a fan of 'AUTOPILOT' (worst name ever for something that DOES NOT WORK! ..... yet ) ..... and Ralph Nader is still at it! Doin what he does. If Ralph Nader has your product in his sights you better have a lot of good lawyers on retainer. Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Tesla’s ‘manslaughtering’ Full Self-Driving vehicles Nader called FSD ‘one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades’ https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/10/23299973/ralph-nader-tesla-fsd-recall-nhtsa-autopilot-crash Tesla Investigated For Two Motorcyclists Killed In Autopilot Crashes https://insideevs.com/news/603364/tesla-probe-motorcyclist-crash-autopilot-higwhway-night/ Tesla’s self-driving technology fails to detect children in the road, group claims https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/09/tesla-self-driving-technology-safety-children .
Correct! The driver tried to show me how it detected nearby pedestrians. It didn't. It didn't detect nearby vehicles either. It did stop at a cross street. I didn't feel completely confident in it's behavior. Acceleration off the line was incredible, though.
This thread certainly went into a different direction- but getting back on topic, it was reported today that the pilot who departed his aircraft, was so upset with the hard landing and the fact the gear was broke, he got sick opened his window, threw up, apologized to his copilot, opened up the rear door, and jumped out. What a weird world we live in. I understand a perfectionist wanting to always be on their game, but we ALL make mistakes. This is truly a weird ending, unless there is more to the story, which certainly never came out. Did a girlfriend dump him or mess around? Hard to focus flying a plane if you're going through grief in your personal life. The report from his parents was his life was perfect. This is tragic. Twenty three years old and already flying some pretty great planes with a lot of skills.
