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This story starts with what I thought would be a simple
conversation with my wife Carin.
"I think I’ll ride a motorcycle from here to Buffalo
next summer."
After she got off the floor from laughing, my lovely
wife exclaimed "YOU'RE NUTS!"
"But what do you mean?" I calmly asked as I sipped my
freshly opened Diet Coke.
"You’re going to sit there and tell me that you
are going to take the time off of work to go on a cross-country motorcycle ride? You couldn’t ever take it upon yourself
to pull yourself out of the office for that length of time and you know it!" "Sure I could, its not that big a deal", I said
to her. Yeah. Whatever" (as she rolled her eyes in that special way).
She really didn’t think I would - or could for
that matter - do such a thing, but boy let me tell you, as our nine year old would say, "she is way wrong!" This immediately
became a test to my manhood. Now, quick thinker that I am, I added: "Not only am I going to go cross-country on a bike, I’m
going to do it in style. I’m going to ride a 1960’s vintage Honda! AND I am going to" - somehow, I thought I might
regret this part, but it just sort of came out! – "Get Mike to join me!" Mike is my best friend, who lives in the Buffalo
New York area, about 2600 miles from our house here in Southern California.
"Oh, yeah… Like I’m buying that story!"
She said. "Brenda (Mikes Wife) will get a kick out of this one!"
"Well, you know, this is sort of your fault" I claimed
"WHAT???" (You can probably guess who said that!).
"Remember that book you gave me?" You see, back in September
of 2002, Carin gave me a really great anniversary present. "Innocent enough" she probably thought to herself while waiting
in the checkout line at the bookstore. A motorcycle book that’s inside cover starts out by saying "Peter Egan is one
of the most readable writers in motorcycle and automotive enthusiast publications."
The book’s title is "Leanings" The best of Peter Egan From Cycle World Magazine.
I remember reading Mr. Egan’s articles in Cycle World since the early days of my time. I actually
remembered his first article in the magazine after reading it once again! I was glued to the book. This guy rides man.
And he rides neat bikes!
What I did not recall however is how often he wrote about and rode the brand of motorcycle most cherished
to me. HONDA. I figured after reading this book that I would take a nice stroll across the country at a leisurely pace, see
some of the great USA and have some fun. Then the decision to ride an old Honda made a lot of sense to me as 2004 will be
the 45th Anniversary of American Honda. What better way to celebrate Mr. Honda’s great achievements here in the United
States?
Before I go on, I think that maybe you should know just a little bit about me, and my background.
My first motorized bike was a 1968 Rupp "Chopper" mini-bike. Since that first bike, I have owned over forty
different motorcycles. That number is rising more and more almost daily lately! I have documented over 250,000 miles on these
bikes over my years of riding.
I have been involved in the motorcycle industry practically my entire working life (I tried to get out a couple
of times but I kept getting sucked back into the industry!). My first job at a bike shop was in 1970 or so, painting the outside
walls of the shop I hung out at day in and day out after the owners got sick of me hanging around and bugging the mechanics
during the summer months. From there I swept floors, cleaned parts and next thing I knew, I was actually working on bikes
in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter! I was having a blast. And get this! I was getting paid to have all this fun!
Since those days, I have had the privilege of working with and knowing some of the most respected names in
the motorcycle industry which gives me the honor of stating that have spent just about my entire working life pretty much
living a dream! I got to be around motorcycles all day long. What more could someone that loves motorcycles ask for? I have
held numerous positions at the dealership level such as a Technician, Service Manager, Service and Parts Director and others
as well. I have spent many successful years on moto-cross and roadracing tracks and I have also had the opportunity to give
back some of what I have learned to the motorcycle industry by teaching others what I have learned over the years in a couple
of different professional capacities. And this brings me to the present. Today, I work at American Honda. And that too is
just another Dream come true for me. What I do at Honda is not of importance for this story but I must admit that working
for this company is pretty much the pinnacle of my career!
Reading Mr. Egan’s book sort of woke me up and reminded me of why I work in this wonderful industry.
Because I LOVE Motorcycles! This should go without saying I suppose but in today’s world, it is pretty easy to lose
focus in the hustle and bustle of a corporate atmosphere.
OK, enough about me for now, lets get back to the story.
To pull this trip off, I will be pretty busy for the next year or so. First off I have to figure out which
bike to take. Hmmm, well, lets see. Among the eight bikes - five were purchased after I bought "that book" (as my wife says)
- in the Abdo bike stable that meet my depicted criteria (by the way, if he happens to ever read this, Carin says that she
has a "bone to pick with that Peter Egan character!") I have a "69 S90 and a ’67 CL90. Ahhhh, the S90 for sure! Now
that would be a treat huh? Close to 100 miles per gallon, engine singing to a top speed towards a true 60 miles an hour! Well,
I had to admit that it would be a bit much to take something like an S90 over 3000 miles but it’s a thought worth exploring,
right?
Now I had to figure a way to get my best bud of all
time Mike to go along with me on this journey. To sort of feel him out a bit on this novel concept of mine without letting
him in on anything just yet, I called him and started talking about a trip from one side of the country to the other. He seemed
not to think too much of it, He rides as long as there is no snow on the ground. Actually, he’ll ride in that too and
has in the past! Then I told him I’m thinking about riding to Buffalo from Southern California on my S90.
He was pretty quick to point out the following:
"You need medical attention. Fast".
"If you’re going to do something like that on
an old Honda, you need to take something like a CB77 SuperHawk. You know, like mine".
Now THAT’S the ticket I thought. I’d
almost forgot about his Superhawk. This is pretty easy to do if you ever saw his garage! Heck, he has over 100 bikes (that’s
right folks, I said 100!) in the back of his barn just in case he needs some parts for his collection! I asked him
if he thought a Superhawk would make it (without hinting about my evil plan) and he said, "Sure, I think its one of the best
bikes that Mr. Honda ever built. BUT… Get your own, you can’t ride mine!"
Now, after that call and doing some further
research on Mr. Honda himself and the bikes he built in the early days of American Honda, my mind was made up as to the model.
The next rather major issue was the fact that I would have to somehow acquire one of those pieces of Honda history. That was
just one of the many challenges that stood in front of. But I decided that before I could go out and invest in another bike,
I needed to figure out a way to get a commitment from my best bud of all time to do this with me.
“So, who is
this Mike guy anyway” you ask? Mike Krzemien (you can pronounce it Krazyman, that’s close enough!) and I go way
back to when we just little tots in school. We used to ride together so much that we always knew where the other was on the
road as well as on the trail without even looking. I could actually somehow sense where Mike was and what his next move was
going to be. We rode year round for the most part and that is not always so easy in Western New York! You have heard of Buffalo
Winters? We were in the middle of those winters! Well, I have to admit that those days are long gone (thank goodness the cold
days are gone for me!) as I moved away from our hometown back in the early-eighties to begin to further my career while Mike
stayed back home in a little town South of Buffalo New York called Springville. Mike used to help me out occasionally while
I was roadracing in the 1980’s. I can recall one race in particular where his Lovely wife Brenda was about to give birth
to their little girl Amber Rose (OK, she’s not so little any more!). Mike was going to help me out at the Loudon New
Hampshire AMA National Event but Brenda was due to give birth around the same time as the race. I once joked with her to hurry
up and “push that little critter out” so Mike could get up to Boston where I lived at the time to help me. Well,
about 3 weeks before the event, I got a phone call. It was Brenda calling from her hospital bed. She said, “Well, you
got your wish, he can come now!” She had Amber a few weeks early just for me! The unbelievable part was that Brenda
let Mike come! He took advantage of that weak moment that Brenda had and made the race to help me out. We finished third at the
National event!
Besides his normal day job as a technician, Mike
has done quite well for himself with another good friend, Bill Miller. They have a great business, supplying folks just like
you and I with Vintage Honda motorcycle parts. They specialize in the Little Honda’s that were ever so popular like
the Z50 and CT70 models.
Mike still takes just about all of his summer vacations with
Brenda and Amber riding his GL1500 with a sidecar mount.
After almost 20 years of moving from my hometown I now
live here in Southern California and after almost a year or so of coercing, I got Mike to bring his family out to our place
here in Corona last February and, we got to ride together again.
We rode for a whole day, over 75 miles. Now 75 miles
may not seem like much of a ride. But, you should know that I rode a 1987 XR100. And Mike? Well, he rode one of my more my
recent acquisitions at the time, a 1967 CL90!
Our ride was up in the mountain trails near my home. When we were kids, we dreamed of rides like this! I could not then
and still try to this day to remember the last time I had so much fun riding! While riding, we went to the infamous Maely
Ranch which is about 6 miles from my house by normal roads. We rode 30 miles through the mountains to get to Kens place! We
then met up with some fellow Honda Associates of mine and continued to ride all day. Those guys were bikes like CRF150’s
and larger, so we just piddled around behind them but had more fun than can be imagined unless you’ve been in our shoes!
After our ride together that day, we sat at the house sipping
on a couple of cold ones, hanging out, talking about old times and having dinner with our families. While we were sitting
around, I started to think to myself about our day and watching Mike bounce from one side of the mountain to the other on
that old CL90. Two things occurred to me. First, he became my hero for riding that little thing like he did, (I offered numerous
times to ride it but he wouldn’t give it up!) And second, I knew by the look on his face after the day ended that I
had him hook line and sinker! I felt that it was now safe to break my idea to him and, of course, to Brenda.
After reminiscing about the day and all of the fun we had riding while
we were younger and, taking down a couple of more beers while Carin and Brenda were talking about where to go shopping the
next day, I just blurted it out.
"Mike, what if I got me an old Superhawk of my own and you and I rode
from here to Buffalo? You could ship yours here and we could take a heck of a ride. A ride to remember!"
It got pretty quiet. The only thing I could hear was the television
set in the kids room where Sponge Bob Square Pants was on.
Then, Carin started to chuckle, Brenda said to me while looking at
Mike, "You don’t mean that old Bike back home in the garage?" I didn’t say a word. I looked at Mike square in
the eyes and he looked at me. "Well.." He started (I’ve GOT him, I thought!) "Are you nuts?" Brenda was quick
to say. Carin jumped right in "That’s exactly what I said!!"
Now it became a challenge to the both of us and I could see it in
his eyes that he was going to go for this. "Why not?" he said. "You get one and I’ll get mine in shape and we could
do it. The bikes are built to take it, the only question is, are we?" Now that would be the question in need of an answer!
Like I said, Mike already has a 1964 CB77 SuperHawk that is in pretty
nice condition and, to be honest the first time I saw it I wondered to myself how much fun it would be to take a long ride
on it although I must admit, I didn’t think THAT long of a ride! I rode it for a few miles while visiting back home
in Western New York the previous summer and it was a blast!
Now, I certainly do not want you to believe that we do not have the
full backing and approval of our families to do this trip. Fact is, without them there is NO WAY that we could even think
about a trip such as the one that we will be embarking on!
Our wives Carin and Brenda as well as our kids, are all for
this. The kids thinks it’s cool but a little nutty that we don’t take our "new Honda’s" and Carin thinks
I’ve lost it a little but I have "the book" to show her and therefore a way out! As for Brenda, I don’t think
Mike can do much at all to surprise her anymore! After all, he was quick to take off on a ride only days after his only child
was born!
Anyway, that’s how it all started. What you will read here on this site is how I came about purchasing
a 1965 CB77 Superhawk, the work done to prepare both Mike’s and mine to make a trip that will take us over 4000 miles
in about a three week period, why this bike was the Honda that was picked for the ride, how we got the HRCA involved, and
lots of other neat stuff. Eventually, you will get to go on the ride of Mike’s and my life. A ride to remember! Well,
sort of. Take a look at the other parts of this story on our site and you’ll see what I mean!
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