Posted Here and There...
For Your Reading Pleasure....and since I'm not in here often, have a
couple a cold ones on me...
So the experts were calling for a beautiful sunny, warm Sunday in the
Mid-Atlantic. Bill Berg and I talked on Saturday and decided we'd
take advantage of the opportunity and go for a ride. I let him pick
the direction and destination -- north toward Philly to pay a surprise
visit to Billy Roach whom neither of us had seen in a while With
that decided, I thought it a good idea to call Ray Kimbro (very late)
Saturday night to invite him to join us. I figured I’d make him an
"offer he couldn't refuse" to get him to go. Knowing Ray's love of
all things fast I offered him the use of my VRod for the day. He
jumped at the chance! We set a time for Ray to meet at my house in
the morning and we'd head to Berg's for breakfast before trending
north to Philly.
I was up early....gathering gear....pushing the bikes out of the
garage....My cell phone chirps -- it doesn't ring just a "text
message chirp"...Who the hell?!?...Kimbro. HIs exact words: "Not
making it". I had a one word response for him..."Pussy"... (I spoke
with him later in the day and he offered some lame excuse -- obviously
made up --- about having some family thing or another to take care
of.. Truth be told, it was probably the early hour or the chilly
morning temps that scared him off. I think he's getting soft....<d/
r>....)
So it was just going to be Berg and me...
I got to Berg's a little early but the door was open, the coffee was
brewing, and Mary was up and about -- Bill was obviously working on
"retirement time"...("Alarm clock? Wee don neeed no steenkin alarm
clock!....) Mary prepared an awesome breakfast! Eggs, bacon, english
muffins, fresh pineapple and cantaloupe. Mmmm! I'm very glad Bill
ignored my recommendation to "dump her"..... :-)
Bill led the way—we had a nice relaxing ride up US Rt 1. But
something happened once we got to Philly. You know the saying about
old habits dying hard? Well, I guess there’s a certain amount of truth
to that when it comes to Hoodlums. We weren’t in the city limits for
more than 5 minutes before Bill came to a red light that he felt the
need to run. It wasn’t like it was yellow and turning red…it was full
on red…the cross traffic was beginning to move…and there goes Berg…
right through the intersection. Of course I had to follow him… I
didn’t want to get lost in the big city…
Eventually we made it to Roach’s (without riding on any sidewalks) and
low and behold he wasn’t home –which really wasn’t a surprise. Berg
reached him by cell and he showed up 5 minutes later – he was out and
about doing Sunday morning errands and all that. After some catching
up and talking about this and that it was decided (by Roach) that we’d
all go for a short ride.
Now it’s been a while since I’ve ridden with Roach and FXDirty – (the
last time was in Philly when a car “merged” into him and his footpeg
got caught in the idiot woman’s wheel well)—but two things are a given
when you got Roach leading -- it’ll be an adventure and there will be
a story to tell. Roach did not disappoint.
To start, he pulls the Superglide out and disconnects it from the
battery charger – he’s been having trouble starting the bike with the
4 year old battery…..(and the charger seemed like a good temporary
solution – first sign that this could be interesting) Well,
apparently it hadn’t been on the charger long enough and required a
jump start from Roach’s truck. (Sign number two that trouble could be
a brewin’). After some finagling with the jumper cables and a little
revving of the truck engine (yea the battery was that dead that it
didn’t start right up when connected) FXDirty finally belched to
life. Roach buttoned everything back up –which consisted of throwing
the seat on the frame--, got his helmet on and we were off…
We made a couple of turns and wound up on a house lined suburban
street. I didn’t know exactly where we were headed but I knew it
wasn’t into Philly which was fine with me. Roach set a nice
comfortable pace right at the speed limit – kind of serene actually.
(And that’s not a word I’d normally use in the same sentence as Roach,
motorcycle, and leading…) We ended up at Red Bank Battlefield Park –
the site of a Revolutionary fort and battle. Roach figured he’d put
the bike in neutral and let it run while we took in the sights. Oh
but this is FXDirty we’re talking about and it’s not going to be that
simple…He couldn’t get the bike out of gear. He decided to shut off
the bike so that he could adjust his clutch…(Yes, it’s getting more
interesting by the minute!). He puts down his kickstand – but not like
any normal person. His kickstand is right out of Rube Goldberg—he’s
got a bungee cord that’s just the right length and tension to insure
that the kickstand stays in just the right position whether it’s up or
down. Roach demonstrated the “flick of the wrist” action needed to
properly work the kick stand. Impressive could be one word to use to
describe it…I’m sure there are other (more fitting) words to use.
Once the bike was resting comfortably, Roach started digging through
one of his saddlebags looking for the needed tools. Obviously they
were somewhere deep in the bottom because he had to take out his
jumper cables, his electric tire pump (Hmmm wonder how effective that
would be with the dead battery…but I digress…)and a ton of other cra…
very important stuff until he found the Torx screwdriver and socket
wrench he was looking for. He went right to work -- had the cover
off ,the clutch adjusted, and the cover back on in no time flat –
impressive. It was obvious that Roach has intimate knowledge of the
inner working of his motorcycle. Although the bit of primary fluid
that spilled out was very different from any I’d ever seen – It sort
of had a battleship gray color. All I could think is that he must be
running some special aftermarket stuff in there. Anyway, once the
cover was on, he turned the key, hit the starter and FXDirty didn’t
let us down….No it didn’t start—again, that would be too easy. The
click click click of the started let us know that Roach would soon be
trolling for someone with a big vehicle and a strong battery. With
his bright yellow battery cables in hand he walked over to a couple
sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck and convinced the guy to
give him a hand.
After jiggling, readjusting, reclamping and generally screwing with
the jumper cables for god knows how long the bike finally starts. Oh
joy of joy! Roach thanks the Good Samaritan, adjusts the throttle on
the bike to make sure it’ll continue to idle, and off we go to get a
Billy Roach history lesson about the Revolutionary War and the
significance of this site. I’ll tell you, the man missed his calling
– he should have been a history professor. I’m sure that under his
tutelage I would have achieved better than a C in US history. Berg and
I listened intently as Roach described the battle, the position of the
troops, the techniques the rebels used and so on… Until it was time to
find a place to get a bite to eat. We walked back to the bikes,
FXDirty idling nicely, and set off. Except….Roach couldn’t get the
bike into gear…DOH!! He decided the only thing to do was re-adjust the
clutch adjuster screw and locknut. With the bike still running, he
started digging for his tools. He asked me to give him a hand to find
the Torx screwdriver….I rooted through one of the saddle bags and
eventually found it….I also found a brand new can of S100 Detail
spray. Bwahahaahha!!! Really—it was in his saddlebag. I’m sure Roach
didn’t buy it – it must have been a gift from someone who doesn’t kno=
w
FXDirty.
With the bike running, he started to take the cover off…and of course
created a battleship gray puddle of oil under the bike. The only
thing to do was ….wait for it…. turn off the bike (again!!) As soon as
the bike was silenced, the former good Samaritan with the pick up
truck got in his truck and hightailed it outta there…With the clutch
more properly adjusted Roach was ready to hunt down another “helpful
stranger”…but it was not to be. Roach resorted to pulling out his
trusty cell phone, which, luckily, had more of a charge than the
battery in the bike and called his friend Dave to come and bail him
out. After a while Dave showed up in his white Ford van. We played
with the cables for a bit, shoved the wire back into where it
separated from the clamp, jiggled some more and FXDirty was rumbling
once again. Thinking that if we stayed much longer there was no
telling what would fail next, we left Roach in the very capable hands
of Dave, said our good bys and Berg and I got on the road heading
south…
It’s always a pleasure spending quality time with Roach!
I’m tellin’ ya, crap like this you can’t make up. And I got the
pictures to prove it!
Fountain
You can go here to take a look: http://tinyurl.com/yzfvcxn
(It’s a link to Kodak Gallery Site)
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