Motorcycle Madness

Captain Bill, a very regular at the Coffee Plantation and a great fan of our Costa Rica reserve house brew got himself the beemer bug. After showing him my love for the mid 70's BMW motorcycles he got him self one... On Ebay.... in California... which is on the other side of the country. She is just a beauty. He just gotta pick it up... Oh... forgot to mension that this is Capt. Bills first trip cross country on a motorcycle.

Read his story in his own words.

Well, I picked the bike up today in Santa Barbara and made it as far as Santa Monica, about 100 miles down the road. The bike was running great and strong and I really enjoyed the ride down PCH (Pacific Coast Highway for those of you who might be California challenged). It's a gorgeous winding road right on the beach most of the way. I was waiting at a light and when it turned green, I pulled the clutch to go and the clutch cable broke, right on the PCH--I was in the left-most of 3 lanes heading south, so I had to push it off the road across 2 lanes in heavy traffic. I thought I was going to be squashed like a bug, but everybody waited till I was clear!

I pushed it into the parking lot of a very swank hotel and the valet parking guys eyed me critically for a few seconds and then gladly gave me a spot to leave it overnight--they were very nice and helpful and we ended up in a discussion about BMWs--they loved the bike--and called a cab for me. Same thing happened at the gas station. Guys kept walking over to look and chat so my gas stop took about 25 minutes to pump 4.8 gallons. I'm in a very nice Best Western for the night, hoping all those seldom-used (and very sore) bike-riding muscles will recover enough to allow me to do it all again. Tomorrow I take a cab to Honda of Hollywood to get a replacement clutch cable--the show must go on!

OK---day 2--bike goes on trailer, towed to Mitch's Motorcycles--ride over--end of story.

Well, not quite.

After a little thought, I realized that trying to fix it myself under the circumstances was not a real good idea, so I called Tony the motorcycle towing guy. He was very helpful and friendly (and talkative!) so I learned a lot about old bikes on the half-hour ride to Mitche's. Mitch is a great guy with tons of experience with the classic airhead boxer (see--I'm even learning a new language) and he is going to replace the steering head bearings, steering damper, clutch, all cables, tires, handlebars, ect... (its that "etc..." part that really rings the register!) which will make the old gal ride like new once more (and definitely a lot safer). We spent an hour and a half deciding what needed to be done, and setting priorities, while Mitch thoroughly enjoyed himself finding more things wrong that needed repair or replacement. The result was a work order (yikes!!) that caused enough pain to distract me from the other pain in my left hand, legs, etc. from that ride down PCH yesterday. Anyway, I'm glad it's in such good hands.

To be continued!