Back When I was Young and Foolish, or My Former Rides
I used to have a lot of bikes. Most weren’t much to look at when I got them, some of them stayed that way. But a few of them I tricked out and had my bud (the painter at work) squirt on a custom one-off paint job.
I don’t have pics of some of the bikes, I really wish I did. Maybe there are some somewhere, but I don’t know. Like the last street bike we did. I had an old ’87 Honda Hurricane CBR 600 (back when they called the CBR the Hurricane) that we did a really nice paint job on. Londo (painter bud) was very creative. I turned him loose on it and he came up with some really cool stuff.
Anyway, this ’85 Honda 250R was my main machine (I rode mostly on the dunes) for quite a while. It looked pretty rough but it ran great. Until I blew up the motor. So I ripped it to shreds, rebuilt it, and me and Londo came up with this paint scheme.
This is what they look like stock.
So after I turned it into a showpiece, I just couldn’t ride it anymore. Too nice, I needed to ride bikes that I wasn’t afraid to scratch. I went to dirt bikes after I sold the 250R, got me an ’88 Honda CR 500. Now that’s a man’s motorcycle. 500 cc’s of mind-blowing 2-stroke power.
And for good measure, here’s the car I drove for, I don’t know, 8 or 9 years? ’82 Camaro Z28, 305 V8, 4-speed.
These are old analog pics, I had to scan them in. I felt like a historian or something, trying to preserve a piece of the distant past. What did we do before digital cameras?!! How inconvenient and limited! The advent of the digital camera was to photography what Columbus discovering America was to mankind.
9 Responses
March 4th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
You never got pics of that cycle??? How ’bout the Interceptor? That was a good-looking job, too.
I worked on that car! :-)
The Baritone
March 4th, 2005 at 5:26 pm
I have some of the Interceptor. I’m almost sure I took some of the Hurricane, but I wouldn’t know where they are. Because we tried to take pictures of everything we did, and I think that was our last project.
Yes you did! Thank you senor!
March 5th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
I can’t believe you failed to mention your very earliest bike in your extremely young and foolish years, when you couldn’t pronounce tricycle and called it “see-soak” (or maybe you were trying to call it “motorcycle”. Remember how you took that one bar off, turned it upside down and screwed it back on. You had a one-of-a-kind trike! Just one more hint to me that you were destined for greatness!
March 6th, 2005 at 1:05 am
You know what, there is a picture somewhere of me on that bike! If I can ever get a scan of it I’ll post it. Me (with helmet) at maybe 4 or so on my inverted low-rider hot rod trike.
March 6th, 2005 at 7:20 am
Awesome Camaro! Was, and still is my favorite car. I had an “80” Berlinetta. I also just started scanning some of my old pics, the quality sure is a drop off. Keep up the great posts…Ice Tea Rules!
March 6th, 2005 at 8:43 pm
WOW! awesome, awesome cycle!! sweetest i’ve ever seen!! man!! i’ll put some of my bro’s bikes up sometime but they don’t look near so wild man! especially like the wheels and tires. okay i’ll try to stop droolin now, but it’ll be hard!! MAN!!
March 6th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
I seem to remember an old 110 with duct tape on the seat….don’t you have a picture of that sweet ride? :)
March 6th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
Indeed, I wish I did! Now there was a machine. I spent a lot more time riding that one!
March 8th, 2005 at 2:30 am
Hey Tom, remember that bicycle that you broke the forks on when you were jumping? (Yes, that old piece o’ junk.) I saw that happen, and I was like, Whoa. Fortunately it didn’t stop me from jumping my own bike later. :-)
Ah yes, the old 110. “Let’s ride the SHREE-wheeler!” That still elicits a chuckle from me, hopefully it doesn’t bring back too many exasperating memories. :-)
:-)
The Baritone