Antique & Classic Cars Blog

It’s a given that you shouldn’t drink before riding a motorcycle. Obviously you wouldn’t get drunk, but even a little alcohol is dangerous because it brings out the Superman cape.

Before a beer, it’s all proper riding position, sight lines, safe technique… after one, gaps seem bigger, traffic lights slower, braking distances longer. An E.R. doctor could confirm that a meaningful number of riders they sew up have some alcohol in their system. They thought they were riding better than ever. The reverse was true.

Coming home in the Dodge today–haven’t picked up the “new” bike yet–another safety idea popped in mind: Don’t ride immediately after hearing Love Cats, by the Cure. Like the song or no, with its driving rhythm galumphing around in your skull, it’s going to crash into the nerve center carefully metering your throttle input–and there go the revs.

Other songs can be added to this cautionary list. I also won’t be listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “You Got That Right” and “I Know a Little,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” most Courtney Love, Dick Dale’s “Misirlou,” and just about everything by the Violent Femmes.

If out on the bike and exposed to one of these songs, proper protocol will be to take a walk, get some air and try to listen to something instrumental by Sting, or maybe our own Billy McLaughlin. Be calm, ride calm, live longer.

Our youthful experiences play such an important role in our choices as classic car and motorcycle buyers, or dreamers, they must be credited for helping to sustain the hobby itself.

For 15 years my motorcycle was a 1975 Honda CB750 bought because my brother’s friend Jim came over to our house when we were kids astride a used CB550 he’d bought for $200 and got running. He and his stepfather were seriously good with a wrench. With its spoke wheels, chrome fenders, twin gauges, high circular mirrors, rubber gaitered front springs, attractive engine, and excellent overall proportions, it looked to me like the smartest way a pair of Franklins has ever been spent.

Yesterday, I traded it in toward a CB1100F, another bike from a bit later in youth. I saw one of these in a motorcycle dealership in Newark, Delaware, in 1983. Looked like the sexiest, most powerful motorcycle in the world.

BSAs and Nortons and Triumphs have all laid claim to my imagination but somehow, that bike, the one I had seen and sat on and daydreamed over for so long pushed them all out of mind. Infectious devotion like that is gold to a manufacturer and half the time, it arises from mere happenstance and not the millions in advertising they all lavish on print and airwaves.

A novel way to change the front tire on your motorcycle, here.

When Sport Wheels, the motorcycle salvage yard in Jordan, moved its entire inventory a couple miles up 169, they left this Honda 360 Super Sport.

Take a look at these photos and see if you can determine why.

Hint: it’s not a hidden defect.

Nor is the answer a gravity anomaly rendering objects in this spot immovably heavy. That, for purposes of this quiz, would be a hidden defect since only the really good gravitometers work off a lo-res internet photo.

In working on an unrestored bike book, I came across this sweet Italian-built ‘71 Harley Davidson Aermacci Leggero, which sat in a Midwestern dealership unsold until the owner pulled it off the floor and put it in his warehouse.

It was never titled; the battery has never been serviced (filled).

As simple as this bike is, and small and unassuming, with its years of accumulated dust and dry rot, it feels like long-lost treasure. (Photos by Jerry Lee.)

For when you’ve got that really important meeting and you’re getting out the door a little late…get one of these.

A 2,000-plus bhp car would make a great sleeper, though not much about this one’s potential remains hidden.

If you read about Cars and Coffee, the first Saturday of the month gathering for enthusiast cars and their owners, note that it kicks off again on Saturday, April 4, at the Automotorplex in Chanhassen.

It’s up to you whether you find it essential to come each month. Regardless, you should definitely check it out at least once, as there are many, many exciting cars and lots of nice and knowledgeable folks to have a cup of coffee with and talk collecting, racing, repair and modification.

This blogger made most of them last season and it was worth it. Good people, good cars.

Those yellow bicycles that various cities have tried on a take-it-as-you-need-it basis keep popping up in form and concept.

My wife was at the car wash this week and saw an Hourcar, this principle applied to automobiles. We even talked about doing it when either of our vehicles is ready for the great wrecking yard in the sky (or the metro, more likely).

Not sure I’m quite ready to become a shareholder in the company but the idea–offering cars that people can use only when they need one and foregoing parking, insurance, maintenance, gas, etc., for a shared car seems logical. Their main argument is that we pay a lot for these things and only use them a little each day.

If people would just come up with bedrooms, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and laptop facilities on the same basis, a lot of us could save a fortune–if we could get our scheduling down. Maybe that’s the trick: your own car ties you down to payments and expenses; sharing one ties you to careful scheduling.

If you’ve thought about getting a motorcycle but are worried drivers won’t see you, your answer might just be the Gunbus 410 (when nothing less than 6.7 liters will do).

(Gotta say, though, if I were that young woman’s father, I wouldn’t be so thrilled about her ankles being inches from those big, open chain drives.)

In northern climes, as winter grinds on into March, males of the species often leave home to provide help with car repair.

Replacing rear struts can be a perfect opportunity for such a gathering. On this Golf, my wife’s, they are secured with one bolt below and one nut, plus locknut, above.

Required tools include garage, heater, spanners, sockets and drives.

Bonus items, such as floor lift, group of friends, beverages, and televised hockey game recommended.

Best practices require one person to position strut while the other fits necessary hardware. One or the other holds work light, or a second wrench. Additional males follow hockey game, reporting on scoring, consuming beverages, telling jokes, and periodically checking on auto repair as needed.

I can report (for the benefit of all spouses concerned) that last night’s emergency gathering at Tim’s Pretty Good Garage for fitment of struts was a complete success. Thanks to all present. We couldn’t have accomplished it without everyone’s participation.