It's Turkey Time!

Tom Turkey, not very ridable!

This is not story about family and friends sitting down to eat a big bird.

This is about one of the ‘turkeys’ I have owned.

Over the years I have bought and sold numerous bikes, usually British and vintage. Most often I buy junk, fix it up, and then help it find a new owner who will give it the love that I no longer have for it. Sometimes the love affair is short lived. I am always looking for that diamond in the rough, but have yet to find the Norton Manx in the old barn.

One summer day several years ago, I was with my wife and we were walking though some antique stores on Whidbey Island, Washington.  As I walked out onto a second story landing I noticed a bike about a block away.  It looked almost like a Manx, but I knew it could not be, as they are impractical on the street. As I got closer I realized it was an Atlas in ‘clubman’ trim. I put my business card on the bike with a little note on the back that said if you ever want to sell it, call me.

The Atlas Turkey - Before

One day, about eight months later, I get a call.  At first I have a hard time trying to figure out who the guy is that wants to sell me a bike. Finally, it all comes together and I go out to his place and to buy the bike for a really fair price.  He then asked me if I want to buy the ‘parts bike’ for $150, so I take it too. This was my first Norton that I owned. I have ridden numerous models but never owned one. I fix this one up with allot of polishing and detail work and start riding it. Now the ‘turkey’ part of the story.

I have always been keen on ‘café racers’ and it looks like they are the next ‘in thing’ (seen TV show Café Racer anyone?). Sometimes one is willing to put up with many poor bike qualities for the sake of being cool. This bike handled really well with good brakes but it vibrated soooooo bad that I had to get off after about 50 miles as my hands were numb (not to mention other body parts!).

The Atlas Turkey - After restoration

Cool or not, Manx clone or not the love affair was over and this turkey needed to find a new roost. 

Just so happened a gentleman stopped in our office and a new love affair had begun. 

Next time, the parts bike comes into its own.

How bad can it get??

Almost anytime you go riding it is a good day. Granted some days are better than others but riding is always better than working. It can be iffy sometimes. I remember trail riding with my brother in law in Washington’s Cascade Mountains in this area call Goat’s Peak, a heavily forested area with what seemed like straight up and straight down single track. There were numerous smooth rocks and tree roots on the trail. It was slick because it was misting, but then it started to freeze, and then snow. We almost had to carry our bikes out of there. I kept saying to him as we helped each other up the mountain “Tell me we are having fun. Because it doesn’t seem like it.”

That, however, was nothing compared to my good riding buddy Terry’s experience. Terry is an outstanding rider and if I can keep him in sight I am very happy. A bunch of the guys were going to go riding in Eastern Oregon and even though I got the invite, I had to decline as I had to make a trip to California on business. The core of this group is a bunch of professionals in their 50’s. David Edwards (former editor of Cycle World Magazine) called Peter Wiley the ‘world’s fastest dentist’. David was in attendance as well as Wendell Phillips (Lockhart Phillips) and several others. Everyone met up in The Dalles, Oregon after flying or trailering in that day (to save the tires). 

Terry gets up the next morning, puts on his leathers and walks out to his bike; but it is not there. Someone has stolen the bike and trailer. This is not your average Honda RC51 either. It had Olhins forks and shock. It also had a Yoshimura full titanium exhaust and made 128 hp at the rear wheel. Everyone is sick about the situation but decides to go on anyway. Peter offers him his RC51 back in Seattle if he wants to go get it. So Terry drives the 4+ hours back to Seattle to get the bike and agrees to meet everyone in John Day, Oregon (which is almost 7 hours from Seattle).

By now I am sure you’ve determined that Terry is a little hard core. It is about 9 in the evening and he is on a narrow two lane country road ‘cruising along’ as he says, not going too fast (we figure he is going about 80 mph) when out of the woods steps a deer. He hit the deer hard enough to split it into two separate pieces. The majority of the impact was with his chest….9 broken ribs, bruised heart and collapsed lung. Suddenly he is laying, in pain, in the middle of the road, damaged, borrowed RC51 on its side and deer guts everywhere. After a little while a lady and her daughter come along and scoop him up and take him to the local fire station and eventually the hospital. As he says “I laid in that hospital bed for a week thinking about a RC51 I had to fix and wondering if I would ever see mine or my trailer again.”

Honda RC51, similar to the one that was Stolen!

By some luck, the trailer was fished out of the Columbia River some months later, but the bike was never recovered. We all recognize this is a dangerous sport and talent cannot overcome circumstances sometimes; but like Terry, we all do it because we love it. Fully recovered years later, Terry is still just as fast as ever.

The Fire Truck Story

As I previously mentioned the rules of the road at the Isle of Man are not the same as in the USA. There are no speed limits when you are outside of the city limits and where it’s not posted as a speed zone. Plus if there is room to pass, then you just go for it – no matter what the lines on the road say. Not sure how legal it was, but everyone did it as long as it was safe.

So on our last day on the Island, Lord Denbigh (Rollo) has offered to take us to lunch. He made reservations at some little “French restaurant” on the other side of the island. He said it wasn’t anything fancy. I think he only said that because he had never been there. The place was very nice and I think it cost him a small fortune for all of us to eat there.  Interesting thing about this little village was that it was the only place on the island I saw a Manx cat and the 4 horned Sheep that are unique to the island.

4-Horned Loughtan Sheep

Manx Cat

Anyway, getting back to my story. So the race was over and we were all suited up, on our bikes, and ready to pull out in traffic from the church just past Quarter Bridge.  We wait as we hear sirens and then a fire truck goes by.  Shortly after that more sirens and a police car goes by. It just so happens that we are going the same directions as the two emergency vehicles.

As we get out in the countryside we start to gain on the fire truck and are soon right behind, lights and sirens blazing. He is doing about 45-50 mph and Allen (remember Allen and the police story from earlier?) passes him, after all no speed limit right? So we all pass the slow fire truck and get a nod from one of the fireman. At this point I’m saying to myself this is crazy, who passes a fire truck with lights and sirens going?  It’s obvious the police car had passed the fire truck, so what’s the harm in us passing him?  

The Rover SD1

Then we started to close on the police car. I’m running third in line and we are closing fast on the cops who have lights and sirens going as well. This is NUTS. Are they going to try to pass the police car as well? 

Passing a fire truck is one thing, but passing the police is a whole different story. I did not sign up for a night in jail. The good news was the police car turned off the main road just as we caught up to them.  Luckily, they weren’t going to the same restaurant we were!

Until next time. . . 

Riding the Isle of Mann TT

No Speed Limit Sign

One of the truly unique features about going to the Isle of Man is the fact that outside of the city limits, or where it is posted, there are no speed limits! This is the only place in Europe, to my knowledge, where you can ride the country roads like a complete fool and be perfectly legal. The good news is you can ride very fast and pretend you are Joey Dunlop. The bad news is if you do this with complete abandonment you will end up like Joey Dunlop. It is important to watch the signs for the posted speed limits and know the sign for when you have reached the end of the speed zone.

So here we are riding along with several other bikes and all of a sudden everyone drops a gear or two and when we pass the sign (which I was not familiar with), and the race is on. Now the police do give tickets out frequently. They stand some where in the speed zone with their radar gun and ‘shoot you’ as you approach. If you are going too fast they just wave you over. No car, no lights, no chase. So do you think you want to run? Yes, you can get away……. but remember you are on an island so where are you going to go? The police stand at the ferry terminal and check each bike as you get on. If they have your license number because you did not stop, then you are in BIG trouble.

Everyone rides the TT course and there is a constant string of bikes on the road. After all, what other racetrack in the world can you ride the track, before or after the race?

IOM TT Course Map

One needs to watch for the Germans in particular. They are excellent riders and very fast, but once in a while they forget to stay to the LEFT side of the road. There are signs all over the place in German that remind them to stay on the left. The year we were there, a German got off the ferry and was riding the course very fast, he crossed onto the right side and hit a BMW car head on. He never even checked into his room. It is not just the Germans that like to ride fast. On one ‘tour’ of the course I noticed a skinny old bike coming up behind me so I slowed down to see what it was. Now I have several vintage British bikes and it was a guy on a Triton, ‘hallin ass’ on this old thing. Then there was the time this GSXR  comes up behind us slow ‘Yanks’ and this guy passes us, just pass the goose neck, on the outside of a blind left hand corner and he on the wrong side of the road. If that was not scary enough he had his girlfriend on the back.

 

Now if this does not get your attention, all one needs to do is ride counter course. When everyone rides the ‘track’ they go the same direction as the direction they race it. If you go the other way, remember these are public roads, it is REALLY scary. Picture yourself going down the mountain at 80-100mph and you have bikes going up the mountain at 100+ mph and sometimes they do not stay on their side of the road.

Then there are the surprises along the course. It was maybe my second or third time around the course and I got separated from my buddies by a couple of cars.  When I started to catch up I was on it pretty good; I saw them standing beside the road. They were on the other side of Ballaugh Bridge and to my great surprise I went airborne.

I do not want to scare anyone from going because this is one of the things that should be on any street riders ‘bucket list’; so if you ever get the chance to go to the Isle of Man, it is a trip of a lifetime, but make sure to make arrangements to do it on a motorcycle.

Several years later we went to the TT again and it was the first time for four of the guys I ride with in the States. We had done a quick lap before breakfast and as I pulled into the car park,one of the crew was jumping up and down like a crazy man. I thought maybe a bee got in his leathers or something but after he got his helmet off he was shouting ‘That was better than SEX!’