We eventually added the Hannigan Sidecar to the 'Wing so our son could travel with us and that lead to the article a friend and I wrote about getting extra fuel mileage out of a bike with a simple and fairly inexpensive retro-fit.  See that article here.

After a long time with the 'Wing, our interests and need for money elsewhere convinced me it was time to sell the Gold Wing but to get anywhere near what I had into it, I had to find new markets.  Europe was that market.  I found a Dutch Motorcycle Shop who made me a very generous offer for the entire bike, sidecar and trailer - which had all been custom painted - and before long, the bike was en-route to the Netherlands where, unfortunately, was sold in separate pieces in 1998.

In December of 2000, I found a new position with another government agency and moved from Yuma, home for 10 years, to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Shortly thereafter, the nice raise I had received prompted me to once again buy a motorcycle.  By now, my taste had changed somewhat and I decided to buy a new Harley Davidson - something I took a lot of guff from my family and friends for - apparently I had always bad mouthed them and I had.  When AMF had H-D, they were unreliable.  Now, years later, I was to become a RUB aka a "Rich Urban Biker".  Like a lot of other professionals, the Harley had some appeal for me and I was finally able to afford one.  Now, I just had to decide which one I wanted.  This lead to another problem - I kept buying and selling them until I got it right.

I started with a new 2003 Fat Boy - Probably because I had seen Arnold on one in one of his movies.  I liked the look and bought it from a shop in Idaho and had it dropped shipped to Albuquerque.  However, after getting it all "cherried" out for me, my wife indicated that perhaps she would like to join me on some rides and I then had to add a few things for passenger comfort - things like rear floorboards, new seat, back rest, intercoms etc.  Then, on our first big ride of any length, we blasted down some back roads from our home in Rio Rancho, NM to Roswell - Home of the famous aliens - and back to Albuquerque.  By Gold wing Standards, that 500 mile trip about beat us to death.  Not only that, the racing pipes and carb helped to make the bike go faster but loaded down with two passengers, saddle bags, windshield, backrest and a bunch of chrome, I was getting under 100 miles to a tank of gas and the "Softail"® suspension wasn't very soft.  I knew in my bones that the Fat Boy wasn't a touring bike - No matter how I dressed it up. 

Since Harley's hold their retail value so well, it wasn't hard to sell it - disappointing yes but not hard.  Soon, I was the proud owner of a 2003 Ultra Classic - a true Touring bike.  My wife still says she preferred the Gold Wing's ride to that of the Harley and to be honest I did too!  The Harley was, above all else - COOL - and the local Harley Dealer in Albuquerque became a weekly meeting place where we could all roar in and check out each other's bike(s).  We went on several tours as time in our busy schedules allowed.  By this time, the "little" boy that had ridden in the Hannigan side car was now a strapping lad of 6' 4" and wanted to get into motorcycling too!  Well, what could we say.  We put him through the MSF course and he became licensed.  We began to include him in our outings on his Buell Blast - A great beginner's bike but funny looking under a kid so damn tall.  At the same time, I was pouring money into the bike as Harley owners are likely to do and life was good.  Good until I got a call that my son had been in a motorcycle wreck and was in a local hospital.  It was a wake-up.  I ran out of the office with my helmet and leather jacket and hopped onto the Ultra and headed off to the hospital. When I came to his door, I could see he was covered in bandages and my heart just broke.  I soon learned that there were no serious injuries but a case of serious road rash.  I couldn't understand - I had constantly told him about ATGAT - All The Gear- All The Time - and he had promised never to ride without gloves, a helmet, boots and a jacket.  Unfortunately, the fact that he was teenager won out and he was taking a quick run over to a friend's house when he lost control and crashed.  At the time, he was wearing a helmet but little else.  No socks, tennis shoes and shorts and a t-shirt.  It was a painful but valuable experience.  However, it was one that made me think.. "What the heck am I doing riding a motorcycle?"  "I'm responsible for a family, I could get killed etc."  It made me think.  So, I decided right then and there that I needed to sell the bike and find a safer hobby. 

Well, that lasted less than a year and before I knew it - I was back on another new Harley.  This time, a 2004 anniversary Road King Classic - Of all the Harleys I had owned - this came the closest to being the perfect bike.  I had it tricked out when I ordered it and it was, I thought, everything I could ever want.  Costing a small fortune, it was almost like I was afraid to ride it - but I managed.  I could convert it from a cool classic with white wall tires, wide handlebars and fish-tail mufflers to a comfortable two-up touring bike with little effort.  This was the life!

Then...the other shoe fell.  My wife had to have open heart surgery to have an aortic valve replaced.  She was faced with several options but among them was the fact that she might have to take the Blood Thinner Coumadin.  Motorcycling wasn't the best hobby for her either.  We got wrapped up in other things at the time but she didn't seem to want to ride much anymore.  We began thinking of retirement and what we might like to do.  It was getting to be that time of life.  I was over 50 and she was just getting there so sitting around one night a thought came to me - I was getting older.  I had always wanted to ride to Alaska but with all that chrome - The Harley wasn't the best choice.  Another friend was interested in getting the new BMW R1200GS and we began thinking about taking the trip to Alaska together before we got too old for such a trip - Not just a run up the Alcan highway but an "adventure", using GPS we were going to do a lot of off-road riding, fishing and camping too!

So, that decision made, I found a buyer on EBay for the Harley and sold it almost one year later for exactly what I had into it.  It was a beautiful bike and a young man was buying it for his father's 50th birthday. I carefully tied it down into a trailer and met the guy half way - in Amarillo, Texas and took the money for the bike.  Last time I heard, his father, a Sheriff's Lieutenant in Dallas, was loving it.  I wish him many fine miles - It was, and hopefully still is, a fantastic machine.

Having already owned a BMW, I felt like coming home.  I loved "twins" and by this time, I had several flat "twins" and V-Twins and a few transverse V-Twins but the new 2005 BMW R1200GS was a wonderful bike with a lot of power, magnificent handling and every goodies a gadget nut like me could want. Getting it ready for the Alaskan adventure, I had purchased the factory bags, a satellite GPS unit, and a larger windshield.  To add to that, I made a communications console out of the tank bag that would allow me to listen to satellite radio, communicate via cellular telephone, two-way FRS for bike-to-bike communications and an intercom for rider to passenger communications - and just about everyone else.  I had electrical outlets for heated gloves and jackets and, I'm sure, even more "stuff" - I took some friendly ribbing from my Harley friends but that didn't stop me from going to the Harley dealer with my buddies every Saturday and eating free hot dogs!  I had spent so much money there I figured I could eat there for the rest of my life.

Now, you'll recall that we had been talking about retirement and looking at options - well, my older sister, who had recently lost a husband to cancer, took my advice and went to Nova Scotia, Canada to look at some property I had found on EBay.  You see, I'd never forgotten the beautiful country side or the friendly people.  When I saw on EBay that property was still quite a bargain there, I suggested to my sister that she go up and check it out.  Meanwhile, I rode the BMW, a used Ducati SS900 I had picked up for fun, and whatever else I could get my hands on.  Finally, after hearing and researching more about Nova Scotia, my wife and I decided to fly up and took a look.  I had found a beautiful home on the Eastern Shore that appealed to me and the price was unbelievably low.  Well, you guessed it - the trip to Alaska became a trip to Nova Scotia.  In the meanwhile my wife and I had been seriously considering the property we had seen and in March of 2005, took a long flight across the United States to far-off Nova Scotia.  We had never been there before but it was a flight that has changed our lives dramatically.  To read more about our new life in Canada - Click here.

Ahhh... the story isn't quite over yet - that was then and this is now - We ended up buying the house and moving up in June of 2005.  Since we were taking a lot of "stuff" we took the pick-up and not the bike - the trip being called off and the extra money needed to help "spruce" up the place a bit.  There were reasons it was such a good deal but none of them were really serious or show stoppers and the beauty of the spot, the kindness of the people far out weighed any negatives.  However - an unexpected promotion and transfer put an end to the Alaska adventure and eventually, the Beemer found a new home with a cop from California.  It's another bike I will always miss but one I don't regret selling.

Once all of the house issues got settled and we were in the process of fixing all of the little "ills", I got a promotion and a transfer to Las Vegas, NV.  I thought why get a bike - drivers are crazy in Vegas - It's hot in Vegas etc.  I started out strong but it wasn't six months before I needed to feel two wheels beneath me again - maybe it's a sickness - who knows.  All I know is that it's a hard addiction to kick.  This time, however, I decided to get a basic bike - nothing fancy - something I could work on if needed and something that didn't cost an arm and a leg and that, my friends, brings us almost to the end.  The Triumph is a lot of fun but I've got another Harley in the wings while I'm slowly taking it back in time even further than Milwaukee intended - Pictures to follow when it's all said and done.  It's another softail but this time, only I will be riding it and it's a Springer Classic.  We'll see!

Enjoy and ride safely! So... What do you think?  Too many motorcycles :-)

 
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