Next day: I am at Honda of Austin, down on West 1st Street, drooling over a 1965 Honda CB-72 250 Hawk. A short while later, after hanging around the Honda shop a lot, and persuading my Uncle Jim (who lived in Austin) to co-sign a loan for me (very much against his will, but he felt sorry for me), I rode home on my brand new blue Honda Hawk.
This is Gene sitting on my bike, in front of The Campus Guild - the men's coop where we lived in college.
This is a view of the cockpit.
What a sweet bike! About 25 horsepower, redlined at 10,200 rpm, huge dual-leading shoe front brake, racy riding position... It came with a complete tool kit that even included a small pair of scissors for trimming tire patches to size. I still have most of the tools. But, alas, not the bike. More on that, later.
After I bought the bike, I got to know the owners of Honda of Austin - Fred and Alta Mae Kretchmar. Eventually, I was hired to work in the shop as a mechanic. Another mechanic, Mike Bonell, was an aspiring road racer, so I began to get interested in racing. I stripped the Hawk down, bought a racing cam, aluminum wheel rims and a Dunlop racing rear tire.
I actually went to three races. The first was at an abandoned airport in San Angelo. Mike won first and I placed third but didn't get a trophy because there were too few riders to award a third place trophy. The second race was again at San Angelo. This time, I had replaced the stock steel gas tank and bench seat with a fiberglass tank and solo racing seat which I built from scratch. When my race came up, I wasn't ready and started about half a minute after the beginning of the race. I was doing well, moving up to second place (behind Mike, of course) when my engine suddenly made an awful rattling noise and quit running. When I pushed the bike back to the pits, I found that a valve had floated, hit the piston and bent. No more racing that day. My final racing attempt was at the AMA nationals in Chicago. I crashed in practice, got a concussion and bent my fork, and didn't get to race. Mike won the novice class.
The Hawk was my main mode of transportation for my last two years of college, during which I met and married an extremely cute and vivacious young lady from Houston. Her parents expressed some concern about the husband of their daughter riding a motorcycle, so I sold it to my brother-in-law, who then resold it.
If anybody knows where it is, please let me know. I'd like to buy it back!
4 comments:
Did you not race any more because your motorcycle was bent or because your nerves were? (If you know what I mean)
I fixed the bike as soon as we got back home. But, if I remember, the Nationals was the last race of the season. And by the next year, we were engaged and I was trying not to fail too many courses so I could graduate.
(:-) Plus I changed jobs and was no longer working at the Honda shop.
Have you ever talked to Grandpa about the fact that it was because of him that you sold the bike that you loved? And what did he think when you finally started riding again?
No, it has never come up.
I think he might have been a little surprised that I started riding again at age 58. But I think by now he thinks I am smart enough to be somewhat safe, and he knows you guys are grown and Mom will be financially ok if I get smushed (better than if I don't, as a matter of fact :).
He did recount the story (again) of his one experience riding a motorcycle. In short, he hit an angled railroad crossing and fell down. He wasn't hurt seriously, but he never had any interest in riding afterwards. But he enjoys telling the story.
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