Steve McQueen Riding on a Fast Machine

I spent last night cleaning my garage and putting away my new tools. I got rid of some sad specimens that I had acquired over the years. I have many carpentry tools, as I have renovated several of my houses, but very few mechanical tools. I found an odd assortment of metric heads for my socket wrench, but am missing some. I will have to scour some flea markets to make up the difference. Anyway, I have a relatively orderly work area. Saturday will be here soon and I will have my first lengthy period of time to work on the bike.

When I began looking for a bike, I considered getting a relatively new bike so I wouldn’t have to worry about repairs. I came realize that I actually wanted to know the whole bike, so repairing it should be part of the experience. Another reason for the decision was the realization that I don’t think there are many newer model bikes that I like very much. Sport bikes look too aggressive and too many cruisers look huge and bloated. And the displacement size of the engines just sounded for too large for a newbie like myself.

I like the look of older bikes. I went to the bike show in Toronto a few months back and saw a bike line that will be available in Canada this year called Royal Enfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Enfield_Motors). Great looking bikes right out of the fifties… Literally. The company has been making bikes in India in pretty much the same way since the demise of its British parent in the 1950s. I have no idea what the quality is like, but they sure a fabulous looking bikes! There is a military model bike that would make you look as if you stepped out of a war movie.



I don’t know about you, but a motorcycle should have some nostalgia to it. I’m 47. I don’t need to look like a fleeing secret agent screaming down the highway on some crotch rocket that looks like it belongs in a Sci Fi movie. And I am in elementary education for goodness sake. So trying to look like some Hell’s Angel on a fat cruiser seems a little silly.

But make me look like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape… Now that’s a motorcycle!