|
- We all remember our first motorcycle just like we remember our first kiss. Squeezing the throttle and leaning into that first turn. There was a smile from ear to ear as you and the machine rolled up endless miles on the odometer. Sometime later on—after school, after career, after this, after that—we try to go back and recapture that excitement from our younger days. Usually our nostalgic memories are a little pumped up. Those exciting days are filtered through a few decades of rose-colored glass. That is human nature, I guess. Maybe bikes and kisses and life weren’t better in our youth; we remember the excitement. The past probably isn’t how, where and when we’d really want to live. The trick is to recapture the excitement of our youth.
Gary Bruno is a born again biker. The term has no religious connotation; it’s merely used by salesmen in motorcycle dealerships to identify a guy like Gary, a man who had been away from motorcycling for some 20 years. The usual reasons come easily enough to mind: marriage, mortgage, kids and college tuition. Shall we say that plain old life just got in the way?
Gary’s story unfolds after a close friend had loaned him a 70’s Gold Wing. After a Sunday afternoon ride, he immediately falls back in love with the feel of the road, even though his skills and the bike are both just a tad rusty. “That was great,” he thinks to himself. “Maybe I’m not too old. Maybe I can budget for a bike…”
After returning home he slowly begins to drift back in his mind recalling all those great memories of his first motorcycle. He imagines the sparkle of chrome, the gloss of polished lacquer. He smells the tang of exhaust and gasoline mingling with fresh air and tall grass on a warm summer’s afternoon. Nostalgia might cloud the judgment: could the modern world’s machines offer him the same delight let alone that visceral sensation somewhat akin to lust? He began to ponder the challenge of trying to once again find the perfect bike. Gary is a man who shapes his own destiny. He is up to challenges—and so his search begins.
He visits different dealerships, surprised by the variety of motorcycles currently on the market. His options begin to coalesce in a distinct pattern. Maybe it would be much easier to call his cerebral vantage point a lack of options, actually. The Japanese Sportbike styling seems too futuristic for Gary’s taste, and their 14 K rev limits…! Sure they go fast enough to launch a satellite, but it isn’t just top speed that brings back those nostalgic feelings.
|
|
|
- What about Harley Davidson? He thought good old American Iron might be the way to go, but a much too heavy price tag coupled with the image associated with the brand didn’t appeal to him. No, it isn’t the ‘biker’ label that bothers him–Gary isn’t a lawyer or doctor, so he doesn’t fit in with most of the current crop of Harley riders. Besides, you can still buy a fairly nice sedan for that kind of money. BMW? German technology, drive shafts, cylinder heads going sideways—many moving parts and much complexity. Yeah they are great bikes, but Gary is a man who believes in keeping things simple, basic and pure.
Then he remembered British bikes, Triumph, BSA, Vincent, Matchless and Norton. Days of tuning and nights of riding mingled with silent reverence for those daring riders assembled at the Ace Café in the 1960’s to battle the clock and the law. There’s heritage here and more than that – there is a lineage of greatness. He walks into a Triumph dealership and there sits a shiny black Thruxton 900. Everything begins to click—the look, the attitude, the motor-lust. It was the same feeling he had when he first saw a Honda Mini-Trail when he was a kid back in ’68.
For that entire season Gary dropped in at every Triumph dealer in the New York City Metropolitan Area longing for the Thruxton. His research leads to his pouring through every magazine review of a Thruxton and he creates his strategy for the purchase for the better part of a year. Finally, in 2005 he sees the bike in racing yellow, the same color as his 1968 Mini-Trail and can no longer resist. He purchases it—no test ride, no hesitation—just gut reactions. The right feeling, at the right time.
So after some 20 odd, really odd, years he is back riding—born again as they say—and he has never been happier. The Thruxton gets lots of attention wherever the two of them arrive and the first question people invariably ask is “What year is that bike?” This is usually followed by a story of their first Bonneville and concludes with the final statement, “Hey man, I didn’t think they still made Triumphs!” Yes they do. Gary will tell you that the Thruxton proves the Triumph line is alive and well.
Talk to Gary some time. He’ll let you know. He loves to tell how his Thruxton struck a nostalgic chord and had all the right qualities to put him back on a motorcycle again—and keep him there: “Above all it’s the feeling I get when I ride this bike and it takes me back in time. It’s a reliable and affordable motorcycle for a man in my position. I would venture to guess I’ve sent at least five guys looking for Triumphs in the first 600 miles that I’ve ridden it.”
No Doubt!
|
|
|
- When not writing mystery novels and playing in the recording studio, Harry is most often to be found in the saddle of his 1981 Harley Sportster. Harry has written for Iron Horse Magazine, Texas Iron and Soundboard, the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America. Please visit Harry at his website www.pellegrinlowend.com
|
|
- READERS REVIEW - LET US HEAR YOUR COMMENTS - CLICK HERE
|
|
|
|
|
