I Just Got My First Bike, and I Am Terrified
I have always been a car guy, who aside from finding a new piece of hardware from Ducati or MV Agusta sexy, has never really had a passing care for bikes. But that all started to change over the last few years. Thanks to a few friends, I stumbled into café racer modifications and vintage scramblers. I learned about the world of dual-sports and off-road adventure biking. I also saw the way their faces would light up when talking about the last trip and planning for the next.
I decided maybe it was time to wander into the motorcycle world.
A few months later my wife found a bike on Craigslist, a 1972 Honda CL350 Scrambler. Bike was garage stored for last few decades, was reasonably intact, and the owner was open for trades. I just so happened to have a 65 F-100 in the driveway that I didn’t want to sink any money into, and I was tired of it taking up space. One quick phone call was all it took to seal the deal.
The bike itself has 17k on the clock, and it hasn’t been titled since the early 1980s. I’m only the third owner.
So, now I own a classic bike that hasn’t been on the road for more than 30 years, and I have zero experience with bike maintenance or riding. So, through the power of the Internet, and a little help from some friends, I have to set out on the task of rebuilding the carbs, de-rusting and sealing the fuel tank, and determining the little Honda certainly needs a new set of rubber. After that the items on the agenda are brakes and wiring, then I should have a fully functional machine.
The entire idea was exciting as hell, but it also made me pretty terrified. You see, I’ve only ever been on any kind of motorcycle once, and that was three people deep on a Honda 125 scooter in Thailand.
But that is a story for another time.
