My Buddy's First Ride in 15 Years.

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Pighuntingpuppy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2019
Messages
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Location
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Last year, I purchased a 1998 Kawasaki Vulcan VN1500A. 31K miles. Under a salvage title cause it looked like the bike was dropped on the exhaust side. So, after a year of tampering and fiddling and fixing.....FINALLY got the bike running and running right. Got it registered and insured and ready for the road.

Now, my buddy, I met him when I first came to New Mexico. We both originally from NY and both have an affinity for 2 wheels. His bike back then was a 1979 KZ1000 which he gave me and I still have. That bike needs lots of work as the electrical was chopped to have a Vetter system installed. So, my plan for the Vulcan was never to keep it, but to gift it to him.

Saturday he came down as I was fixing an issue I caused and told him to suit up if he wanted to break it in. At first he wanted to do a small quick ride to get comfortable. Said sure....no problem. 100 miles and a trip to the mountains later....he was all smiles. I was on the Gen 2, and in no way wanted to be outside of him visually. So I had him ahead of me. Because he is 67 years old, last thing I wanted to see was him go down and I wasnt there to help. But nothing like that happened and it was a very nice day for a ride. He was a lil shaky when we hit our first 70mph road. But it took about 5 or 6 miles for him to get back in the groove. The twisties of the mountains was no problem for either bike. Stable speeds all the way.

In the end, that year of frustration and heartache trying to get the bike running right was all erased on that ride. All the money sunk into it piecing it back together, forgotten as the smiles it produced was worth infinitely more. The value of watching the face of a 67 year old man whose face is like a 6 year olds at Christmas is one that money cant buy. This was an investment I would most certainly make again.

The Vulcan still needs some work but nothing that doesnt make it unrideable. I need to re-upholster the seat. Starting to crack. I need floor boards. The riding pegs are fine, but not really comfortable for longer rides. My buddy wants a little bit of storage space on the bike so I will be looking into either saddle bags or the sissy back, back pack. There will also need to be a little bit of finessing of the angle of handlebars, windshield, headlights and so on so its all dialed in for him. But thats all down the road stuff.
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Turned my long time buddy onto one of my V Max a couple of years ago.
We get back to my house after a 50 miler, shut bikes off, and he says "woody".
I said, "What did you say"?
He says, "Woody"!!!
My reply, "What the hell are you talking about"?

His retort, "When you blasted off, and we got up to about 130; I got a woody!!!!
I laughed my ass off.....................

Jester 42
 
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