Jim's Motorcycle

Jim has ridden motorcycles for most of his life. His first bike was a Suzuki 50, which he got when he was just 13 years old. In his teenage years he also had a Honda 350, a Kawasaki 175 and a 1972 Kawasaki 500 H1 [the fastest quarter-mile bike of it's day, don't you know!]. Not too long ago he purchased a restored 1972 500 H1, that was just like the one he had "back in the day". It's a cool bike, and gives him the chance to "relive the days of his youth" whenever he rides it! After we were married he got a Honda 650. Somewhere along the way, he decided that with such a great family and kiddos to think about he should "settle down" and sell it. After selling it, he went many years without riding. He always said that if he got another bike, he wanted it to be a Harley. He waited until the kids got a little older [and until he could finally afford to buy a Harley] and then in September of 2000, he purchased a maroon and black 2001 Harley Road King Classic. He later decided to get a new bike [I think he wanted one with a cruise control, which on these long trips I envy him for having and wish they offered one on my "bike of choice" - the Harley Deluxe]. He got a solid black 2005 road king classic. The road king classic has leather saddle bags but in honor of his 50th birthday, he purchased "hard bags" [both saddle bags & a trunk] and had a completely new custom paint scheme made for his bike. After all the modifications, it looks like a new bike! Now he thinks that his bike looks so good that he has more people looking at and commenting about it than I do mine, but we know that couldn't be true! Instead of a solid black, his bike is now orange and black with a bit of white/cream in the striping. 

When he bought his first Harley, I thought it would be a great idea for him to get a trailer to hook up behind it. When I mentioned it I could see the salesman giving Jim "the eye" that seemed to be saying "where the heck did you find this woman?". At the time I just didn't know how uncool it is to pull a trailer behind your motorcycle. On our summer 2008 bike trip we rode through Sturgis, South Dakota and saw a guy pulling a one wheeled N-line trailer [www.n-line.com]. Unlike traditional 2-wheeled trailers, the N-LINE trailer stays with your bike and leans into a curve just like the bike does! It follows nearly the exact tire path of your bike. Because of my earlier faux pas regarding hooking a trailer to your bike, imagine my surprise when Jim started talking about getting one for our "50 day ride". Because I like to take some snacks along and carry a cooler for produce and other healthy goodies, he said he just couldn't see how we could do it without pulling a trailer [on past trips we have always had a "support vehicle" aka "the cage" going along that could carry the cooler and snack bag]. So before we left, he ordered the N-Line trailer, had it painted, and got the bike fitted with the special hitch that hooks it up to the bike. It's a great trailer and it really does stay with the bike and moves into the curves without taking away from the fun of riding a motorcycle. Jim says that as long as he has the trailer loaded right, he can't even tell it is behind him. It also gets lots of looks and comments along the way because they're not many like it on the road [compared to the number of 2-wheeled trailers you see]. 

With his new paint scheme, and his N-Line trailer he has a great looking ride don't you think!