Ride CT & Ride New England Serving New England, NYC and The Hudson Valley!
By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com
It’s becoming a weekly habit to snap pictures of interesting bikes seen along the road each Sunday and then post them that night. Saw a couple of Italian beauties today, although one was stashed in a former cow barn on a hilltop in Cornwall and covered with dust and bird shit.
Regular readers already know that riding cohort Brian O’Neil of Cornwall has a fondness for Italian-made Moto Guzzis and rides a 1972 Eldorado. He likes them because they’re rare and he frankly states that if Moto Guzzis were are commonplace as Harleys, and Harleys weren’t often seen, he’d ride a Harley. He figures if you’re going to ride, it’s better to not be one of the crowd.
Today, he took me and friend Gary Randall to the barn where Phil West had parked a 1974 police-edition Eldorado roughly four years ago when family commitments intruded on his riding. Yes, a legitimate barn find. Beneath the crud was an intact classic just waiting to be put back on the road. No, RIDE-CT didn’t make an offer.
Earlier, at Toymaker’s Cafe in Falls Village, we’d seen another Moto Guzzi that truly shined – a 1982 V50 Monza owned by Mike Visovsky of Golden’s Bridge, NY. Gorgeous.
Collector Gary, meanwhile, had pulled from his garage a bike that he hasn’t ridden much in recent years – a 1976 Kawasaki KZ900. The model was only produced for one year, making it a rarity in itself. Gary had parked it because the tires were nearly bald, but new rubber and a recent clean-up allowed him to once again ride the 36-year-old Kawi.
It was another good day of riding, except for the loss of the oil tank cap/dipstick from my 1974 Honda CB750 Four. I later backtracked over our ride route in the pickup hoping to find the missing part, but no luck.
I ride with Mike V. and his Uncle Cyril ,amongst others in our small group .
That’s Cyril’s Mike Hailwood Edition Ducati directly behind Mike’s V50 .
The Duc, a 2000 if memory serves me, only shows 700 pampered miles on the clock . Cyril , no slackard he, rode the Trans Labrador Highway with us in 2007 atop his Honda RC51 , a feat seldom , if ever, duplicated before Cyril , lacking a more ‘suitable’ mount at that time , attempted it.
I n the background is my dusty, lackluster , well broken in , 1999 Concours . It has served me well for 80K and 13 years and may take me to the finish !