Colorful Bikes Discovered Along the Road

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Wasn’t this a splendid day to ride? RIDE-CT’s day started with friend Gary Randall calling to say the new battery on his 1946 Indian Chief was dead and that none of his eight bikes were capable of moving. The problem was quickly solved. Gary took my 1994 BMW R100RT. I had already planned to take the 1974 Honda CB750 Four. Our travels took us to the regular haunt of Toymaker’s Cafe in Falls Village and to downtown Kent. Along the way, we discovered some out-of-the-ordinary bikes:

Bob Reiling of of New Milford was out on his 1995 Harley-Davidson Sportster (XL883 but pumped up to 12oocc). It has, he said, “a Rustoleum $18 paint job. The decals cost more than the paint. Three cans of Rustoleum.” With a Supertrapp exhaust and a conversion to chain-drive, this certainly was a one-off Sportster

James Ryan of New Fairfield was aboard a 1976 BMW R75/6. Looks great, right? Ryan bought it new and has put 121,000 miles on it.

Mike Berman of Redding was riding a 2002 Aprilia. Would you believe it’s an RS250?

One bike that fits into the category of “rare” because Kawasaki didn’t sell them here for that long and didn’t sell that many was Steve Roer’s 2001 Kawasaki W650. If Kawi ever decided to bring the sequel W800 to the U.S., I’d be the first in line.

Ray Becker only recently paid a grand or so for this 1970 Honda Trail 90. As I recall, it only had about 1,500 miles on the odometer. In hindsight, wish I’d taken it for a spin.

The best sounding bike of the day was Miguel Balaguero’s 1978 Bultaco Metralla in vivid yellow.

After the tour of Connecticut’s northwest corner, RIDE-CT headed for home, but took a quick detour (with permission) down some golf cart paths at Fairview Farm Golf Course in Harwinton to get a new “spring” picture for the banner atop the page. Certainly was a fun day.