thrice X nice ( ecumenical redemption pt II )

i like things cool, and i like nippon, and i like motorcycles. i rolled those all into owning a few select sweet motorsickles over the years, of the nipponese variety. i have had a motorsickle since i was 12 - bought it myself with paper route money ( a z-50 ), and i have had one every one of the 36-37 years since. i once swore an oath to my older brother, who later died whilst riding one of his many motorsickles back in 2000, that as i settled down and entered my family-life i would "never sell the motorsickle". i remain true to that oath, still riding a superfine hawk GT which started life exactly as pictured here. had i remained single, it woulda been an RC30, but on balance i think i did alright.

it is a fooking cool motorsickle.

there are not many nipponese motorsickles which gain true cult status, but this is one of them. it is a bike that came 10 - 15 years ahead of it's time, and was not a huge commercial success. it traded speed for techincal trickness and beyond fab handling. first aluminum spar-type frame ever sold in the US. the ultra-trick singlesided swingarm. v-twin torquey engine. it is one of the few nipponese bikes that can throw down and be parked Most Righteously in the beer garden at Siebkens Resort in elkhart lake during the superbike weekend, and will draw a crowd of people at road america every minute it sits still over that weekend.

with big sister gone, nicky and i got out and rode around a bit. we stopped off at a big empty parking lot and he ripped around on it for a spell - he can ride. a year from today, the plan is he will be riding it to school - the motorsickle/auto equivalent of a hi-skooler showing up with something like an original 240-Z in the parking lot. for those that Know, a bad-ass move of the highest order indeed. for those that don't . . . . . . . . . . . well sux for them.

my bike has been ridden, not coddled. i've thrown it up the road a time or two. along the way it picked up a fooking killer paintjob done by my brother, which matches my arai adamo model helmet. we'll git a pic up when the weather gets better.