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Bike

I'm really jonesing (jonezing?) for a motorcycle. The nice weather recently and the Red Knights thing (mental note - remind Tara about Red Knights meeting Wednesday 5/4, 7PM at Springs firehouse) has reminded me that I don't have a bike anymore, and how annoyed I am that I don't have one.

See, there was a time that I have three motorcycles. Yes, three. I owned a 1994 Honda Nighthawk, a '79 Kawasaki, and a '78 (I think) Honda. The Nighthawk I flat out owned - the other two bikes were given to me by a person who I worked with one summer who knew I liked the bikes. They were sitting in his garage and he just wanted to get rid of them.. They both had mechanical problems, but he said that if I wanted them, I could have them, as long as I came and picked them up. My dad and I picked the two up and he started working on them.

He got both working well, but the Honda had one issue - it wouldn't break 55 MPH. It was weird - there was no governor on it or anything like that, and the RPMs would be moving up, but as soon as that thing hit 55, it would level out and cruise at 55. The Kawi ran good, though. It wasn't a pretty bike, but it didn't look bad.

The only other issue I ran into was the titles. The guy had given me the titles, but never signed them or anything. I only worked there that summer, and the one time I asked him he kind of shrugged it off. One title was in his name, and one was in someone else's name, someone who the guy who gave me the bikes said was a "friend" of his son's. That title was filled out in the back to be transferred over to the guy who was given the bikes - he had just never mailed it in.

So, technically, one bike I could just fill out the info transferring it over to me, but the other one was sticky - I couldn't just cross out the info and put my own, and not having contact with this guy again, I couldn't see myself sending in the title so that I could get it in his name then have him fill it out and re-send in the title so that it could get transferred over to me.

So the bikes sat, especially after my dad passed away. Over the years, I couldn't really ride them, for one reason or another - first I was bouncing back and forth from Nassau and Bridgehampton, then I started living in Nassau, then I moved to Hampton Bays where motorcycles weren't "allowed" (plus I had no place to park the thing).

Finally, near the end of 2003, we moved to Bridgehampton where we had access to a garage. In fact, it was the same garage where the bike was located in the first place. By this time, I only had one bike - the Kawasaki. I had given away the Honda the year after my father passed away (I don't think that 55 MPH thing ever got fixed) and I sold the Nighthawk because as a 250, I was outgrowing the thing. By the time we moved in, it was kind of passed motorcycle weather, but there was always next year.

Then the baby came. My son was born the middle of May, so my first priority wasn't really riding the bike. I was pretty busy, but knew there had to be some way to get that thing registered - that was the bike that had the title that had the friend's name on it and was signed over to my former co-worker. I figured there had to be some loophole that I could get around to get the bike legal and on the road.

Shortly after this, my aunt and cousins make a pilgrimage to see my mom. Note I said my mom: they never once came to visit us or my son. In fact, the one time my wife came over there with my son, they barely acknowledged their presence. God, I love family.

Anyway, during the time that they were there and my mom and her boyfriend wined and dined them with lobster and cookouts, I saw one of the males of the group (I'll assume one of my cousin's husbands) screwing around with the bike. Whatever, I thought. Reminds me that I have to get off my butt and see if I can't get that thing properly registered.

A week passes, and the cousins and aunt leave - once again, without a word to me. I walk over one day to the garage to look at the bike and it's gone. No sign of it anywhere.

Yeah, you guessed it. My mom gave Cletus the bike. Never asked me, never thought twice about it. Just gave it to him. It was a huge slap in the face. Why not ask me? I could even understand if she had helped me purchase the bike (as she did the Nighthawk), but no - this I got on my own. I was steamed, and it STILL pisses me off every time I think about it. Here were these people who wouldn't even speak to me - too good to visit the newest member of the family - and my mom was falling all over herself to make these people like her, enough to give them a lobster dinner (I was later asked if I wanted the leftovers - very nice) and a motorcycle.

I don't hate my mom, although I really think this was a horrible judgment call for her, but people wonder why I have no use for the majority of my family. That's why.