I had a nice conversation in the coffee line awhile ago with a guy from L.A. who is now going to explore the Lost Coast with his GS on the way home, thanks to information from me. I love being able to tell Californians new stuff about their home state.
It's amazing how much better I feel after the first shower in a couple of days. I was the second guy in the shower line this morning and the third guy in the breakfast line when my food vendor of choice opened his shutters.
While waiting for the Cyber Cafe to open, I cruised the vintage and show bike area.
My first two BWMs were represented - kind of. In lieu of my 1971 R50/5, I found an almost identical '72 model. It would have been inappropriate for me to swing a leg over the saddle, but I could still stand next to it and run my eyes over the speedo/tach display and gaze down at those massive finned cylinder heads jutting out on either side of the engine.
A veterinarian from suburban Portland, Ore., wheeled in a graphite gray '81 R100RS that is virtually identical to the one that changed my life in the summer of 1986. The saddlebags were newer than original and it had a Telefix fork brace that mine lacked, but it was pretty much like seeing my old Gray Ghost again - before the guy who bought it from me trashed it.
The vet said it had belonged to his late brother and was the only possession his brother had directly willed to anyone. So he was entering it into the bike show in his brother's memory.
I had a nice conversation with a guy from northern California who was polishing a gorgeously painted blue '88 K75S that I remember first seeing at the 'MOA national in Oshkosh, Wisc. back in the early 1990s. He's offering it for sale for $5k and I could imagine having a sufficiently weak moment to buy it, despite the 98,000 miles on the odometer.
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