Panhandle Old Guys

[ineptizoid]

I tell ya what POGs, I'm a big fan of this retro movement amongst car and bike manufacturers. The retro-look Camaro, Challenger, Mustang, I like 'em all. I really dig that Triumph Scrambler. And this new Norton, well they purty well knocked it outta the ballpark IMO:


And it's got some balls to back up the looks, too. That's what I'm talkin about

[Chicken Helmet]

Love it!

[Vico1]

Originally Posted by ineptizoid

I tell ya what POGs, I'm a big fan of this retro movement amongst car and bike manufacturers. The retro-look Camaro, Challenger, Mustang, I like 'em all. I really dig that Triumph Scrambler. And this new Norton, well they purty well knocked it outta the ballpark IMO:


And it's got some balls to back up the looks, too. That's what I'm talkin about

Cant agree more... simply bad ass!

And NOTHING say bad ass like black and gold...

[ineptizoid]

Originally Posted by Vico1

Cant agree more... simply bad ass!

And NOTHING say bad ass like black and gold...

I rode this black and gold bike out West back in '96...went to Sturgis and nobody kicked it over or set it on fire, that's how badass this Yammie was


I've got some better pics of that old bike, I'll get around to scanning them one of these days...

[ElusivePedro]

Happy Sunday you buncha POGs.

[ineptizoid]

Gather around POGs, and I'll tell ya a story about a black and gold bike. In the spring of 1980 my dad bought his first brand-new motorcycle, an '80 Yamaha XS11 Midnight Special. It was Yamaha's fastest bike at the time; when the XS11 was introduced in '78 it was billed as the most powerful production motorcycle in the world. I don't think it was still at the top of the heap in '80, however. At any rate, it was a real torque monster, which it needed to be--because it was quite a brute, weighing around 630# wet! I think the bike was constructed primarily of lead and cast iron.



So anyway, my dad kept that bike for 16 years, only putting 26K on the odo in that time. Dad was what ya might call a "fair-weather rider," meaning no rain and temps in the 60's or higher, so out of the whole year there was only a 6-month riding window for him...this is in Virginia, remember. Here's me & my little sister in the summer of '80, just before the holding the rope incident and way before my Boy Scout troop made the Scoutmaster quit. A different time in America, if you will.


So anyway--fast-forward to 1996. There. It went by really quick, didn't it. Yeah, time really does fly by like that. So there I was, a young ineptizoid, just finished college (only 4 yrs behind schedule but who's counting), no job, no girlfriend, no rope-holding ability, not much money, but a burning desire to see the American West and escape this sick society cough cough. I was gonna do the trip on my old raggedy KLR600, but my dad thought that was a Bad Idea and donated his raggedy old XS11 to the cause. And down the road I went. Out West, where I'd never been before. And I've never been the same since.


ATGATT?? What's that? Yeah I really did ride all over the place wearing shorts, hiking boots, and a T-shirt (and sometimes not even the shirt); ya tend to think yer invincible when yer young, dumb, and full of piss n vinegar. I was doing this trip on the cheap, so that meant lotsa roadside camping, like here in Dillon CO off Loveland Pass Rd. (Note: this is not what you call stealth camping, not by a long shot.) See the snow on the mountain in the background? This pic was taken in July; seeing snow in July was a real novelty for me, believe it.


Camped out in the woods a good bit, too--it's real easy to find a secluded, quiet campsite in places like Kaibab Natl. Forest; ya just follow a dirt road off into the woods and look for a good place to pitch a tent. And the price is most definitely right.


Remember, I had never been out West before. So when I saw stuff like this, which is pretty standard scenery in a place like Colorado Natl. Monument, I was awestruck. The vastness of the landscape blew my Eastern-U.S.-oriented sense of scale right outta the water, yea verily.


I'd never seen mountains this color, more vivid than I could imagine. Of course this 17-yr-old 35mm pic doesn't do it justice. It was positively surreal, I felt like I was in a different world. And of course I was. Utah's Hwy 95, not far from Lake Powell:


Near Hite Marina on Lake Powell. (Also priced right.)


Canyonlands NP, which provided the most spectacular scenery I had ever seen in my life up until that time. Edward Abbey--park ranger/author/philosopher/wilderness advocate--loved this place and wrote extensively about it, calling it "the land of stone and silence."


See what I mean about the scenery? This is Grandview Point on the White Rim Mesa. Abbey referred to it as "the edge of the abyss, where this world falls off into the depths of another." Couldn't have said it better if ya paid me to do it.


Oh yeah, there's more!

[Barney]

Good stuff Tony.

[Woods Rider]

Tony, you are one of the few who truly have motorcycles in your blood!

Great story.

[ElusivePedro]

Holy Jesus. I hate it when ppl REPEAT what we've already saw, but good golly, that's a "good golly" sorta stuff right there. I remember so well going stupid fast on my GS750E. T - you have too much of that crazy fast stuff resident and still reliant, in yuor bones boy. And yes - I am OLD ENOUGH to say that! The Transalp just has not that sort of beans. Thanks mang. Thanks.
The INEPTIZOID!

Originally Posted by ineptizoid

Gather around POGs, and I'll tell ya a story about a black and gold bike. In the spring of 1980 my dad bought his first brand-new motorcycle, an '80 Yamaha XS11 Midnight Special. It was Yamaha's fastest bike at the time; when the XS11 was introduced in '78 it was billed as the most powerful production motorcycle in the world. I don't think it was still at the top of the heap in '80, however. At any rate, it was a real torque monster, which it needed to be--because it was quite a brute, weighing around 630# wet! I think the bike was constructed primarily of lead and cast iron.



So anyway, my dad kept that bike for 16 years, only putting 26K on the odo in that time. Dad was what ya might call a "fair-weather rider," meaning no rain and temps in the 60's or higher, so out of the whole year there was only a 6-month riding window for him...this is in Virginia, remember. Here's me & my little sister in the summer of '80, just before the holding the rope incident and way before my Boy Scout troop made the Scoutmaster quit. A different time in America, if you will.


So anyway--fast-forward to 1996. There. It went by really quick, didn't it. Yeah, time really does fly by like that. So there I was, a young ineptizoid, just finished college (only 4 yrs behind schedule but who's counting), no job, no girlfriend, no rope-holding ability, not much money, but a burning desire to see the American West and escape this sick society cough cough. I was gonna do the trip on my old raggedy KLR600, but my dad thought that was a Bad Idea and donated his raggedy old XS11 to the cause. And down the road I went. Out West, where I'd never been before. And I've never been the same since.


ATGATT?? What's that? Yeah I really did ride all over the place wearing shorts, hiking boots, and a T-shirt (and sometimes not even the shirt); ya tend to think yer invincible when yer young, dumb, and full of piss n vinegar. I was doing this trip on the cheap, so that meant lotsa roadside camping, like here in Dillon CO off Loveland Pass Rd. (Note: this is not what you call stealth camping, not by a long shot.) See the snow on the mountain in the background? This pic was taken in July; seeing snow in July was a real novelty for me, believe it.


Camped out in the woods a good bit, too--it's real easy to find a secluded, quiet campsite in places like Kaibab Natl. Forest; ya just follow a dirt road off into the woods and look for a good place to pitch a tent. And the price is most definitely right.


Remember, I had never been out West before. So when I saw stuff like this, which is pretty standard scenery in a place like Colorado Natl. Monument, I was awestruck. The vastness of the landscape blew my Eastern-U.S.-oriented sense of scale right outta the water, yea verily.


I'd never seen mountains this color, more vivid than I could imagine. Of course this 17-yr-old 35mm pic doesn't do it justice. It was positively surreal, I felt like I was in a different world. And of course I was. Utah's Hwy 95, not far from Lake Powell:


Near Hite Marina on Lake Powell. (Also priced right.)


Canyonlands NP, which provided the most spectacular scenery I had ever seen in my life up until that time. Edward Abbey--park ranger/author/philosopher/wilderness advocate--loved this place and wrote extensively about it, calling it "the land of stone and silence."


See what I mean about the scenery? This is Grandview Point on the White Rim Mesa. Abbey referred to it as "the edge of the abyss, where this world falls off into the depths of another." Couldn't have said it better if ya paid me to do it.


Oh yeah, there's more!

[Madhouse]

Originally Posted by Woods Rider

Tony, you are one of the few who truly have motorcycles in your blood!

Great story.

Agree!
Adventure Rider 1st class

[Buzztail]

he was an adventure rider before adventure riding was cool

[Dr.Z]

Originally Posted by Buzztail

he was an adventure rider before adventure chuckleheading was cool

i thought there was going to be a shower curtain pic mixed in there somewhere

[freebornman]

theres nothing inept about you tony
fbm

[Vico1]

I feel compelled to add my comments to others made here.

I won't elaborate on the obvious "irony" of "Inept" -rope holding story aside- and get straight to the point.

At some time in the past I have "certified" our Ineptizoid as an "Old Timer". He continues to reference said certification and he is correct. But being an Old Timer as defined by ME... has nothing to do with age. It has to do with maturity and our love for the two wheel mode of transportation.

No one deserves the term ADV Rider more than MR INEPT...

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Hatch]