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Code of the Road
In the sport of
motorcycling there are unwritten pieces of knowledge passed from rider to
rider. In the Code of the Road, Hawk Hagebak shares these pieces of knowledge
for you to read at your leisure. Hawk will answer your questions, share some
experiences and provide you with motorcycling travel tips that will compliment your already extensive knowledge of the coolest form of
transportation in the world. March
2009 Kindred Spirits? Hawk with a Hack? At some point last
year, my 10- year old daughter told me that she wasn’t a big fan of my new
BMW motorcycle, preferring instead the old ’93 Honda Goldwing
because it was bigger. She added that “Mommy and I can’t ride with you on any
motorcycle, you have to pick one or the other and I think Mommy gets jealous
when I go riding.” I replied, “Well, what should I do, buy a sidecar or
something?” She nodded and crossed her arms. “I’ll get one before Christmas.”
And just like that, I was had! I began my search for a hack
rig by reading all I could about cost and features. I was careful in considering
what kind I would buy because I’d be getting the sidecar bolted onto an ancient
mariner of a motorcycle, a ’93 Goldwing with over
150k miles on the odometer (yes, I bought it new, yes, they are all my miles
and, no, it’s not a “Canadian metric” odometer). My Old Wing is probably worth something
along the line of $2,000 (to a crazy person willing to buy a high mileage
bike!). So, the thought of attaching a “dream” sidecar priced at $5,000 made
me dizzy and sick. For cost, handling and aesthetics, I had decided on a Velorex or a Vetter Terraplane.
I would not be buying new; I’ll be looking on Ebay,
thank you. Craig’s List, Ebay, motorcycle magazines and Cycle Trader became my
constant companions. Like a frustrated young man compelled to find internet
porn, I was burning up my bandwidth in search of a sidecar. Night and day, on the lap top and mobile app
and into every shop I could find, the search of a sidecar was on. I made dozens of bids. One night, up until
1:00 a.m. to bid on a Velorex that was in Time had not been my friend in
this endeavor. My self-imposed “before Christmas” deadline was fast
approaching, and I had no sidecar in the garage. The daughter of any good
Daddy will tell you that if her Daddy says he’s going to do something, by
golly, it’s done! I explained the predicament to her and although she
understood, she was surprised that I hadn’t been able to accomplish what I
had set out to do. My real saving grace was an uncharacteristically brutal
winter in One late night, almost asleep,
I found a new listing for a shiny black Vetter Terraplane
with an extended windscreen and rain cover, seatbelt, tubular construction, all
in excellent condition. I blew up the photographs and saw that the seat
inside was in great shape, still had both keys for the trunk, the thing
appeared to be brand spanking new, despite it’s 20+ years of being around. I
figured someone bought it, used it sparingly and then got rid of it. Yep, as
much as I didn’t want to admit it, I had the bug to buy this sidecar. It was being
listed by Competition Cycles in In a ritual that had been
repeated many times before; the next morning, over breakfast, I logged into Ebay to show my wife a daughter “our new sidecar”. That’s
when I discovered that I had bid on the perfect sidecar, at the perfect price
in not the perfect locale. Now, those of you who knew
about Days passed and I was still
the lone bidder. The final day of bidding came and still, no one was bidding.
My bid was awfully low, surely someone will outbid me. At 8:42 pm on January
12th, I was confirmed as the “Winning Bidder” of the sidecar that
was NOT IN I always prefer to ride
motorcycles instead of driving a car or truck, but with the need for
utilitarian transportation, I do actually own a little truck. A January jaunt
from
Come back next month to see if I made it! Until next month, Kickstands UP! ~Hawk |
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