I finally got my stock air box from ebay and Phil (feelerguagephil) showed me how to put it on. By the way, installing a stock air box is a pain in the a$$.
Anyway, later on in the day, after my acedemic duties were over (still in college 8-[) I hopped on the Goose and headed to my first bike night\\/\\/! I was to meet up with Phil and my other buddy Dom to ride to the gathering, but traffic was hell! By the time I got to Phil's place they had already gone. So I found the address of the place in the yellow pages and headed over on my own.
As I was making my way I reached a stop light where a guy on a nice Kawasaki cruiser pulls up next to me. He looks over and says, "That thing looks good!" I told him, "Well, it's a work in progress. It's still rather ugly right now." He jokingly says, "Anybody can pretty one up. It takes balls to ride an ugly bike!"
So it turns out that he's heading to the same bike night I am, and I follow him to the gathering at a local bike shop called Friendly Yamaha. Bikes were EVERYWHERE!!! Sport bikes, cruisers, choppers, touring bikes, enduros, you name it, it was there. As I putted through the crowd, I saw Dom and that one of a kind CB550 he rides. When he sees me, he points to an empty space next to his ride. He had saved a spot for me! Great!!!
So we hung around the lot for quite a while. I had some food, talked with friends, and saw a badass 1968 Dogde Charger with a blower punching out the hood. It felt good being out there with all those CBRs and Gixxers knowing that the bike my friends and I ride are the grandfathers of their machines. If it wasn't for the GS750, there would be no Hayabusa.
So after hanging around for quite a bit, we started getting the urge to saddle up. So we warmed up the old bikes and headed to the gas station to top off for a ride through the Louisiana countryside.
It was SO COLD, and like a dummy, I have yet to buy some gloves! But even with the cold the ride was great. We headed around a 20 mile circuit of road with some great bends and smooth asphalt, ending at Phil's place. The Goose was runs fantastically. She can pull at every rpm, corner brilliantly, and puts a huge :-D on my goofy face.
When we were almost to the end of our trip, Dom frantically pulls up beside me and says, "He man, your taillight is about to fall off!" Oh sh*t!!! I had forseen this happening but was too worried about getting the thing running right that I had put it off. My taillight lens was missing two of the three nut and bolt sets used to hold it on. We pulled over, and luckily Dom had a small bungee cord with him. So we bungeed the lens on and made it back to Phil's, who found some random bolts in his shop and cinched the lens down. Phewww!!!
I'm just now getting home from my day, and I can't remember having this much fun in a long time. I felt like I was a part of something, and there was commradary (did I spell that right?) amongst all of the people I encountered tongiht. I knew there was something special about these machines, but I never expected to grow this attached to and get this excited about riding a motorcycle. And after working on my GS for so long, she and I are finally getting to know each other. It's a great thing.
thatdood
call me Reuben when I see you
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