Category Archives: Honda Gold Wing

TwoBigCats Honda shop…

Owen and Liv were up for Thanksgiving, so Owe and I did a bit of housekeeping in the garage, lined the scooters up and took a few pics. (I’ll post a few more over the next day or two).

Following the little red one, a ’71 CT 70 that used to belong to Pop (it’s only got 1,600 miles on it) is Owen’s (just handed over) ’69 160 that I bought back in March of ’89 from the founder of the software company I worked for. When I brought it home, Owen could surely imagine he would be driving it someday so I gave him a bag of steel wool and told him to polish the shiny things until they shined, then wash the bike until the non-shiny things shined and THEN when I thought he was ready for the bike, I would give it to him.

He turned 34 last week and I think he’s ready for it now, so I headed down to the DMV and transferred the title and personalized license plate to him so it’s his now. Turns out Owen has taken to riding his motorcycle with a group of guys who ride over Mulholland in LA, then meet up @ place where hundreds of mc’s gather on Sat/Sun. It appears the “in” thing nowadays is to ride a “classic” motorcycle, which the 160 certainly is (it turned 40 this year). Owe’s bike has just over 7,000 miles on it as it sits.

The next bike in line is the ’76 CB 750-4, THE classic superbike that started superbike’s… inline 4 cylinders and pipes – the first production bike with a disc brake – electric start combined with Honda reliability. That bike has just over 5,400 miles on it.

The last bike, the purple grape-thingie is my ’95 Gold Wing 1500. Big Bike, 900 lbs dry, six cylinders, ~100 horses, reverse and air shock suspension. I skipped the hot tub upgrade on it 🙂 Typical Honda – runs like a top, never had a second’s trouble w/it in the 18k miles I’ve put on it.

Owe’s 160 is heading south w/him and Liv tomorrow. I have a little bit of sadness in seeing it go – it’s been w/me for 20+ years now… but I’m thrilled to hand it off to him for him to fire up and enjoy.

I hope Owen has as much fun on the 160 as Jim and I did on his back in ’69.