Drop of a hat 2005 Pt 2
So, it’s late February and I am heading
back to the U.S. on a flight booked on my return 5 weeks prior. Little did I
know at that time that my circumstances would change somewhat in that I could no
longer afford to buy the N.O.S.H2b – However, my pal Steve wanted the bike
instead, so it is all systems go to continue with the plans to get the bike.
It is bitterly cold as I leave the U.K.
but after landing in Michigan to find a foot of snow and the Great Lake frozen
for many feet around the shore I rapidly change my opinion on what I consider to
be cold! My plan is to collect my truck from the garage (after it’s gearbox
repair) then drive down to Canada, I would then cut a corner and re-enter the
U.S. into New York State to collect a rather cheap “Snowjob” that I had won on
Ebay. Some of you will remember the word “snowjob” from the early 70’s, it’s
basically a H2 driven snowmobile in that it is a framework with a pair of
caterpillar tracks, you bolt a wheeless H2 onto the frame which in turn powers
the two tracks
I head off into the snow on my 500 mile
drive down to Niagara Falls, from there I cross the border into New York state
to collect the snowjob, all goes well and I arrive in Niagara Falls early in the
evening.
An early start for the days 600 mile
drive and I take in the breathtaking scenery of the frozen falls, huge ice flows
and massive chunks of ice floating down the river.
With so many miles to do I cut sort the
“tourist” stuff and head on down to New York State to collect the snowjob, The
frame is intact, the tracks look good and I am soon loading another piece of
unique H2 history onto the truck.
With the nowjob loaded it is back up to
Canada to endure the interrogation of Canadian customs as to why I was only in
the U.S. for five hours and then up to Peterborough to collect Steves H2b
We loaded the H2b in the snow but before
I covered the bike with tarpaulins for it’s 550 mile snow ridden journey, I had
already purchased a couple of cans of WD40 and liberally sprayed every single
accessible part of the bike to try on protect it from it’s upcoming journey.
Once back in Traverse City Michigan I
discovered that the snow and road salt dust had found it’s way into and under
the covers on the H2, I was now very concerned that this new bike could be a
pile of rust in a couple of days – my plan was to wash the bike off and then
keep it in heated storage for it’s 8 week stay in Traverse, but I was seriously
struggling to find any suitable storage, You have to bear in mind that when it
gets cold in Michigan it gets VERY cold - and stays that way! You can normally
hedge your bets that there will be snow on the ground from late November right
through to late March. So the chances of the bike getting dry and staying that
way were pretty slim. As I uncovered the bike from it’s 2 day journey I was
horrified to see a couple of yellow patches on the underside of the front
mudguard, it was almost as if the salt had burnt it’s way straight into the
metal! My only option was to try and jetwash all the salt dust off . . . I had
a master plan, I went to a local Goodwill store (Charity shop) and purchased a
small electric heater and a light bulb socket and a timer – my plan was to wash
the bike, and then put it into storage, the light in the storage unit could be
used to run a low wattage timed heater hopefully all would be well for the 8
weeks until the bike was to make the next stage of it’s voyage. I jetwashed the
salt off the bike and stored it in it’s temporary home, I was somewhat relieved
that this perfect specimen was now safe from the elements.
I went over to visit my pal “Z1” Gary, I
told him the whole involved story of the NOS H2b and how relieved I was that the
salt was jetwashed off and the bike was back in pristine condition - the look
on Gary’s face had me concerned , he questioned me “what do you mean you
jetwashed it?” I replied that I went to the local jetwash and cleaned the bike.
“You stupid b****d that’s salt water that you have washed it with, why do you
think it is still working in this temperature?” – he then went on to tell me
that they use recycled water – SALTED water which is why they never freeze up
(even though it is constantly minus something or the other temperature wise) .
. . I felt myself drain – I had no clue what the answer was - all I knew was
that I needed to get the bike washed with clean water and get it dried as soon
as possible or Steve would not be a happy camper!!
The original plan was that I would stay
up near Gary and spend 5 days working on the bikes that I had stored in his pole
barn, the following Saturday I was due to fly down to Daytona bike week. While
at Garys I set about doing a bit of work to One bike and it wasn’t long before I
pretty damn cold out in barn, I certainly didn’t relish the thought of 5 more
days of working in a freezing cold barn with no heating.
Today was Tuesday – I was due to fly to
Florida and it’s 70 degrees on the next Saturday - Florida was just 1,450 miles
and 3 days drive south – the bike could last 2 more days and at least if I could
then get it washed in clean water and dried out in the warm Florida sunshine it
would survive.
I saw no option but to make the drive,
not only that but I thought I would go for broke and try and do the 1440 mile
drive in One hit – My plan was to make a 4am start and if all went well I could
make the trip in less than 24 hrs of constant driving – it would be a landmark
in my driving career that I wouldn’t wish to repeat but would beat my previous
daily driving record of 850 miles (Aberdeen and back) by some 600 miles!
I had an early night and left Traverse
City just after 4am, the snow was falling and the roads were yet to be ploughed,
just getting over to the interstate was interesting to say the least – no street
lights, unplowed roads and often a case of just guessing where the road was in
the virgin snow – thank heavens for 4 wheel drive! Once on the Interstate things
were not much better, the road was yet to be ploughed and the lane that was open
had a couple of inches of snow on top of ice! I soon caught up with a truck that
was struggling to maintain 40mph in the falling snow and poor road conditions, I
had been travelling for 90 minutes and had covered just 40 miles, averaging it
out at around 28 miles an hour – at that rate it would take 50 or so hours of
non stop driving to get to my destination! I made the decision to go for broke
and overtake the truck. I changed lane and was immediately aware that I was
driving in 4 inches of snow on top of ice – the road ahead was barely visible
with the snow being blown around by the 18 wheeler, I slowly built the speed up
to 60 mph and just headed for a hole in the blizzard – having driven well over a
million miles in my life I have to say that this was turning out to be the
scariest drive ever! After what seemed like an eternity I edged past the truck
and carefully changed over lanes. After breathing a HUGE sigh of relief I then
built the speed up to a constant 60mph, hoping that the further down South I got
the clearer the roads would be and I could go a little faster to make up time.
I had already worked out that with no breaks and only fuel stops I needed to
average 75 mph to be in with a chanced of doing the trip in a day. Mile after
mile tripped up on the speedo and I saw little sign of the weather getting
better. All the way down through Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky to Tennessee was
covered in snow, accidents were minimal but Once in Tennesse there were trucks
and cars off the road every few miles – it appears that they are just not use to
the unusual snowy climate.
Just 500 miles in and I stop for my
second gas stop, as I pull off the freeway I am aware of a rather loud grinding
noise from my transmission, I have no clue what it was but as I reversed into a
parking slot to check it out there was a loud bang and the noise disappeared, I
filled up, crossed my fingers and hit the road. Mile after mile at 80mph soon
got my average back up to 75mph, I pulled off again at 300 miles (my average
tankfull) and the darn noise was back again, again I reversed, again there was
the loud bang and again the noise disappeared. The snow finally disappeared as I
got into the Knoxville area in Tennessee, it was mid afternoon, I had been
driving for 12 hours and had covered some 750 miles with 700 still to go. The
next state was Georgia which seemed to be endless, finally I was in Florida and
arriving at my destination at 2am! 1,430 miles in just under 22 long hours, I
was a very happy chappy to have a truck that was still alive.
9am the next day and I am back at a jet
wash, the difference being it is a sunny 75 degrees and I am washing the bike
with pure water! The old waxoil and WD40 was proving difficult to shift, but
with a little determination and some degreaser the bike was again looking like a
brand new showroom bike
J
I knew the flight that I was no longer
taking from Traverse City to Tampa was over booked so I called Continental to
tell them I wouldn’t make the flight, I asked if there was any refund available?
They told me that not only was there no refund but if I didn’t make the flight I
was deemed to have cancelled the whole trip and would need to buy another ticket
out of Tampa for my leg home! I was struggling to comprehend the fact that if I
didn’t make the internal flight then I would have to buy a new homeward ticket
on the same plane in the same seat that I had already paid for! After speaking
to a supervisor I was assured that this was the correct procedure and that I had
the choice of driving or flying back up to Traverse City to catch the flight
back down or I could buy the ticket that I had already bought for my homeward
trip for the princely sum of $1,100! I did neither and decided to think about my
options when I was in a more rational frame of mind.
The bike was still on the back of the
truck as I headed over to Deland where there was a bike show as part of the
Daytona bike week. The show was typically Harley based, in fact out of the
1,000+ bikes on the street I would think that there was just a single handful of
old Japanese bikes attending. I went over to the bike display / competition and
stared in awe at the amazing work that went into the Harleys that were being
displayed. I stopped by the organisers booth and saw that there were prizes for
the Best Artwork, Best Chop, Best Sportster, Best Chrome, Best “this” and best
“that” and also a category for “most original bike” – well, there was nothing in
the rules that said it had to be a Harley right ? So, I entered the H2b! Whilst
I didn’t sit by the bike I did sit within earshot and was pleased to hear that
the bike was creating a lot of interest with some wild tales of how “they use to
wheelie in 3rd gear and kill one in five of the owners” I avoided
temptation to correct such statements and just mused over the realisation that
these bikes really are a legend – maybe for all the wrong reasons but they will
have a place in history as the wildest bike of the 70’s.
Presentation time duly arrived and I was
amused to hear the Master of Ceremonies stumbling for words as he said that the
“most original” category was somewhat of a puzzler, he told how they had to call
in extra judges and eventually decided that the most original bike was the
“Kawasaki H2” – I was somewhat relieved to hear applause rather than beer
bottles breaking around me as I walked to the stage to collect my rather large
trophy J
Next day was another spare day, I
checked into flights and found that rather than pay the $1,100 one way ticket
back to the U.K. I was better off to buy a new return ticket to the U.S. and
save $400 into the bargain! My ticket was booked and I saw that there was an
auction / autojumble and Japanese only bike show organised by the V.J.M.C. near
Daytona. I headed on over there and there were some NICE old bikes there, I duly
parked the H2b in line and went to look at the bikes in auction. There were many
bikes and several hundred parts lots for sale, the autojumble was limited to a
handful of stalls. I hung around in the auction and was amazed at the huge
prices the NOS Suzuki and Kawasaki parts were commanding – I appeared that just
one U.S. guy was paying maximum money for everything! I was after a box of NOS
Kawasaki bolts that I had figured would sell for $350 this guy went to $400 – I
was pissed at him and kept bidding – common sense kicked in at $900 and I
breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t actually buy the stuff! Once back
outside I was pleased to see another trophy sitting on the H2b, it was somewhat
relieved to see it was for the furthest travelled. Whilst I think that the H2b
was the nicest bike in the show I would have been very unhappy if I had won any
other trophy, we all know how much hard work and dedication goes into restoring
an old bike and I would certainly have given the trophy back if I had won a more
prestigious award.
The following day it is back down to
Daytona to watch Dave Crussell race, once at the stadium it is obvious that all
has not gone well in practice, Dave has holed a piston on the left pot and the
race is on to see if he can get a new piston flown in and fitted for the race
the next day.
So, whilst in Daytona you have to drive
on the beach – I was a little shocked to see the repairs still going on after
the hurricanes of 2004, hotels with roofs and walls missing, steps down to the
beach finishing half way and re-construction work going on everywhere. I was
bemused to see a shark fin just 50feet out into the sea and pulled off the hard
sand to look – BIG mistake, I now found out that my 4 wheel drive truck was now
a 2 wheel drive (Hence the gearbox “bang” back in Kentucky) Luckily a couple of
guys saw my dilemma and pushed me back onto the hard sand
J
The following day sees Two pistons
arriving from Two scources “Pro Flow” in California have expedited a piston out
and as a back up I called Sir Bill Baxter in Texas to see if he could help, as
it happens Bill’s piston turned up first (just 16 hours after asking for it)
–unfortunately it was all to no avail as Daves crank went out in practice on the
same cylinder – guess the motor was tired and asking for a full rebuild.
I have just One spare day left and
decide to call at a driving test centre to see how I could go about getting an
American licence. I have an annoying problem that I can’t insure or register my
truck or a bike in the U.S. without holding a current U.S. licence. I ask the
girl at the counter how to go about it and 30 mins later I am taking my
“written” part of the Two part car test, the test is 90 multi choice questions
of which you have to get 75 correct for a pass. 15 minutes later and I have
passed! I ask about the bike test and it is the same scenario, 20 minutes later
and I have passed that one as well. I ask the girl about taking the actual
driving test and 20 minutes later I am on the road with an examiner! I passed
the car test but could not take the bike “skills” test until I had a physical
licence in my hand. The total cost of these Three tests? $25.00! Yep, under
fifteen quid!
Yet again, my trip is over all too soon
and I am at the airport in Tampa ready for my flight home. My return flight is
scheduled at some of the best times ever – I leave Florida and in theory arrive
just 13 hours later in sunny Brum! – The flights are on time and the only thing
that REALLY pees me off is that in the last year “Continental” have gone from
selling Californian Red wine @:£3.00 for a 187mlbottle to French red wine, to
Chilean red and now finally to Portugese red – at the same £3.00 a bottle – no
doubt if the decline continues it will be Bulgarian next . . . . Those of you
nearer to 50 years old than 20 years old know why I am moaning!
Rick Brett
