Motorcyles at 72?

  

At first it was a glint of color to my right eye as I passed the intersection. Next day I was on a repeat trip and made it a point to look for it. The light changed to red and I gratefully stopped!

There it was. Golden color. In the sunshine it glowed. It had a windshield, several headlights and marker lamps, but mostly it was the two wheels up front that caught my attention. Powered rear wheel evidently. A motorcycle that looked like it was moving 80 mph while standing still. My heart skipped a beat. I think it winked at me.

Traveling back and forth several times from West Chicago to Elmhurst recently, I kept track of this motorcycle. Last weekend we made a trip to the site, parked, and walked into the motor sports shop on North Avenue. I think we were in Villa Park, but it might have been Lombard.

The shop deals only with used specialty vehicles. Mostly cars (a late used Tesla! A Bentley coupe, several high performance Mustangs) the shop had a few motorcycles. Only one had three wheels.

You might be wondering why the interest in three wheeled motorcycles. At 72 years of age my concern is balance and falling off the vehicle, well, actually not falling off and that’s the point! We are also interested in high gas mileage and possibly finding a second form of transportation so Rocky isn’t marooned when I’m out on a SCORE assignment.

The salesman was very helpful. He let us mount the cycle. Very comfortable. Easy to read controls. Automatic transmission (very helpful!), power ABS brakes on all three wheels, reverse gear for backing out of parking spots, and an airplane engine to push the bike down the highway. Well engineered and many hidey hoe compartments for stashing stuff. Streamlined and alluring.

Disappointments: 36 miles per gallon depending on terrain and the driver’s penchant for rabbit starts. Used, this vehicle was priced at $20k. So, out of the question. But drooling continued for at least another hour.

Later that night dreams began. I could feel the machine beneath me, vibrating its power and broadcasting our freedom. Rocky had similar dreams. We were hooked.

A few days later we searched the internet for the manufacturer. Can-am from Quebec. Elmhurst has a large dealer. So we went for a drive and visit.

They had the full inventory of models for Can-am. All priced between $25k and $30k. We were speechless. They did have one used bike with 11,000 miles on it priced at $18.5k. Still too much. But oh did it capture our interest!

Driving home we listed the reasons the vehicle was impractical: storage during winter months; insurance; driving gear (rain wear, helmets, cool weather duds, boots). The price was impractical, too. When might the price drop to $5000? Not soon enough!!

So we settled down. Excited that we even thought about this sort of thing. It must be a fourth childhood thing, right? Yes, most probably. But it has been worth the thinking and dreaming.

Visions of the open road, you know. Meanwhile, we enjoy our hybrid car that gets better gas mileage than the bike, and cost less!! Too, we enjoy the AC and heating systems and the heated seats in the winter to say nothing about sealed safely from wind and rain! And the stereo is tops, too!

I guess we’ll just have to think of the wind through our few remaining hairs and the smell of the open road and wide open spaces.

A guy can still dream. At any age. And catch a wink from a treasure?

July 6, 2015