Along the South Coast
New Year's Day 2004
By Tom Hart
I was pleasantly surprised to see
so many SoCal members able and willing to mount their rides following whatever
New Year's Eve festivities they may have endured. Unfortunately, in my case anyway, it was just a matter of not being able to
party all night. Do I feel bad about not being able to party hardy anymore? Not
in the least, because all I did was trade that puny 6% beer for 90% Octane (OK,
OK, 87% octane). That's an increase (of some type) and that's a good thing,
even if it is in a different category.
The group started to gather at my
house in Long Beach around 8:45. Dudley Pollard was first to arrive with his
Triumph cub, so he gets an award for something or another. Then came Craig with
his Triumph and Dave Cook on his Square Four and then another Triumph. I was
starting to think, "Damn Brits, their everywhere". Just then the meat
and potato boys started to show up. Tom Lovejoy on his rusty oiler ('39 Sport
Scout) came smoking down the street. Boy, was that a
slip of the keyboard or what? Tom's bike will never see a spec of rust on it in
our lifetime thanks to the generous amount of oil his bike disperses everywhere
but the cylinders. What I meant to say was "his trusty oiler".
Then Gary on his black '37 HD accompanied by (name escapes me) on '47 HD. Bill
Harris on his newly acquired '17 Power Plus and Jim Falk aboard the ever there
German machine. I rounded out our group with my '39 chief.
After coffee and rolls we were
well on our way at precisely the 10 o'clock hour. By 10:10 we at
least 3 miles from my house and taking a well deserved break
while Bill repaired his Power Plus that had lost the "Power" part of
its descriptive name. It seems that Indian had made an engineering error when
it designed the '17 model by locating the mag cap right next to the clutch
pedal. They should have known that anyone with a triple "E" boot is
going to knock of the cap when disengaging the clutch. It was an easy fix and
we were back on the road heading south through Seal Beach at a blistering speed
of 35 to 40 MPH. All the better to view the coastal
sights on a slightly overcast, but beautiful day. The traffic was light as we
made our way south through the towns of Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa
Mesa, Newport, and Laguna. Bill's bike was starting to show some signs of
illness by the time we reached South Laguna and we were without a trouble
truck. He held in there and nursed his bike all the way to San Clemente where I
planned a turn around at the pier to head north again along the coast. Bill
managed to make it all the way back to our lunch stop in Dana Point before
calling it quits and calling in a trouble truck from home. It turned out to be
only a minor carburetor adjustment problem.
After lunch the remaining group continued north through the same coastal
towns as before, but once again we dazzled the populous with our old machines,
our bikes too. It's amazing how much fun it can be traveling only 80 miles in
five hours. We were back by 3 o'clock. Plenty of time to watch 1 1/2 bowl
games, drink fruit juices, and take a nap. Until next year, have a good one and
pay up your dues.