1100s

[Guest]

I cant afford one O those new fangdangled 1200s, still ride a old 1100..so if you dont mind a oldie rider here,might put in a tid bit or 2 of info on old wings..

[Guest]

Always good information to have. I've been on several sites where there was a "black sheep" in the herd (even been one myself) and have never seen a problem airse from them. Let me be the first to welcome you to the site.

Welcome to the best 1200 site on the net.

[Guest]

Don't you mean the ONLY 1200 site on the net.

[Guest]

That too, but by definition it defalts as the best i.e. no one better.

[admin]

Welcome Ken, it's always good to have a black sheep or two around here to give some contrast.

[Guest]

I was in real bad bike acidents in 1974,, 3that yr,not a good year , stared out from Home to British Columbia for annual holiday.( Whiecourt Alberta on a brand new 74 CB-750, didnt get 40 miles west and was run off the road bu some teenagers in daddys pickup..laid in ditch a fes hrs till someone saw me and helped me on my feet,wasnt bleeding bad but was cut from groin to belly button from Barb wire fence,we set the bike up and I checked it,started right up and I rode it to nearest town of Edson ,about 15 miles. waled in Hospital holding my guts in( literally). rushed into ER,patched me up.laid in hospital 4 days till I released my self.back up 4 days,.I phoned local Honda dealer who i bought the bike from and asked if they could pick it up and check it out. after leaving hospital I took a cab to Honda dealer. Bike was scratched but OK.they put on new handlebars and clutch lever..Paid them and was going to go back home till I though,naaa,just get MOM all scared..so headed west to BC again..arrived Kelowna at freinds and rested there for few weeks till stitches came out.( I took them out)
Then took he 750 for a ride,,wasnt gone a hr and a car backed infrt of me on main street,crushing my right leg between crash bar and motor.bent forks,sfrt wheel.Bike was crap now.Police removed my leg from beween bar and bike and took me to hospital..Broken ankle and lower leg,but too swollen to cast..meanwhile towing guy took bike to Honda dealer there.Lady that hit me had no insurance,neither did I for collision anyway.
so asked dealer if interested in trading this 2 week old 74 750 for a 68 Honda CB-450 he had in showroom till the lady paid me for the bike.( which was 1 month later)
I loaded my crap from the 750 onto 450 and headed east back to Alberta.got to Hinton ( about 350 miles that day and could stand the pain,so stopped at my Uncles place, he took me to hospital and they cut off my boot,which was full of blood,ankle bone came thru the skin.
so another 2 weeks in this hospital and then home I went with cast on leg.
recovered a home with Moms care and then traded the 68 450 for another new 74 750.. a SS this time,
went to party with freinds a month later and drank a bit too much. was a POLICE stop check on main highway.I went around the cops in ditch and they radioed ahead for a cop car to stop me,he pulled right on on highway and I hit him in drivers door at 60 mph, woke up 4 days later in a Edmonton hospital..broke back lowest vrtabrae. both arms,nose,some ribs.and ankle again.laid there 3 months,they rotated me like a chicken on a spit..finally Dad said one day that this was enough BS,your coming home.Doc said I would never walk agian.BS.Dad started by holding me up under the arms and drug me around the hospital.finally the legs started working and I was walking after 6 months from accident to leaving hospital..I bought the local Honda dealer from money I sued them for .I was seeing my wife then and we agreed not to ride motorcyles on streets,so we didnt ,only off road and ATVs..after selling deslership in 90 and moving 60 miles west to where we live now,I bought a gas station and continued buying,repairing and selling bikes,cars,snowmobiles.
in 91 i first went to local Honda dealer there and asked if had any fixxer upper bikes for sale,.Yup.out in red shed..there was a beautiful teal 75 GL-1000 leaning againist the wall,it had a vettor fairing,back bags and truck were already gone..I asked about it,oh,the motor has no compression,give me $300.00 and take it home,remove the motor ,bring it back and I will rebuild it for you..yea yea ,this guy didnt know me from Adam..hauled it home,first thing I did was hook up booster cables to see if anything worked,everything did,hit the starter and it turned over very fast and you could here it had no compression..My 10 yr son just finshed adjusting valves on his XR-80,,He said to me,lets adjust the valves on it ..OK,out came one of my old OEM Honda shop manuals,,All the valves were set tight.All of them,,weird I thought..after setting them,I poured some gas in tank,it cranked over a few times and V-room..idled like a swiss watch..so had valid off road licence plate and put it on,while idling Wife came out,what are you doing,OH,,( she didnt know i bought this) just trying it out dear..OK, dont go on highway,,so around the block about 4 times,all gears worked.back in shop and changed oil..Trudy was standing there with her helmet and snowmobile coat.I said,"whats this?,your not going alone..so she climbed on and away we went.were gone a hour and she was quiet the whole time till i got almost home.."lets go some more"
well,she was hooked..we put on 36,000 miles on that olf 1000 that summer.Poor kids were at grammas all summer.
since then I have had a 1200 INt. with 474,000 kms on it.we put another 100,000 on it with no charging system. had a homemade Delco alternator welded on the crash bar with a belt from the cam..
Then had a NEW 95 1500 SE...my Baby I called it..But then in '97 I had a stroke,my dad died and my wife left me.all in one year.my gas station was under a environmental cleanup order from Alberta Government.we were told ift contamination was under the highway I would loose my home and everything I had in order to pay for the cleanup..so I sold everything I had to prepare for it.Sold home to wife ,bike and motorhome wernt paid for so gave money to bank.Wife came back after found out werent going to lose home,Got a grant to clean it up in 2002..so last yr found a 83 1100 on GWRRA web site in Ontario..some freinds went there from Ohio and picked it up,then 2 more freinds from Minnisota picked it up and brought it Nebraska where I picked it up last August..a month before leaving for the bus trip I was out riding a Honda CM-400 Aitomatic I bought for Trudy to ride and was 1 mile from home ans got a 6 inch rock thrown at me from big truck,smashed my knee in 4 places,so wore a cast till 1 day before my bus trip,.,did the 3 day trip with a real sore black and blue lower leg..healed up a week before leaving back home end of August
.rode home in 4 days,leg was sore..made it home OK.put bike in shed and have been working ever since..Looking forward to summer,like to find a single carb kit for the 1100. sorry for the long story,but thats my bike life in shortmleft out a lot before 74 and all the wings I bought and sold since the 95.dont count those,.never ride em,just paid bills with them.

[admin]

Life ain't easy sometimes Ken. Thank God we can still jump on our Wings, don a smile and go burn off some bad memories and replace them with good new ones.

Glad you're still with us because all that you've been through might have taken a lesser man down.

[kevo]

It is sad that I can relate to your story, Ken, but I to survived to ride another day, my accident still haunts me, just yesterday my newest doctor found yet another fracture in my neck from my accident in 89! I live on pain meds and am seening a pain clinic hopefully to enhance my quality of life. I was in a mining accident in 89. I was in a piece of underground haulage equipment(truck) that weighed 20tons empty. The only suspension was the seat and the 1" plate steel canopy was 3"'s over head. The front end of my vehicle was picked up and dropped from approximately 6' and I bounced inside like a tennis ball, thrown aloft by the seat, smacked by the 20 tons of falling steel and then shot into the plate steel again after the seat rebounded. They found a vertically split sternum, all my ribs were broken, fractures of T-11 &12 and a total of 7 damaged discs in spine. In 2001 I finally had my neck fused at C5-6 and just yesterday my new doc found that C7 was or is fractured. I have lived in chronic pain since the accident, take lots of meds, but the thougt of getting in a good ride still makes me drool. We were not meant to be lost any of those days, we were meant to live on for something else. I always tell friends and family "Living well is the best revenge" and from one suvivor to all others, Live well.
Kevo