Nostalgia

[SED]

Headed out to the shop this morning to get ready for the club ride. It's misty with real rain forecast so decided to take the '83 LMIII which has been sitting for a couple months. (The Ariel's a better rain bike, but the LM makes better time and doesn't leak oil  ) 

The LeMon needs some checks and a valve adjust so put on some tunes, grabbed some old tools and crouch down to pull the right valve cover.  I've put on U2 War and New Year's Day comes on and it's like 1983 all over again.  It's like an alternate reality of a 20 year-old me except instead of lying under an old car in the rain I'm in a dry shop with a bike I wanted in 1983 listening to an album that I bought in 1983 using tools I bought off the Snap-On truck in 1983.  (Just looked it up and U2 released War in early 1983.) 

Suddenly after 10 years the LM seems like a keeper.

Never really thought of myself as stuck in the past - am I getting old?   

a drier day...

[oldbike54]

 Motorbike riders are like a good cheese , we only get more well rounded with time , we don't get old .

 Lovely bike , and the feeling you experienced is familiar to most of us . Somewhat like cheating time.

 Thanks

 Dusty

[SED]

Motorbike riders are like a good cheese , we only get more well rounded with time , we don't get old .

 Lovely bike , and the feeling you experienced is familiar to most of us . Somewhat like cheating time.

 Thanks

 Dusty

 
Thanks Dusty!

[Guzzistajohn]

Hard to beat that 850 in the corners

[siabeid]

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago, but not with my bikes.  I was holding my youngest daughter's 3 month old baby. He looks and acts just like my son did at that age. For a bit, I actually thought it was 1979 and I was holding my baby son and I was 25 years old. It was just an illusion, though. I am back to being a balding 64 year old geezer. It was really nice while it lasted....

[Lannis]

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago, but not with my bikes.  I was holding my youngest daughter's 3 month old baby. He looks and acts just like my son did at that age. For a bit, I actually thought it was 1979 and I was holding my baby son and I was 25 years old. It was just an illusion, though. I am back to being a balding 64 year old geezer. It was really nice while it lasted....

[SED]

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago, but not with my bikes.  I was holding my youngest daughter's 3 month old baby. He looks and acts just like my son did at that age. For a bit, I actually thought it was 1979 and I was holding my baby son and I was 25 years old. It was just an illusion, though. I am back to being a balding 64 year old geezer. It was really nice while it lasted....

Ha - you're about as un-geezer as they come Si!     Nice connection. 

Funny how personal connection or music or the quality of light can make a time traveler of us!

[Matteo]

  Oh Yeah! My LM3 and my CX are my favorite rides.

[Vince in Milwaukee]

New Year's Day - hands down, my absolute favorite U2 song to this very day.  When I do happen to catch it on the radio (not often enough) it takes me back to my days stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA as a young Lance Corporal.  Good times, especially going to the dance club in Tijuana and meeting pretty girls.  Wasn't into motorcycles at the time; that would come a few years later.  Picked up my LeMans III in 89, after finishing up my second enlistment.  I still have it. 

[Huzo]

Thanks Dusty!

Yep.
For me, playing with the Norge or Mk 2 on the scissor lift, with Pink Floyd's Money, Momentary Lapse of Reason or Learning To Fly.
They're all sort of connected in a funny way.

[SED]

Huzo, still love Wish You Were Here and the high fidelity acoustics that Floyd incorporated.

Vince, so cool you have had the LM so long. Have some great memories on the LMIII but all of a bald middle aged guy.  Funny how the music takes you back.

Well how do they compare Matteo? - the CX100 and the LMIII.  Sometimes I want the LM to morph into a CX!

GuzzistaJohn it is fun in the corners, but I need more practice!    

[Matteo]

Well how do they compare Matteo? - the CX100 and the LMIII.  Sometimes I want the LM to morph into a CX!

GuzzistaJohn it is fun in the corners, but I need more practice!    

My LM3 accelerates quicker and has stiffer carb springs, feels more spirited. The CX while not as fast is a little easier to ride and a little more comfy, this one was a wreck when I got it so I am still trying to get it back to stock. Have all the parts now and hope to be finished by next summer.

[Guzzi Gal]

Money, it's a gas!  Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash!  I was strictly a zero ATGATT pillion in '83 on the back of my friend's Beemer or my boyfriends Honda but Floyd was ever present. Clare Torry letting it all hang out in Great Gig In The Sky brings me back hard.   

[Paul Brooking]

Blue tooth headphones - riding and working on the bike.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "Running down a dream" (live)

Mike Campbell's guitar solo at the end gets me every time.

https://youtu.be/Qv4-m-cIZf4

[Guzzistajohn]

Huzo, still love Wish You Were Here and the high fidelity acoustics that Floyd incorporated.

Vince, so cool you have had the LM so long. Have some great memories on the LMIII but all of a bald middle aged guy.  Funny how the music takes you back.

Well how do they compare Matteo? - the CX100 and the LMIII.  Sometimes I want the LM to morph into a CX!

GuzzistaJohn it is fun in the corners, but I need more practice!    

Just click down to 4th lean in and let her eat, she can do it!

[twowings]

Careful with that axe, Eugene...

[Numbercruncher]

While I am not a dad I can relate to getting lost in time where some form of stimulation returns your mind to where you were many years ago.  There are times I intentionally try to recapture that and it never works.

I think stories like this would make for a cool thread even if not directly related to motorcycling.  Kind of like whenever I smell the chlorinated water from a pool it reminds me of being a kid in California.  We had a pool in our backyard and it seemed like mom always added chlorine to the water when we wanted to swim.  When we moved to much colder Washington State outdoor pool time was limited, and still is, to a few times a year.  But even so that smell of the chlorine, the hustle and bustle of the water park or wherever take me back in time many years.  It is really soothing to have that happen.

One reason I am after a Moto Guzzi is the air cooled engine.  My first motorcycle was a Honda XR80 dirt bike.  I learned to ride in the deserts of Eastern Washington and since we lived in a neighborhood that had maybe twenty houses and now there are like 500, we rode our dirt bikes on the streets around the neighborhood.  It wasn't legal and irritated some of the neighbors, but that XR80 was much quieter than any lawn mower so I don't feel too bad.  That air cooled engine had a certain smell to it that all air cooled bikes make.  Funny how it is smells that seem to bring back the strongest memories for me. 

To that list add rubbing alcohol.  I spent more time in the hospital than most kids (not really bad like some really unfortunate kids) did and the smell of rubbing alcohol says hospital, surgery, IV needles and shots in general.  The local Big Cat rescue facility sells lion feces.  Yes you heard that correct.  Lion feces.  Supposedly white tailed deer in Washington State still have a genetic link to African Lions (a similar lion did roam North America prior to the last ice age) and the smell of their feces sends them on high alert.  If you don't want deer on your property, spread some lion scat along the perimeter of your yard.  I don't know if it works but I can see where it would.  Bottom line for me is I react to the smell of rubbing alcohol like deer do to lion sheet.

I recently purchased the Kenny Roger's song, "Twenty Years Ago," as it hits on this same sentiment.  Bryan Adams "Summer of '69," has a similar nostalgic vibe as well.

Glad I am still young enough to keep making those memories for the future.  If I can get that MG before it get's too hot, I'll take a few trips back to the Tri-Cities and cruise the back roads that used to be surrounded by arid desert and are now in the midst of farmland.  While some of that scenery isn't all that scenic, there is minimal traffic and I'll take that over the I-5 corridor around Seattle any day.

NC

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago, but not with my bikes.  I was holding my youngest daughter's 3 month old baby. He looks and acts just like my son did at that age. For a bit, I actually thought it was 1979 and I was holding my baby son and I was 25 years old. It was just an illusion, though. I am back to being a balding 64 year old geezer. It was really nice while it lasted....

[Lannis]

While I am not a dad I can relate to getting lost in time where some form of stimulation returns your mind to where you were many years ago. 

Smell - two stroke oil burning.   I'm 16 again.

Smell - On the road, dipping down into a swale on a summer evening, honeysuckle.

Feel - That same swale, cool humid air, turning hot again as you top the next rise.   1971.

Music - "Hitchin' a Ride", "Up Around The Bend", "Dark is the Night (Neon)", "Come To Me", "Share the Land", "Mongoose".   I'm 17 again.

Lannis

[SED]

Love how music and smells and memories and ride comparisons are all rolled together with good advice like "click down to 4th and lean in".  (GuzzistaJohn knows his LMIIIs!)  What a great group!