3.02.2009


Registered
Originally uploaded by jimturbert
This is a picture of my recently registered in the Netherlands motorcycle. It is a 1978 Triumph Bonneville, and it is beautiful. I find it difficult to refer to the bike as mine. Often I call it "the Triumph" or I find some other way of deferring my possession of the bike, but it is actually mine. The former (and original) owner of this bike was my uncle, whom I called Buddy. Others may have known him as Tom. He passed away just over a year ago, and he would have been 61 on February 19. I always coveted this motorcycle even though I didn't know how to ride it. First of all, it was brown, and I haven't seen too many brown motorcycles. Also, i thought the paint job was really nice. I used to wonder why he chose to ride his other motorcycle more often despite putting so much time and effort into keeping this one. Now that the bike is mine, I fully understand. I got stranded on the side of the road the other day. I had to push the damned thing 10 miles through the Dutch countryside, and it started raining on me. I'm not giving up. I am committed to making this bike an everyday rider. I am just a few small steps away from total reliability which is something that this bike has not experienced since (i'm guessing) the early eighties. I've put in a bunch of money, and I made some sound modifications. Summer is going to be glorious.
I'll keep you posted.

Best,
Jim

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