Lots of changes taking place at Chez Hall at the moment. As already reported, Marvan the van has gone to a new home in Sydney, I have bought a newer bike which may, or may not, replace the VFR and Goldie the Gold Wing will shortly be heading south to her new home in Melbourne. There are various reasons for all this tom-foolery but I won’t bore you with too many details.
Goldie is heading to a new home because she is just too heavy and awkward for me to maneuver around. Yes, I’m getting old, but the essence of motorcycling is that it should be fun and, while OWNING her has been great fun, and RIDING her is fun, living with her size and bulk not as much fun as I’d like it to be. Now this decision has not been taken lightly and it has taken quite some time for me to arrive there. The main problem has been that I have been very concerned about what Greg would think of a possible sale given that he spent two years and countless hours resurrecting her from the condition she was in when I delivered her to him. Greg was, however, a real gentleman about it (because he IS a real gentleman) and had no problem with me offering her for sale.
So I posted her up for sale at a pretty high price, firstly because I thought she was worth it and secondly to deter the tyre-kickers and low-ballers that inhabit internet For Sale sites.
The first response to the ad was from a gentleman in Melbourne who didn’t even haggle and offered to buy the bike at the list price. He owns quite a few bikes (and cars) and added the proviso that he had to sell a couple of HIS bikes to raise the necessary funds to buy mine. Since we had already done business on a number of occasions over the years, I had no problem with pulling the ad and waiting till he had the cash. Without my even asking he has already deposited a substantial deposit to secure the sale and has since sold both the bikes HE had to sell and is waiting for the cash to come through from the second sale.
I expected that he would be investigating transport options to get the bike from here to there but he wants to come to my place after doing some business in Sydney and then RIDE the bike back to Melbourne. I expressed my concerns about this given that the bike has only been ridden around town basically but he is happy to do so and seems well prepared for any eventuality.
Will I miss Goldie? Hell, yes. I have always wanted to own one since Ray Lapham turned up at my school one day in 1975 and offered me a ride on his brand new yellow one. Getting my own Gold Wing was the culmination of a long dream. Seeing it morph from a wreck into what it looks like today was just the icing on the cake. BUT, there is only so many bikes that you can ride and, given the choice between the Gold Wing and my CBX550, the result was always going to be this way.
So I still have an historic bike and one which has a long and treasured history. I know that Goldie will be well looked after in her new home and I couldn’t be happier that a friend has bought her.
Now the rationalising of the fleet has taken another step. The next step will be making a decision between the Hornet and the VFR. Since I haven’t ridden since the end of February, this is one decision that I’m not going to hurry. There are so many things to love about the VFR and my history with Honda’s legendary V4 bike is long that it will be a big wrench if I find that the Hornet suits me so much better. I am going to ride both for the time being and evaluate my position before I decide so that I will be deciding with the very best information available to me when the time comes. The Hornet will be registered this week and my arm is sufficiently strong for me to start riding so the process will begin.
On another subject, have you noticed what ridiculous prices old cars and bikes are bringing these days? A fully restored TZ750 Yamaha race bike is presently being offered in South Australia for $55000 and Peter Brock’s personal VK Holden Commodore went under the hammer last week fetching over ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Who said classics can’t be an investment?
Catch ya next time.
