Why Heart Bikes

This is a great reason to keep wrenching in my opinion!

1976 Honda CB550K

1976 Honda CB550K, originally uploaded by KDavidClark.

This is a post about an Old Rusty Bike of a different sort....

I bought this motorcycle in 1989 for $600. It had about 9000 miles, plus a really cheesy sissy bar. The windshield was kind of icky too. Once I stripped those things off, the bike had the look of a classic UJM. This bike was thirsty, surprisingly guzzle prone for a 550cc inline four, and managed only 28mpg around town. On the highway it wrangled a less-guzzly 32.

Despite that, it was fast. Freaky fast. Not quick off the line, but once you rung it up to 70mph it took off like a bat. Even with old-tech tires and worn shocks, the bike was solid at 100mph. I put about 9000 miles on it over several years, before trading it in on a 1986 Suzuki Savage.

This photo was taken on the back roads of The Palouse in 1990. It was a dark and cloudy day, and the film was decidedly too slow for my camera and the conditions. Thank God for negative scanners, because I misplaced the prints years ago. Even so, the prints would be too dark to mess with anyway. In Photoshop Elements I was able to play with the tones and contrast of a negative scan to bring out the motorcycle and more drama in the clouds. Not an ideal shot, but I'm glad to have it anyway. Helps me remember this bike. I would own another, hands down.