{"id":2086,"date":"2019-01-11T05:56:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T13:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=2086"},"modified":"2019-01-11T05:56:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T13:56:18","slug":"dream-garage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/01\/11\/dream-garage\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream Garage"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had all the money, I\u2019d be one of those crazy collector types, like Jay Leno or Anthony Hopkins, the Silence Of The Lambs guy. You know, the kind that has 177 motorcycles, their Great Paw-Paw\u2019s washing machine motor and 42 washed-up old cars stored in three aircraft hangers. All of my bikes would be in neat rows, I\u2019d have every color of every year of each model and they would all sit in my gigantic storage shed and slowly seize up. And when I die there\u2019d be an auction where the stuff would sell for pennies on the dollar to a bunch of soulless flippers intent on making old motorcycles as expensive and annoying as the collector car scene is today.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maybe I\u2019d organize both cars and bikes by engine type. There would be a Kawasaki 750 triple, a Saab 93 triple, a Suzuki 750 triple next to a crisp, modern Honda NS400. Flathead Row would have a Melroe Bobcat with the air-cooled Wisconsin V-4, and all three Harley flatties: The 45- incher, the Sportster KH and that big block they made (74-inch?). You\u2019d have to have an 80-inch Indian and the Scout along with most of the mini bikes built in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"I love a disc-valve two stroke but I\u2019ve never owned one. First bikes in that section will be a bunch of Kawasaki twins (350cc and 250cc). I\u2019d have a CanAm because with their carb tucked behind the cylinder instead of jutting out the side they don\u2019t look like disc bikes should. A Bridgestone 350 twin without an air filter element would be parked next to a ferocious Suzuki 125cc square-four road racer, year to be determined.<\/p>\n

Besides the two-stroke Saab I\u2019d have a two-stroke Suzuki LJ 360cc 4X4 with the generator that turns into the starter motor like an old Yamaha AT1-125. I\u2019d need a metalflake orange Myers Manx dune buggy. It would be that real thick kind of metalflake that looks like some kind of novelty candy served only on Easter or found in table centerpieces at wedding receptions. A few Chevy trucks from the 1960\u2019s would make it into the collection also. A mid-60\u2019s Chevy van, the swoopy one, would be a must-have to go with one of those giant steam tractors, the ones with the steel wheels and the chain wrapped around the steering shaft and then to the center pivot front axle to make the beast turn hard.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"To complement the Bobcat I\u2019d have a gas-engined backhoe, something from the 1950\u2019s with all new hoses and tires. I\u2019ll paint it yellow with a roller and then hand paint \u201cThe Jewel\u201d in red on both sides of the hood with the tiny artist\u2019s brush from a child\u2019s watercolor set. The backhoe would be a smooth running liquid-cooled flathead with an updraft carburetor and it would reek of unburnt fuel whenever you lifted a heavy load in the front bucket.<\/p>\n

No one would be as into my junk as me, so I\u2019d have to hire a guy to feign interest in the stuff. I think $10 an hour should get me a sidekick who would always be amazed at what I had found. We\u2019d both marvel at how little work or parts the item would need to get it running and then we\u2019d push it into an empty space. After a cold beer from a refrigerator plastered with Klotz decals he\u2019d run his card through the time clock with a resounding clunk, leaving me and the shop cat sitting in my beat-up brown vinyl recliner to stare at my collection and wonder if I really had all the money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I had all the money, I\u2019d be one of those crazy collector types, like Jay Leno or Anthony Hopkins, the Silence Of The Lambs guy. You know, the kind that has 177 motorcycles, their Great Paw-Paw\u2019s washing machine motor and 42 washed-up old cars stored in three aircraft hangers. All of my bikes would … Continue reading “Dream Garage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,392,232,96,452,103,66,140],"tags":[492],"class_list":["post-2086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-back-in-the-day","category-dream-bike","category-feel-good-stuff","category-harley","category-harley-davidson","category-joe-gresh","category-vintage-motorcycle","tag-collections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions\/2089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}