Motorbikes

____________________

Ken Zalga

 I have photos of all of my motor bikes, but it would take a Month of Sundays to dig them out, scan and forward.. I ejoyed them all and I'm still alive. I was never into the home made anything as I am the Tim Allen of everything.  I'm not a "Wrencher" and never fooled around with Whizzers..

  I had a go cart once.. Bought if off another guy for $30 bucks...2 and 1/2 Briggs and Stratton for power with pulley steering... After a week, my Father demanded I return the thing and get my money back.

  The 160 Honda I purchased and had to be signed for as I was still a Minor.  Took 2 weeks to get my father to agree. The promise of a new car got me to sell it. I purchased the Wreck for $350 Cash and sold it 2 years later for $350 Cash...It ran well, but was pretty beat up from scrambling though Lemont...  

  Believe it or not, I used to ride with Jim Ohse... Man, this guy was dangerous....  I took him out to Argon... Rocky Glen area and we did some dirt biking and hill climbing...  There was this one area we rode to that was a hill climb... Ohse was new to his bike and really didn't know how handle it.. (A 250 Scrambler)... I showed him what to do... I went down this ravine, across a shallow stream to the other bank.  Turned the bike around. Keeping in in first gear, I recrossed the river and nailed it get up the hill... A few feet from the top, I killed the engine and glided over the top.

I told Ohse, what ever you do... Kill the engine before you get to the top....  Ohse goes down the ravine, across the stream to the other bank. Turns around, over the stream and up the hill at full bore.  Jim Ohse flew over my head when he cleared the crest of the hill....He came down handle bars first...Smashing the head lamp, twisting the forks, and mangling his handle bars...  Jim was unhurt with exceptions of a few scratches and thank God he had a helmet on..

I hate to say it, but that was one of the most memorable laughs I've had in my life time....Jim Ohse Sailing over the top of my head in sheer panic written all over his face....  

  Ran into Jim Ohse at one of the Reunion cocktail parties.... He didn't even know who I was... Go figure.

Played hookie today.. Called in sick.... Enjoying the solice...

__________________

Craig Hullinger

Interesting story, Ken, about motorcycles. Here are a couple of mine.

I was riding my Honda 350 with Bob Stevenson MPHS Jan 66 on the back. I decided to go up the spoil bank along the Cal Sag Channel with Bob on the back. Pretty steep, no helmets, pretty dumb. We made it alive and were able to stop before going over the other side. Dumb luck.

The last time I road my 350 was 91. I was no longer insuring or licensing it, and only riding it twice a year. Hard to start - I was running it up and down the street.

Got it going and was joy riding on a gravel road. Went down hard, tore myself up, walked back home. Left the bike where it was. Got some stitches. My entire leg was black. My wife and I went to Monterrey, California for a conference / 10th anniversary. She was pretty mad.  I went to all the events but i was in big time pain. Bike was gone when I got back.

Just bought a Harley. Second childhood. Hope I don’t kill myself on it.

Tom Schildhouse went through a car windshield on his homemade motorbike. 100 plus stitches as I recall.