Bitterroot Bugle

While demonstrating zero interest in riding her own bike and only a little in pillion, my wife’s brother (major HOG guy) delivered a 1978 Honda XL75 to her. On June 30th he and I strapped it onto the motorcycle lift with the rear tire not touching and ran her through the operation thereof. She immediately began researching all things about riding, and signed up for the first available beginner class and DMV written test appointment. Manual choke, hand clutch, foot shift, separate front and rear brakes with hand and foot … imagine all the foreign things there are to learn. Next was a month of my driving what eventually got named “Piglet” to the unused school parking lot where she […]

The month of practice paid off. The oldest person in the class rode a motorcycle older than most of the students in last weekend’s training and examination sessions. She successfully passed the driving portion of the Montana state licensing exam to qualify for an “M” endorsement on her driver’s licensing. Both days of class were SCORCHERS. They were also very long for a retiree … heck, they were long for everybody … long, mentally stressful and physically tiring. I arrived in time to witness and record all but one of the tests. You can see bits of them in the video clip to the left. I also managed to roast in my multi-layer riding pants, boots, and ran through […]