Bitterroot Bugle archives |
By Ted Dunlap, on September 16th, 2023 
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 […]
By Ted Dunlap, on August 6th, 2023 
It is now official. The diminutive 1978 Honda XL75 Melissa’s Harley-loving brother (owns several HOGs) gave her is now known as Piglet. The three of us find the moniker amusing and appropriate. She has even affixed a Piglet sticker to her motorcycle helmet. The photo of the three bikes in our garage jumped in front of me this morning. I think it captures the essence of Piglet, though it would be quite a bit better if the big brothers on either side were HOGS rather than a BMW and a Suzuki. Perhaps that photo will show up here someday… but it won’t be in my garage as I am not likely to go for anything heavier than my BMW. […]
By Ted Dunlap, on August 5th, 2023 
Patrol Bike (BMW R1200RT-P)It was a long day for me on and off my BMW. I made the Sunday Morning Breakfast Club run. That is an hour ride on straight, boring Highway 93 to the marshalling parking lot, then a con-brio group ride on lovely, winding Highway 12 over Lolo Pass for breakfast 47 miles away. After a lot of camraderie, having the group’s tech wizard get my keys out of the trunk I locked them in, we rode back. From Lolo, I followed one of my new friends to his yard in Missoula to tour a most amazing collection – around 100 classic motorcycles, only a few of which have been restored to excellent operating condition by an interesting […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 31st, 2023 
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 […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 28th, 2023 
While my last post was about a long-ago Sunday morning ride, the tradition lives on … for fifty years or more. As far as days of the regular week go, Sunday is a good one for sharing worshiping the blends of man, machine and roads that sport bikes or touring-sport bikes meld into a cosmic beauty that only the bikers can understand. Recollecting a rather famous one from the 1970 Northern California somehow triggered finding an ongoing one in my neck of the woods in the here and now. I joined my first Sunday Morning Breakfast Club (SMBC) ride on July 29th. It was EVERYTHING I HOPED FOR… and more. I rode quite a bit farther downstream to the starting […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 22nd, 2023 
I woke up quite early that Sunday as was normal for me. I considered quietly creeping around my sister’s house until she got up around 11, which was normal for her. The drive from Palo Alto to Santa Rosa would change from mundane to ugly by mid-day were I to delay my departure. Instead I unzipped and opened the driver’s side of my tonneau cover, tossed my bag into The Speedster and headed out before the traffic woke up. As I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on this glorious summer morning I decided to enjoy Highway 1 instead of plodding along the northbound freeway. With the crack-of-dawn absence of traffic, the windy coastal road would add no time, but tremendous […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 21st, 2023 
This month has been most remarkable for the introduction by Missy’s ‘little’ brother of a “new” 1979 Honda XL75 into our household … and a new motorcyclist along with it. While visiting him as he and I took Idaho Star’s ENHANCED STREET SKILLS course, he set his ‘big sister’ on this 174-pound motorbike hiding in the corner of his garage full of Harleys. He and I agreed it was an excellent fit, subsequently hatching a plan to move it to our garage and turn her into a motorcycle jockey. We began her orientation ride July 1st in the Darby High School parking lot with Bruce and I coaching. Since that weekend, I have been coaching solo. She completed her […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 15th, 2023 
It is officially Bitterroot motorcycle riding season. Tourist bikes have been exploring up and down The Bitterroot River on Highway 93 for most of a month now. A skosh tardy in getting my bikes where I wanted them for this season, I started a little behind the early bikers, but not too much. Right at the top of my 2023 bike ride bucket list was a reconnoiter of Highway 38 between Grantsdale and Phillipsburg, Montana. It is right in my neighborhood, lightly traveled and reputed to be quite scenic. I was also warned repeatedly by people who have been there, done that, to explore it on my more maneuverable, agile Dr Zee (350 pounds) rather than jumping right in […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 12th, 2023 
I got the Valentine One installed and windshield remounted Monday afternoon (July 10, 2023), then took the Patrol bike on a meaningless meander of the local twisties. I finished that ride by picking up a cooking pot my wife left at a Monday potluck in the other direction. I filled the BMW up with fuel before and after, returning 44 mpg with quite a bit of overtaking, some to triple digits, a couple climbs up both sides of 7,014-foot Lost Trail Pass from the Bitterroot River 3,500 feet below, powering out of too many lovely curves to count, then running the ‘downtown’ errand. The result was a very nice 117 mile 2 1/2 hour break from the nose-to-the-grindstone yard-and-shop-work fuddy […]
By Ted Dunlap, on July 6th, 2023 
1979 Honda XL75 and new rider … more than 20 years its senior My brother-in-law has over 35 years riding, and tinkering on them, now with a stable of Harleys. There was this little Honda training bike taking up valuable garage space until his vertically modest sister sat on it during a recent visit we made to his house. He did a thorough mechanical restoration, added rare bits to make it street legal, then delivered it to his sister. He, she and I have been working on rider training for about a week now, starting with a bike strapped down, rear wheel in the air. As you might understand, kick starting, left foot shifting, left hand clutching, separate front (right […]
By Ted Dunlap, on June 24th, 2023 
There seems to be a common thread in the motorcycle community that transcends all the different types of bikes and riding styles. Choppers, cruisers, sport, touring, dirt, racing, scooter, townie, trails, vintage … We may disagree significantly on how a bike should fit and function for us, but we agree on this main point. All of us find riding them to be theraputic. Riding a motorcycle is similar in that way to painting, making music, skiing, shooting, meditation, dance and so many other activities that require the full employment of our minds. There simply is no space in the conscious mind for whatever troubles or trivialities of life may sometimes bother us, once we get into the zone. The […]
By Ted Dunlap, on June 23rd, 2023 
My frisky young friend stopped by yesterday on the way home from picking up his frisky 2-stroke 250 Yamaha. We went for a ride around the block – a 6 mile or so loop that is half gravel/dirt and half paved. He, of course, was ‘on the pipe’ all the way as I plodded along riding Dr Zee at my own pace. The rain started almost immediately, but we went anyway. Near the half-way point, on the dirt, a newish pickup and newish Suburban were mostly blocking the road parked window to window while the drivers chatted. I stopped, then began to inch around the front of the Suburban that was aimed in the direction we were headed. I […]
By Ted Dunlap, on June 15th, 2023 
In the ‘meaningless, but cool’ category is this video I found quite impressive as a driver of all motorized things and sometime truck driver. The skills demonstrated in this clip are absolutely top notch. Few of us can competently back single trailers into moderately close quarters. I am among those who can. Double axles are a horse of another color… as in darn near impossible to back accurately. The Dutch driver in this video is an absolute master.
By Ted Dunlap, on June 7th, 2023 
I was going to build my own utility trailer from an old boat trailer I bought, but came across a more commonsense approach at Harbor Freight. To the left is the completed unit with my added decking lumber. Its maiden voyage was ferrying my Dr. Zee to an Idaho Star motorcycle class in Twin Falls. Here you see my wife’s brother Bruce tying it down HIS WAY for our trip back home. Assembly was not overly challenging, but without a significant tool set, skill set and helping hand friend it would have been difficult or not possible to complete. The result is a new trailer with new lights, wires, bearings, tires, paint and all. Sure, they are all of […]
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