Makin' Plans

Photo From Here

Time to start making travel plans, I'm thinking. I got my first scheduled pension check this week and between it and the part-time job, I should be able to put a little money away for travel. The Traveling Pirate sent me a link to a local travel agent a while back. On their home page they feature a 17 day tour that looks like it would be about what our foursome would want. Start in London, then Paris, Florence, Rome, Vienna, and others. I'll never be wealthy enough to travel to all the places I'd like to, but this trip would get me to most of the spots in Europe that I want to see. Still a lot of the world left over, but that's just how it is. I still need to see four more states here at home before I've got all fifty under my belt. If I play my cards right and watch my health, I should be able to get all fifty states and a trip to Europe in, God willing and the creek don't rise. I'm getting too old to postpone it for long, though.

I'm planning on working around the shack a little this weekend - finish the railing on the front porch, finish the workbench and a little lawn and garden stuff.  I'm itching to get a little done on the 900 and the VW. If it wasn't for the fact that I want to go to Europe, I'd be checking out the new Honda NC700X instead of putting much effort into the old 900. There's a write-up in the current Cycle World about it. It's quite the bike. $7,000 and 70 miles per gallon. Apparently, Honda noticed who wasn't buying motorcycles and designed a bike for them. Them being new riders and guys like me. Nowadays a 700 cc motorcycle is a middleweight but when I started riding, other than the big Harleys, nothing was bigger than a 750 cc. The big Brit bikes were mostly 500 and 650 cc's. Honda's biggest was the 450 "Black Bomber" with the 750 coming out a few years after that. Kawasaki fired back with the 900 and things have been escalating ever since. The Gold Wing is 1800 cc and 1000 pounds. Most big touring rigs and baggers are all about the 1800 cc mark and 10 dollars per cc. I don't know about you, but knowing that a new 600 has 100 horsepower, why would I need a bike three times as large and at least twice as expensive? Buy yourself the new Honda NC700X instead of the Goldwing and you'll have enough money left over to tour Europe on a motorcycle instead of the bus with the blue hairs. It's a shame I have to do an "either/or" here. Why couldn't I have been born rich instead of good looking?

While I'm talking investments, if you're into the traditional hot rod/motorcycle scene at all, you might be interested in Autocult magazine. They're looking for a little help getting issue number two out the door and you can help them out a little at the link. The main man on this project was also responsible for Garage magazine. I had a subscription to that one but it faded away. Not sure what happened but I'm relatively certain it had something to do with the magazine's affiliation with Jesse James. They've got a ways to go on the pledges with only a week remaining on Kickstarter but you can get in for as cheap as a sawbuck.

You all have a good weekend. I'm going to try and  get some things done so I can make travel plans and build motorcycles.