Let's go for a ride

Palisade, Colorado, near Grand Junction, is known for peaches, vineyards and Victorian houses. But that's not why the gang loaded into a minivan and drove an hour and a half. We went for a vintage motorcycle show. And brunch at sidewalk cafe. And camaraderie.

I wouldn't consider myself a Harley fan, but I like the naked mechanical complexity of the early ones, like the 1927 version above. Or like this Douglas—a brand I'd never heard of—with it's horizontally opposed twin cylinders oriented fore and aft.

I'm a big lover of British bikes, though, even with all their leaky unreliability. They're beautiful. I was drooling over this BSA racer and the Triumph scrambler next to it.

But the bike that made my heart leap was this Yamaha Twin Jet 100. Wow. That was my first motorcycle back in high school. I bought a ratty one from my friend's older brother for one hundred hard-earned fast food dollars. The maroon paint was faded and cracked, and it spent a lot of time in the shop, but it was a motorcycle! And it was mine!