I like when people compliment the bike. I also like answering questions about it... I guess it serves my ego in some way? Like when I was only riding modern bikes and someone would say, "nice bike," I would always feel weird and not know what to say, "are you congratulating me on being a smart shopper? Should I pass on your salient comment to the team of designers, engineers and product development people who made this happen?" With this bike, which came to me as garbage parts in boxes... I can just say, "thank you."
And then there's the "know-it-all" who doesn't. Ever had one of these? I'll try to recount how this went from memory, which should be pretty accurate because I've told this story to a bunch of friends already... Anyway, about a month I'm parked outside a local cafe grabbing a coffee... It's late afternoon. Through the front window I see a guy is outside looking at the bike and he takes a couple pix and then starts talking to his friend, who then pulls out his phone and snaps a couple. Ok, now I'm curious so I go back out and walk up all friendly and I smile and say, "hi. that's my bike... just wondering why you're taking pix of it." And the first guy says, "it's really beautiful and pretty rare, right? I mean usually you don't see old Triumphs done up this nicely, and like I was telling my friend here that they usually leak tons of oil but this one is really clean." Mind you, he was standing on the left side of the bike where the Honda logo can be seen on the stator cover... I said, well, it's not a Triumph, it's a Honda. He gets indignant, like I'm insulting him. "Yeah right,ha ha" he tried to laugh it off in a scoffing way and nodded as if to say, "we both know you're just messing with me." I pursued it... "No, really, it's a Honda, modified a lot, but still a Honda cb550 from the mid 1970s." And he looked me straight in the eye and said, "ok whatever, it's not funny any more. everyone knows Honda never made bikes with the curved thing at the back of the seat, but Triumph did because that's an "english style" seat. I looked at his friend and said, "why don't you take a look at the VIN tag... He did, and then turned to his friend and said "dude you are a f...ing idiot..." And they walked off ... and I was glad I didn't have to say it. I just shook my head and laughed...
