Just a few more…

Photos from San Mateo, that is, and then no more blogs until I have more to report from Phoenix, folks.   But don’t worry…that won’t be long.   I’m rolling out for Phoenix before sunup on Friday, and if all goes well, I’ll be back on the air that night.

Here are cool shots of a new Indian I grabbed at the San Mateo show.   The bike is enormous and it’s not my style of riding, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t admire it…

The engine castings on that Indian were beautiful…so much so that I actually touched them just to see what they felt like.   Check out a macro shot of one of the valve covers…

The leather work on the Indian was impressive, too.     Take a peek at this saddlebag…

Wow.   I can only guess at what it would cost to replace those bags.  My old ’92 Softail had leather bags, and I actually lost one on a trip once.   It fell off and I couldn’t find it again.   The bags were about 10 years old when that happened, so I replaced the pair, and it was very expensive.   All that history notwithstanding, the bags on the San Mateo Indian were magnificent.

Remember that shot I showed you of Steve on the Ducati Scrambler?

There was just something about it that I liked (not the price, mind you, but the bike was nice).   I was trying to understand why that Ducati was so appealing to me (none of their other bikes light my fire), and then when I wandered over to the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club’s display, it hit me.   The Ducati Scrambler is a redo of the old Honda 305 Scrambler (the two bikes even have the same name).   Here’s the Honda 305 Scrambler that was on display at the VJMC exhibit…

And that, folks, is a wrap.   Unless I get out for a short ride on the KLR or the Baja Blaster tomorrow (and that might happen), you won’t see anything on here until Friday night.

Ride safe, my friends.