I had ridden a PC800 in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina briefly in 1999 and was VERY impressed with the bikes handling and versatility. It may look like an overgrown scooter, but it is anything but. With an 800cc Magna V-twin motor and 5 speed gearbox if I recall correctly it is no fireball, but has such good handling that if you keep it rolling along you can motor quite quickly in the twisties on this bike.
As you can see my bike had 61,000 or so miles on the clock. Vietnam vet owned it who couldn't ride it anymore - wanted a Can Am Spyder - but a brief chat convinced me he had maintained it originally reasonably well.
The broken rear tail light worried me a bit as they can be pricey......
....and getting the seat repaired would take some cash....
...but overall with a wash it looked like it might come up OK and a really thorough check over...
...so I took a chance and bought it. It had been idle for two years, but I thought it had potential, so gave him $1000US and then tried to figure out how to get it to South Carolina to my rep up there to get his mechanic to go over it properly.
I still can't believe Ron is that generous with his time. I only had to mention it and he hooked up his trailer and high-tailed it down there - 1700 miles EACH way - and bought it back to his mechanic. Two tyres, one new switch block a battery, all new fluids and a thorough service and it was ready. But Ron did way more than that!!! This is what the bike looked like when I arrived three months later:
(Trying to find a photo)
So...I arrived at about 10pm Wednesday evening in Charoitte, NC after flying for two days from Melbourne Australia via Japan and Detroit. Ron picked me up and I went to his place to sleep. We were due to leave on Saturday morning. I had just 48 hours to tear the bike down, fit our electronic cruise control, the bracket for my gearsack, the tankbag, all the Garmin GPS and radio communications stuff and pack my gear onto the bike somehow. To be honest I still can't believe we did it! Here is the process and the result.
Tank bag was a challenge because its all a plastic cover - magnets don't work!
Beadrider saved my life! It was fantastic.
Satellite radio made those long miles at 79mph in Kansas riding through Hurricane Ike's remnants bearable.
I had to record the trip didn't I?
What a fantastic bike they are!
Would not have been possible without Ron.
Raring to go on Saturday morning..................................................................THANKS RON!!!
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