Grinding of The Gears - June 21

NYC, June 21

Early on in this trip I was a bit sad to see all the old diners replaced by franchised fast-food outlets, but fortunately they do still exist here and there.

Saying my au revoirs to Pat’n’Miles, Irwin little convertible takes me southwards at a steady 75 mph, ensuring that I arrive at Niels Wittus’ wood burning stove showroom in Scott’s Corner, NY, four hours later. His sidecar equipped Nimbus ‘Bumblebee’ is parked outside, as is a 1924 Nimbus ‘Stovepipe’ model, belonging to an elderly gentleman named Chris. Right place, obviously. Over lunch I flash pics of the MZ to his all-female staff (for some reason that is beyond me, the MZ is popular with the ladies, in Denmark as well as in the US), before we go outside to see Chris ride off. He then asks me if I want to try the old bike.

Is a bear a Catholic? Does the pope crap in the woods? Of course I will try out the thing, setting off on a gear grinding short ride up through town and back, with the intrepid owner in the sidecar. Chris – a transplanted East German in his late 70’s who has done very well over here - seems unfazed by the noise, and just grins at my feeble attempts at changing into lower gears.

Blue shirt guy is transplanted Dane Niels Wittus, who also rides a Nimbus outfit.

S’funny, up until a few years ago I only liked the Stovepipes for their connection to the factory, while the bikes themselves I found – well – ugly and technically irrelevant. Not so anymore, and had I the money and skills, a 1500 cc V8 version would soon see the light of the day. When mentioning to Chris that the ‘Twisted Oz’ mc museum in Kansas was looking for an early Nimbus, he looks thoughtful for a while. Turns out he sometimes thinks of getting rid of all his bikes, especially if it’s right after some moron in a car tries to run into him. For my part I’d love for it to end up there, seeing that owner Kelly Modlin takes care that his bikes are rideable.

Then it’s down to NYC, to unload the motorcycle gear and all the clothes and groceries that I bought to take home to Denmark. Traffic is dense and slow, the ragtop is down, I’m listening to classical music on the car radio, and I drive a road I’ve probably driven 50 times before, back when I lived here. Life could be worse.

Driving in a slow moving lane gets to be too much for this guy, who decides to cross the divider off-road style. I halfway expect an accident to happen, but only hear a lot of angry honking. A few minutes later another guy regrets choosing this road, and backs down a busy on-ramp. Somehow they survive....