Tuesday, October 2, 2012

First Motorcycle

My first motorcycle was a '67 Yamaha 305 Big Bear Scrambler I bought in 1971 the winter I turned 16.  Mine was red, though. Rode it on snowmobile trails that winter, my first "Fat Bike" I guess!??




It was fine if I was able to keep the 305 on the hard-packed trail but it was murder to push it out of the deep snow if I got tossed off the trail.

Back in '74 gas was up and down in price...it seemed I never had enough money to fill the tank. I stole as much as I could from the family farm tank that was setup for the tractors. Toward the end of my senior year in HS ('74) I knew I was moving to Oregon so I decided to sell it. 
It was running really rough at times anyway, figured there was something wrong with it. When a guy came out to test ride it, I thought I better make sure there was enough gas in it for a decent test ride...that's when I figured out that when it got low on gas, it only sent fuel to one head, so it was running on one cylinder most of the time. For the test run it ran like a dream! Damn, wish I still had that bike.

At least when I did put enough gas in it to go to town to pickup my girl-friend (and future/current wife) it ran well enough for us to enjoy the ride and each other.


Yamaha 305 Big Bear  

http://www.verlenelson.com/Motorcycles/Yamaha305/yam305.html

2 comments:

Clare Westby said...

Oh, what a shame! You found out your bike was just saving fuel a little too late! It’s pretty cool that, even in those days, they were already thinking of fuel efficiency for motorbikes. I’m sure you miss your bike. Everybody misses their firsts, after all!

mark scotch said...

Clare,
If I'd have figured it out sooner, at least I would have put a better price on it. I thought there was something wrong with it. Live and learn, I guess!