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Honda VFR

My Video Is Shown on the Jay Leno Show

By Honda VFR, Jay Leno Show, motorcycle, Video DSLR

Some things have a life of their own… like a video I shot of my trusty motorcycle being loading into a pickup truck when I sold it. It was a sad day for me since I had put over 30,000 miles on the odometer and the 1998 Honda VFR Intercepter looked practically new. I made the video for myself as a memento and at the request of my friend, Justinas, who picked up the bike. He works a large used motorcycle shop and this is one of his many duties. He is uniquely qualified for this job because it requires that the operator must drive the bike up a ramp into the bed of the truck in one smooth motion. When I say “drive” I mean that he walks beside the bike while rolling on the throttle to make the bike drive up the ramp. The operator then makes one giant step into the bed of the truck before securing the vehicle. Justinas is 6’5″ so he has an advantage over short people trying to do this job.

Anyway, the video has received several thousand YouTube hits and eventually ended up on the Jay Leno Show in a segment called Internet Success & Failure. You can imagine finding videos showing the right way to do something and the wrong way. My video starts 2:28 into the segment and literally lasts 7 seconds, but you got to start some where. Thanks Jay!

Goodbye to My Trusty Honda VFR Motorcycle

By Honda VFR, motorcycle, Wow Motorcycles

Eleven years and 30,000 miles together was how long our love affair lasted. To be honest, I still love her to this day. I still remember when I met her, looking like a shiny red rock star, with a bark like a pit bull. Of course I am talking about my 1998 Honda VFR Interceptor. Through the years we had many adventures together and I met some of my best friends on long Sunday rides with her.

Some of the highlights included:

  1. Fighting the Dragon at Deals Gap
  2. Wolf Pen Gap’s tight, twisty and narrow roads
  3. Highway 60 through gorgeous North Georgia farmlands
  4. Richard Russell Scenic Highway… our own personal racetrack
  5. A stupid top speed warp to 160 mph (a scary 234.67 feet per second)
  6. Picking up friends who ran out of gas and laughing all the way to the gas station
  7. Watching daring feats of skill in front of me by talented/crazy riders
  8. Racing another VFR until he crashed
  9. Being covered from head to toe in flies because I rode through a mile long night swarm. This was disgusting and made me wonder why Harley Davidson riders wear open face helmets.
  10. And, number one on the list… almost getting bitten by a huge rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the road. Eyewitnesses behind me said it coiled up and sprang at me, missing me by inches. And I thought it was just a big stick in the road. Geez!
My good buddy Justinas from Wow Motorcycles picked up my bike, and now I hope she will go to a good home where she will have even more adventures. Thanks for the memories.