The Rocket, a Honda CA105T from 1965. It's a 55cc, 3 speed, automatic clutch trail bike that goes 45mph on a good day. Kurt brought this home for me one day after it had sat in someone's garage for about 20 years. It needed a lot of TLC to get it running again, and luckily I found a bunch of parts at a place outside of Pittsburgh for a similar 90cc model. I also had to make a brake lever in our foundry, since one of them had broken in two.
I just got it running before leaving Pennsylvania, and never even had a chance to ride it until we arrived here. I rode it to work for quite a while, until the rainy season started. It's shown here in need of repair, because when the rain hit the oil turned to salad dressing and, well, it was toast.
I've since totally rebuilt the engine. It needed it. Now it runs like a dream... Not the best dream, but a pretty darn good one.
Getting the title is quite a story... It had never been transferred correctly from the original owner, and had changed hands several times since. I had the title, which had been signed but never notorized, by some guy we'll call John Something. It was a long shot, but I tried to look him up in the phone book, and I actually found John Something IV. He was very surprised to get my phone call... Apparently this had been his bike when we was around 12 years old.
He talked to his father (the original owner) about the title, but the old grouch didn't want anything to do with a bike he hadn't seen in 30 years. But his wife, who happened to be a Notary Public, said that if I sent her the title, and if she recognized the signature, she would notarize it for me! So I did, and she sent it back with a nice letter.
I've seen quite a few similar old Honda bikes around, mostly the 90cc variety. But I've never once seen another one of this model. It's really quite a trip to ride.
Here's my more modern bike. It's a BMW R65 from 1983. This is the bike that I try (in vain) to keep in perfect shape. I depend on this bike a lot so I give it a lot of attention.
So far on this bike I've rebuilt the forks, brakes, and transmission, and replaced countless bits and pieces. It's almost as good as new now. (Well, sort of.) One thing yet to do is mill the mating surfaces of the valve covers on the heads, since the poor old heads are getting too warped for the covers to fit. Oh yeah, and I'm in the middle of making a custom seat.
It's obviously been "well loved" by its previous owners. Although I've put quite a bit of work into it (not all of which was strictly necessary), it's by far the most reliable vehicle I've had and is quite a joy to ride.