Subject: RE: 1st Guzzi (kinda long)
Author: Greg Bender
Date: Jan 17, 2005, 8:20 AM
Post ID: 1718223627
Great story, Charlie...and not Dribble at all. Dribble is what comes out
of baby Darby.
Charlie Mullendore wrote:
I have a confession to make - when I saw my first Loopframe Guzzi I thought it was the ugliest Guzzi I'd ever seen (but still looked better than a lot of other brands). Set your wayback machine to 1976... At the age of 13 the lady who drove the schoolbus found out I was a total motorcycle nut and offered me a bike for free. It was a Benelli Fireball 50 that didn't run and all I had to do was go pick it up at the repair shop. The shop turned out to be Halley's in Brunswick, MD which at the time was a Guzzi dealer. When we went to pick up the Benelli I couldn't help but walk through his shop and marvel at all the bikes there. Bikes that up until then I had only seen in magazines. There were Indians with and without sidecars, Ducatis, Benellis, Guzzi 125s, Garellis, and a Capriolo (I think), but in the showroom was a brand new '76 1000 Convert. I was stunned, stood there slackjawed (and drooling probably) until my Dad pulled me away so we could collect my little Benelli and return home. Not before I picked up one of the Convert brochures, though. Flash forward seven years... I was working for National Geographic and picked up the local paper the Gaithersburg Gazette, in which I found an ad "'73 Moto Guzzi, good cond., $600. Call (301)yadda-yadda. Immmediately, my mind returned to that day at Halleys and the Convert. When I got home that night, I pulled out the tattered brochure from years before and looked once again at my dreambike. I called the guy with the Guzzi the next day and he said just to drop by and have a look, he wouldn't be there but I could call later if I wanted it. I stopped to look at it on my way to work - when it came into view sitting in front of his house, I thought it had to be the most beastly looking thing I'd ever seen. It was big, black, greasy, dirty and was fully equipped for touring. I floored the gas and tore outta' there! I wasn't some old geezer! I wanted a something sleeker, something that looked chiseled from stone - not something that looked as though it crawled out of primoridal ooze! I wanted a Convert and I was gonna' get one. Which I did a year later . And while I enjoyed a succession of ever newer Guzzis finally ending in '92 with a Mille GT, the Loop bug was starting to bite. Seems the events I had started going to on my SP always had a lot of really nice Loops in attendance. Pretty red and white ones, not dirty and well cared for. Black ones that weren't that way from grease covering them. "Just might just have to get me one of them I thought." Flash forward to April of '97... Things were not going too well in my life - National Geographic was outsourcing our whole division, so after fourteen years I needed to go job hunting. The wife had packed up and moved out the previous October after only 2 1/2 years of marriage. And the worst thing was I had no running motorcycle! I was reduced to riding a friends 175 Sears Allstate or do without. At one time there was the Mille GT, Benelli Tornado, Zundapp Super Sabre, Capriolo 100, and my beloved Morini 350K2. All that was left at the the end of my marriage was the Morini and it didn't run (bad alternator stator). The others, along with my '64 Land Rover 109, were sold to "pay bills". Luckily I received a very generous severence package from Nat. Geo. and had prospects of training to work for CSX Transportation. The training would commence in Sept., so I decided to take a gamble and not seek employment for the months until then. I decided instead to live off of my severance, buy a running bike and do some traveling. It just so happened that a friend in Frederick had decided to sell his '69 Ambassador which I had long admired. I took it for a test ride in his development and the bug bit harder. Bought the bike that night for his asking price and rode it home. By time I got home the infection was spreading. At the end of Summer and time for me to go off to Choo-Choo U., the Ambo and I had traveled over 10k miles. Needless to say it was one of the best times of my life. That bike was responsible for introducing me to Dave Otis and subsequently to this list and all of you. Must be why it remains one of my most cherished possessions to this day. Funny how one of the lowest points in your life can lead to some of the highest... Thanks for reading this dribble, Charlie http://www.loopframeguzzi.com/ Paul P. Linn wrote:
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Regards,
Greg Bender
1971 Ambassador
2000 Quota
http://www.thisoldtractor.com/gtbender