TripleR
Moderator
Registered: 09/28/06
Posts: 571
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Reply with quote | #1 |
...Sitting here listening to the rain during the first cold damp spell of the year my right knee is throbbing. Over the counter pain killers are traded around, asprin one time, naproxium sodium next, ibuprophen, then something else and rotate it back again... Problems that were toughed out and laughed off 35 years ago are coming to the forefront as I "look forward" to my 60ith birthday next month. The aftermath of 19 broken bones (18 from motorcycle incidents ) is one thing I live with.. A "Sportster knee" is the other.
...Mine is a Sportster knee in name only. I really havn't had too many Sportsters through the years. They're great little "round town" things but always a little fragile for my taste for racing and just not really my style for any kind of riding. The last CH I had was a '70 model and I kept it for 2 weeks remembering quickly why I didn't care for them.
...But before I settled into my lifetime ride a '74 electric start Superglide ( the best motorcycle ever to come out of Milwaulkee and I'll argue that at length anytime ) I owned a 47 - 49 - 50 - 57 - 58 - 69 & 70 model big twins, all rigid framed and all kick start. Over the course of my youth I ended up on the ground trying not to cry several times - most of them with laughing "friends" around me...
...For you folks reading this that have no Idea what I'm talking about yet - good for you. Punch the button on your electric start - fuel injected FALFJLAERNJQFNQO or what ever letter bike you ride and 'cause it was made in Milwaulkee you think you're a Harley Rider.
...I beg to differ - Something you don't hear in conversation anymore amongst groups of "bikers" is the phrase, "If you can start it you can ride it". And sometimes that was changed to "you can have it" . People knew their bikes and their bikes "needs" when firing it up. Lighting up an old kick start, manual advance, linkert carbureted panhead was always an art as much as it was brute force kicking it over.
...And sometimes right in the middle of consumating the cranking act either a worn set of kicker gears was the culprit or sometimes just not keeping pressure on them keeping them engaged was enough for the kicker to release and "fall through". The force that you were putting on the kicker made it just fly to the end of the stroke and before you could catch yourself your lower leg was extended PAST straight up and down. It was far forward of normal and that act just pushed apart your knee joint, tearing up all sorts of cartledge and the rest of that little stuff inside that makes it all work easy. There wasn't any easy "fix" for it, knee surgury wasn't near as good as it is now. I went to the hospital once after one fell through and they just basicly said " live with it!!"
...Just mentioning the words "fall through" to old riders will envoke pity and make old riders wince. If you rode anytime at all back then - chances are it either happened to you or you saw it happen. "Kicked back and threw them over the handlebars" is pretty much an old biker lie, but falling through was a misery well known. T-shirts with the slogan, "If you don't limp, you ain't shit" are about falling through not crashing.
....As my knee throbbs, I remember both the relief and saddness over a passing part of my life when I finally settled down to the electric start shovelhead I ride today. The newest Harley I've ever owned. I also enjoy the swing arm frame for another part of my aging body that's not polite conversation on a message board that anybody can access.
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shovelheads rule!!!1 |
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RFORSE
Registered: 05/13/05
Posts: 39
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Reply with quote | #2 |
You know Red, reading that post made my knee start hurting. I got mine from an old Pan that fell through with me.
I was gonna impress some of the local yokels with my one kick starting abilty.
I reared back and gave it a mighty shove and it fell through. I had to go to the Dr. the next morning with a sublaxed knee. It basically made my knee bend the direction it aint supposed to bend. I spent several weeks hobbling around and had to go back almost weekly so he could shove a needle about the size of a Bic pen under my knee cap and drain fluid off three or four times.
And like you, the first cold snap usually reminds me of that wonderfull evening.
Thanks for the memories.
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