One Brick Short

The first time I met Keif—and I’m probably doing a name-massacre on him because I lost the slip of paper upon which I wrote the spelling, which is nothing personal, just me—I really just met his bike: A new, shiny-black and blue-framed Buell 1125r, the bad-boy Buell that has 140 ponies and enough torque to pull stumps out of the field. It was parked in an office off of Berkmar Drive and I turned the Corolla inside-out, nearly pinning Matt, The Rose against the door, as I whipped it around and into the driveway.

The bike rocks. It’s Mr. Buell’s hot answer to the ‘Busa and others and, while it’s down on power and straight speed compared to the big-bore fours, it rocks and rolls on the road.

Keif, like all Buell riders I’ve met, was cool. Turns out we used to pass on our daily rush to work, he on his Kawi 650R and me on the Blast. He’s hanging with some other sport-guys and they get in some regular rides, including to and from the job. Work to ride, ride to work, as Andy Goldfine (Aerostitch and Riderwearhouse) would say.

So I’m cruising back from the K-store with a load ice cream for Gray’s Night and I do the wave-thing at this black sportbike coming and realize it’s another Buell. He goes by and I pull up next to him at the Hydraulic/Bypass light. He’s done a 100-mile day with some office guys who helped send off another rider to the After Ride. He went with his tires down, so that’s a good thing. Keif says the bike rocks, it’s doing well, and the guys are getting set for a ride this weekend.

Then I ran across Sarah the Red who had just loaded her dirtbike into the pickup and was putting some firewood in along with camping equipment. A woman who rides the street (SV-650), the track (GSX-R) and has a little Yammie 125 for the boonies, likes to camp, sip Irish and Guiness is fine in my book. She’s heading up with some buds to do some riding and camping this weekend.

As for me, it’s spruce-up the house time after blowing last week on the tarmac at Shenandoah H-D waving my hands while bikers thumped by on the Riders Edge Blasts. Maybe I’ll sneak a short-trip in. Look for the thumper with the flag head and bright blue blazer and say hey.

Rock on, fellow babies.