No Age Limit on the Fringe
FABER—Claude Reed leans his Yammie over in the tightening Route 6 curve as it dips down, over the bridge and back up the other side, holding the old Virago steady until it’s time to bring it upright and lean it over to the other side.
Not bad for a 79-year-old guy on a bike, I think, as he rights it and pulls straight away from me, powered by twice as many horses as I can command with a throttle roll on the Blast.
Mr. Reed’s place in the Lunatic Fringe is assured as we see-saw through the Central Virginia back roads, the cold breeze billowing his blue jeans and chilling him inside his black leather jacket and full face helmet while I cruise behind in my ATGATT get up, looking like the evil spawn of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Girl and the Michelin Man.
(ATGATT = All The Gear, All The Time)
This is the man who started skiing at 54 and only recently gave it up. This is the man who once dropped his bike, slid along the ground, got back up bloody and sore and rode the damn thing home. As we go a dime above the double-nickel limit, I realize he is like most fringies who believe the traffic code isn’t a code per se, but more like a guideline
“I like the sensation of speed,” he’d said before we met to ride. “I don’t go that fast on the bike. I’ve had it up to about 95 but not for an extended period of time. I like to go the speed limit, maybe a little over. I just like the feeling you get being on a motorcycle.”
I can understand that, I think as I lean the Blast over in the next curve, gaining on him as I take advantage of better ground clearance and suspension before he leaves me in the straight, again.
“I was at the Harley dealer not so long ago and looking at one of the really expensive bikes and I called my wife and left a message on the answering machine that I’d found a new bike and it was only $22,000 and we’d talk about it when I got back,” he’d laughed. “She’s used to me.”
She should be immune to him after their more than 50 years of marriage.
We’re rolling out of Faber on toward North Garden and U.S. 29, now. It’s part of the 65-mile loop Mr. Reed devised to help raise money for the Clark Elementary School PTO. On April 12, he will lead as many local fringies as want to sign up on the poker run-like ride from PVCC to Scottsville to Schuyler to North Garden to PVCC—the Clark School Biker Bee Run—to give the school bucks to pay for extra-curricular educational proposals presented by fourth graders and teachers at the school.
“I grew up in Belmont and I like the folks at the school and I have a lot of respect for the principal, James Pierce,” Mr. Reed had said while we mounted up back at the school. “I still live in Belmont. It’s home.”
We reach the main highway and turn right and then take another right into the Crossroads Store. Mr. Reed offers a burger to soothe the burn he gave me on the back road and I accept.
The fringe is a great place to be and fringies good people to be with.
Posted by Bryan McKenzie at 01:22 PM. Filed under: Lunatic Fringe •
