fourthgate.org

1978 Honda CB750
Custom bobber-influenced hard-tail chopper.
A work in progress.

This started life as a 1978 Honda CB750.  A couple of friends got the idea to chop it up in 2007, I think. I loved it and I bought it in the summer of 2008 as soon as the owner said he was interested in selling it. The frame and other elements were cut and custom welded by Brad Rearden. I’m pretty sure Dean Beattie did some engine work on it too.

Since then I’ve removed and replaced the original disk-equipped front wheel and added a drum brake from a CB350/450 (I think). Rick Keen helped me do this. He and I also replaced the fork seals,  refilled them with new fork oil, and added some fork covers. Pictures coming soon.

Man, it was a thousand years ago and yesterday at the same time. Cigarettes and chain link fences, and later R.E.M. Flailing around in our minds and bodies trying to make sense of it all. Knowing everything and nothing at the same time.

It’s Fall that brings it back. The light shines right, the air is crisp and the leaves make crunching noises that work like keys to unlock memories. Happy-sad memories of lost relationships and interests. Embarrassing memories we were grateful that we’d thought we’d forgotten. And mundane memories of walking to school, or riding in cars unsupervised.

It’s Fall and time to harvest these thoughts and emotions. Time to reap what insight these unlocked currents can provide. Time to take them and store them. For in the solitude of Winter that approaches, these things will sustain you until Spring.

I have recently decided to start a writing project based on the seasons. An exploration of how they effect me, my thoughts and my mood and mindset. Also their relation to the life cycle of individuals, thoughts and feelings—myself included and in a general sense.

I like the idea for a number of reasons. It gives me content for this site to begin to structure categories and other nerdy organizational stuff. It also gives me something I haven’t had for so long that I didn’t even realize I missed it, an avenue for creative expression. And in doing so a pressure valve for my rabid self-scrutiny and introspection. A hint that something productive, creative, dare I say real might emerge is intoxicating.

The  nature of the project, lends it self to ongoing development and revision. Every year is more research. Starting small, with whatever I have and getting it out, on to the page and letting it stew is just fine. I have no clear expectations of what will come. The process is exciting to me and while I could see a need for a deadline at some point, right now it is the furthest thing from my mind.

I want to thank those who have actually pulled this project from my sideways remarks that I’d like to do something blah blah blah,  to actually doing it. You may not have any idea how your even casual support has done wonders.

The sun is shining again and Summer is still months away as we happily retire our favorite sweaters to the lower drawers and our winter coats to the hall closet. Spring is here and pretty much in full swing. Amidst the bunnies, birdies, pastels, pansies, mid-drifts and motorcycles lies an important yet oft overlooked aspect of this, the second season. In all its glory of birth and rebirth the inherent frailty of is life easily forgotten or just willfully ignored.

Conceived in the cold darkness of Winter and gestated there, the thoughts and feelings of our souls may seem hardened, but let us not forget that thunderstorms and tornados lie in wait, and the baking heat of the sun is just around the corner. Spring is a test, a battleground, a trial for new and old alike. Not all candidates survive, many must adapt to do so. But when Summer comes, these trials will be looked back upon with nostalgic favor as the close heat of Summer ushers us into Fall.