Sunday, July 02, 2006
The secret motorcycle burial grounds
I'm planning to remove the Windjammer from my CX500, as it keeps me from cooling off very well when riding around town. Unfortunately, the previous owner had cut up the stock fairing and turn signals to install it, so I'll need to track down some parts rather than just unbolting the thing. So I've been searching for parts.
I found out that Rockdale Cycle on Highway 20 (just north of Conyers, Georgia) happens to be a motorcycle junkyard. Funny thing is, I'd driven past them several times and not realized that, since a motorcycle junkyard is a bit smaller than an automotive one, and they had a picket fence to hide the junked bikes from view. Last Friday, I stopped in and looked around their yard.
Some of the yard consisted of parts removed from bikes and orgainzed by the type of part. There was a mountain of handlebars, a shed full of exhaust components, at least a dozen Windjammer upper fairings amid a mountain of touring fairings, and a semi truck trailer full of engines. They must have had at least a hundred relatively intact bikes there, almost all of them from the '70s and '80s. After looking at nearly all of them, I finally found the one CX500 in the whole yard.
Imagine my shock when I found that this one was missing the parts I needed - because its previous owner had also cut it up to install a Windjammer!
I found out that Rockdale Cycle on Highway 20 (just north of Conyers, Georgia) happens to be a motorcycle junkyard. Funny thing is, I'd driven past them several times and not realized that, since a motorcycle junkyard is a bit smaller than an automotive one, and they had a picket fence to hide the junked bikes from view. Last Friday, I stopped in and looked around their yard.
Some of the yard consisted of parts removed from bikes and orgainzed by the type of part. There was a mountain of handlebars, a shed full of exhaust components, at least a dozen Windjammer upper fairings amid a mountain of touring fairings, and a semi truck trailer full of engines. They must have had at least a hundred relatively intact bikes there, almost all of them from the '70s and '80s. After looking at nearly all of them, I finally found the one CX500 in the whole yard.
Imagine my shock when I found that this one was missing the parts I needed - because its previous owner had also cut it up to install a Windjammer!
