On Borrowed Time Part 1; I'll Go!

I remember that it was a Sunday evening. I had just walked over to the FMS barracks to see what was going on with my motorcycle buddies. There were more people there that night than we had ever had before. I asked Steven what was going on, there was two motorcycles there that I was not familiar with. A Norton and a Triumph, English bikes that had brought two blokes over from Lakenheath AB in England.

Mike and Pete were over from England to join in the festivities at the Nürburgring, that weekend there was a fantasticlly large motorcycle race and people had come from all over the world to see it. Mike’s Norton had problems while they were at the track and so he and Pete rode over to Bitburg AB to see if they could find help from one of us Americans. Calvin took a look and after pulling one of the side covers off pronounced it fixable if he had the parts but that Mike should not try to ride it home or he would probablly lose the engine.

Here is the link to the racetrack if you want to check it out:

http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/

There was a dilemma though of how to get the bike back to them. It was easy enough for Mike to ride with Pete on the Triumph but how to get the bike back to them in England? I volunteered to ride over with Calvin who sounded like he was willing to fix the bike after Mike sent him the parts and ride it to Lakenheath to return it. It seemed awkward though for Calvin to ride on the back of my 450 all the way home.

In the back of my mind I thought I heard Steven volunteer to ride over on his Kawasaki. Steven’s bike was the first Japanese Superbike and could easily handle the trip. A lot better than my little dual sport scooter anyway.

“No,” Calvin was trying to tell me I had it wrong.

“What, Did I hear you correctly Calvin?” I asked as I turned my eyes to Steven.

“Did you say I could use your bike?” I asked Steven.

“Oh sure,” he said, in his shy and humble accent, I can still hear the tone in his voice today, “You are welcome to use my bike if you go with Calvin.”

Here is where the camera zooms in on my face in disbelief. Steven was going to let me use his motorcycle even though the Air Force made a big deal since one of our mates had an accident on a borrowed motorcycle. It was verboten to ride someone else’s bike. Now Steven was going to let me ride all the way to England and back, a one-week trip, on his Super Kawasaki 750.

WOW!

I could not wait.