I Gotta Get Me One Of Those

Back before the Valk was even being made, I knew I wanted a motorcycle that had the 6 cylinder ‘wing engine in it, I just didn’t know what it was going to look like.
 

I’d been commuting about 160 miles a day on an ’83 ‘wing when I wasn’t riding the boat…More on that later.   Before the ‘wing, I rode a V45 Magna.   The Goldwing was an excellent commuter bike and gave me years of trouble free riding.   Then it happened, some numbskull decided that he just couldn’t wait to get into traffic heading in the direction he wanted to be going so he decided to go the other way and then pull a U-turn right in front of me.  

All I can say is that if this accident had happened to me on anything other than a full dress bike, I probably would have had one less leg to stand on.     My guardian angel had a full day that day.    What really chapped my hide was that this happened just 200 yards from my workplace.   I had just traveled 80 miles to get to work and I almost made it there.   I guess it was better than in the middle of nowhere.   The other nice thing was the town where it happened was patrolled by motorcycle cops, needn’t say more about that.

  My commuter had been badly damaged and I needed to get back on a bike fast for several reasons.   I knew that if I didn’t start riding again soon, I might never ride again, I live in a place where I must commute to work, bikes have carpool lane privileges and without the carpool lane traffic sucks.   Another option I had was to catch a ferryboat from my town to the big city.   This was my best option because bikes get on the boat for less than half the cost of cars and are guaranteed a spot on the boat even if there are to many cars.   I.E. No waiting for the next boat and the trip was easier.  

  I had always liked the silky smooth power of an opposed cylinder engine motorcycle but my peasant’s wage could only afford a used motorcycle.   The 1500 Goldwings were still too expensive for me.   When the insurance finally paid off, I found a good deal on an ’87 wing…a 1200 interstate.   I rode this bike for about two years and then another disaster.   My apartment complex caught fire and just about burned to the ground.   I had a nice parking spot for my bike under covered parking.
  The covered parking area was under the apartments and above ground.   My motorcycle was next to a convertible mustang.   When some of the hot embers landed on the car’s convertible top, the mustang caught fire.

  My bike was all of 10 feet away from the blazing car BUT I had covered my bike with a Dupont Motorcycle cover and it absolutely saved my wing.   The fire was so hot that the cover did get a small split in it and where that split was the saddlebag and trunk deformed from the heat getting through the opening.   The heat from this apartment fire was so hot that car bumpers and taillights simply melted and dripped onto the ground…It was VERY hot.                   

  Anyway, back to the Valkyrie.   I had been working for a large corporation that had high-speed Internet access in the days of the old modems.   Since there wasn’t much content in the Internet back then, it was easy to find the few things that were available.   Sometime in 95-96 I stumbled across a picture page that had about three photos of a new prototype motorcycle.   It was red and white, it had a Goldwing engine in it and it definitely wasn’t a Goldwing.   Right then, I knew I had to get me one of those.   It was an eye popping, heart racing, beauty of a bike.   The thought of a 6-cylinder motorcycle, not Goldwing with the engineering that Honda puts into their products was I all needed.   Where do I sign up?  

Once the bike hit production, it was just a matter of time for me.   In 2000 I found myself in a position where I could actually buy one and now I wasn’t commuting.   Being a fan of the Goldwing, I traded my GL 1200 for a 99 Valk I/S.   I was all too familiar with motorcycling without a shield and knew that where I live, it’s not a matter of if it’s going to rain but when.   I have had my Red/Black Interstate for about 4 years and haven’t put many miles on it but I knew that someday I would be commuting again, so I have tried to keep the miles limited to pleasure riding rather than my earlier years of hardcore commuting.

  Now as I am finding that the Valk is discontinued I am thinking that I will go back to riding my first Goldwing because it’s now a stripped down GL 1100.   It’s my baby Valk of sorts with no signs of stopping and 60,000 miles on the clock.   Keeping my new Valk as a low miles machine is not a bad idea for me especially when I will be able to get it out on those really nice days for fun and still stomp the crap out of whatever they’re making twenty years from now.

  W. Christopher Rowland

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