Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Speaking of "Bucket Lists"...

I came up with a "bucket list" (my spreadsheet is titled "Wish list") years ago; over the years I added to it, subtracted from it, then whittled it down to just bike-related stuff 'Top 10'.

My early list had bikes I always wanted to own, then somewhere along the line I gave up mainly because I've more or less stopped buying bikes unless an amazing deal falls in my lap.

I went back to my backup drive and dug out my old BIKE wish list-

'33 Triumph 6/1 (original Tri big twin)
'39 Tri 5T Speed Twin
'50 Tri 6T Thunderbird (Blackbird?)
'54 Tri T110 Tiger < HAD A '61, all original
'57 Triumph big twin (as old as me) < HAD A '56 T'Bird, as close as I got
'59 Tri T120 Bonneville (original) < HAD ONE!
'67 Tri T120TT Bonneville < HAVE A STANDARD '67, close as I got
'83 Tri TSS Bonneville 8-valve < HAD ONE!
'83 Tri TSX Bonnie

Kawasaki 350 Bighorn < HAD ONE!
Kawasaki 500 or 750 triple < HAD TWO 500s!
Ducati 900 SS
Yamaha V-Max
Britten V1000 (I can dream, can't I?)

Then, there is my "Top 10" Bike-related list-

1. Drag Race < Raced several events in Laredo in the mid-90s, scored a 1st place (Street Stock) on my KZ1000
2. Publish a bike-related book < Self-published "Old Bikes", sold several hundred copies to-date
3. Roadrace vintage bikes < Raced several seasons, scored a 2nd place finish at Willow Springs, and finished the season 5th out of 22 riders in the Production Heavyweight class in 2008, all on my scratch-built Bonneville (also got to race a Formula 500 Kawasaki triple, scored several 2nd & 3rd place finishes, finished 3rd in F500 championship)
4. Race at Daytona - Scored a best 4th place in 2008 on my Prod/Heavy Bonnie
5. Set a Land Speed record at Bonneville - Set my class record at the 2008 BUB Meet
6. Race Vintage MX - Scored a 2nd place finish against Dave Aldana on my Rickman Montesa in VMX Sportsman 250 class at the 2008 Sandia Classic
7. Build a custom bike - have built several including a Triton and my Dreer New Norton monoshock Prototype bike
8. Own 100 motorcycles - I've owned 171 to-date, had an all-time high of 55 bikes around 2007
9. Complete over 100 customs builds, scratch builds, and/or total restorations - Completed 135 to-date
10. Complete a "Saddlesore 1,000" ride (over 1,000 miles in under 24 hours) - To-date, I have only ridden 620 miles in 14 hours as my longest single-day ride

So, just item 10 on my "bucket list" to complete (I'm no longer pursuing the bikes I'd like to own)

Life's been good...

As to non-bike related stuff, I've done pretty much everything I've wanted to do except maybe-

-SCUBA dive the Great Barrier Reef of Australia
-Free parachute jump from an ultralight airplane
-Visit England, attend Isle of Man & BritBike meet-up WITH one of my bikes
-Take family for rides in my 2-seat ultralight (could happen in 2021)

I HAVE done:
-Married a great girl that also rides
-Have kids that are successful (2 are still in school, so hopeful it'll be all 5)
-have grandkids (8, so far...)
-SCUBA diving in several places around the Caribbean + Florida in the Atlantic
-Ridden motorcycles in 20 states, plus Mexico
-Sky diving (tethered to instructor)
-Visited Germany, Czech Republic & Switzerland including snow skiing
-was in the Navy for 4 years
-Owned several cool cars including an original 240Z, '75 Trans-Am, Triumph GT6+, 66 Pontiac GTO, and '68 Pontiac Tempest hot rod
-Deer hunting in Colorado
-Fly fishing in Oklahoma
-Deep Sea fishing in Cancun
-I've seen the Grand Canyon from the edge and from the air
-Personally flown 4 different airplanes and 3 different ultralights
-Been up to 145MPH (indicated) on my ZRX1200R, reportedly over 150 at Willow Springs when I got to ride "monkey" on a Formula 1 sidecar (we won both races)
-Own my own small ranch (4 acres) with a nice shop/hangar/garage building
-Touched the water in all 3 U.S. coasts, plus the Rio Grande
-Have friends all over the world (well, virtual friends)
-(bike-related) Own a Triumph, Norton & BSA, done the ton on 50+ bikes (at least)

Now that I look back, Life has been GREAT!!!

I think that you have been sitting around doing nothing for much too long.

Gordo

i just want peace

yeah, I could go for a piec.... never mind.

If that's all that's on your bucket list you've been sitting around far too long as well.

I sort of know how much time I have left...I have no bucket list other than finishing and riding my current A10 project...My past is nowhere as extensive as Paul...But thinking about certain women lovers including my wife is good memories....

You don't want to know what has sat on the other side of the balance in my life, a lot of it is pretty bad, tough, sad, and even horrendous. On balance, I could die happy any time; I made my peace with people I've crossed up with over the years.

SaddleSore 1K is no problem for a street bike.

I failed twice, but made it tough by using the mileage of an organized adventure ride as part of the 1K miles.
Mechanical issues.

1st ride, my bike fell and the shifter went into a wet case cover. Youda thought JB Weld would be at every gas station in the middle of GA at 3am? Had to wait for Wallyworld to open at 7am, trip was over. Still got to 950+ miles...

2nd ride, buddy's bike almost threw the front sprocket. Lost all the engine oil, seal rides on a spacer on the shaft, nut securing sprocket backed off
He didnt bend over the tab washer when he installed gearing to match mine. We rode the same bikes, a DRZ400.

Not only did he not wreck it, he coasted into at gas station off I-16, oil dripping off the bike from the front sprocket back!
Got to 977 miles before time was up.

We discovered the leak by adding oil to see where it came from, in the parking lot! We did clean up after ourselves!

I got buckets for washing the car and mopping, but I only make lists of the parts I need to keep what I got on the road.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
I got lots of experiences.

By this point in our lives, for most of us anyway, we should all be pretty far down the line on stuff we've done versus stuff we ever wanted to do. It'd take much too long for me to tabulate all my wishes-come-true and/or the stuff I've done. Never had any sort of list. Suffice it to say I'm happy with my life, with who & what I am. At the end of it all, tho, we don't get to decide what our own legacy will be. That's somebody else's say.

Paul your legacy may be : "He did a lot of stuff and made a lot of lists"

More seriously, glad you're enjoying life and are happy with your accomplishments.

the older i get the more things interest me and the fewer i will have time to investigate.

my bucket list has a line item that reads simply

put all the pieces of your disassembled motorcycles in labelled boxes so your kids can make sense of what widgets go with what machine

. . . and label all the special tools so they can go with the appropriate machiens

Dunno about Bucket List but I surely have had a *ucket list this year

Thankfully, I sold off my last project bike about 3 years ago, so my wyfe and kids won't have to suffer thru that. Good Idea on the tools!

I have a spreadsheet with all the spare parts I kept, but it's not 100% accurate, and worst of all, I didn't tag/label each part; so, making sense of it when the time comes will indeed be a chore (or, they can haul it all down to the scrapyard).

I did print out a multi-sheet list of all my bikes with a photo, basic description, title status, and minimum asking price, so that the family can at least represent them properly in the adverts should the need arise.

Good idea GrandPaul

I need to do that.

I'm not nearly that organized. I just have general collections in separate boxes: "Trident parts," "BSA," "Clutch," etc.. I don't have that many specialty tools, it's up to my heirs to figure out which clutch hub puller fits the Trident and which fits the twins. And, what's that funny C clamp for?
I do plan to be down to just the Bonnie and the Trident by the time my time is up.

I would really like to take a couple of laps round the mountain circuit, preferably on a Trident. But, the way things stand I might have to settle for whatever bike I can rent in the off season at the IOM.

That's a tough row to hoe. They don't rent bikes on the IOM (for reasons mentioned earlier, i.e. they all get thrown down the road by wannabe Racer Rabbits), and bike rentals on the mainland are few and expensive. And if you do manage to rent a bike in England, you have to book a ferry trip well in advance; a year in advance for either of the Race Weeks or times near them.

It takes good friends with boots on the ground to make it happen. For the first trip, the lads found me a nice bike, I sent the money, they sorted it all out, tagged it and had it ready to go for me ... I rode it over there for 3 weeks then they shipped it home and I'm still riding it. For the second trip, my son and I were offered the use of two MZ 250s, lovely well-equipped bikes, and we rode those during GP practice week. Each time, I got to get my head down and have a go at the course.

It's hard, but it's worth it. Oh yeah, it's worth it!

Lannis