HONEYMOON ’73
There aren’t many days in one’s life that combine terror and love in quite the same way your wedding day does.
The first test any marriage is put through is known as “wedding planning.” Having bluffed our way through these trials and joined our lives as one, my wife, Nicole, and I decide we’re going to ride cross-country for our honeymoon, me on my 1973 Honda CB750 and Nic on her 1973 Honda CB350G twin.
As one of the best wedding presents ever, her brother has our bikes shipped out to his home in Lake Arrowhead, California, so, “all we have to do is ride them home to Chicago.” Rather than traveling through the boring parts of this great land to see the exciting parts, we’ll start at the exciting parts. And if we break down early on, the scenery will be better.
In preparation, and with 12 hours to spare before the bikes get picked up for shipment, new tires are mounted on my 750. And I have 12 hours to see if my fork rebuild worked, whether I can fix a misfire and if I can Helicoil a header mount. The answers are Yes, No and No, but I fixed it with J-B Weld.
Nic’s 350 just needs gas. It’s a time machine — it still has the clear warning sticker on the gas tank. Assuming all goes well, she’ll be the hero of the trip. Thousands of marginally talented riders have ridden cross-country on 750s. But doing it on a small twin will be a bit more challenging.
With bikes shipped, we arrive at LAX, and our first
