"Drop of a hat 2004" Pt 4
So it’s now July and I am back over to
Michigan to ship out a container of bikes and the remaining stock from “Larry
Stone’s” dealership. The plan is to fly into the city of Flint which is 150
miles south of Traverse City (TC is the closet location to my “stock”) - But
with flights to TC at the summer “tourist rates” It is $200 cheaper to drive the
150 miles to TC , a mere step compared to the 12,000 miles that I have already
driven in the U.S. this year - - aided and abetted my trusty laptop, “Sat Nav”
and Microsoft ”Streets and Trips” – if you are considering doing any serious
distance in the U.S. and you own a laptop the I would strongly advise that you
get hold of a GPS receiver and purchase a suitable “route” programme. They are
superb for driving at night and although not as accurate as the GPS in Europe
they can still track you within 100yards. The road layout in the U.S. is vastly
different to the U.K. and even I find it often confusing at times in that many
road have as many as 3 different I.D.’s for instance a single road could be
“31”, “I96” or 196 It is my understanding that these roads flow into each other
and then branch off at various points, the “32” would have a white background to
the signage denoting that it was a state road, the “I96” would be an Interstate
road and the 96? god knows!
So, an uneventful flight to
Flint and 24 Hours later and I am heading South to try and buy the final Two
engines from the “Kawasaki training schools” there is a whole episode to write
just about these engines alone, but basically an acquaintance by the name of
Joe, use to live near to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grand Rapids was the hub of
Kawasaki Motors East Coast Division. In the late 1970’s Kawasaki moved from
training their mechanics on the old triples to training them on the “Z” series –
they recalled all the H2 training engines from their training schools where Joe
in turn bought them. ALL the engines were from the first production batch they
were all around engine number 2000 – all made prior to 1972, high cut pistons
and totally different cylinder liners and porting – VERY close to H2R spec.
There was an old trick of putting a 1mm spacer under a H2 cylinder to raise the
ports and also the power on road cylinders, these early cylinders had that 1mm
“raise” already built into them. Once back in the U.K. we stripped them all and
were amazed at the “botches” that these engines had (bearing in mind that they
were meant to have been rebuilt by future Kawasaki trained mechanics) suffice to say that we broke
some for spares, One was sold on Ebay ($4,600), One was used to build my own H2
motor to absolute perfection - one last engine has an uncertain future
J
I
leave S Michigan and make my way back up North and
meet up with old pal “Gary S” from “the board” – his H2 Drag bike is certainly
worth a picture:
So, from Gary’s in Sth
Michigan I decided go trawl a few of the Michigan junkyards, these are the kind of
place that you could spend DAYS trawling around, often comprising of several
acres, and THOUSANDS of bikes and broken snowmobiles! Often the sights are
heartbreaking as countless triple engines (rarely H2's) are piled high without spark plugs or
carburettors L
Final
breakers of the day was in Reed city where I collected a late 1969 Grey H1 which
will be rebuilt, the owner was trying to specialise in more modern bikes and
coupled with the fact that the local residents had objected to the presence of a
junkyard he had decided to sell all his remaining 260 junkers for the princely
sum of 10 bucks a piece! Yep, £1,400 for 260 bikes! A mere £5.50 per bike!
Admittedly a lot were just junk rolling chassis that had been almost picked
clean but there were also many good projects ranging from Goldwings, GT750’s and
CX500’s right down to small capacity dirt bikes – the HUGE problem was where on
earth would I put 260 bikes Once back in the U.K. ? I ponder the dilemma as I head
back up North to Gary “K”s
As I now have enough bikes and stock to fill a
container. I decide to break up One of the “Training School” H2 engines and put
the major components on Ebay, this will hopefully not only get some funds back
in the coffers but will also give the guys in the U.S. a chance to buy some new
original rare parts without the horrendous shipping from the U.K. Down at my
storage unit and it is difficult to decide what to take to Garys to put into the
container, a lot of the NOS stuff is heavy and was only fitted to U.S. model
bikes so it makes sense to leave it in the U.S. or try to sell items in the U.S.
I pull out many items and start to list them with a 3 day sale on Ebay. I list
110 items, sales go quite well but it is a LOT of work as even though I listed
the sales as to “the U.S. Only” I am inundated with requests from existing
friends and “regular” customers to sell worldwide – within days I am on first
name terms with the guys at the Post Office and have my name down to attend
their Christmas party J
Unfortunately some of the guys
at the post office are over zealous to say the least – and I can FULLY
understand why some Ebay sellers do not like to post abroad, my first problem
was minor, I posted a set of forks to a guy in the U.K. – the label said UNITED
KINGDOM – the customs form said ENGLAND – the package was returned as the
delivery address and customs label “had different destinations” ..DUUUUHHHHH!
Next problem was a side panel in a small box to California, the box was from a
local supermarket and had contained peppers, the box was ventilated and it was
apparent to anyone but a blind man that it’s present bubble wrapped panel was
anything but green peppers – the item was returned as I was not allowed to mail
“vegetables” via the postl system, a minute with the felt tip and the package
was good to go again! The worst and by far the most serious problem was when I
sold a pair of VERY heavy cast iron cylinders to an Australian guy who we shall
call “Mark R” he also trades on Ebay by the names of PARFO and AIRCRAFT-69. The
postal service manage to break a fin on the NOS C2 cylinder that he bought for a
tenner . . . which resulted in a
negative feedback for me
L
With all
the parts on their way I now need to focus on getting my bikes shipped out. By
now, I am getting the hang of the rigmarole of the bike related paperwork, EVERY
! complete bike that is being shipped HAS to have a title, any incomplete bike
or pats bike without a title HAS to have a bill of sale that is notorised by a
public notary before the customs will accept the bike for exportation. After
several close calls on previous shipments I now “dot all the i’s and cross all
the T’s” - my paperwork is perfect and sent ahead of the container by the most
secure and efficient service that FedEx can offer to the customs raildesk in
Detroit for it’s 3 day holding period. I had fallen foul of this 3 day waiting
period on a previous trip and I was having none of that this time … . or so I
thought! A call to the raildesk 3 days later and no paperwork has arrived !
Sheer panic sets in as lost titles means a huge amount of work, time and expense
to get them all replaced, the girl from the CP raildesk suggests that I call
customs who are apparently in the next office – Eureka! The papers were
delivered (to the wrong office number) on time and are already safe with
customs, I call the girl at the raildesk back and she says she will fetch them
for me. The actual procedure is as follows: the papers should be sent to the
“raildesk” this is an independent company (namely FedEx) who deal with the huge
volumes of shipping paperwork to save the actual customs officers the headache
of bringing It in checking it off and then mailing it back to the shipper, the
Two offices are literally just yards away from each other. With the important
paperwork safe I concentrate on filling the container.
Large quantities of Banana and
Egg boxes are acquired and the stock from my storage unit is transferred out to
Gary “K’s” pole barn. A wild guess suggests that I can fit the 14 bikes and most
of the boxed N.O.S. stuff into a 40 foot container, the 100 original tyres and
boxes of used and repro parts will have to wait for the next container or I’ll
take them down to the “Mid Ohio” meeting next year.
I arrange for the container to
be delivered on the Thursday evening, this way it will make the train for the
weekend and will be at the boat in Montreal the following Tuesday and then the
boat will be in Liverpool in 8 days – just a couple of days after I get back
from the trip. I take my stunning H2a for a final ride in the U.S. and take a
few memorable pictures.
With Six guys loading all goes well and I breathe a HUGE sigh
of relief as the truck and container heads off on it’s 180 mile journey to
customs at Detroit.
Whilst trying to find bikes for
the container I was bidding on what was apparently a very nice and original H2a
in Illinois, I was outbid on the H2 at $4,500 by a French guy called “marcoenca”
– rumours started filtering through that marcoenca was not coming through with
the money for all his Ebay winning auctions – in fact it appears that he was
getting a terrible reputation for winning auctions for Triples and then saying
he didn’t want them when he viewed them! As marcoenca was now winning the
auction on the H2a the vendor mailed me and asked if I would buy it for $4,000
cash? He told me that it was his uncles bike and his uncle had dropped it in the
late 70’s and never rode it again, he passed the bike on and as this guy
“preferred Harleys” he put it out on Ebay – the bike in the Ebay pictures looked
fine to me and as my Gold H2a was now on it’s way back to the U.K. I was looking
for a totally original H2a in Purple to replace my “restored” H2a in my
collection.
I have Two
days to spare and head South on a drive down round to collect the bike from near
Chicago. After such a lot of hassle with the bike I can only describe the
condition as “disappointing” – but, I committed myself and abided by the sale.
In retrospect the true history of the bike became apparent. The guy I bought it
off was a guy in his mid 20’s and he was suffering from a broken leg from a
“dirtbike” accident – After a closer study of the bike it would seem to me that
the original damage on the left side of the bike was done in the 1970’s – the
left side of the bike had some VERY recent gravelrash, so recent in fact that
the vast majority of grit and road rash was still buried in the pipe and
associated parts – maybe, just maybe, someone was startled by the power of an
old bike and broke their leg in that particular accident? The bike was loaded up
and after a good jetwash it looked better, but a L O N G way off a bargain!
With the container on it’s way
there was no need to rush back up North, it was time to chill a little and check
out the junkyards along the way, it was a Sunday and “Mishawaka” Indiana was as
good a place to stay as any! The town is a strange place in that bars can serve
beer and wine but not spirits on a Sunday! Somewhere along the way back I also
stumbled across an appropriately named factory :
It’s Monday morning and I call the shipper to confirm that
the container had now crossed the border on it’s railroad journey through
Canada. I am horrified to hear that the container didn’t even make the train as
there was no paperwork presented! Things get even worse as I find out my
unlocked container with it’s $10,000 H2a on the back has been sat in a grubby
truckers yard waiting for paperwork for 5 days now! Frantic phone calls reveal
that the paperwork is still sat at customs and was never collected by the girl
at FedEx, time is now running out and I double check with the customs officer
that all is O.K. and I am assured that it is all in order but it needs to be
processed in the correct order. I make constant calls to CP rail to confirm that
the girl from FedEx actually has the papers in her hands!
It’s now a week later, there is
just the One train of containers a week that makes the crossing on a Sunday. The
paperwork is now all going through the procedure until it finds a different
customs officer – as I understand it, the containers are loaded onto a train,
the CP rail takes the completed paperwork to the customs officers who in turn
watch each container via an X Ray machine as it passes from Detroit onwards to
Canada they check off the titles and count the bikes and contents in the
container, after being assured by the original customs officer that all my
paperwork was fine I am given the news that this weeks replacement customs
officer has had my container pulled off the train (at MY expense) because she
believes that my notorised paperwork is a photocopy and not an original. With
just one shot at this weeks train and 24 hours to the cut off time, panic sets
in and I hot foot it the 240 miles on over to Detroit to see the officer in
person. I contact the lady and try to convince her that the paperwork is
genuine, I am not allowed to see her in person and the container has been
singled out for a physical inspection, there is little else to do but bum around
Detroit all day. The Customs / Railyard area of Detroit is a LONG way from being
nice, it’s certainly One of the more rough areas of the U.S.A. it’s the area
that central door locking was designed for!
So, It’s
Friday PM and the cut off time to make the train for Canada is 5pm, calls every
30 mins leave me in despair – finally at 3.30 customs give it the all clear and
frantic phone calls to shippers, CP rail, FedEx, Customs find that the paperwork
is missing somewhere in the “system”. No matter who I plead with, until they
have that “signed off” paperwork in their hands, that container isn’t going to
make the train. By 6pm it is apparent that the container has missed the train
and will have to make the following weeks train to Canada. Needless to say that
I am not a happy chappy – I myself have done everything to perfection, and yet
my container has missed Two trains and will be stuck in some railyard in Detroit
whilst I fly back to the U.K. It is a serious cause for concern as (with no
disrespect to Detroit citizens) I can only describe that particular part of
Detroit as One of the very worst parts of America that you could ever visit. I
head back up North in my old Sonoma with severe concerns about my container but
with the reassurance that all my paperwork is in order and it WILL make the
following weeks train. There’s little more I can do, I can’t afford to miss yet
another\plane and the $1,000 for a different flight. As I drive up North I take
the occasional detour through the small towns looking for that old H2 leaning up
against a wall. It is local election times and I see several notice boards in
some of the smaller towns saying “support 911” I actually assume that this is
some reference to keep remembering the “September 11th” I am totally
in awe as after making enquiries I am shocked to hear that it pertains to the
local electorate wishing to install a 911 rescue number (as in 999 in the U.K.)
I am stunned to hear that in many of the smaller towns in the U.S. , if you
don’t know the local sherrifs office phone number, or the local hospital or fire
service number then you are in deep sh*t!!!! For those of you in the U.S. that
are reading this, we have had a national 999 number for as long as I can
remember – no matter where you are in the U.K. you WILL get help if you call
999.
So, I am back to Traverse City
and as I leave my truck with "Gary K" the Odometer reveals that I have covered
14,000 miles in my GMC Sonoma so far this year! And I have to say that I am
VERY impressed with the little truck (without the trailer) – a constant 16 - 17 mpg (U.S. gallons)
from the 4.3 litre V6 engine and not a single top up of oil required along the
way!
The flight
back to the U.K. was uneventful or maybe it was, but my mind was totally
pre-occupied by thoughts of my stunning H2a alone and lonely in an unlocked
container in some dingy railyard in Detroit.
Imagine my
face when my U.K. Shipping agent calls Two days later to tell me that they have
been overcharged on a container ship and they suspect that it my well be MY
container that is the anomaly! The fiasco is finalised by it not only being my
container but also having it delivered to my door 3 hours before the time it was
booked in, leaving me making frantic phone calls to find some labour! Sincere
thanks go to my pals, Gary Clarke, Steve Thomas, "Stouty", Tony & Mal for coming
up trumps. A HUGE sigh of relief is heard as the doors are opened to find
another successful consignment with everything intact!
