Drop of a hat . . . 2004 part 2
So, it’s 8 weeks later and I am sat
aboard a plane heading back to Michigan, my plan to put the “good stuff” on Ebay
has gone well and the coffers are slowly filling with funds to repay my
investment loan. The only problem is that my plan has slightly backfired, I had
planned to sell the expensive and heavy stuff in the U.S. and in so doing save
on a container and shipping – with the excellent exchange rate it appears that a
HUGE amount of the stock has been sold to guys in Norway, France, Germany and
England for record prices! This has now put me in the position whereby I am
going to have to get a container out of Michigan and back to the U.K. My 10 day
trip has now had to be re-scheduled (at a cost of +£450) to allow time to load
and get a container on its way.
With the heightened security checks at
New York I fail to meet my connecting flight missed plane in New York re
routing meant re-schedule & paying missing funds for my re-scheduled flight home
– for which they wanted that particular days rate of £700! I refused and
“Continental” agreed to re-route my flights and I would pay for the return leg
at a later date. So, Four flights later and I am landing in a snow covered North
Michigan VERY late at night.
Next day I collect my truck and check
to see if all my bikes are still intact at my pal Gary’s house . . . luckily
everything was fine and I drive back to the local airport to confirm and pay for
my flight back to the U.K. in 12 days time. The poor airport clerk drew the
short straw and spent the best part of an hour being passed from One agent to
another, when he finally came up with the flight costing £600 (as opposed to the
guaranteed cost of £450) I gave in and agreed to sort it all out at a later
date.
My first excursion was a 700 mile trip
over to Minnesota to see 500+ early Japanese bikes that had just come up for
sale from a guy that use to do a lot of exporting in the late 80’s.
The first leg up into the U.P. of
Michigan took me past a guy that I bought a few H1’s off a couple of years back,
as I drove into his yard I was amused to se a couple of triples with just the
body and seats standing proud above the snow! Yep the snow gets DEEP in in March
in North Michigan
Back on the road again and it is across
through Wisconsin where I spied a modern Kawasaki agent that had a 1970’s dealer
sign outside, I called in and low and behold they had a small quantity of New
Old Stock Kawasaki parts that they were willing to sell – there was a slight fly
in the ointment in that Kawasaki U.S.A has recently agreed to buy back all the
NOS parts that the dealers wish to release back to them. I dragged a large box
full of parts out of stock and we managed to arrive at a mutually beneficial
price, the current owner also told me that the previous owner had taken a lot of
NOS stuff back to his own pole barns a few miles away, he would try and get in
touch with the guy for when I returned back that way in a couple of days. As I
drove onwards to Minnesota I realised that it was another fresh State for me
that made the current total visited in recent years to 25 – which is a lot more
States than most Americans that I have met have visited.
The meeting in Minneapolis was
interesting to say the least, there was a vast array of so many different bikes
from the mid 60’s to mid 70’s coupled with the fact that both Dan the vendor,
and his sons were personally very interested in motorcycles and had some amazing
bikes of their own. In their workshop they were restoring a Brough Superior for
American TV host and motorcycling enthusiast Jay Leno, many of the parts for
this bike were having to be re-made “in house”. The bikes in the “personal”
collection ranged from an original low mileage Brough Superior & Vincent black
shadow right across the spectrum of N.O.S. Triumphs, CZ’s (from the 1930’s) to
new Indians and others and ending up with a very low mileage Honda RC30.
Once inside Dans “house” that he is
renovating (It’s actually an old school) each and every room is full to bursting
with old motorcycles running into many dozens of 150 & 160 Hondas and Suzukis
and…
On the stairs there are a few old dealer
signs, these generally sell for around $1,000! There was even a NEW dealer sign
for the “American Eagle” brand! Knowing Malc Andersons passion for these obscure
bikes I took the plunge and bought it – transporting it was going to be another
problem!
I bought Two H2’s which we then tied
down the Two bikes on the back of the pick up, then we laid some carpets and
blankets on them, we then put the “American Eagle” sign on the top with more
cardboard and put just enough tension on the straps to hold it in place. The
thought of a 700 mile drive back to Michigan at night in the cold was daunting
to say the least, 200 miles in and it was time to stop for the night. The most
annoying part of the trip was that I was passing very close by to “Scrambler’s”
house and I didn’t have my database with me to call him.
The 500 mile trip back was pretty
uneventful, other than stopping off en route at the dealer that I had found on
the way out. He had managed to track down the original owner and after a trip to
the bank for some funds I went over to relieve him of some of his old stock that
was out in his barns, access was difficult to say the least, with 3 or more feet
of snow blocking the entrance to Two barns . . . I vowed to come back for all
the gas tanks and other parts from the remaining Two barns on a future trip.
The rest of the drive was long but
quite pleasant in the spring sunshine, keeping up a steady 70mph was no problem
well, it WAS pleasant until 10.30pm at night at just 40 mph and just 8 miles
from my destination, there was a large BANG! I pulled over to find that my New
Old Stock $1,000 sign had shattered! The only explanation is that with the sun
on it all day, it was malleable, but with the dropping temperature at night it
got so cold due to the wind facture that it just became brittle and shattered!
It was dark and in the middle of nowhere so I just gathered a few chunks and
headed home.
So, up with the larks on the Tuesday as
it was the day that the container was being dropped at Garys. It arrived on the
nail but we were only given 2hrs to load it, – for an extra $600 I managed to
get the container left behind and collection re scheduled for Friday at 10am,
that way the container gets to Detroit for PM Friday and would be presented to
customs that night leaving the “signed off” customs paperwork for me to collect
on Saturday. The trucker left saying he would see us at 10am on 2nd
April.
Tuesday was spent loading the container
. . .
The bikes are loaded and the worrying
that they will make the trip back safely begins!
Weds was spent trailer & NOS hunting, It
seemed obvious that although I could fit Two H2’s on the back of my pick up It
would also be wise to invest in a trailer to enable me to collect even more
bikes on my excursions, looking through the trader papers and Ebay it was quite
obvious that good used trailers hold their value really well in the U.S. a good
used (maybe 5 years old) 7 x 12 box trailer sells for around £1,000 with a brand
new version of the same thing cost just a couple of hundred quid more, trailers
up to 2,000lb capacity do not have any brakes but as soon as you go over this
weight the trailers come equipped with electric brakes – luckily my truck had
the electrics for this. A suitable trailer was bought (involved story but it was
a good trailer) and I then headed North to a dealer that I found on my trip back
in January. I also took a detour and bought the Z1 that I had also found on my
last trip, I got it a smidge cheaper but it was no bargain – the bike was later
given to Gary K as a token of appreciation for getting me out of the “brown
smelly stuff” back on the Jan trip when he gave me space to park the bikes that
I had bought. So, the dealer had a small stash of parts, some common, some
unusual but they were unusual enough for me to part with a serious amount of
funds.
It appears that I may also have a spare
day on Thursday! I had been told of a guy 150 miles South that may have a couple
of H2’s for sale and also some New Old Stock engines, it would appear that in
the late 70’s Kawasaki America re-called all their H2 motors from their
apprentice training schools back to their hub depot in Grand Rapids Michigan,
where upon this chap bought up a dozen quite literally New Old Stock engines,
all the motors were the early spec with the more radical porting and
interestingly all the motors came with engine serial numbers! So when we are
counting number of H2’s made (or other triples for that matter) we need to take
into account these motors supplied for training and also the units supplied as
factory replacements – which also came with engine serial numbers.
So Thursday and I head South, I met up
with “Joe” and was taken to a barn where he kept his various Toys, a he had a
couple of Blue ’72 H2’s and also a white ‘69 H1 None of which had been used for
several years – he also had a Yamaha RZ and a 500 gamma Both with under 500
miles on the clock from New! I buy the triples and seriously think about coming
back for the Yams at a later date.
Whilst heading back I jump at the
opportunity to meet up with yet another Gary – this time it is Gary , a guy that
provides valuable input to the U.S. message board. Not only do we meet up for a
brief spell but I also get a quick sprint on his H1 MiniBike, which with tongue
firmly pressed in cheek can be described as “Sprightly” – If I’d brought a
change of underwear I’d have opened the throttle a little wider! Sadly, it was
just a brief visit as I need to head back up North for the Friday collection of
the container
From Friday
onwards the trip went downhill
To my notes
:
Friday 2nd
April 10am, no driver, 11, 12, 1pm no driver – I contacted allpoint who
said that no driver had been scheduled for collection, they hurriedly
rescheduled a driver for late Friday night who would deliver the container
Saturday and although tightly timed the container would still be on it’s way to
Canada on the Saturday evening.
8pm Friday
night and a driver showed up and we discussed how the container would progress,
he told me that he thought that the container would not be loaded onto a train
until Monday as the rail yards and customs do not work weekends. I assured him
that the rail yards DO work all weekend and that customs in Detroit is 24hrs a
day 7 days a week. I asked him what time he expected to be in Detroit on the
Saturday - he told me that he would make an early start and be in Detroit for
10am, I told him I would be travelling down to Customs in Detroit Saturday
daytime to collect the signed off paperwork and head back up North to catch my
Sunday flight back to the U.K.
Saturday 3rd
April, PM, I arrived in Detroit and contacted the rail desk to see if the
container had been presented, they said all the paperwork was waiting but no
container had been presented, I kept in constant communication with them but it
became apparent that the container was not going to make the Saturday train. And
rather than stay over in Detroit I headed over the bridge into Canada (Well that
trip was made 3 times in an hour but that is a whole new story) it was now
apparent that I was not going to make my flight so I rescheduled my flight for
the next available flight (6am Tuesday 6th) at a cost of $960!
Sunday 4th
April, And it’s back to Detroit, passing through the only part of Canada that I
know, but in the words of the Late Jim R “It’s Gods Country” and I still agree
with his sentiments. Once back in Detroit there is little else to do than
twiddle thumbs and wonder where the hell the container is – A visit to the Henry
Ford Museum seems like a good idea but it is still very cold and getting late. I
was keeping in constant touch with the CP rail desk who were as baffled as I
was as to why the container had not been presented. By 8pm it had missed the
last train to Montreal and I booked into another hotel for the evening.
Monday 5th
April there was no way to contact “W J Byrnes” (my “shipper”) as all their
phones were down, I managed to track the container to a rail yard where it had
JUST been delivered 8.50am! After a lot more phone calls I find out that the
container will be on the 8pm train to Customs and Montreal, if all went well
then the paperwork would be signed off for Midnight and I could then drive the
300 miles North for my 6am next day flight. At 10pm it became apparent that all
was not well and it turned out that the container was put on a different rail
network which meant that all my customs paperwork was now at the wrong rail
agents. After much pleading the agents at CP Rail (Canadian Pacific Rail) said
that they would present my paperwork even though it was a different rail
network. Obviously if I stayed in Detroit any longer I would miss my flight and
have to pay another $960 for another flight change. The CP rail agents agreed
that they would fax my signed off documents to W J Byrnes and also post the
originals back to myself in England for a fee.
I headed
back to North Michigan and made it next day to the airport for the 6.15am
flight. CP Rail called and I was told that the signed off paperwork was lost in
the system somewhere, it was looking as if I was going to have to cancel my
flight when they called (with 20 mins to spare) to say that they had the signed
off paperwork in their possession. Yet another skin of the teeth mission
. . why do they always turn out like that?
A mere 10
days later and the container is pulling up at my door - it's difficult to
describe the relief when you open the doors and find EVERYTHING is upright,
intact and undamaged!
The work started immediately to
get some funds back in the coffers, primary bikes to sell were the F7's & H2's.
The H2's had a serious amount
of work done in a short space of time . . From this :
to this: . . .
Rick Brett
