Wow, what a ride!

Oh, how great it is to live in Texas, where the riding goes on forever -- year round. Being the brave soul I am, or not too bright, I'm not sure which one, I decided to send out a call to arms for a Saturday ride. Not able to decide if I wanted to ride with the dualsport riders or the street riders, and not wanting to flip a coin, I just bit the bullet and sent out an invite to both lists. I stated in the email that we would have a ride that would be good for both. You see, in Texas we have a wide variety of roads to choose from. This ride turned out to be a great time for all.

Today we were able to mix 11 different bikes for 197 miles of slow twisty, fast twisty, and fast sweepers. We rode through miles of tight twisty roads that were tree covered with fall leaves coming down and covering the roads for a beautiful fall, or in this case, winter ride. We would break out of the 45 mph tight stuff - which seemed fast -- into 60 and 70 mph sweepers. This was repeated all day, only interrupted by two great meals. We had burgers like you can only get in Texas at the Loco Coyote. As for the mix of bikes, I rode my KLR instead of the ST or Vulcan and can truly say that was the right choice for such a mixture of roads.

Thanks to: Ricky - KLR, Jerry - KLR, Brad - KLR, Phil - BMW, Kim - Harley, Ed - ST1300, Mark - Honda Shadow, Lynn - Yamaha Star, Daniel - Suzuki Bandit, Rene - Honda Valkarie, for a great and interesting day.

Oh how I love scooter trash!

Let's Ride!

The Little General

CT90 - Honda's Original Dualsport 1964-1979

Oh, how we all look back to our youth and wish we could still have that old car or motorcycle we made so many memories with, both good and bad. I have fond memories of the little step-through Hondas of the 60s and 70s. So many of us rode our Honda 50cc and 90cc bikes all over town. What fun we had! Many years ago, I was looking through the motorcycle ads when one particular ad caught my eye:

Moving to Florida

Must sell 3 m/c $250

It was a very cold and rainy night when I called. An older gentleman answered the phone and the first question I asked was "Is that $250 each?" And he said, "No, for the 3." My interest peaked. My next question was, "What are the motorcycles you're selling?" Much to my surprise, he said he didn't know. Can anyone say "pig in a poke"? Now, my mind was racing with anticipation like a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open his gifts. I ask for directions to his house and the older gentleman said - "It's too cold and wet to go out to the old dark barn, so come by tomorrow." Well, I knew in my heart that someone else would get there before me, and I thought, why not roll the dice? I told the man that I would take the bikes, sight unseen, and I would be there in 30 minutes to give him the cash.

My son Austin was 9 years old at the time, and he rode with me into the cold night. When we arrived at our destination, I gave Austin the $250 cash and told him to go to the door and give the man the money and say we will be back first thing in the morning. Gee, I do ramble on...

The next morning, as we pulled into the driveway, we saw a Honda SL175 all covered in dust and dirt. I thought, if this is one of the 3, I'm home free on my $250 investment. Happily, it was! The next bike out of the barn brings us back to our story - a 1978 CT90 with 2500 miles on it. I took the little CT90 and did all the standard things one must do to a motorcycle that has set up for years and, voila, my wife now had a trail bike. Debi never took to the dirt, so a few years later, I sold it to a man who lived out in the country. End of story, or so I thought.

Thirteen years later (August 2008), I was riding in the outback and happened by the house of the man I sold the CT90 to. I stopped and talked for a while, then asked the question, "What did you ever do with that old CT90?" "Oh, it's all apart laying in the barn, do you want to buy it back?" *SMILE* After a lot of love and care, it doesn't look so bad, does it? *MORE SMILES*

9th Annual Assault on Mount Scott

Hi, everybody - welcome to my first ever blog post! Well, we succeeded in our 9th attempt at the summit, so that makes 8 completions out of 9 attempts. It was a small group this year of only six bikes and 7 riders. Three of us departed home at 6:30am so as to be at the IHOP on the North side of town by 7 so we could meet up with the rest of the explorers for breakfast. The ride got underway a little late as we didn’t depart till 8:06 -these people I ride with are so rigid! :) We were able to make up all this lost time by keeping a good steady pace till we reached our first gas stop in Wichita Falls. Apparently some of us have small bladders as well as small tanks. At breakfast each rider gave Dixie the toll money for the ride up and back, which she put into two envelopes. As we approached the toll booth, Kim and Dixie took the lead and paid for all of us, which works out really well since none of us have to take our gloves off and dig around for our money. The weather was wonderful and the riders all had a great time, not to mention the hamburgers at Meers after the summit. We ended up with a total mileage of 467 and were back in Fort Worth by 5:30, just before dark. What a wonderful Saturday it was. I have included pictures; take a look at the beautiful blue sky and the brilliant colors of all the foliage. Thanks again to Dixie for being the expedition photographer. For all of you who wish that you had gone—the 10th annual ASSAULT ON MT SCOTT will be the first Saturday before Thanksgiving 2009. Hmm, 10th annual—sounds like a good time to make up t-shirts for the event. For more pictures, see the slideshow in the bar to the right of the page.

Welcome to My New Blog!

Hi everyone,


I am Robert E. Lee, and from as far back as I can remember, I've been called "The Little General". Go figure. I have started this blog so that you and I can share our motorcycle experiences.


About Me - It all started at a very young age, this love of two wheels. When I was 7, my sister Linda came home with a 78 rpm record that was about a motorcyclist. The song was sung by Vaughn Monroe, called The Terror of Highway 101. As I sat and listened to the song over and over again, I started to develop a mental image of what it would be like to race off down the highway with the wind in my face and the sounds of the pipes. As the image took hold of me, I started to drool over every motorcycle that I saw.

That same year, I was standing in our front yard when I heard the pipes of a motorcycle coming up our country road. I ran to the edge of the road, and started waving at the oncoming rider. As he passed by, he took both hands off the handlebars and made both hands into finger guns and pointed at me. That was way too cool! And 3 years later, I soloed on my first motorcycle, a 125 cc HD Hummer. That was 49 years ago, and I haven't stopped riding since.


I went on to:
Work in a bike shop after school...start racing...turn pro...win a pro national short track...own dealerships...and on and on. From all that, I can truthfully say that motorcycle people are some of the best people I've met in all my travels. "Scooter Trash", as I so fondly call my riding buddies, are generally good people. I hope you enjoy the blog! Please feel free to post comments on any article - I would love to hear your feedback.

The Little General