favorite things 15

time i finally got around to writing about this one. it's been 4 years now since it showed up in front of my house. but first a little back story.
i used to have this little old cb360. i acquired it from a friend who'd had his fun and grew frustrated with it continually killing batteries. his father-in-law had helped him take it apart to try and diagnose the problem and then put it back together and then abandoned it completely. he wanted to give it to me but i think i ended up giving him the 2 dollars i had in my wallet just to ease my conscience a little.
i experienced the same issues and others and struggled to keep the thing running. and because i was basically helpless i sought out my good friend todd time and time again to help me set it to rights. we finally discovered the electrical problem (burnt out rectifier) but this little scoot just never seemed to run as right as the honda reputation would have one believe.
and then one day todd calls me up on a saturday and asks if i'll be around. when he drove up in his old singlecab, there in the back sat this one. i thought maybe he had come by to show off his latest acquisition, which in a way he had. but this was not one he planned to keep. he told me it was mine! i was speechless. he said he'd been keeping an eye out for something better for me to replace that little honda as a daily rider. something a little more reliable. uh, yeah.
i have long admired these bikes. their dependability and beauty, especially the "toaster" tank version. there was a time when living in sf you would regularly see them parked on city streets and the thought of owning one grew as they even began showing up in my dreams. the slash 5 took bmw out of their long conservative tradition of building reliable long distance touring machines and put them solidly into the company of the new "superbikes" of the late 60's and early 70's. things would never be the same. in an age now where everything is a specialty the r75 is an all-arounder, good at many things though none of them well. except to keep traveling on. and now this one is over 40 just like me, and only getting better with age :^)