Try this story, Two Up Riding on the James

[solo1]

                                 Two Up Riding on the James,  low miles, high antics

We’re talking about a little known (to us) British motorcycle called the James. Although James made quite a few models we’re talking about a smaller starter entry motorcycle.
 The James ML model was a small 125 cc two cycle ring ding of a motorcycle that had class from its girder fork to its hard fender mounted pillion seat, to its cigar lighter size taillight.  The classic paint, royal maroon color, white gas tank with  gold pinstripe, emphasized  the feeling of royalty.  Well, at least it did to its owner, Vic, and his riding buddy without a bike----Me.

Since I was without a motorcycle, Vic, being the buddy that he was, allowed me to rent the pillion seat, a  satisfactory place to sit on the rear fender despite the hard tail..  Today, that is known as the bitch seat but back then it was simply known as riding pillion.

Now the James wasn’t known as a performance motorcycle but the engine had heart.  It hauled us over many miles, never complaining, well almost never. We traveled many a mile on it, going to stock car races, once to see Lucky Teeters jump cars over obstacles, to Ohio for beer, etc.  We also engaged in another activity.  All out War.

 We were always on the lookout to give other small motorcycles a hard time, Royal Enfields being specifically on our list..  It was obvious to us that the only RE’s to run against were also the 125cc equipped bikes.   We also tangled with a Harley Hummer( I think that was its name) but that was no contest, the Harley was simply too heavy for its small 125cc  motor.

Now the Enfields were lighter and, of course, they were blessed with only one rider so we were at a disadvantage since we rode doubleup.  However, we had a secret plan.  The James, like most small British  bikes then, had the shifting gate way forward on the right side of the gas tank (hand shift) with a typical left hand clutch.  Obviously, one had to release the throttle to shift gears. This was awkward and took time.  We had a method.  Vic would rev ‘er up in each of three gears, let up but hold onto the throttle, and I would reach under his right arm and shift gears.  Needless to say, it did require a team effort to effect a nice speed shift so that the engine, tranny, and clutch, didn’t generate additional parts.  We sort of went by the seat of the pants since the James had no tach and no rev liniter. Obviously, this was a team effort.  Amazingly we always managed to co-ordinate our efforts and the James never suffered from inadvertent “disassembly”.

After one especially hot and humid day and an all effort to beat a particularly fast Enfield, we pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the engine to give the James a break.  After a little cooldown, I removed myself from the pillion seat to enable Vic to kickstart that mighty 125cc two cycle Villiers motor back to life.  As usual, the willing motor started right up. I jumped back on, Vic shifted into first gear and let out the clutch. To our surprise, we were almost thrown over the handlebars!  Looking down at the exposed flywheel, we discovered that the engine was running the wrong direction.  A hot simple ported two cycle engine sometimes will do that if the owner doesn’t put a little effort into the kick start.
We spent many rides on the James and it served us faithfully.  I can only think of one ride that could’ve been different though.  
We were breezing along close to July 4th  and Vic was up to his usual weird thing.  He was lighting Zebra firecrackers with his cigarette and he thought that one of them didn’t light.  He was holding it four inches from my nose waiting for an opportunity to try again.  To my slight? concern, there it was, burning  very nicely.  I had two choices, either bat it out of his hand or bail off the James.  I batted, it went off in midair..    

We continued to ride two up for some time,( sans any more antics with firecrackers) until I managed to buy a beat up Harley and Vic went on to a new Matchless 500 cc thumper.

There will always be a warm place in my heart for that little bike with the royal attitude, the James.

[Black Dog]

Another great story Wayne    Sometimes I wonder how I managed to stay alive all these years (your firecracker story remindes me of a similar close call)... 

Being the father of two boys, it scares me to death, that they are probably making their own stories, to be shared with me some day in the future 

Black Dog