Papa-Kens report: I didn't take a ride yesterday so I thought I would tie in a ride

[Papa-Ken]

Papa-Kens report: I didn't take a ride yesterday so I thought I would tie in a ride I took last year with a post made by Z_Bassman today.

With the price of gas soaring to all-time highs, people are finally open to changing their habits. I have two questions...

1 With the price of gas rising, do you think the number of people buying motorcycles for the first time will rise significantly?
2 If you think it will, what do you think the impact will be on the "world of motorcycle riding" with all these new riders on the road?
Discuss...

Sean Cooney: Z_Bassman on the forum today posed these questions and they got a tremendous response. It is in the general forum section and after reading and responding it got me thinking and for me that is a dangerous neighborhood. http://www.pashnitforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2619

These are my thoughts:

In 1956 I got married to my best friends baby sister. A marriage that has survived almost 50 years and integrated me into a wonderful family that I knew well at the time of my marriage. This family consisted of six children three boys and three girls that are still living except for one girl Inez.

This family is a lot like my own paternal family who are all gone except me and that fact draws me even closer to them that I consider are my brothers and sisters.

Shortly after our marriage we started sharing having family dinners held at our house during the holidays and that is when I discovered a strange thing this family practiced. After dinner while the women were putting away the food and cleaning the dishes etc. The men were out in the yard smoking and kicking tires and getting ready to visit an automobile dealership. They were and still are a car crazy family and just about as soon as the new smell is gone from their vehicle, they are in the market for a new one.

It was at a gathering like this (Thanksgiving I believe) that they noticed my BSA 500 CC Single Goldstar and started giving me a ration of s---- about owning such a thing. In my own defense, I challenged them to take a ride and see how much fun you could have on a motorcycle. Only one took me up on the dare John Cox the middle brother and after taking a short ride he was hooked. This was in the late 50s and John was a much married man with three children and not much cash flow. Those were his handicaps but on his plus side was his ability to sell refrigerators to Eskimos.

John is a super salesman and he was selling for Best Foods and Kraft's products at this time. His route was up in the Grass Valley area even though he lived in Sacramento and having grown up in this area he knew all the market owners and managers, so they let him stock their stores as he saw fit. This worked well for a long time and it didn't take long for him to accomplish his job and go fishing the rest of the time using the company station wagon as his personal means of hunting and fishing.

Eventually John got caught stretching the limits and was replaced by less talented sales people, but he still needed employment.

Now this brings us around to the above section by Z_Bassman. Aero Jet General Corporation was in full swing and that is where John got hired along with about half of Sacramento. He worked the swing or midnight shifts so he could complete his college education ( As Aero Jet was so top heavy with workers, he could do his homework on the job). This was also the time that we were encouraged to buy bombshelters and that put quite a scare in a lot of people. One of these people was Johns wife Roberta and John convinced her that a bomb shelter was useless, what they needed was 3 of the Honda stepthrough motorcycles to get out of town. He convinced her that all the major highways would be blocked with traffic and these little motorcycles could safely get them up into the mountains they knew and protect themselves from the Russians.

I told you he was good. Well the Russians never attacked and the bombshelters made good storage sheds for dry food and water supplies but the need for all the help at Aero Jet diminished as their bids for contracts failed and John was once again looking for work when a local businessman that knew John and his ability to sell called him and offered him a job.

That man was Norris Rancourt the owner of Carmichael Honda and John living close by would stop by and sell a few bikes just to keep his skills honed. It didn't take Norris long to see the potential of a partnership with John and that was when C & R Cycleworld was formed and their dealership for Yamaha was started on the corner of Madison and Auburn Blvd back in the early 60s

They had an agreement that after a year if they weren't happy one party could buy the other one out and John decided to buy Norris out and go it on his own. This worked out well for John and never hurt Norris either as he has grown over the years into Carmichael Honda car dealership too. Norris was also a very gifted motorcycle racer having done well at Daytona http://www.piston.com/historical/parilla.html and other races. He was also a very distinguished businessman in several quarters http://www.bizjournals.com/sacrament...08/story4.html.

C & R really grew as the motorcycle industry became a family oriented industry and whole families would come in and purchase bikes for all of them. Doctors, lawyers, construction workers, white collar workers, you name and they all were customers.

This also brings us back to Seans question "What do you think the impact will be on the "world of motorcycle riding" with all these new riders on the road?"

I'm sure it had a huge impact on the industry and there really wasn't to my knowledge any drive to teach safety or very many riding skills. Helmets were not required and it was mainly only the racers that wore them.

It was mainly dirtbikes that were the big market at the start but when ever there came a gas shortage or increase in price, the sales climbed for a time but no major change. What John did notice and it caused him to double the size of his shop was the sale of parts. He had the largest supply of parts for a long time due to his perception of supply and demand. Even the Yamaha distributors had to buy parts from him at times. He sold his business but not the property in 1974 to what is now Capital Yamaha. After a few years of negotiations he finally conceded to sell the property. John was a young man in his mid 40s when he sold the business and was too young for complete retirement so he went on to buy and sell properties in Grass Valley/Nevada county, British Columbia, Canada and the outskirts of Portland Oregon until a few years back and now he like me just loves retirement.
John restores old model A Fords, built his own ultra lite airplane and flew it all over Canada and Oregon before selling it a while back.

[Papa-Ken]

Wes and I took a ride on our bikes up to see him last year and were doing fine until we reached the top of the Siskiyous and started dropping down into Ashland Oregon. The light rain we were riding in turned into a terrible hail storm that was peppering us with hail the size of Delaware. We were playing a game of hiding under overpasses while trying to outfox mother nature. Mother nature won.

We visited Oregon City that has an uptown and a downtown and an elevator that took you from one to the other, http://gesswhoto.com/elevator.html also one of the largest Harley dealers on the west coast among many other attractions.............Ken

[pashnit]

The Archives!!! I'm diggin' it Ken - great photos, great memories indeed. Great stuff for a rainy day (raining at my house today).

Beauty!

[G8ESCAP]

Wow Ken! Your stories and photos always amaze me. Life in simpler times. I miss it.

[Backmarker]

Even though it wasn't a ride, enjoyed this just as much. I remember that funky building in Oregon City from when I lived in West Linn. Oregon is a beautiful state. Too bad it rains so much. Then again, guess that's why they have all that green!

Thanks for the history lesson Ken!

[motowriter]

Very enjoyable read, Ken! Cool local history lesson, too. Our local Yamaha dealer, now called Folsom Lake Yamaha ("FLY") split off from Capitol Yamaha not too long ago. Interesting to know where the dealership originated.

[z_bassman]

That was awesome, Ken. I didn't realize what a great response I'd get to two little questions. I doff my hat to you. *searches for hat*

[Papa-Ken]

Originally Posted by pashnit

The Archives!!! I'm diggin' it Ken - great photos, great memories indeed. Great stuff for a rainy day (raining at my house today).

Beauty!

Thanks Tim, you can't believe the trouble it took to get those pictures inside the Harley shop.

I just walked in and started snapping pictures when a guy in a suit came running over and wanted to know what I was doing?

"Taking pictures" I replied and then he said "you can't do that". "So I ask why not?" He said "I don't know who you are." Then I replied "I'm the man in black." "And who might that be he ask?"

"Well it's either Johnny Cash or Tim Mayhew I replied and you don't see a guitar on my back do you?"

His reply was "you don't look like a man in black with that bright colored jacket" and so I had to explain about Pashnit.

End result, guess who took my picture on the old Harley?....Ken

[Papa-Ken]

Originally Posted by z_bassman

That was awesome, Ken. I didn't realize what a great response I'd get to two little questions. I doff my hat to you. *searches for hat*

Good questions require good replies.........Ken

[Papa-Ken]

Originally Posted by Gary

Very enjoyable read, Ken! Cool local history lesson, too. Our local Yamaha dealer, now called Folsom Lake Yamaha ("FLY") split off from Capitol Yamaha not too long ago. Interesting to know where the dealership originated.

History can be fun especially if you can relate it to someone or some place special.........Ken