Letter of the Month
The editorials that Tuttle and Salvadori penned for July 2020 hit so close to home that they threw a pen into this old rider?s hands. Mark began by telling of his toolkits and requirements over the years. My first homemade toolkits from the 1980s were for a 1979 Sportster and a ?77 Electra Glide. The kits weighed in at about 10 pounds each. The Sportster toolkit actually removed, rebuilt and replaced the transmission one year on a ride to Niagara Falls, New York, from North Carolina. So, I can tell you a thing or two about toolkits. Today?s kit for my BMW GT takes up the same space yet contains a small air compressor, tire repair kit and tools I will never use.

Clement made me smile when he spoke of the disparaging looks that he received from the innkeeper in Skopje, North Macedonia. I know that look! I once had to park below a mom-and-pop motel in Pennsylvania, hiding the bike, in 1991 while on yet another trip to New York. This trip was on the old Electra Glide. I remember removing my jacket and putting on a shirt over my black tee as I went in to inquire about overnight lodgings.
Fast-forward 29 years and you will find me staying at four-star motels while parking my BMW K 1200 GT right there under the office awning. I get the best rates with my AARP discount.

I love reading the editorials each month! They take me back home and back to the bikes that brought me here. I miss those bikes and those rides but I would not want to ride those mil...