Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-305 Superhawk

[Fire-medic]

Robert Prsig's Honda 305 is now part of the Smithsonian Museum.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/mot...smithsonian-museum/ar-BBY8236?ocid=spartandhp
The motorcycle

The 305 cc Superhawk CB77 motorcycle by Honda gave the manufacturer credibility as a producer of quality motorcycles capable of using technology rarely seen in motorcycling at any price-point (SOHC parallel-Twin cylinder, 9,000 RPM, and oil-tight) and capable of challenging much larger bikes. The 305 cc scrambler spin-off CL77 and its smaller brother, the CL72 250 cc, helped to promote racing in Mexico in Baja, which became an industry of its own, and helped to propel street scramblers and off-road motorcycling into a popular activity.

Robery Prsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance not-only became a publishing phenomenon, selling millions of books, but it also helped the writer to face challenges in his life, a cathartic effort destined to be remembered long-after his writing it. We all face gumption traps, it's how we deal with them that helps us to persevere, and to move-on down the road of life.

 

[lastwhiteman]

When I was somewhere around 16 years old there was a group of us that used to terrorize the town on our mean motorscooters. I had a Honda 160 Scrambler and I can't remember what anyone else had but we were the local biker gang. We ruled the streets until "Rex" came roaring into town on his 305 Superhawk! He was the baddest of the bad on that beast and fortunately for us, friends with one of our number. After we quit shaking in our Converses we were allowed to examine this awesome machine. We were forever changed.
Thanks for posting this, brings back great memories.

 

[Fire-medic]

I have two titled 305 Superhawks, one is nearly-complete, the other is more of a parts bike. The former is awaiting its turn to be made operational.

The 305 Scramblers are very popular, if you can find one. The first thing many owners did was to 'lose' the 2-into1 exhaust tip. I think the Scrambler exhaust is one of the best designs for Japanese bikes.
https://ridermagazine.com/2018/01/10/1965-1968-honda-cl77-scrambler-305-retro-review/

The 350 Kawasaki Avenger/Samurai twin 2-stroke was another great-looking one. One was low pipes, one was high pipes, I prefer the high-pipe look.
https://ridermagazine.com/2016/10/28/retrospective-1967-1971-kawasaki-a7ss-avenger-350/

 

[[email protected]]

This book was an answer on Jeapordy! last night.

 

[Fire-medic]

Of course I got that one! Ken Jennings I'm not. If I went on there, I'd study classical music, Shakespeare, and geography.

 

[jethrobolas]

Zen is a great book. But is it “quality”?

Seems I can no longer post in my own thread. No warnings or emails, no pm’s. So I am effectively banned from my own thread. Did I break an actual site rule? Very cowardly to remove my ability to post in that one thread, my own thread, yet it is not locked.

The OP of THIS thread made a statement in the thread I am referring to that actually pertains to the subject, then decided to spam it with random BS.
Turnabout fair play on this site?
Let me find out. If not, then I might be disappeared.

 

[Fire-medic]

Some people read very-little. They never developed a need to explore things in that fashion. Perhaps they are interested in working with their hands, and they become some type of tradesman. That is their area of interest, their area of expression, and their vocation. They never developed an affinity for the written word.

One of my friends is a General Contractor (GC) and he's a inveterate motorcyclist. You go to his shop and he's got a BMW Airhead with many-miles on it, he rides often, and works on his own stuff. He's not-into the concours-condition behavior, but his bikes aren't 'rat-bikes,' either. He owns Triumphs (Meriden, not Hinckley), BSA's, Nortons, even an unusual V-twin, an Italian Moto Morini 3-1/2, he bought it from a co-worker of mine, who bought it new.

He works on all his stuff, and while the shop is cluttered, he knows where things are, and is constantly working on one or another. At one point after his military service, he was a high school educator, before he became a GC. I enjoy speaking with him, because he's a raconteur. He has a breadth of knowledge, and conversations with him often give me knowledge I did not have. We're both older, and his conversations with me always leave me smiling, I often have to do research on something he told me, for my own understanding, and a better comprehension of the topic.

If I had a problem, a gumption trap, I well-could turn to him for helping me to work my way out-of the situation. It would probably be some question about construction or mechanics, and it's likely he would point me in the direction of overcoming the issue. I would find my way out of the gumption trap, because I was willing and able to accept another's view of what was holding me back. Life goes on, problem resolved, a lesson learned.

Sometimes when we are 'too-close' to a subject, we need to step-back, and have another person point-out to us how-to move-on, to restore equilibrium and balance in our lives. Those who can allow this to-happen are probably better at beating gumption traps of whatever-types befoul us. While some people resort to finger-pointing, name-calling, and seeking revenge against those whom they believe have affronted them to whatever degree, they cannot apparently find their way out-of the gumption trap which continues to hold them back.

Perhaps they should read this book. It's quality.


"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[jethrobolas]

Still locked out of my own thread only
Seems someone has mod privileges but no balls to claim the action. Nice little kitty.

Aside from gumption traps, I also recall the author telling how he became a mentally ill wretch sitting in his own feces by choice over the meaning of “quality” while his wife and son looked on. All from an offhand comment by a potentially doubtful coworker.

I also remember towards the end of the book when daddy finally granted his son’s request to ride without helmets. Then the boy could see something besides the back of daddy’s helmet. So what gives? Mystery mod going to drop a pair, pull off the helmets and grant me “privileges” to post in my own thread?

 

[jethrobolas]

What did I do to my vmax today?
Moved the tenders from the camper coach batteries to the max and connie.

Still locked out of my own thread by an anonymous cowardly little ****, so I guess this ones mine now by default.

 

[Fire-medic]

Last I knew, the administrator who was running the website was a person with a female name, "Angie." I suspect she would take-offense to being characterized as an " anonymous cowardly little ****." You may-wish to refrain from such invective, because to continue will probably result in your loss of the privilege of participation of any-sort on this website. Let your conscience guide your behavior. If you doubt your conscience, remember Romans 6:12.



"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[jethrobolas]

Last I knew, the administrator who was running the website was a person with a female name, "Angie." I suspect she would take-offense to being characterized as an " anonymous cowardly little ****." You may-wish to refrain from such invective, because to continue will probably result in your loss of the privilege of participation of any-sort on this website. Let your conscience guide your behavior. If you doubt your conscience, remember Romans 6:12.



"Make motorcycling great again"

It’s not a sin to call out ********. Lock the whole thread, send a warning, but to lock only the original poster without explanation trying to make it look like I just gave up? Silence me cause you don’t agree? Nah.


Medic, you know it takes two to tango and you really wanted to dance, otherwise you would have took the high road and stayed out if you didn’t want to contribute. Instead you had fun trolling my thread. You put effort specifically towards irritating me. Keep the holier-than-thou act for those not paying attention.

If my thread got no action, then there would be no amusement for me in continuing it.

As I said to a member who sent me a supportive PM...
Even if they kick me out of the sandbox over ********, I still get to leave with my toys.

I can still search the site if needed, still have my parts connect, and still ride. It would only be a shame to be booted if the site was fair.
Shutting down conversation that abides by site rules because someone disagrees, and I might get banned for calling it out? I got a chorizo sandwich for ya.

 

[Fire-medic]

Just cease and desist the name-calling, the insults, and the aggressive behavior. I did try to make peace with your presence. You chose to fan the flames you ignited. There is no-other explanation for your migration from one thread to another, one which I began, and onto-which you brought your bullying. Whatever has occurred here needn't have-happened. You've had a choice, and people who operate the website have found your lack of respect and decorum worthy of censure. If you were told at your employment, "your behavior needs to-change," and you kept acting in a way which caused the issue in the first-place, and them to take-action, what-then would a reasonable person expect to-be the outcome?

"Internet bully" doesn't read-well on your resume, when you're searching for employment.




"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[jethrobolas]

Wouldn’t be here if you didn’t start with me. Also wouldn’t be here if someone wasn’t playing games with my posting privileges in the other thread. The one I started.
Had my own thread, remember? The one you insisted on playing in. Now I’m a bully? OK victim. Crocodile tears. Typical tactical move of the left. You’re trying to “Smollet” me.

If you’re worried about frankenstien’s monster, why did you raid the graves, assemble the parts and pull the switch? Now you want to assemble the villagers and burn the scary monster you helped create, crying because big scary monster is stomping your thread the same way you did his?

Hypocrisy, is it not? At least most of my posts here actually mentioned the book which is the original subject of this thread. I think you’re “in the car watching, not on the bike being “.

Do you have any mod privileges?

 

[Fire-medic]

Wouldn’t be here if you didn’t start with me. Also wouldn’t be here if someone wasn’t playing games with my posting privileges in the other thread. The one I started.
Had my own thread, remember? The one you insisted on playing in. Now I’m a bully? OK victim. Crocodile tears. Typical tactical move of the left. You’re trying to “Smollet” me.

If you’re worried about frankenstien’s monster, why did you raid the graves, assemble the parts and pull the switch? Now you want to assemble the villagers and burn the scary monster you helped create, crying because big scary monster is stomping your thread the same way you did his?

Hypocrisy, is it not? At least most of my posts here actually mentioned the book which is the original subject of this thread. I think you’re “in the car watching, not on the bike being “.

Yes, exactly, "The one you started."
You initiated in your first post the request for comment, after insulting half of America: Why do so many democrats hate our country? Anybody here care to try and defend this? And, "The one you insisted on playing in." I did that at your invitation. It seems you have difficulty keeping track of "what" and "when."

I chose to provide a historical review of a time in our country when the Democrats were trying to bring the country out-of The Great Depression and our Democratic President and Congress were cognizant of the likelihood of war beyond the scope of that which had happened barely a generation earlier, The War To End All Wars, World War I. The federal government began Lend-Lease, where armaments, mechanical equipment, supplies, and other goods were provided to our allies so that they could better-resist the spreading imperialism of the Third Reich and of Japan. Meanwhile, the minority opposition party was preaching Isolationism, essentially saying, "it's Europe's and Asia's problem. Not ours."

By 1939, the Japanese had conquered much of what had previously been China, forcing the government to retreat from one location to another as they attempted to resist the Japanese onslaught. Claire Chennault and the men who flew and who maintained the famous Curtiss P-40 Warhawks fought independently to provide aid to China against the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Chinese mainland. The Burma Road and "over the Hump" became news article subjects and newsreel subjects as the American public became aware of the expansion of the Asian conflict.

In Europe, Hitler invaded Poland and Austria, the Baltics, BeNeLux, and the Scandinavians, later, France and earlier had supported Franco in Spain to overthrow the government in the Spanish Civil War. Before all those armed conflicts Germany was conducting war in Ethiopia. Ethiopia and Spain were dress-rehearsals for the Third Reich, where they ignored the Treaty of Versailles, the peace agreement by-which Germany had to-abide, after World War I. Germany built their navy and their army, in open defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, and then participated in the conflicts in Africa and in Europe, where they put their armaments to the test. Germany had suffered greatly in the aftermath of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles was part of the reason, as it contributed to prolonging Germany's recovery, where food shortages and rampant inflation caused much suffering, including food shortages, unemployment, and housing shortages.

The Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain tried the doomed diplomatic situation of 'appeasement.' Essentially, Chamberlain believed that if Hitler was allowed to take part of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) he wouldn't invade elsewhere. It didn't work.

Prominent US Senators Gerald Nye (R)-ND; Hiram Johnson (R)-CA; Willian Borah (R)-ID; and Robert La Follette (R)-WI were leaders in the Isolationist movement, which had its roots in wishing to-avoid the carnage of another war like WW I, and it took December 7, 1941 for the concept of Isolationism to collapse, and now, the United States was at-war in Europe and in Asia.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/american-isolationism

In-case you missed it, it was Democratic Presidents (FDR, Truman) who saw us through World War II, and into the Atomic Age. Your comment about "...many democrats hate our country" is inflammatory and you have created a Frankenstein's Monster in your own image, and like Mary Shelley's creation, with a life of its own, it continues to stumble-along, when it should never have been created in the first place. Not for here, this is a motorcycle forum. Not for now. You want to vent, to criticize, to insult, go see Rush, go see Hannity's website. I suspect they will be glad to "ditto" you.

I see your bike is clean and well cared-for, why can't we just enjoy our time in discussion of things VMax, and gearhead topics in general? There are many websites where you can discuss politics of the scum-sucking opposition to your heart's content, with much assent from other participants. Here, I'd much rather read how you fixed a pesky charging problem or what your bike managed at the dragstrip, instead of the dissent recently in-evidence here. VMF for VMax content!


"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[MadMaxMan]

Thank you Fire-medic.

 

[jethrobolas]

Fantastic points, and thank you for the compliment. Still, I’m not to keen on the current democratic leadership.
Still locked out of my own thread, so

 

[Fire-medic]

I think there would be a larger audience on this dedicated website for VMax content, what do you have to-offer? I can always go to the recent Medal of Freedom winner or Hannity's website if I want right-wing spiel, but are they gonna help me to trace a dead-short in my wire harness? Plenty of assistance from VMax enthusiasts from either-side of the Congressional aisle, right-here, and I don't need to-know their politics to get help, and inundation with propaganda of a political nature isn't helping me to solve my wiring dilemma. Let's get back on-track with VMax content.



"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[jethrobolas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I’ve found another thread to play in. I will now let you return to your sometimes interesting NON VMAX drivel. Ya know, not everyone/everything needs you to save them.
I’m sure you have done some amazing things at a high level of functionality for people in dire need of help. Honorable stuff, sir. Not being sarcastic.
I don’t need your help with my threads. If I could physically occupy the real estate I own in your head, I could ride all year round. You’re down by Miami, no? I used to work the Christmas carnival at Tropical Park back in the late 90s. 2 seasons, 6 months total. Big assed iguanas everywhere! Lived there in the park in my 73 westfalia pop-top parked along the fence by the highway behind my beautiful THUNDERBOLT ride. Miami subs right down the road serving beer all night. Great way to pass my late teens. Lots of good stories of all sorts, but they’re not vmax related, so irrelevant by your hypocritical measure.

Here’s one last tidbit to gnaw on. Very relevant, current and also very hot for snowflake ears.


Still locked out of my “good idea” thread ya know. Y’all feeling the Bern?

 

[Fire-medic]

Best wishes to all in their chosen areas of interest, assuming they're legal.

Did you know that CART raced Indy Cars in Tropical Park, Miami FL? They also raced downtown, on a street course, and at Homestead, south of Miami.

You were a carny for a couple of years? That must have been interesting. I worked for many years at the Broward County Fair which was the Ft. Lauderdale area, providing EMS for fair-goers. One year a German-made ride, the Octopus (also called, the Monster or the Zipper), had a boom arm of the ride fracture, and the failed boom killed a young adult female rider, and injured six others. I was off that day, but my friends were working, and did the extraction and treatment. The usual calls were for ETOH (alcohol intoxication), trip and falls, occasionally an O.D., and sometimes someone would be wounded by a livestock on-display. They never-had a motorcycle 'wall of death' show, it was the James E. Strates midway show. One of the police dept. LEO's used to be a carny, before the midway was opened, he would go around to each of the contests and request the operator to demonstrate that someone could win, then he would try it. No winner, no-opening for that game. He would also randomly come-in and spot-check to make sure they didn't alter the game.


"Make motorcycling great again"

 

[thunder]

Robert Prsig's Honda 305 is now part of the Smithsonian Museum.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/mot...smithsonian-museum/ar-BBY8236?ocid=spartandhp
The motorcycleView attachment 70703

The 305 cc Superhawk CB77 motorcycle by Honda gave the manufacturer credibility as a producer of quality motorcycles capable of using technology rarely seen in motorcycling at any price-point (SOHC parallel-Twin cylinder, 9,000 RPM, and oil-tight) and capable of challenging much larger bikes. The 305 cc scrambler spin-off CL77 and its smaller brother, the CL72 250 cc, helped to promote racing in Mexico in Baja, which became an industry of its own, and helped to propel street scramblers and off-road motorcycling into a popular activity.

Robery Prsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance not-only became a publishing phenomenon, selling millions of books, but it also helped the writer to face challenges in his life, a cathartic effort destined to be remembered long-after his writing it. We all face gumption traps, it's how we deal with them that helps us to persevere, and to move-on down the road of life.