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Visit Kersting's World of Motorcycles
Museum in North Judson Indiana |
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Special!! New Indians only $215 FOB Springfield.
Travel Adventures
| Business takes me to Salt
Lake city where I rent a Harley Road Glide and tour the
beautiful Wasatch Mountains. Some great pictures of one
of the west's most beautiful spots. |
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| A mid winter trip to Brisbane turns into a date with
a Vstar 1100 and a trip to visit the Crocodile Hunter. |
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| On a recent trip to Cape
Town South Africa we rent some Harley Davidsons and have
an adventure riding through this African wonderland.
See some great pictures of everything from seals to
baboons along with some breath taking scenery. (Now
available in French as well as English) |
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| The Greek island of Rhodes
serves as a backdrop for a leisurely ride back into
history on a Yamaha 650cc DragStar |
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The restoration page is maintained
strictly as a hobby by James Downey. Please send your comments,
good or bad, to jasdowney@gmail.com.
There is a fair amount of restoration activity here in
Mobile, Alabama. Visit Jim
Arrington's motorcycle site to see more
vintage bikes. For my daily driver I ride a Honda Valkyrie Interstate. I also have a 1966 Triumph Bonneville. I
have several Sears bikes. I restored a Sears (made by Puch in
Austria) 250cc "Twingle" several years ago. Another Sears project was a
Sears
124 which was actually made in Italy by Gilera. I had a 1959 BSA Bantam (see the feature article
"Restoring the Bantam" at the top of this page), a 1966
Ducati 350 cc Sebring (I have posted a description of my
restoration in "Ducks in a Row" above). One interesting recent project
was a Piaggio
Vespa scooter. There is always
confusion with the name. Vespa (Italian for wasp) is the model
and Piaggio the manufacturer. It needed repainting and crank
shaft seals. In 2009 I sold the Vespa and traded the Ducati for an oil-in-the-frame
BSA which cleaned up real nice and ran fine but I sold the BSA outriht in
2010. For some reason I just don't like BSA 650s. In 2001 I acquired a
1950 Sunbeam S7 which cleaned up beautifully and is the pride of
my collection. In 2004 I cleaned up several Honda GL1000s and a BMW R27 250 cc single I gave my Goldwing to
my son and sold the R27 to my friend Steve McClintock in 2011. Another friend
gave me a very clean BMW R50/5 "toaster
tank" on which I have logged many miles. I restored a 350cc
JAWA in 2009 and thet went to my friend Mike Thomason. I bought a 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet 500 for the collection in 2005. In 2007 I obtained a very rough Honda
CB550 four which cleaned up nicely but I traded it in 2008 for a 87
Yamaha Fazer 700. In 2010 I found a rough 1987 Honda
CB450 "Black Bomber" which cleaned up remarkably well but I sold
that back to its original owner, David Hangen. In 2011 I restored a 1966 Yamaha
YDS3 250cc twin. In 2012 I traded the YDS3 for a 1970
BSA 650 Thunderbolt, but I still didn't like BSA 650's so I sold it at Barber's.
It was a pretty bike though. Soon after I ended up with a BSA
SS80 250cc single from the 1960's. It is a sporty little devil. In 2016 I bought a very clean Matchless
g12. In 2017 I acquired a long sought after Whizzer
motor bike.
In real life I am a professor in
the Medical School at the University of South Alabama. If you
want to know more about that, click here. Sadly my father,
Richard M. Downey, passed away in 2001. He led a fine and
adventurous life. Click here to read about him. Finally, here is a neat picture of
me at age 16 on my Harley
Hummer
Visitors since 1 September 2006
Dental Curing Light
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