1973 Kawasaki 175cc

This is a 1973 Kawasaki 175cc, I had one of these around 1974 to 1975. It was the next ride in line after the 1972 Honda SL 100cc my Papa Bivens bought me. I remember the Big Feel it had as compared to the little 100cc Honda. It delivered much more power with the 175cc two-stroke engine than the little 4 stroke Honda did, which was a new thrill. However, I quickly discovered the Big Feel made it more difficult to ride. It was considerably heavier and the chassis was much wider, making it much harder to handle on trails and those old red clay gullies I had been riding. It was a lesson in the order of bigger is not always better, just enticing to the ego. Not being a quick learner, I purchased a Hooker header pipe that made it even wider and even less comfortable to sit on. I accomplished little more than making it louder.

What lesson can I learn from this little memory? I quickly discovered we all seem to have a natural tendency to become bored with everyday life. The old saying, “It always looks greener on the other side of the fence” has true meaning laced within it. Once you get over there you find little more satisfaction than you previously had. I changed bikes, however, in reality, I change very little in life. I only managed to make the things I was already doing more difficult.

We can do this as Christians, as our church or congregation become commonplace to us, it is easy for us to be attracted to a bigger church or a church that appears to have some exciting things going on or any number of other reasons. We begin to imagine how much better it would be if we were there, being we are just bored with our little church as it is. How many of us have changed churches only to find little has changed, perhaps we only accomplished making life a bit more difficult.

Change does come to us as Christians, but it need not come from emotional enticings. Change comes in our lives in the order of growth in our knowledge of God and His Providence, which moves us along His path to accomplish his purpose, not because the grass looks greener to us somewhere else. My eye for the moment became enticed by something other than the pure joy of riding. My desire for something bigger actually took a bit of the joy away. Beware of everything big and blue that comes your way in life, it may not be what you think it is.

David

Php 4:11  I am telling you this, but not because I need something. I have learned to be satisfied with what I have and with whatever happens. ERV

1972 Honda SL 100

This is my first real motorcycle, a 1972 Honda SL 100cc. After riding my 2.5 hp Hornet mini-bike for a couple of years I was dreaming of a real bike. I was already posting all the pictures I could find of motorcycles in my room and talking about them constantly.

One Saturday, Dad and my Papa Bivens and I went on an adventure. Papa had decided to buy me a motorcycle, Dad was going to help supervise the purchase. We first went to Parsons TN, to a small shop owned by Tony Medows that sold Hodaka motorcycles. If you don't know what those are, do a search, kind of interesting. I was ready to take one home, but Tony told my Dad if I had never ridden a real bike before I probably needed to start on something else, these were not for beginners. So we left with me hoping our adventure wasn't over yet.

I was thrilled to discover our next stop would be Woods Kawasaki in Lexington TN, I remember going in and seeing a big Red Kawasaki 100cc hanging from the ceiling, I was ready to cut it down and take it home. As we questioned about it, my Papa didn't like the idea that it was a gas oil mix two-stroke. So we left again and I was beginning to notice things were not going as I had hoped, I still didn't have a motorcycle!

We made one more stop on the way home, Creasy's Honda in Lexington. On the showroom floor was this green with Yellow emblem SL 100. Yep! I liked green! It didn't burn oil mix and my Papa knew Mr. Creasy somehow from their past. They were talking like old friends, the next thing I knew we were loading my dream into the truck.

I can still remember my first ride, how it felt to release the clutch, it took a couple of tries to get it rolling, Wow! It was every bit as exciting as I thought it would be! NO, it was more! I stopped at the end of the driveway and fell over trying to turn it around. My Papa had them put some crash bars on it, so the bike never really hit the ground. I made a track (path) in the field in front of our house and rode the wheels off it. Around and Around the circle I went and soon I was off the field and riding through the woods. I rode and rode and got better and better as I put what I was learning into practice.

I think our Christian life is like that, we are so excited when we first begin our journey, but many times we don't make it to the end of the driveway till we have fallen down. But as we get back up and keep putting into practice what we have learned, the walk becomes perhaps not easier, but more perfect. I rode because I loved to ride, the Christian continues to walk the Christian life because he loves Christ. If I constantly said I love motorcycles but never cared to ride one, I would be deceiving myself and others. It is the same with the Christian walk, to say we love Christ and care little about perfecting our walk, we are deceiving ourselves and others.