This one is by the great Jim Lawson, as you have probably guessed from the distinct style -- it's Jim's portrait of me with my old teal-colored Honda Gold Wing.
The Gold Wing is one of my all-time favorite motorcycles. To date, I have owned four of them (I still have two -- the first one I bought and the latest one), the teal Wing being the second. The Gold Wing is just a phenomenal ride, especially the newest model. The first one I got -- back in 1990 or 1991, I think -- I originally bought as part of a sidecar rig. That was fun, but when Jim Lawson convinced me to ride out to San Diego years ago, I decided to uncouple the Wing from the sidecar and take that across the country. I can't imagine making that kind of trip on any other type of motorcycle. It ran perfectly and handled great. Its awesome stereo system made riding on some of the more boring stretches of road more palatable. And kicking back with my feet on my highway pegs and the cruise control set at 65 was quite relaxing.
I love the fact that you can still see some of Jim's fingerprints in the surfaces of this sculpture. -- PL
P.S. I hope Jim doesn't get mad at me for revealing this, but it's pretty funny: Jim told me that, when he was making this gift for me, he had to find a piece of plastic of the right color, size and thickness to shape into the Wing's windshield. Looking around, he found it... a mint-on-the-card "Scratch" figure from the Playmates TMNT toy line! The plastic of the blister pack was perfect for the windshield. (It should be noted, however, that this was long before that figure became known as one of the rarest and most collectible of the TMNT line.)
27 comments:
Now *that* is the cutest motorcycle- theme piece of the lot.
I love the goggles!
;o)
You used to have a beard??
Or am I not viewing that correctly?
*dies* from the information know about the windshield!
*comes back* oh well at least it wasn't my MIB Scratch figure lol
Poor Jim *pats on back*
Thanks for sharing all of these for sure, I lways used to look forward to your blast from the past and I'm quite glad that you've started it up on a blog so the fans can talk to you and express their opinions.
-->> You guys wear helmets when you ride ?!
>v<
" Splinter's Iroonna said...
You used to have a beard??
Or am I not viewing that correctly?"
No, you got it right, I have had beards at various times in my life, though not for a couple of years now. (I should post the birthday card where Craig Farley drew me looking like the Gorton's Fisherman... pretty funny.)-- PL
Wow, lots of detail. I bet this took a long time to create. Nice work, Jim!
I'm no expert on motorcycles, so forgive me if this is a crazy question but... Is that motorcycle to scale? If it is, it looks huge! Do you have any photos of the real deal, Peter?
I have pictures of you with a beard from Turtle Con 1992, that was the only time I saw you with a beard. My first time meeting ya.
-->> ..well, comes to stupid questions i'm full of 'em.
Won't presume anything. I'll just presume you guys are safe when you ride.
Last year comin' from the west side of the city goin' to my folks house..i was walking my bike up a long stretch of hill in a residential area. The hill is rather steep and almost at a 45 degree angle. Going down .. i was coming up from the left side of the hill on the sidewalk. 2 big motor bikes were coming rather fast down the hill. At least goin' 65 ..but it'd prolly be hard to for me to say. The gentleman on the bike in front had a lady on the back, the 2nd large bike.. there was just one person.
It's hard for me to say exactly what happened, but it appeared the 2nd rider over corrected. The first rider went down on ahead on the hill, but the 2nd flipped in the air and dis some 360, the rider was flung off like a rag doll and struck the rocks on the side of a residential area on the right side of the hill. His body rolled on the rocks easily and at some point he struck his head. He rolled into the drain area of the street and his body was face up half on the the gutter when he stopped rolling. He was killed instantly. No helmet, nothin'.
The Bike landed from it's arial rotation literally upside down, and was in almost a box shape, parts were everywhere, and the wheels where off the frame as well. This happened directly ajecent to where i was walking and had i been on the other side of the hill walking, i would have been stuck myself.
The authorities were called by some of the drivers that had stopped to help me, the phone was given to me and i was told to try and give CPR to the gentleman. However the paramedics came in time and intervened.
When they covered the guy up, i knew what it meant.
This was a year ago this weekend.
My father has been into classic vehicles since i was a child. Particularly cars like Avantis and Studebakers.. but he also had fondness for motor bikes and there was much exposure of such things over the years.
After this incident .. however, i've obtained a new level of fear for the vehicles and the incident has played over and over for me.
I'm scared for people .. i really am .. and i just hope people are careful on 'em.
Whatever, you don't need me sayin' anything. You guys are professional and by far more seasoned on these vehicles than i am. Not trying to preach here for that would be redundant.
I guess i just gotta hope for the best.. i don't want you guys to die , or get in an accident like that.
>v<
-->> The first rider eventually came back to check on his friend.. he rounded back up the hill.
He was screaming the 2nd riders name. But when he came back and saw the guy on the ground.. he rode off.
The incident happened so fast.. i'd imagine it was instantly as overwhelming for his friend.
K' nuff from me.
>v<
That I think its the coolest one. My grandad had about a 1980 Gold Wing, I loved it. It had all the saddlebags and the Windjammer; it was like the coolest bike ever just cos it was Grampy's. We used to go riding out to Silverado cyn. when I was a kid, stop at the watering hole and grab a coke and ride on. I miss those days. Every time I see a Gold Wing I think of granpa. He also had a Shadow he got later to get to work on but the Wing was the cruiser.
Soooo steering clear of tokka's twilight zone motorcycle horror stories...lets go back to the beard thing. You gotta post a pic of you sporting whiskers pete!
Yeah wow Tokka oi moving on from that...
Peter I'll reply to the figure talk perhaps tommrow in the other thread sorry I haven't had a chance been very busy.
And I'd love to see some pics of you with the beard also :)
-->> ..Thanks for the vote of confidence, Guys..
sorry i worry about people. Sorry i worry about Pete's health and safety ..
sorry ..>v<
-->> Sorry, Pete.. sorry everyone.
>v<
Hey tOk--
It's obvious to me that all you were doing was expressing genuine concern for Peter and Jim's safety with your story. Watching someone die is pretty traumatic. It makes sense that you'd be worried about *anyone* riding a bike after going through that.
I don't think you have anything to apologize for, unless normal human concern for fellow man has suddenly become inappropriate.
"Blogger Buslady of SoCal said...
That I think its the coolest one. My grandad had about a 1980 Gold Wing, I loved it. It had all the saddlebags and the Windjammer; it was like the coolest bike ever just cos it was Grampy's. We used to go riding out to Silverado cyn. when I was a kid, stop at the watering hole and grab a coke and ride on. I miss those days. Every time I see a Gold Wing I think of granpa. He also had a Shadow he got later to get to work on but the Wing was the cruiser."
That's very sweet. You know, as much as I love Gold Wings now, there was a time when I scoffed at them as "old men's bikes". For a long time, my father would encourage me to get one -- he used to see his neighbor riding one and thought it looked great.
I resisted for quite a while, until I finally got that Gold Wing/sidecar rig, which I rationalized as a way I could take my wife and my young daughter out for family rides. (That actually happened... once or twice.)
Once I started riding that Gold Wing without the sidecar, though, I was quickly disabused of the notion that the Wing was just an "old man's bike". Sure, it was INCREDIBLY comfortable compared to almost any other motorcycle, and it had all kinds of amenities like a great stereo system and electronic cruise control, but it also HAULED ASS when you wanted it too. (And when Honda totally redesigned the Wing this past decade, giving the job to the guy who had designed the cutting-edge CBR900RR sportbike, the Wing became even more awesome.)-- PL
-->> Thanks, Donna..
If people are gonna think i'm 'Retarded' again and "Psychotic", or "Twilight Zone" ..so be it.
I was misread, and misinterpreted... but it happens to me all the time.
I need to learn i won't ever be able to change peoples' perceptions of me ..and maybe as usual, it's bad timing on my timing on my part. I am sorry for that again, everyone.
But i care about Peter and Jim as much as any of you guys do. So if it's retarded for me to worry about them..:
Then fine. i am retarded.
**
B O T // ::
In Stan Wiater's & Steve Bissette's Comic Book Rebels: - -
..
in each chapter into page, there is a mini illustration of each creator being interviewed.
In the chapter on TMNT ..
Kevin and Pete's illustration : The Characture of Pete shows him with his beard.
>v<
Witnessing someone's death in a accident is, of course, a terribly traumatic event, and I'm sure the one described in "Tokka"'s comment made a huge impression on him. I absolutely don't want to make light of it... I know I would not want to witness such a thing.
"Tokka"'s heart is in the right place, and I appreciate the sentiment behind his words -- that he wants me and Jim (and other motorcyclists) to be safe and not get hurt or killed while riding our motorcycles.
However, I have to say that this kind of thing pushes one of my buttons.
Consider this... you mention to someone that you have a new Toyota Prius, and they respond with something like "You drive a CAR?! Y'know, I once saw this accident where this guy was driving his car and he was going too fast and he hit a Jersey barrier, and the front end got crushed in and he was trapped in the car, and he burned to death when the leaking gas tank caught on fire. But then another time I saw this other accident where this girl's car hit a telephone pole, and she wasn't wearing her seat belt, and she went right through the windshield, and her face was all lacerated by the broken glass. That didn't kill her, but the stone wall she hit with her head sure did!" And so on...
I doubt anyone (any car driver, that is) has ever had this kind of experience, but it is all too common -- depressingly so! -- when you tell someone that you ride a motorcycle. (And it doesn't seem to matter what KIND of a motorycycle it might be -- big cruiser, sport bike, touring bike, little trail bike, scooter -- you name it.) Apparently, this admission gives the listener the idea that they now have carte blanche to start hauling out every horror story they have heard or experienced having to do with the deadly dangers of motorcycling. I don't really understand WHY this is. But it bugs me. -- PL
"dark turtle said...
Wow, lots of detail. I bet this took a long time to create. Nice work, Jim!
I'm no expert on motorcycles, so forgive me if this is a crazy question but... Is that motorcycle to scale? If it is, it looks huge! Do you have any photos of the real deal, Peter?"
Jim captured the scale of Gold Wing to rider pretty accurately. The Gold Wing is a BIG motorcycle -- I don't know the dimensions offhand, but it weighs in the neighborhood of 850 pounds.
I probably do have a photograph of me with the teal Wing somewhere, but it was probably pre-digital camera, so I'd have to track it down in a photo album somewhere.
Hmm... one of my favorite photos of me and a motorcycle is one that my friend Ed took when we did that cross-country trip. It was at one of our rest stops in Arizona, I think, and it shows me with my first Gold Wing (the one which was originally part of a sidecar rig) out in the desert. It would give you a good idea of how the teal Wing looked, as -- except for the color -- the two bikes ere virtually identical. Maybe I'll include that photo in a future blog post. -- PL
-->> ..
Again & again i apologize to everyone ( particularly to Vaughn ,Stephan and Pete. )
Life is fulla risk i understand.
Another reason for my fear, my person was struck by motor vehicles. I was " RUN DOWN & RUN OVER". No it's not giving me license to say " O I WAS HIT , I HAVE THE RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT IT." But all these things compound fears i must fight.
Bad timing, bad venue.. my bad. I open my big yap and well.. here we are. I can't apologize much more.
Also .. i need to remember, Pete and Company have been riding for a very long time. They are not stupid. They know "how to ride".
I gotta remember this.
The "THE MOTORCYCLE" has been an icon within' the TMNTs story lines and mythos for a loooong time. I respect it, i like it.
Yeh i fear em too, what a high-wire act i've put myself on.
**
Long ago Pete told me a story regarding a classic Donatello illustration. Don is sitting at a very large cosmic computer thinking inquisitively and looking at the viewer in deep thought. ::
The image is 1/2 digital, if you look close within' the image in the peices and parts of Don's computer are even more hidden images of Pete, Kevin and company from snap-shots on a road trip Peter and the gang took cross-country on bikes.
That piece compounded by the fact that it literally filled with special memories for Laird made it exceptionally special. Still one of my faves.
And that's an example of things i respect about these icons and the bikes. They are special i understand that. I may have alot of sh8t wrong with my head and way of thinking, but i get how important all this stuff is.
>v<
-->> ..** here is the well known Donatello illustration i was refering to.
..scanned it in as high rez & size as i could.
>v<
Okay. We understand it, Tokka. Can we now drop the morbid motorcycle death stories?
-->> HEEEEEeeyyy, Slash ..
buddy !!
We dropped this yesterday !!
..in fact the parties that be have kinda all come full circle and made emense .. !! 8D
Hey , see..sometimes it actually helps to come to of the shade of that palm tree or rock whatever ..wipe the crust from your eyes and look at the bigger picture !!
~~ ** 0_0 **
..hey there ya go !! Knew i ya could do it !!
8D
>v<
Gold Wing! Nothing better for the road trip. Do you use the sidecar for cargo? You guys are all geniuses with your artistic talent.
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