Tweet
Part 1:
I've been looking for a bike with cannonball potential, that I can afford, for I think about 3 years now. A few months ago this Kijiji ad showed up cross-posted on the AdvRider forum:
I swapped a few emails with the guy (you-all know him as c.o. or Cory). He sent me a bunch of pictures, and we settled on a price. I told him I wouldn't be able to pick it up for a month or so because of work, he said no problem, and he didn't even want a deposit to hold it. My kind of guy. I finally got a week off, a hard thing to do during the spring outage season, so I hitch the trailer up to Clifford the Big Red Dodge, called my side-kick Paul (local Pawn Shop Owner/Operator) to help with the driving, and headed north. Cory lives in British Columbia and I live in Nebraska, so we're about 1500 miles apart, for a 3,000 mile round trip. Oh well, at least I would get to visit my daughter in Fargo/Moorhead.
My biggest worry was bringing it back across the border in to the USA. I did some internet research and found that a vehicle that is at least 21 years old doesn't have to meet the EPA requirements, and if it's at least 25 years old it doesn't have to meet the DOT requirements. No problem, this one's 98 years old. Here's a good link: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...r-personal-use
The one potential problem was that everything I read said that I had to have proof of ownership in the form of a title and registration, and the old injun had neither. I decided that I needed to talk to a real live person, so I started calling border stations. We all know how hard it is to get a real person when calling a government phone number, but persistence pays off and I managed to get through to Border Officer at two stations, the big one at Roosville, Montana, and a tiny one at Whitlash, Montana. The nice lady at Whitlash was very helpful, she said that a bill of sale should be fine if there's no title, and she explained that I might have to fill out some DOT and EPA forms but it shouldn't be a problem because the bike is so old. Cool. Just what I wanted to hear. The she said "but you're not crossing here are you?" I said that yes, I probably would. She said "oh, I don't think you want to cross here, we're way out on a gravel road!" I said that's no problem, I live on a gravel road. "Yes, but we're a long way from anything. You'll want to cross at one of the big border stations at Roosville or Sweetwater, so you should call them too." OK, well, crossing at Roosville would save me some time, so I called them up, and battled my way through the phone menus again.The kid at Roosville really didn't want to talk to me, wouldn't give me a straight answer, and was rude and evasive in the typical fashion of his generation. He said I would need proof of ownership and he didn't think a bill of sale would qualify. Fine. Thanks for your time. I decided to cross at Whitalsh no matter how long it took.
So Paul and I set out in Clifford the Big Red Dodge. We spent a night with my daughter and her husband and the next night in a run-down (cheap) motel in Havre, MT. On the way to Havre, Clifford rolled over 250,000 miles, so it is officially broken in:
I think Paul was a little surprised that I picked that little roach mote in Havre, but I don't like to spend too much money just for a place to sleep. When the wife is along it's a different story, off course. Here's a picture of Paul pointing out that the broken shutters had been repaired with toilet paper:
It didn't bother me a bit. By the way, Havre has an interesting network of tunnels under it that the bootleggers built during the prohibition. You can get a tour.
We decided to cross into Canada at the Widhorse Station, since it's on a paved road and has such a cool name. We got up early and were second in line for the Wildhorse crossing before they opened:
And then we were in Canada.
More to come in Part 2. Be patient, I will include the build in this thread.
I've been looking for a bike with cannonball potential, that I can afford, for I think about 3 years now. A few months ago this Kijiji ad showed up cross-posted on the AdvRider forum:
I swapped a few emails with the guy (you-all know him as c.o. or Cory). He sent me a bunch of pictures, and we settled on a price. I told him I wouldn't be able to pick it up for a month or so because of work, he said no problem, and he didn't even want a deposit to hold it. My kind of guy. I finally got a week off, a hard thing to do during the spring outage season, so I hitch the trailer up to Clifford the Big Red Dodge, called my side-kick Paul (local Pawn Shop Owner/Operator) to help with the driving, and headed north. Cory lives in British Columbia and I live in Nebraska, so we're about 1500 miles apart, for a 3,000 mile round trip. Oh well, at least I would get to visit my daughter in Fargo/Moorhead.
My biggest worry was bringing it back across the border in to the USA. I did some internet research and found that a vehicle that is at least 21 years old doesn't have to meet the EPA requirements, and if it's at least 25 years old it doesn't have to meet the DOT requirements. No problem, this one's 98 years old. Here's a good link: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...r-personal-use
The one potential problem was that everything I read said that I had to have proof of ownership in the form of a title and registration, and the old injun had neither. I decided that I needed to talk to a real live person, so I started calling border stations. We all know how hard it is to get a real person when calling a government phone number, but persistence pays off and I managed to get through to Border Officer at two stations, the big one at Roosville, Montana, and a tiny one at Whitlash, Montana. The nice lady at Whitlash was very helpful, she said that a bill of sale should be fine if there's no title, and she explained that I might have to fill out some DOT and EPA forms but it shouldn't be a problem because the bike is so old. Cool. Just what I wanted to hear. The she said "but you're not crossing here are you?" I said that yes, I probably would. She said "oh, I don't think you want to cross here, we're way out on a gravel road!" I said that's no problem, I live on a gravel road. "Yes, but we're a long way from anything. You'll want to cross at one of the big border stations at Roosville or Sweetwater, so you should call them too." OK, well, crossing at Roosville would save me some time, so I called them up, and battled my way through the phone menus again.The kid at Roosville really didn't want to talk to me, wouldn't give me a straight answer, and was rude and evasive in the typical fashion of his generation. He said I would need proof of ownership and he didn't think a bill of sale would qualify. Fine. Thanks for your time. I decided to cross at Whitalsh no matter how long it took.
So Paul and I set out in Clifford the Big Red Dodge. We spent a night with my daughter and her husband and the next night in a run-down (cheap) motel in Havre, MT. On the way to Havre, Clifford rolled over 250,000 miles, so it is officially broken in:
I think Paul was a little surprised that I picked that little roach mote in Havre, but I don't like to spend too much money just for a place to sleep. When the wife is along it's a different story, off course. Here's a picture of Paul pointing out that the broken shutters had been repaired with toilet paper:
It didn't bother me a bit. By the way, Havre has an interesting network of tunnels under it that the bootleggers built during the prohibition. You can get a tour.
We decided to cross into Canada at the Widhorse Station, since it's on a paved road and has such a cool name. We got up early and were second in line for the Wildhorse crossing before they opened:
And then we were in Canada.
More to come in Part 2. Be patient, I will include the build in this thread.
Comment