Hello All,
Just thought I would tell everybody about a great roadster day me and Irene
had.
This weekend was super unusually warm here in the SF bay area. Irene had to take
the CF tank on her Monster Dark into the city to get a leak fixed so we decided
to
sorta make a day out of it. Got up early (for us, out the door by 10am on a
Sat,)and
headed out to the City via the bay bridge. It was so warm we didn't even need
coats
and there was NO traffic on the bridge!!. We pulled off the bridge and onto the
SF
embarcadero (its this big wide fancy waterfront street) to have breakfast at
this nice
rest. with lots of outdoor seating. Now, it just so happens that this day is
also the
first day game of the season for the giants. A fact we did not know until we
were parking
and a group of five guys asked us if we wanted to buy tickets...No, we said and
they stopped
and admired the car.."Nice car what year is it?" "69", I say. I had to go back
and feed the meter and as I was doing that someone else asked me what year it
was and
said it was a nice car.
After a nice leisurely breakfast we headed accross town to our friends bike
shop that was
having an open house. Now this bike shop is in a REALLY seedy part of SF's
mission distric.
Luckily I got a metered spot (damn, more quarters) right on the main 'hip'
street in the
area so I knew that there would be lots of foot traffic and the car was less
likely to be
messed with. We parked in front of a chinese market and the owner came out and
asked
what year it was. Oh, I forgot a cop asked what year it was at a stoplight too.
Irene and I were very puzzled..all these people kept asking us what year it
was..never
happened to us before..
After a bit we had to leave and as we were getting in the car a 'employment
challenged"
gentleman drinking his lunch out of a 40 oz bottle in a paper sack stopped to
ask me
about the car. "Hey thats a nice car there,..does it have the third seat in the
back?..
I used to have one with the third seat." Wow I was a bit impressed. I told him
that only
the very early 1500 models had the third seat and that I had a 69 2000 with a
parcel
shelf instead. "A 2000!?", he said thinking about it for a while "Damn that
thing must
really fly!" "yep", I say, "it goes pretty well."
I hop in to start it but nothing...damn I got to pop the trunk and tap on the
starter. I pop
the hood and there is instantly like 10 guys who are trying to peak under it
without getting
to close. The bum is the boldest and gets right over the engine.."jeez lookit
those carbs,..
you got four of them?" A couple of guys from the chinese market are also there
and just some
random arty-funky guys all kinda smiling and nodding their heads in a way that
fills any old
car owner with pride.
A couple quick taps on the starter and vroom it starts to life with a quick
turn of the
key and settles into its slightly lumpier than it should be solex idle. The bum
takes it
all in for a minute more and says, "Sounds like it needs a tune-up." I was
floored. I had
to explain to him that no the Solex cammed cars just idle a bit rough.....
Anywho, waved goodbye to our crowd of admirers and headed home.
We didn't do any racing or really fast driving it was just a day spent toodling
around in the
car on a warm sunny day and it was just the best.
I have not driven the car hardly at all in the last year and quite frankly I
was feeling a
bit over it. But not after that day, I had fallen back in love with it and I
am never
going to even think of parting with it again.
Daniel 69 2000
Oakland CA
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