Gene and the red pan

I met Gene while working at GM. I was riding a ‘75 FX and he owned a cb 750 H0nda. We became good friends and began to hang out together. Gene was one of the most fearless men that I’ve ever known. It didn’t seem like he was afraid of anything. He was loud and boisterious and didn’t seem to require much sleep. On motorcycle trips, he’d stay up all weekend while I would just eventually drop.

After riding with some of us for awhile, he decided that he wanted a Harley. One day, he rode up in my driveway on a beautiful candy apple red panhead. I can't remember what year it was, but I do remember the engine had been stroked and it had the loudest straight pipes that I’d ever heard. There were times that I’d hear him enter the plat that we lived in and I’d tell the AP, “Here comes Gene!”

Late one hot Summer night, he and I were out riding. Actually we were in Dayton bar hopping. We had been hitting some places in north Dayton and decided to head over to a couple of joints in the east end. Gene left the bar’s parking lot first heading south towards I-75 on Keowee St., making our way to the on ramp. This particular ramp was extremely short with a steep hill making a sharp right turn onto a curve on the highway. It was the scene of many accidents. Years later they added a stop sign at it’s end, but eventually just closed it altogether, for the sake of mankind.

Suddenly, Gene twisted the wick on the pan and it jumped forward in a burst of quickness. He hit the mouth of the treacherous ramp at breakneck speed, leaning the bike hard to the right and up the hill to the highway, increasing acceleration and jammin’ gears. I looked on in horror as I could see that both lanes of I-75 were filled with traffic and a tractor trailer in the right lane was on a collision course with Gene and the pan.

To my amazement, he never let off the throttle. The big rig, seeing what I was seeing, only with an up close and personal view, gave a long blast of his air horn! Without any hesitation whatsoever, Gene rounded the curve in the ramp and guided the motorcycle between the massive truck and the guardrail on the narrow bern then onto the highway...throttle wide open. After a few seconds I could only see the dim red glow of his tombstone taillight in the distance.

I finally caught up with him as he was pulling into the parking lot of an east end bar. He calmly parked and shut the pan down after a final rack of the straight pipes. Swinging his leg over the seat, he smiled, lit a cigarette and leaned up against his bike. “Man, I thought you were gonna get killed back there when you got on 75!” I gasped. “You scared the shit out of me, I just knew you were gonna hit that truck.. why didn’t you stop?”

“Ain’t got no brakes,” he answered. “What??...did they go out on the ramp?” I asked. Gene just smiled that great smile that he had and said, “Naw,..ain’t had none in a couple of weeks.”

Here I had been riding with this guy who had no brakes for weeks, and I never realized it. Apparently, he was downshifting and dragging his feet to stop.

I lost track of Gene years later. I visited him at the hospital once after he’d had a heart attack. Someone told me that he died in the 90’s. I never confirmed it. I liked Gene a lot. He was a hard livin’ guy that probably just burned out too early. But he always had a brother’s back and was a good friend to me. He was just a little crazy.

[swmnkdinthervr]

Good story Gray...thanks for sharing it...I have bunches of stories but nearly all ended in a fight, jail or both ...it's nice to have mellowed some

[Red Rider]

Your shorts (stories!) are entertaining Gray. Thanks for sharing them.

[phreak]

Good story

[harleyjsb]

Good one,Gray...............

[vafatboy]

Good story Gray.

[Highmiles]

Love your stories Gray.
You have a way with words.

[Dinero]

I don't think I knew Gene, but I rode with a couple of Gene's over the years.

[dynageno]

Thanx for sharing that story gray. I thought the guy was toast, but he made it.

[harleyjsb]

Did somebody say......Toast????????????

[why_me]

Terrific story Gray. You definately have a way of making your story's very interesting. Can't wait for the next one.