The best time of the day.

The merits of a 6am run on the old Airhead are many.

The croissants at the local parlor are warm and fresh, the roads are empty and the high desert air is cool and dense, much to the delight of the air cooled boxer motor and that of its rider.

Croissants, anyone?

The 900cc motor purrs harmoniously at 4000rpm – 65mph in 5th – and after 28 years of riding her I can make the shift from first to second in silence. 50% of the time. The other 50% is met by the most fearful crunch as you check the mirrors to see if maybe some of your ‘box has departed the machine for the highway. Getrag of Untergruppenbach (but of course) made this gearbox and to this day Getrag transmission innards grace everything from Ferraris to BMW Minis. The first-to-second crunch, rumor has it, is nowadays notable for its absence – the last Airhead was made in 1995, mine is a 1975 – but I count The Crunch as just one more of the secret delights of ownership. Especially when you accomplish that rare silent shift.

Gearbox longevity seems unaffected by the crunching and, absent a new clutch at 50,000 miles, the ‘box has proved to be perfectly reliable, having its own oil reservoir, as does the shaft drive to the bevel gear at the rear wheel. This is proper engineering design for it affords the opportunity of using dense oil/grease for the gearbox (80W/90) compared with the much lighter concoction (15W/50) indicated for the motor. Air cooled engines disdain modern 0W/20 witches’ brews. And the inevitable attention the old bike generates when you pull up anywhere is from a welcome collection of aficionados, not from the Harley set. Come to think of it, maybe that really is the best part of Airhead ownership?

iPhone6 snap.