I Can't Tell You How Peaceful It Is

I have some fond memories of great times with my old friend Jon Lawrence. We went to high school together. Jon had a motorcycle. A VLX VT600 if I remember right. He also had a blown out Banshee! He was crazy (now that I look back as an adult) because he'd let me ride his Shadow around all over the place... no license, no bike of my own, no helmet, no qualms. I guess he just recognized my skillz. One day he rode the Banshee over to my house (probably at least 3-4 miles riding through city streets) so we could jump it off a huge grassy hill in the park across the street. Again, no helmets, no pads, no fear. By the way, this was my first experience with a jetted, piped, two-stroke ATV:

A tipping point in my life.

Well Jon just sent me this video... something I hadn't seen yet. I've been following Kimura-san's work for a few years, but missed this video. I guess it was posted a few months ago. It's awesome. Shinya is my kind of builder. Totally hand-working disparate materials into one-of-a-kind, no nonsense bikes. But more than all that, this video captures the essence of the way I felt every time I got on Jon-E's Shadow or tried to go wide open on the Banshee. It's the way I've felt every single time since then.

I can't tell you how peaceful it is.

shinya kimura @ chabott engineering from Henrik Hansen on Vimeo.