Ted Takeshi
June 2, 2023
At Ohira-san I try to get some of my stuff in order; what goes with me on the plane and what goes with the motorcycle. The heavy things, like the two 10 lbs./5 kg rocks for my niece obviously get sailed home (she wanted a Japanese rock, she gets two). That done I go back to the hotel, where Naka-san, one of the Pioneer Run organizers, will pick me up at noon. We're going to meet Ted Takeshi, one of the guys I met at the Time Tunnel classic race event on Fuji Speedway way back when.
The weather turns from rainy to abysmal as we drive out of town, and a two hour trip stretches to three hours, because of stalled traffic on the expressway system. (Read later that it was a once-in-100-years event and that one unfortunate hap drowned in his car). Only interesting stretch is the 11.3 miles/18,2 kilometers long Yamate tunnel going under Tokyo, curving around and up and down to avoid subway tunnels and avoiding being built under private land. Along the way we communicate with a small gadget, that mostly with success translates whatever you say to it into the other language about 10 times faster the translator app on the phone. Wish I'd known they existed before coming here.
Like me, Naka-san is a part time freelance writer, and want to write about me, my Nimbus and the trip. A web article he says, as Japanese magazines printed on actual paper are getting more and more scarce. Eventually traffic opens up, but so do the skies, this being the worst rainstorm Tokyo has had in a long time, my driver tells the gadget. Nearby hills are all but obscured, I'm mildly surprised we don't aquaplane or that other cars haven't crashed yet, but in due course we arrive safe & sound at 'Ted's Special Motorcycle Works'.
Ted really doesn't look much older than last time we met. His place is smaller but less stuffed with motorcycles and spares than his old workshop, which to me seems slightly un-Japanese. His speciality is old Hondas, racebikes in particular, and he has in fact worked on one for Naka-san, which is one reason the latter wanted to go here too. We exhange memories of our first encounter, of Victor's hotrod shop etc., admire the Matchless G50 engined racer on his workbench and I take a particular interest in the smaller two Hondas he uses for the street.
The crown jewel of the workshop is a tiny ex-works Honda CB90R - name indicating size and use - that Ted restored a while back. I've seen mopeds with bigger front fork yokes and tires bigger than the size 200 & 225 18-inchers gracing the equally tiny aluminum rims. Ted says he has raced it, but now having tried just sitting on it, I imagine it is better suited to an 80 lbs./40 kg rider of average hobbit height. The bike itself weighs about 140 lbs./70 kg, which Ted demonstrates by simply lifting the whole thing off its race stand.
A few more friends arrive, one of them being on his way to Bonneville Salt Flats next week. He's going to drive either a highly modified Ford T or a so-called 'Lakester', the latter being an ultra streamlined car with a flathead V8 engine and its driver placed inside an old WW2 era aircraft belly tank.
After some hours we take our leave, going back to Toyo in half the time, stopping only for dinner at an excellent restaurant where Naka-san insists on treating me, even though I was the one inviting. Hope I can return the favor if he comes to Denmark one day. He also says we should have met earlier, because he could have given me times and places for the many old bike events are held in May. Alas, it was not to be.
At the hotel he gives me a book he wrote, about various old Honda motorcycles and scooters. It is one of those 'labor of love' books that enthusiasts write without regard to how many hours they spend or if they ever will make money off of them. The book is in Japanese, of course, but at $15/110 kr. it's a steal - and I hope enough people abroad will want to have such a book gracing their shelves. I'm going to order five of them to use as gifts when I get back to Denmark.
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