2005 Honda Rebel (Momma's Bike)

       It was 2005 and Momma finally got up the gumption to tell me she was tired of riding behind me on the Gold Wing and wanted a bike of her own. While Yamaha and Kawasaki both make a similar version,..both are mere imitations of the Honda Rebel. It is a tried and true good bike for beginners to the motorcycling sport. So we made a trip to Plano to check out the inventory at Maxim Honda on highway 75.

  
   Naturally they had one right in front in a metallic red, and even I had to admit, it was a good looking bike. The Honda Rebel shown above is a 250cc engine, five speed transmission, bike with an obvious slant toward the cruiser market. Wide tire in back with a skinnier tire up front. This is a well thought out little bike. The Rebel was intended for the beginning class of rider, but in the earlier years it also could be ordered with an eleven hundred cc engine. I am fairly sure the 1100cc and 1300cc engines only come in the Shadow and VTX line of models and the Rebel is exclusively a 250cc bike. 

      The salesman was johnny-on-the-spot when he recognized Momma's desire for this particular bike. I made him a good offer on the bike and he went to finish up the paperwork while I had to load the Rebel in my pick-up without any assistance from the dealership. This Rebel was actually a demo bike with about 200 miles on the odometer and I got it for about fifteen hundred dollars less than a new one.

      We took it home and unloaded it with the help of a couple of two-by-fours. The garage now had three bikes in it as the Rebel had to share covered parking with my Gold Wing and the Vulcan Cruiser (both bikes covered in previous blogs). There is a shopping center about three blocks from our house, and after hours and Sundays we would take the Rebel there to let Momma learn to ride all by herself.

  
    Slowly at first,..with me running alongside her,..we would go from one end of the parking lot to the other. The first couple of days she never got out of first gear,..but she was able to keep the bike going in a straight line and seem to be enjoying herself (note the smile above). About the fourth or fifth time we went to practice, she was running pretty tight in first gear and we went to the shifting lesson. For some reason she insisted on watching her left foot make the shift. I told her NOT to do that and keep her eyes up and watching in front of the bike. She was doing well and I was comfortable with her progress to the extent I took my eyes off her for a moment. When I looked up she was going down the sidewalk in front of those plate glass windows in the photo above. Just as I shouted she ran into the brick wall in between the plate glass and stopped. She had ground her left hand into the wall and broke the little finger. Lesson over! She told me she did not ever want to ride alone again...but only behind me.

 
   I have a friend that drives one of the Wal-Mart moving vans (WM moves its management personnel around from store to store and their moving expenses are paid by the company). He had been looking for a small bike for his son and this Rebel fit the bill perfectly. I charged him the same price as a new Rebel. He had a credit problem and I let him pay it out in three installments. We loaded it up on the van for the trip home to Plainview, Texas.
    Momma has sit on bikes at the Harley dealership on occasions, but has never entertained the thought of riding without me again.