Hangin' around with John Eiden - His spirit lives on . . .

I heard that John passed away this last August . . . I wanted to resubmit this blog post I did about him after our meeting at the AMCA Meet a few years ago . . . John's obit can be searched and you'll see he was quite a fella.

I really have to tell everyone about John Eiden.  He's only owned one motorcycle his entire life.  This 1942WLA which was all green when he bought it at a military surplus auction.  His buddy had one and got more girls to talk to him, and they'd look at John's bike and say, "What's with the green? - kinda ugly", so he stripped and painted and chromed some stuff - then met a fine young gal and got married.  They are still married.  Everywhere I went at the meet, I'd turn around and here'd be John again.  "Hey John", now we'd strike up another conversation.  There was a moment during the day when he was wheeling his machine from the indoor show-bike area.  All these people were gathering around him like a movie star or something.  He moves pretty slow.  (WWII veteran by the way) . . . Anyway, he starts priming, kicking it through, messing with his timing, gas on, gas off, gas on again.  The motor has stains and oil everywhere.  It's dripping fuel out the air cleaner.  He kick starts the motorcycle facing the right side with his left foot.  It looks kinda weird - and the motor makes very faint pops, poops, pups, boops, pips . . . all those weird little sounds.  His kicking is very weak, and you can just see it barely going a 1/2 revolution each time.  A 90 yr old veteran kicking his bike and it ain't starting.  You can just feel the tension in the air of all who are standing, watching.  Waiting for something to happen.  Wishing it would just start.  You want to help - but, not yet.  It's hard to hold back and not help, but you know this is a very experienced audience here.  It's a vintage event.  It's not like an old bike not starting in the company of a pack of Evo and Twin Cam riders.  Since I was the closest, and he knew me - I barely leaned over to John and whispered to him(as his leg was high on the pedal) . . . "She gonna go?"  John whispered back, "You know this thing has always been hard startin' . . "  And with the next kick - IT STARTED !   Everyone was so happy.  John then straddled his trusty WLA, jammed it about 3 or 4 different gears(???????), rocker the foot clutch a few times, check the gas and oil caps, put the choke handle to full run position, and started moving into a crowd of people.  He made his way though pretty good.  The bike's engine sounded so sweet.  Music to my ears.  All our hearts were singing.