I can't say I remembered much about the episodes themselves, except that the character seemed to meet a different woman every week, and then leave her. I was too young to care about that, and just mainly liked the riding scenes.
When the plastic model came out, I built one and had it in my room for years, imagining at times that it was a full size bike, and I was riding it to some adventure. When I was old enough to legally ride a motorcycle on the street, (1975) I borrowed from my older brother a 350 Honda to learn to ride on. (much to the dismay of my parents)
Although women seemed to jump on Bronson's bike or him from the moment he pulled up somewhere, nothing like that ever happened to me, with any brand of motorcycle, I did look more like Eric Fourman at the time than Jim Bronson.
The first time I did have a female on the back of the Honda was only because I was at a friend of mine's workplace, and one of his teenage co-workers needed a ride home. She was complaining about her car being in the shop, and how she had to call her parents or her ex boyfriend to pick her up, etc, so my friend said, "Hey, Mark can give her a ride home on your Honda." She got a disgusted look on her face at first, but since she had never been on an motorcycle before, she shrugged and said, "Oh well, what the hell." I lent her my red helmet, put on a watch cap that I had got at the army navy store, and took her on a short ride home. She loved the ride, and I loved the fact that it was (sadly) the most physical contact I had at that time with a girl.
She later told her co-workers that when she walked in the door, her parents sat her down at the kitchen table, and standing over her, shot questions at her, such as, "Who is that boy that you had your arms around? - You're not dating him are you? (no) � Why did you have your arms around his waist then?" (the Honda didn't have a sissy bar); "You cannot date a boy who rides a motorcycle. Boys that ride motorcycles will never amount to anything. You will never get a ring from a boy who rides a motorbike." (from the mother) And the worst was, (from the father) "Yea, all a boy like that will give you is a social disease!"
Apparently they missed the ad campaign "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." or the TCB episode with the mother and the daughter. The funny thing is, this girl also said that she never even considered dating me, until her parents told her she couldn't.
In the early part of 2010, I met a man in his nineties sitting in a wheelchair that had actually traveled thousands of miles on a Sportster. His tales of his trips reminded me of the TCB show, minus meeting all the women. He did mention the women at Sturgis and Daytona bike week though. I told him, "yeah, I've always wanted a Sportster, someday I'm gonna get one myself." He said, "You mean someday before you're stuck in a wheelchair?" So, when I saw a 1998 Sportster for sale, and saw the reasonable price, I went for it. I am never going to go cross the county on it, but I enjoy the short trips. I still do not get the ladies with it, but I am married now and too old to really care . When I have had a bad day at work, I can hop on that bike, roll the throttle on, listen to "Long Lonesome Highway" on my MP3 player, and instantly get into a better mood.
Just recently, I had a Bronson moment. I had a duffel bag strapped to the sissy bar, and a smaller round bag up by the forks, Bronson style, both filled with vegetables that I was delivering to some relatives. I stopped at a gas station, and when I came out, a man in a business suit who was getting gas for a minivan said, "Nice bike." I said, "Thanks." He said, "Taking a trip?" I started to tell him what I was really doing, but then thought of the TCB show, and just said, "Yeah." He then asked "Where to?" I couldn't help but telling him, "Oh, wherever I end up I guess." I was floored when he said, "I sure wish I could do that.." I just replied with, "Really? Well, you hang in there," and rode away.
Mark
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