The Saga of Mr. Crunchy

Last March I bought a motorcycle. Off of eBay. From a seller 500 miles away. Given the amount of information I've gathered since then, I might have acted a little differently, but at the time, it was a great idea. My boss let me borrow his truck for the trip to Mississippi, and a friend from church volunteered to ride along and help drive on the insane 1000 mile, 20 hour round trip. It was an adventure, and I'm always keen for those.

While on the trip down, my friend Terri was discussing different aspects of her work in the food service industry, and how occasionally there are attitudes to deal with, some of the worse ones earning the descriptor of 'crunchy' as in someone being in a crunchy mood, or just acting crunchy. It conveys a lot, and even had its uses later in the morning, as I was to find.

We met the seller in the parking lot of the super Wal-Mart in Forest, Mississippi, at 8:00 a.m. From a distance, as he came toward us, the bike looked pretty awesome in the back of his truck. Nice lines, bright red color, just waiting to be let loose and feel its oats. When I did my walk-around of the bike, I got a slightly different impression. In his ad, it stated the bike had been in a low speed crash, but repaired and repainted. The repair might have included Bondo, but it apparently did not include the use of any sandpaper on said Bondo. All of the blinkers not only blinked, they waved on their stalks due to having been mashed at one time or another. And the paint...yes, it had been repainted. However, the paint on the rear fairing (plastic pieces covering the frame) didn't quiiite match the paint on the tank or front fairing. The tank and front were more in the 'bright cherry red' family, whilst the rear fairing was in the 'orangey tomato' family. Not too bad if you didn't look at it.

Now honestly, when I ride the bike, I don't really notice what color it is. But still...it was my first big purchase like that, and cosmetically, it was looking pretty sad. But the best was yet to come! When I went to hand him the money to get the title, he prefaced its delivery with the words, "And...about the title..." Hiawatha! Turns out, whomever he'd gotten the bike from in November of '06 had signed the title off and dated it, but Mr. Ebay Seller Man had never had the title perfected in his name, and he wanted to know if I could just take it like that. I wasn't about to drive 1,000 miles and come back home without a bike, so I took it, with the understanding that he would perfect the title in his name if I needed it to be done that way.

I needed it to be done that way.

Five weeks later, I had the proper title and was able to register the bike and have work done on it. The 'daily commuter' turned out to have two flat tires, and brakes with less than 10% of the pad left. That old boy was laughing all the way to the bank on that one, I have to admit.

But back to my post title. When Terri and I were leaving Mississippi, and I was trying not to be too annoyed with the recent transaction, the bike was christened with the moniker of Mr. Crunchy. He'd had a rough life and was tired. Not the prettiest, and probably with a little bit of an attitude. The bike has now had an extreme makeover (to be told in the Saga, Part II), and the looks of Mr. Crunchy are gone, but the name has stuck, although with a much more affectionate tone. I've tried to think of other names for him (the bike is a definite 'he'), but Mr. Crunchy named himself, and until he comes up with another name, Mr. Crunchy he will stay.