Motorcycle lost in Japan tsunami found on Canadian island

It must have been a wild ride. Japanese media say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in last year's tsunami has washed up on a Canadian island about 4,000 miles away.

The rusted bike was found in a large white container where its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, had kept it. He was located through the license plate number, Fuji TV reported Wednesday.

"This is unmistakably mine. It's miraculous," Yokoyama told Nippon TV when shown photos of the motorcycle.

Yokoyama lost three members of his family in the March 11, 2011, tsunami, and is now living in temporary housing in Miyagi prefecture (state).

The motorcycle is among the first items lost in the tsunami to reach the west coast of North America. In March, an Alaska man found a football and later a volleyball from Japan; their owners were located last week using names that had been inscribed on the balls.

Canadian Peter Mark, who found the bike and its container, told Fuji that he "couldn't believe that something like that would make it across the Pacific." The report said he found it April 18 on Graham Island, off the coast of British Columbia.

The motorcyle was caked with "a lot of corrosion, a lot of rust," said Mark.

When he saw the Japanese license plate, Mark wondered if it might have drifted from Japan after the tsunami, and contacted a local TV station.

The Fuji report said the motorcycle would be shipped back to Japan, and that the shop that sold it to Yokoyama would help with paperwork and storage.

Debris from the tsunami initially gathered in the ocean off Japan's northeastern coast and has since spread out across the Pacific. In February, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said currents would carry much of the debris to the coasts of Alaska, Canada, Washington and Oregon between March 2013 and 2014, though they correctly predicted that some of it could arrive this year.

Last month, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired on and sank a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska that had drifted from Japan after the disaster. Authorities had deemed the ship a hazard to shipping and to the coastline.


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source:  Fox News (AP, 5/2)

Biker still at home on motorcycle at 84

George Brown got his first Harley at the age of 16. Nearly 70 years later, he’s still riding.

Brown took home a new Harley trike Wednesday, the latest in a long line of motorcycles he’s owned over the years.

“I’ve been riding since the ’40s” proclaimed the 84-year-old.

Brown still remembers his first motorcycle.

“It was an old clunker,” he said.

Brown had worked at a grocery store plucking chicken feathers to earn enough money to buy it and recalls getting the license.

“I went to the drugstore and got the license for a quarter,” he said, adding jokingly, “you can’t do that now.”

Brown took a brief break from riding following his grocery job and worked on a tugboat on the river that took him to such cities as New Orleans, St. Paul and Pittsburgh.

Brown continued his career on the water and enlisted in the Navy at age 17. But once back on shore at the base, he continued to ride motorcycles.

After leaving the Navy, Brown was able to continue his passion for motorcycles, riding for the police department in Fort Worth, Texas, for four years.

“I could teach these kids a lot about riding,” he said of the experience.

Brown estimates he’s had eight or nine motorcycles in his years of riding, and they all have been Harleys except for one.

“I had an Indian for a while, but it had too heavy of a torque for me,” he said.

Brown’s most prized motorcycle was a 1955 police bike he sold more than 10 years ago when his wife became ill with cancer.

His partner in life, he noted she also was his partner on the road.

“She got on behind and rode with me,” he said of his wife, who lost her battle with cancer a short time later.

In all the years, Brown has managed to ride unscathed until last year when he was heading into Niemerg’s Steak House and was struck.

“It was the first accident I ever had,” he said.

Brown noted it was the reason he was getting a new Harley and trading the 2010 sidecar motorcycle.

“I carried a stuffed dog in the sidecar,” he said.

The accident didn’t deter Brown from riding again. The Mason resident rides into Effingham daily for lunch.

Brown isn’t as concerned for his safety as others who periodically look out for him.

“I have people at church who check on me every now and then, and neighbors keep track of me,” he said.

Brown has ridden his motorcycles great distances, with long trips up the East and West coasts and in Babler State Park near St. Louis, where he did volunteer maintenance about 10 years ago. He hasn’t given up his motorcycle trips, either, participating in the Sheriff’s Posse Ride and taking trips to Missouri and Ohio to visit former shipmates.

When he’s not riding, Brown keeps busy “puttering” in his shop and working on mechanical projects that include making parts for outboard motor boats for friends.

But Brown looks forward to the open road and doesn’t see his hobby as unique for his age.

“I know quite a few riding past 80,” he said. “The age limit now is being stretched. The retiring at 55 and giving up — that age is gone.”

Brown plans to continue riding into his sunset years.

“It’s in my blood. To have the wind in your face and all open space is just a tremendous feeling,” he said.

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source: The EDN (Thoele, 3/1)