For weeks, my road name hung in limbo.
it was a complicated and inconvenient situation.
I rode a 1942 flathead harley davidson chopper with a 45 cubic inch motor.
It was a serious shortage of the old bikes that prompted anyone that rode one, to be referred to in some mention of the bike he rode, the 45″ motor tripped off the tongue.
fortyfive Pete, or 45hairball, or whatever.
My 1st given name is Michael, or Mike. Soooo, it seemed common sense that I would end up being “fortyfive Mike”.
However, this is a complication, the shop I associated with, already had 3 “fortyfive Mike” customers and visitors. It was a somewhat curious matter, I NEEDED a name that did not confuse the situation further in conversations referring to one of us flathead riders.
I told the guys that in California, I had been called “sleazy” a couple times.
They LAUGHED AT me. There was no way in 7 hells of cage drivers singing lawrence welk, that I had even come close to earning the name of “Sleazy”. No one had ever seen me waving my dick at old ladies or bringing 3 hookers in to party.
OK, so, how did i get named “Sleazy” in California?
So kind of you to ask.
Foghat, Slow ride. It’s a song. That’s a hint.
I do like riding slower than most groups. One morning about 5 am after a party night, I rode by a pond, with mist in the grey light, and I was riding no faster the 15mph, maybe.
I felt and heard something big, and close coming up behind me, I looked back and a GIANT Blue Heron flew past me just faster than I was moving, close enough that I could feel the air beating off the wing as it flew and I rode side by side for maybe 50 yards, maybe less.
I digress, my name is pronounced “Four Five” Not four five Mike, just 45.
The REASON, is because one day I was sorting demon beads and Bob, yelled something to me.
“Hey, Four Five, get me that ‘chinkoderos’.”
It does not matter that neither he, nor I nor you have a slightest clue what the hell that chinkoderos was.
And, you have to know Bob, (but you probably shouldn’t), to hear the way he said it, to know that it was meant to be permanent.
