I met a guy hanging out at the Lewis Fort on the southern tip of IL. I parked next to a Hardley with training wheels. Real training wheels bolted on, not a trike. I rolled my eyes as I stripped off gear to explore the fort. When I came back to the bike an old timer was leaning against the Hardley. We spent the next few hours talking in that parking lot. As we chatted locals would ride up and join us. One on a stock and mint Honda Dream barn find.
By the time I left I new all their life stories. The guy with the training wheels? He was 87 and his girlfriend made him put the wheels on because he hurt his back. She didn't trust him enough to ride bitch down to Daytona without them that summer. So he put them on to keep her quite. He also chided me because although I was heading to Tenn I wasn't doing the Dragon. He does it every year. His Hardley was 2 years younger than my bike. His had almost 100,000 on it . My sport touring bike? 15,000. He also told me about coming home from WWII and getting married three weeks later. Buying his first Hardley a week later. He has had at least one bike ever since.
I guess I don't laugh at training wheels anymore...
I can put on a pretty good gun show on the back of my Honda Trail 90.