
Pete’s V-Rod
Story and Photos by Rodent
In Pete Ridet stable of vehicles resides a Harley-Davison V-Rod that needed to be featured, so we brought the V-Rod to the top of the hill corner of Union and Leavenworth streets in the Russian Hill section of the city so we could capture the bike against some outstanding San Francisco backgrounds. It was a little overcast but the location showed one of the hills of the city. Ya talk about a custom V-rod and here it is, uniquely San Francisco. Pete with his own hands has done extensive modifications to make the bike his and considering the fact that he’s a bar owner, not a builder, he’s very proficient at his hobby.
You could call this machine his daily rider as it’s a good reliable Harley-Davidson water-cooled Porsche designed engine that gets Pete where he wants to go rapidly. San Francisco’s parking situation is a real horror show. Cage parking is expensive if available. Parking attendants ride around in closed three wheeled vehicles and can and do issue tickets at a drop of a meter flag. Two wheeled parking is a little better as areas have been set aside just for them. But the price is high as the rates increased recently from a reasonable 10-cents an hour to 60-cents an hour. But one caveat is that most bike spots you can pay for up to 10 hours and cars get maybe two hours max for up to four bucks per hour. That’s damn near the minimum wage!
Where ever we stopped to take a few shots, female friends of Pete appeared. Pete is a real popular guy with a popular bar. Funny though, none of these women wanted to pose on the bike. When we stopped on the corner of Union and Hyde we caught a couple of National Landmark Cable Cars loaded with tourists crammed aboard admiring the V-Rod. Wish I could have recorded the sound of the bike pulling the steep Leavenworth hill, it was music bouncing off the buildings. By the by, during all my shooting of Pete’s bike, we never had a cop even cruise by as we sort of disturbed the peace momentarily.
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