My Name IS Mark: THIS IS MY XS650

Mark Locklear…Asheville, NC and his is his righteous xs650.

” So that was how it happened.
Two or three months later, when I arrived at New
York from Canada, I purchased a motor-cycle and set
out to cross the continent to the Pacific, and I have it
on the best authority that this was the first time an
Englishman had ever accomplished the trip on a motor
cycle. If it is so, I don t wonder at it I
The whole trip, which covered just fifty miles short
of 5,000, was undertaken quite alone, and although
spread over about three months, constituted a day or
two short of a month s actual riding. For the benefit
of brother motor-cyclists who may be interested in such
details I may add that I dispensed entirely with the
use of goggles from beginning to end, and except at stops
in large towns on the way I wore no hat. I think that
when the motor-cyclist gets accustomed to doing without
these encumbrances he will find the joys of motor-cycling
considerably enhanced.
The total number of replacements to the engine alone
comprised the following : Five new cylinders ; three
pistons ; five gudgeon pins ; three complete sets of
bearings ; two connecting rods, and eleven sparking plugs.
The machine was entirely overhauled on four occasions
between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and on three of
these by the recognized agents of the manufacturers.
The engine cut-out switch was the only part of the machine
that did not break, come loose, or go wrong sooner or
later. I was thrown off 142 times, and after that I stopped
counting 1 Apart from that I had no trouble.
Contrary to what the reader may think, I paid con
siderable care to the machine, particularly in the early
stages. For the first three hundred miles I barely ex
ceeded twenty to twenty-five miles per hour in order”

ACROSS AMERICA BY MOTOR-CYCLE