You may have seen this before, I wrote it for another XS650 site a couple of years ago:
Last Spring, I got my classic XS650 Yamaha out of storage, checked it over and decided to take a ride 15 miles down the expressway to the Yamaha shop. As I was getting on the expressway, a mouse popped up between the speedometer and tachometer and stood there braced against the wind like the hood ornament on a Buick. Well, I'm not afraid of mice, but I wasn't about to grab this little bugger with my bare hands at speed on the expressway. So I took the old XS650 up 70 mph in an effort to dust him off. Much to my chagrin, he hung on tight, so I bumped the speed up to 80 mph, but he was still holding on for dear life. I put my head down and went into my best racers tuck and took the old bike up to 90 mph. The wind caught the little guy and he vanished with the wind.....problem solved ! When I got to the Yamaha shop, there were 4 guys milling around the parking lot, so I prepared myself to answer all the normal questions like...where did you get the old bike... how old is it... has it been restored ? As you know, old bikes always draw a crowd. Before I could get my helmet off, one guy walked over to me and said : "Dude...how did you get that mouse trained to ride spread eagle on the top of your helmet ?" "Dude...thats awesome !!"
Last Spring, I got my classic XS650 Yamaha out of storage, checked it over and decided to take a ride 15 miles down the expressway to the Yamaha shop. As I was getting on the expressway, a mouse popped up between the speedometer and tachometer and stood there braced against the wind like the hood ornament on a Buick. Well, I'm not afraid of mice, but I wasn't about to grab this little bugger with my bare hands at speed on the expressway. So I took the old XS650 up 70 mph in an effort to dust him off. Much to my chagrin, he hung on tight, so I bumped the speed up to 80 mph, but he was still holding on for dear life. I put my head down and went into my best racers tuck and took the old bike up to 90 mph. The wind caught the little guy and he vanished with the wind.....problem solved ! When I got to the Yamaha shop, there were 4 guys milling around the parking lot, so I prepared myself to answer all the normal questions like...where did you get the old bike... how old is it... has it been restored ? As you know, old bikes always draw a crowd. Before I could get my helmet off, one guy walked over to me and said : "Dude...how did you get that mouse trained to ride spread eagle on the top of your helmet ?" "Dude...thats awesome !!"