Charley on my Honda CB750 Custom.

I was going to go on the RMMRC ride on Wednesday last week but then we had a family emergency. I wasn’t going to go but Judy urged me to, saying there was no reason to skip it and she would be fine without me. So I did go.

The emergency involved her son, Charley. I can explain it in one word: fentanyl. After being on life support for 11 days he died this morning. His organs were donated to families that needed them.

While my relationship with Charley was never better than cordial, we did share some motorcycle history.

It has always been an amusing image in my mind of one time, when he was still a teenager, when he wanted a ride somewhere. I was going to go for a motorcycle ride but I told him I would give him a lift on my bike, the Honda CB750 Custom. Charley was much bigger than me so picture this big guy on the back of a bike with his knees splayed widely outward. He felt silly, and it did look silly, but I got him to where he wanted to go so he wasn’t complaining. He did remark later that his friends found it laughable.

Later, when he was living on his own, he had his own motorcycle. We never knew this, though, until after he had sold it. But one day, I don’t remember how it came about, he and I decided to take a ride. I was on my Concours and he rode the Honda. And yes, it really was too small a bike for him.

We rode down to Franktown, to the Stagecoach. That’s where this picture was shot. We just had a beer and rode home. No big deal, nothing eventful. But that’s the only time we ever rode together.

Just about a week before his fateful event he was telling me he figured it was time for him to have a motorcycle again. Would I help him pick out a bike? Of course I told him I’d be happy to.

Then a week later he went missing. After three days Judy filed a missing person report with the Denver police. Later that day he was located, in an intensive care unit in Thornton, on life support with irreparable brain damage.

And now you fentanyl merchants have brought tragedy to one more American family.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m sorry, I don’t have one today.

Tags: fentanyl

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2026 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.