25 Years Later….

[guitardude081]

I probably haven’t posted here in a decade, thanks to the convenience of the FB page. More than 25 years ago, JDSleds was two websites. “Joe’s John Deere Snowmobiles”, run by Joe Lesniak and “Matt’s John Deere Snowmobiles”, run by current site owner, Matt Spiece were the two places I spent most of my time avoiding the homework I was supposedly doing. Sometime during my junior high career, they merged and became the page we know and love today. Since the very beginning, I have been a member. I was 12-14 years old, and the internet was this brand new idea that only half the world knew about, and less were using. I joined the board after meeting meeting Chuck Moser at Perry’s Snowmobile Parts in Chisago, MN. This was all in an effort to keep my family’s 1982 Spitfire going. My grandpa bought this sled brand new for my aunt when she was a kid, and a second generation of our family was now using it regularly. Grandpa loved to stand in the window of the cabin and watch his grandkids enjoy the snowmobiles. We all favored the little Spitfire because it was the only one we could start by ourselves. In spring of 2000, the unthinkable happened. While riding across the lake on a 50 degree day, my 15 year-old self felt a tap-tap-tap through the bars, and the sled went way down on power. This was all thanks to a pair of too hot BR8ES plugs my uncle installed that morning. Attempt number one at getting this sled going was a failure. I had zero mechanical ability at 15, outside of what I was learning in shop class. Attempt number 2 came 10 years later when I owned a powersports dealership. Due to economic crises at the time, I decided to go back into manufacturing and close the business, never firing the fresh motor, only because I hadn’t cleaned the fuel tank before it was time to move. Finally, after the third attempt, this time just a cleanup and re-seal of an already fresh motor, she fired last Friday. Last night, after a I installed a new inlet needle in the dreaded butterfly carb, I finally moved the odometer from 2062 miles to 2063 miles after 25 years. The 4/10 marker has become very yellow over the years. This is the first sled I was ever on. Dad used to take me trail busting from the time I could hang onto the bars. By the time I was 7, Grandpa had talked him into letting me ride it. I can proudly proclaim that almost every dent and crack was from me hitting something, due to lack of brakes. They work now…. This was the sled that started a lifelong obsession from the second I grabbed ahold of the throttle and pushed it all the way down to the hose clamp and dowel on the hand grip. Having lost my cousin suddenly this past Tuesday, 2 days shy of my 40th birthday, all I really wanted was to hang onto this pair of bars that holds so many memories for our family and feel the rush and exhilaration that the little T1 340 provided all us cousins. We had countless hours of enjoyment while our dads drank cheap beer in the fish house and taught us how to do redneck things we couldn’t tell mom about. After 25 years and 100’s, if not, 1000’s of sleds ridden, I finally get to post that the Spitfire is once again on snow! I have lugged this dead soldier around with me my entire life, and it is an absolute privilege to be able to hear the old girls voice anytime I want. Unfortunately since Jaime is no longer with us, my goal of restaging a pic for Grandma with all the cousins in a group next to the Spitty and a few other sleds we owned at the time (including the Trailfire that is next on my restoration list) won’t be happening this Christmas. Rest assured, all those memories are still contained in this pint-sized pair of bars. It’s going to be a rough next few weeks for our family, but its memories like winters at the cabin bombing around on the sleds that keep us unusually close.

~Jack

[400brian]

Thanks for posting this Jack.

Time marches on with or without us, so all we can do is make the most of it. It is too bad your photo will have a missing member. I would have preferred that the grandson and I would have had the '37 John Deere B restored before my father's passing last January, but it was not to be. Still, it is a testament to you that you saved the sled all this time and now put it back on the snow. KUDOS!

[nick80lf]

Great project Jack. I think a lot of us are here for similar reasons.