Japanese-owned Harley washes up on Canadian beach

DaveBj · #1 May 2, '12, 5:09 am

Debris from last year's tsuname in Japan is now washing up on the shores of North America. This includes a Harley Davidson motorcycle that showed up on a Canadian beach:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ada-beach.html

(HLN was reporting this morning that the Harley Davidson company has identified the owner from the license plate, and that they are going to restore the bike and return it to him.)

triumphguy · #2 May 2, '12, 7:32 am

I heard on CBC radio this morning that the owner had lost three family members. The bike will be shipped back to the owner, and he will get a chance to look at it first. If he wants it will be stripped down and restored back to original.

manualman · #3 May 2, '12, 8:17 am

Something's not right here. A van and hog are simply not going to float long enough to wash across the Pacific on the trade winds!

triumphguy · #4 May 2, '12, 8:57 am

You obviously didn't bother to read the link then?

This is among 20,000,000 tons of debris washed up so far.

Kouyate42 · #5 May 2, '12, 10:13 am

Let's hope that the bike and the owner are reunited. It would certainly be awesome if this happened.

triumphguy · #6 May 2, '12, 10:26 am

They've tracked the owner down and according to the news the bikes has already been shipped to him.

manualman · #7 May 2, '12, 11:21 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by triumphguy

You obviously didn't bother to read the link then?

Yes I did, but I got no picture when I clicked, just the story text. Weird. I'd call that a shipping container, not a van. But I still find it hard to believe that thing is water tight enough to get tossed around in the waves across the Pacific and never fill up and sink.

triumphguy · #8 May 2, '12, 5:05 pm

Apparently it was 1/2 full of water when it landed.

**Dale_M** · #9 May 3, '12, 7:30 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by manualman

Yes I did, but I got no picture when I clicked, just the story text. Weird. I'd call that a shipping container, not a van. But I still find it hard to believe that thing is water tight enough to get tossed around in the waves across the Pacific and never fill up and sink.

Yes, it is astonishing. A bit of googling suggests that many cargo containers are double-skinned and this means an air pocket is trapped inside its walls. As a result, they tend to float, but are just barely visible, being primarily underwater.