I started riding bikes when I was 13 years old. The first bike I ever rode was my Grandpa Ed’s Honda 90 Trail bike – What a thrill! Since then I have owned (or shared ownership) in the following bikes*
* Some of these pictures were gleaned from the internet as I don’t have pictures of some of the old bikes
- Honda Super 90* (Actually Dad’s)
- Honda 250 Scrambler* (Also Dad’s)
- Hodaka Ace 100* (Ok, it’s a Super Rat)
- Honda CB350* (First Street Bike)
- Kawasaki 100* flat-tracker (Sounded like a bumble-bee)
- Yamaha 250 Enduro* (Ported engine and lowered frame)
- ’74 Suzuki TM 250* (Motocrosser-really fast for those days)
- ’70 Honda CB750* (First bike big enough to travel on-60,000 miles on odometer when we sold it)
- ‘75 Honda CB750F* (Great bike-30,000 on odometer when we sold it)
- Honda CB125 (My son Ben’s bike)
- Suzuki TS 250 (My Son Ben’s bike)
- 2002 Gl1800 Goldwing
When I met Stella, I was still riding dirt bikes and had begun to tour with the first 750 Honda. I still don’t know whether she fell for me or just liked to ride bikes. We dated for 6 months before we went out in a car! She loved to travel on the bike and we went on several trips with 2 other couples and sometimes just the 2 of us. We visited these states in the process;
Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada
In 1980 when our first child (Ben) was born, we decided that motorcycle touring just wasn’t for us (it’s kinda’ hard to get a child safety seat for a motorcycle) so we sold our street bike. We made a promise to ourselves that since we had done lot’s of touring BK (Before Kids) we would do it again AK (After Kids). Well, AK was almost here so we began to shop around for another touring bike.
In 1999 Stella bought us a Yamaha 700 which was a great bike but not exactly a touring bike but it gave us the “bike” bug again.
In 1999 we bought a Sport Touring bike, a 94 Kawasaki Concours.
Nice! We started making trips on that bike until it got totaled by a lady in a SUV!
So we bought a brand new 2001 Connie and took some more trips and thoroughly enjoyed that bike.
In 2003 we bought a Dual Sport Suzuki DR-Z400 for me to hit the trails. In 2005 we bought an 87 Yamaha TW200 for Stella.
In 2006 we opted for something lighter than the Concours with limited off road capabilities – a Suzuki V-Strom and we have been enjoying it ever since..
