Motorcycles

I have been riding motorcycles for 40 years. I rode my friends minibike when I was 6. I got my first minibike at 7. I drove my moms CB360 Honda for two years before I got my own bike. I was without a motorcycle between the ages of 16 and 18 having sold my last trail bike and not wanting to bother buying a bike smaller than a 250 (all I was legally allowed to drive) before I turned 18. My motorcycle was my only form of transportation for a different two years while I lived in Illinois. That's right, I drove my bike year round regardless of weather for two years through Illinois winters in the early 80s. It was very exciting. I was without a bike for 3 years during college because I couldn't afford to own one.

My current motorcycle is a 1991 ST1100 Honda. It's a big sport touring bike and I have owned it since 1995. Two weeks after I bought it, I rode that bike the 1700 miles to Phoenix, AZ to see friends. Put a couple of hundred miles on it while in AZ, then rode it the 1700 miles back. It was a tremendously fun ride, although a bit uncomfortable at times. I unfortunately didn't drive it much the 5 years I lived in Phoenix because 9 months out of the year it's too damned hot to ride a motorcycle. Nothing like getting 2nd degree burns on your fingers from using the clutch...that was a lesson I only needed to learn once.

My motorcycle is my primary mode of transportation and has been since I moved up here. Even in the winter, although I no longer voluntarily ride in the rain or snow. Sometimes you get caught out though. I don't know how many miles I've put on motorcycles over the years, but I've put 40,000 on this bike and far more than that on the two CB750s I owned early on. I've unfortunately not had the money to upkeep my ST the way I should which is sad, but it's runs extremely well and has been incredibly reliable all these years.

I've laid a street bike down 4 times in my life. The first was entirely my fault both because I was in a hurry, hadn't had the brakes properly fixed, and forgot that they'd changed the road to not be two lanes past the curve. Almost got the bike into the parking lot, but the last 2' of curb took the bike right out from under me. I was so angry I picked it up 3' off the ground and slammed it down on it's tires. Wasn't the bikes fault though. Second time I blew a downshift on a curve and couldn't adjust fast enough to avoid the loose gravel. Flipped the bike on it's side and threw me off the bike through a backwards somersault and back onto my feet about 10' from the bike. That was a bad day. 3rd time a guy turned right in front of me. Almost got the bike stopped in time but not quite. I cleverly used my left thigh to shield the bike from the car (I'm not shitting you here) and I wouldn't have dropped the bike if the car drive hadn't panicked and pulled forward and to the left, thus pinning my front tire to the curb while pushing my back tire toward the curb with the back end of his car. Not much damage to the bike, just the mirrors, one from hitting the car, one from hitting the curb when he pushed me over. 4th time I went to kung fu class on the bike and by the time I was out of class it had snowed 8". Having ridden in snow many times I was fine until I had to cross a major street that slanted from my right down to my left. Turns out the middle of the intersection was just a sheet of ice. I got half way across and the bike did a 180 spin with the rear tire sliding down hill. I kept it upright until I put my right foot down instead of my left and so toppled down hill. Then I picked my 650lb motorcycle up while standing on an ice sheet when the tires were uphill of the handlebars and pushed it back over to the curb because the light had changed and cars were heading for me. When i got to the curb I realized the bike was still in gear...I'd just slid it the 15' over to the curb. Not much damage to the bike...just the mirrors again.

My ST1100 has been hit 4 times while it was parked. All but one of those times were hit and run. As of the last time it got hit the insurance company scrapped it. They gave me nothing close to the amount it would cost to fix the bike, and won't insure it anymore other than mandatory insurance on other people. Very bad for me and the bike, but it did allow me to pay for the last china trip, and enough of the work to get the bike back on the street. So now my bike is 18 years old, beat up as hell, needs all kinds of work, but still runs very well and is reliable as anything I've ever driven.

My dad taught me to ride when I was 6 years old. Taught me to ride a bicycle when I was 4. We used to go dirt biking/trail riding fairly often when I was a kid, and I rode my minibike in the alley most of every summer when I was a kid. My dad taught me a ton of stuff about how to ride motorcycles, and taught me about how a motorcycle rider should act and about how bikers should stick together. Some of that isn't really valid anymore, although I kinda try to act like it is. My dad stopped riding motorcycles when he was younger than I am now or about my current age. One too many close calls. I've had them myself. I've had 3 semis pull into the lane I was driving in on the interstate while I was half way along the truck. I had a van emergency brake and make a right turn from the middle lane of a 3 lane road while I was right behind it in the right hand lane. The number of times people have changed lanes in their vehicles while I was right next to them is too many to remember. I've had people decide that they didn't need to get over on those streets that are only barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. I've had several people follow too close then have to emergency brake (while I moved forward and out of the way) in order to not hit me when I stopped.

It is incredibly dangerous when I think about it logically, but when I'm riding it doesn't seem dangerous I just have to pay close attention, which is what everybody should be doing while driving. Then it wouldn't be nearly so dangerous.

Riding motorcycles is one of the most basic sheer joys in my life. It takes a monumentally bad day or bad weather to keep me from feeling better just by getting on the bike. And I owe it all to my mom and dad who not only encouraged me to ride, but went out of their way to make sure I knew how to do it correctly and had the opportunities to do so.

My bikes:
A green "chopper" 2.5horse power minibike (7th birthday, it looked nothing like my memory of it)
1970 Honda CT70 orange (9th birthday)
1971 Honda SL100 yellow (11th birthday)
1976 Honda TL125 silver/red (13th birthday)
1980-1982 no motorcycle but a crappy 1967 mustang that I rebuilt and repainted only to wreck.
CB360 orange (My moms...road it from 1982-1985)
1982 CB750R black/red (first motorcycle I bought. $1312 in 1985)
1988 CBR1000F Hurricane silver (bought in 1989 for $5795, got a $1200 trade in for the 750)
1982 CB750R silver (bought in 1990...the Hurricane was uncomfortable but wow did I get screwed in that deal basically traded even up for the 2 year old hurricane)
1991-1994 sold the CB750R silver for $600...another total ripoff, but I couldn't afford to keep it any longer.
1991 ST1000 silver (bought in 1994 for $7553 with 1500 miles on it)

I was going to try to figure out how many miles I've put on the bikes I've personally purchased, but it turns out that while I have a ton of paperwork on them, the Honda shop in Champaign never bothered to put mileage on the paperwork. So I can tell you how many miles each of my bikes had when I bought them, but not when I sold them.