My Riding History

I'm not an inexperienced rider. I've probably logged in excess of 100k motorcycle miles in my lifetime. A single-vehicle motorcycle wreck is something from my youthful days of riding much faster than I could think. My riding experience includes the following bikes:

1969ish Yamaha DT-90 dirt bike - 2-3 years in Tulsa, OK - from age 10.

This bike was off the ground more than it was on it. Dirt riding is a blast!

1973 Suzuki GT-550 - age 16 - 2 years in Tulsa, OK - if the postman delivered, I rode. I was just a little bit stupid.

Three days after I bought this bike (for $75), I crashed it. I wanted to keep it so badly that I rode to a cycle salvage yard and spent another $75 repairing it. ☺ After that - I learned to ride. Second wreck was also dumb - I bought a brand-new rear tire and following my friend, David Carpenter out of the bike shop, I gunned it and the bike and I laid there spinning together. That was it. I learned how to keep it up after two good wrecks.

1978 Suzuki GS-550E - age 18 - 3 years in Tucson, AZ and back and forth to Tulsa.

Parents were very displeased about this - my first purchase in college - but I rode this bike all the time since it was a lot cheaper. Tucson weather, of course, is very conducive to riding. The mountains in New Mexico during Spring break are another story. This bike went down twice. First time was a rear tire blowout in Las Cruces, NM (Spring break trip). This put me seven hours behind schedule, and man, did it ever get cold up around Ruidoso that night! The second time was a left-turning driver coming out of a parking lot while I was riding in the right lane. No place for me to go except through my windshield and onto the road. But, no serious injuries, thankfully.

1981 Kawasaki CSR-650 - age 21 - 3 years in Tucson, AZ, across the country a couple times, down to Mexico, just about everywhere!

Loved this bike! Only down once on the day it was destroyed... I had a blowout on it once with my girlfriend who is now my wife on the back. We were passing a class A motor-home when it happened and the bike just started wobbling in the back. I thought she was messing around and turned and ask what she was doing. When I heard 'nothing' I realized it was time to stop. Turns out the Kawasaki engineers saved our lives that day by putting rim locks on the 650. Three weeks after our wedding, I was driving down the 'suicide lane' and a cager decided to use my lane to make an illegal left going the opposite direction. The resulting crash resulted in knee and arm surgery, about a one year recovery, the loss of my bike, and seventeen years without one.

2005 Honda ST1300! Age 40! Not done riding this one yet!

On May 14, 2005, Monica said "Why don't you go get that motorcycle you've been wanting?" She didn't have to tell me twice! I went looking for a Gold Wing, but ended up taking the ST1300 mostly due to the cost. I'd still like to have a GL1800, but I'm not about to give up my ST for it!

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