The “I had a relationship with this bike” thread

[budman]

I was thinking in my Covid sheltered house about what bikes defined me as a rider and in ways as a person. I came up with a few.

Yamaha Mini Enduro ‘70
CZ 250 ‘72
RD 350 ‘74
RM 250 ‘82
Ninja 600 ‘85
Got to throw in the Roadracing Suzuki’s ...GAMMA, Kanatuna and the GXSR ‘86-‘89

That is a lot of defining in 19 years. :laughing
12 yo to 31. A lot of memories.

There were other bikes but those gave me something and I had feels for them. :love

Then a change in lifestyle. Retired racer. Time to chill for my 3 young kids and focus on saving for college. Etc. life stuff.

So I sold all race stuff and... Harley Softail Custom ‘91. Cruise with the old lady and smell the flowers.

Then divorced!! Financially I got screwed but I got the bike!
Perfect bike for a guy being set free ... 2 weeks a month. Some good years even if I was broke. :teeth

Suzuki TL1000s ‘97. Return to sports and the track.
I crashed of course. Headshake TL classic high side at Laguna T-11
in front of the new wife. A defining moment. I am still riding

Pimped it out as a custom with my best friend.
Still have it.

Yamaha R6 ‘2000 - Vegas fly in with the same best friend. Fly in late night, Party, rent a van and pick up from a distressed collage student. Drive 11 hrs home on 3 hours sleep. :laughing
Dad said sell it or no funds son!! My win!! My go to track bike in my 40’s.

Ducati 2003 998 Bostrom - Wife asked during a WSBK race “What is that bike that Ben is riding he is doing really good” and I said it is a “Ducati. It is like the Ferrari of Motorcycles”.

She thought they were cool and asked “Why don’t you have one?”
Hello! 2 weeks later I was picking up a used one (with 1 factory test mile on it) in San Bernardino and another road trip with the same best friend. Granda had an Italian mistress.

Getting “mature now”.

50 plus kind of dude. I know this is vintage but may as well finish this off. Assuming you are still reading.

Skip forward to 2012 - Ducati Multistrada 1200s.
Opened the highways to a upright comfy
, badass sportbike. Bring on the tight and twisty, bumpy but brilliant mature rider feel young and enthusiastic kind of man roads. :ride

I am going to back fill with some stories about those bikes in future posts but thought you all must have some true loves that defined ya that you might want to share too.

Pics:
Mini Enduro
RD 350
RM 250
RM Glam Photo
Ninja
Kanatuna
GXSR

Next post. Getting OG.

TL1000s
HOG
R6
Bostrom
Multi

 

[budman]

The OG Phase

I am still in it and damn glad I can still ride.
Looking forward to a lot of it in 2021.

Follow up pics.
Sexy single
My custom TL
Vegas R6
998 GP (grandpa) glory
Real road rider
Random smiles..... :ride

 

[tea2jay]

great read, looking forward to more stories. one day you wake up and you're that old guy on the block with a ton of moto stories and hopefully some bikes still too.

Suzuki $300 rat bike special a few friends and I purchased in high school. we left it at the sellers. The first night we picked it up and took turns riding around Oakridge mall parking lot and one of us promptly lowsided coming out of a parking aisle too hot..

Then there was the YSR50, the first bike I ever owned and how I found my way to BARF. It was the early 2000's and in less than 30 days of being signed up to BARF, I had sold the 50cc Yamaha Zuma scooter I recently convinced my parents to let me buy and I was taking that cash to San Francisco to buy a ratty ol' YSR50 off of craigslist. I was driving the family minivan with the seats out and threw that bike right in the back.

Luckily I found eddiemcrider, Manimal, and #1Freak who were all YSR owners at the time and helped set a stupid teenager on the right path and got me hook up with team calamari.

Wasn't long till my parents found a motorcycle, albeit small one, where there should have been a 50cc Zuma. My arguments of the YSR 50 have the same sized engine fell on death ears and it was gone as fast as it came.

I had to go back in my post history for the reminder. Always fun to see what you first post was. In my introduction post, first 2 replies were Gold and Silver :afm199

 

[1962siia]

Nice! I had a very similar 89 gsxr to the one in the pic above. Was a friend's race bike and he just had a kid so I traded him my subaru wagon for it. I had no business riding that bike! :laughing

My ears are still ringing.

 

[budman]

:laughing

I sold mine to one of my employees. He was a 24 hr race team member too. On the test ride he crashed into a curb the first turn and ended up on a lawn. I heard it an ran there. 50 yards. :laughing

He was fine. It was like 10mph.

I said to him that this was not a good call. I can’t sell it to you. He pleaded with me and I said if you leave it at my house for 3 months and we go practice at the church parking lot every weekend we can I will sell it to you.

We did.

He did.

And he lived to tell the tail. :cool

 

[budman]

Yamaha Mini Enduro

Let’s start here.

My first bike.

Obtained by total kid begging.
Wrote a note ...“I want a Yamaha Mini Endruo”.
Copied it a hundred times over... cut little fortune cookie sized notes and put them everywhere in my house.

Taped to the toilet paper in my parents room. Every 12” :laughing
In the pages of my Dads playboy. In between the dishes. In the fridge.
Everywhere.

I wore my parents down. :teeth

I was working it too and saving coin as an 11yo. Mowing lawns and saving a quarter at a time.

They finally relented and dropped 300 large on a bike for me.
It was a huge upgrade from my best friends Honda 50. Felt like a rock star. It ripped. .

Learned how to jump, slide, use a clutch, wheelie and take chances on that bike.
Yeah.. wheelie. I bought the book out of the back of a magazine. Practiced every day wearing out my shoes dragging my feet. Mom got pissed I was wearing out shoes so fast. :laughing

First step to being a rider.

Pics:
The JT1 60
The book “Learn to wheelie”

 

[Pushrod]

1967 neighbor had a Honda Trail 90. Said I could have it if I could get it to run. That requirement bridged the gulf I had with my father. He diagnosed the blocked carb and flogged me through the rebuild.

Made it run, got the title, rode it for a year.

Fifty years later? Oh my god, fifty? Simpleton that I am, I stuck with twins because, well, fewer moving parts. Now, in retirement, the KISS principle was the correct way to go. Wife agrees that my way of simple is appropriate for me.

 

[chrisweir.com]

I won't say it defined me, but this was certainly the most interesting bike I've owned. Bought it directly from the Jordan team, taking it out of the shipping crate and riding it at Laguna were the high points of ownership. :afm199 :ride

Repainted prior to Laguna, kind of a shame in retrospect

 

[budman]

Yeah. Leaving it Jordan would be historical.

Was that Rapp’s ride?

 

[ratpick]

My second bike,1980 KZ 750E.
First bike I dragged pegs on and learned suspension can make a difference!
Wish I had pics

 

[chrisweir.com]

Yeah. Leaving it Jordan would be historical.

Was that Rapp’s ride?

That was Rapps supersport bike in 2005. I kept the Jordan bodywork and painted a second set of glass that came with the bike. I think the Jordan glass did help with the sale...

 

[budman]

Have to pull out the photo album my Mom gave me to grab some pics of the CZ / RM and RD. Last time I looked at it was a year after my Mom passed and I just cried. :rose

Been 10 years.. maybe good to look through it again.
I figured I would add a little "because" to the explaination of "why" these bikes had an impact on me.

Mini Enduro.. Early dirt bike days and my first time running from Johnny Law

A couple of RM stories.

Bees in my goggles

Grandma saw me crash 25 times in one race maybe more..!

The Mrs says face plant here

Right shoes... yeah that's me

The only time my Dad came to a race
Also includes an explanation of my nickname.

A couple of RD stories....

A horse trailer changed the path of my life

Mustard = Mad

Hiding in My High School

Who's yard am I in?

A Kawi 600 Ninja one... Foot on Fire

A Gixxer one...
Hey Son - slide by Hello

Going back to the other thread to write another one up.. kind of lost track of time. :teeth

Adding a pic.. my favorite Race picture.. Ninja times.
Those moments were magic .. and "I love you I will be back in 30 minutes"

 

[tea2jay]

Adding a pic.. my favorite Race picture.. Ninja times.
Those moments were magic .. and "I love you I will be back in 30 minutes"

amazing photo :ride