Tell the story of your first bike both in words and pictures!
My first?
1978 Suzuki TS185. It was Dads, he used to put me on the tank, my sister on the rear half of the seat (she was older & bigger and could old on) and ride through the woods with one hand on the throttle and the other arm around me so I didn't fall off. Every time he went for a ride, either before or after, we would go for a ride. When I was 9 or 10, I took my first solo ride and was hooked.
When Dad brought it home in 1978. That's me on the tank ready to ride. I was hooked from a young age.
Me, Dad and sister about 1980:
The piston seized sometime in the early 90s from a faulty oil pump. It sat in the shed neglected and collecting dust from then on. I didn't throw my leg over another motorcycle until 2000.
I bought my first house in 2005, and that winter, I wanted to tinker. I called Dad to see if he minded if I came and got the TS, and he didn't, it was just in his way. So, I headed over and loaded it up, dust and all.
So, that winter, in my dining room (can you tell I was a bachelor at the time?), I did a top-end rebuild on the TS. 1MM over due to all of the damage from removing the seized piston.
After a top-end rebuild (seized piston) and cleanup you can't really tell it is nearly 35 years old:
I still have the TS185, but it is in need of a full restoration or a donor bike that I can rob the electrics off of so I can inspect & title it for the street. I've had some great off-road fun. I even dislocated my 2nd to last toe hard enough to bruise my little toe riding it. The day before school started back for me as a teacher.
First road bike: 1981 Suzuki GS650 in the color pictured. I wasn't sure of myself, so I ran TWO tanks of gas out riding it around the 30 acres of field and woods at my parents. With street tires.
Here's some continuation to my story:
As I grew into riding, I sold the GS650 and purchased a 2002 Suzuki Bandit 600S. That was a really great bike, I really wish I hadn't sold it. No pictures of it, but it was a GREAT bike. I took my first trip to Deals Gap, kept dragging my foot (n00b riding position) and thought that I needed a bike with better cornering clearance. So, away went the Bandit, and then, this came home in its place:
2002 GSXR-600
That was a QUICK bike. It was "just" a 600, but was simply a rocket. Light, easy flick back and forth, and just a hoot to ride. Sadly, bad decision making and poor judgement sent it into a Blue Ridge Parkway guardrail at nearly 100MPH. It only had 1700 miles on the odometer. Luckily, I walked away. I was a bit of a squid, so I was REALLY lucky. Tennis shoes, jeans, leather jacket and helmet was the all I was wearing when I crashed. I really miss that one too, it was a fun bike.
Post crash (crashed in May) in July, I found "Molly." 1999 Monster 750 that the PO had recently crashed. It started life as a Monster Dark, but was repainted yellow.
How she looked when bought & on first ride:
A bit later, still in same form:
First trip to Deals Gap in 2003 (still hadn't learned to wear full gear like I do now)
I still have Molly. My wife and I left our wedding on it, in tux and wedding dress and all! I've had a great relationship with that little M750. I've redone forks and the rear spring to make up for the bottom-end suspension the Darks used to get. I've nearly traded Molly twice, but never have been able to part with her. One of them, I had even picked out and named the new bike. It was a gray w/ black stripe Monster S2R1000. I had picked the name Mileena for it even. In the end, I couldn't do it, Molly is special to me.
Over the years as the desire to tinker came along, I also have a couple other noteworthy bikes come and go.
The most notorious in this house was the Suzuki GS1150ES. That was only bike my wife has ever been scared of. She took one ride with me and said "Never again will I ride on that one." With those, you had a pile of power (mine even more, it had a cam designed for drag racing) but the frame, suspension, and brakes were NOT up to the task of controlling the power the motor put out.
The GS1150:
I wrote a whole story called "The Dinosaur Affair" about that bike too. Riding it was fun, challenging and scary all at the same time.
The last one to come and go:
Late one January night, I won an ebay auction. That auction was a repo'ed 2000 Supersport 900 in the same yellow as Molly. It was a match made in my mind. The next day, I went and picked up "Syreena." We drove home in a snow storm, so bad that when I got home, the entire bike was caked in ice. It was bad.
Syreena:
We had some great times. The "wheelie-on-command" of the 900 was a hoot. So was that nasty snarl from the airbox and the rumble from the Sil-Moto carbon mufflers. Sadly, I sold her a couple years ago now. Fun bike, but as I spent time riding and wrenching, putting in a clutch pack & replacing the chain at 15,000 miles, it was obvious the bike had been abused so I let her move on.
I went on to write a nifty comparison of the Monster 750 and the Supersport 900 as well.
That's the rest of my story for now.
JM
My first?
1978 Suzuki TS185. It was Dads, he used to put me on the tank, my sister on the rear half of the seat (she was older & bigger and could old on) and ride through the woods with one hand on the throttle and the other arm around me so I didn't fall off. Every time he went for a ride, either before or after, we would go for a ride. When I was 9 or 10, I took my first solo ride and was hooked.
When Dad brought it home in 1978. That's me on the tank ready to ride. I was hooked from a young age.
Me, Dad and sister about 1980:
The piston seized sometime in the early 90s from a faulty oil pump. It sat in the shed neglected and collecting dust from then on. I didn't throw my leg over another motorcycle until 2000.
I bought my first house in 2005, and that winter, I wanted to tinker. I called Dad to see if he minded if I came and got the TS, and he didn't, it was just in his way. So, I headed over and loaded it up, dust and all.
So, that winter, in my dining room (can you tell I was a bachelor at the time?), I did a top-end rebuild on the TS. 1MM over due to all of the damage from removing the seized piston.
After a top-end rebuild (seized piston) and cleanup you can't really tell it is nearly 35 years old:
I still have the TS185, but it is in need of a full restoration or a donor bike that I can rob the electrics off of so I can inspect & title it for the street. I've had some great off-road fun. I even dislocated my 2nd to last toe hard enough to bruise my little toe riding it. The day before school started back for me as a teacher.
First road bike: 1981 Suzuki GS650 in the color pictured. I wasn't sure of myself, so I ran TWO tanks of gas out riding it around the 30 acres of field and woods at my parents. With street tires.
Here's some continuation to my story:
As I grew into riding, I sold the GS650 and purchased a 2002 Suzuki Bandit 600S. That was a really great bike, I really wish I hadn't sold it. No pictures of it, but it was a GREAT bike. I took my first trip to Deals Gap, kept dragging my foot (n00b riding position) and thought that I needed a bike with better cornering clearance. So, away went the Bandit, and then, this came home in its place:
2002 GSXR-600
That was a QUICK bike. It was "just" a 600, but was simply a rocket. Light, easy flick back and forth, and just a hoot to ride. Sadly, bad decision making and poor judgement sent it into a Blue Ridge Parkway guardrail at nearly 100MPH. It only had 1700 miles on the odometer. Luckily, I walked away. I was a bit of a squid, so I was REALLY lucky. Tennis shoes, jeans, leather jacket and helmet was the all I was wearing when I crashed. I really miss that one too, it was a fun bike.
Post crash (crashed in May) in July, I found "Molly." 1999 Monster 750 that the PO had recently crashed. It started life as a Monster Dark, but was repainted yellow.
How she looked when bought & on first ride:
A bit later, still in same form:
First trip to Deals Gap in 2003 (still hadn't learned to wear full gear like I do now)
I still have Molly. My wife and I left our wedding on it, in tux and wedding dress and all! I've had a great relationship with that little M750. I've redone forks and the rear spring to make up for the bottom-end suspension the Darks used to get. I've nearly traded Molly twice, but never have been able to part with her. One of them, I had even picked out and named the new bike. It was a gray w/ black stripe Monster S2R1000. I had picked the name Mileena for it even. In the end, I couldn't do it, Molly is special to me.
Over the years as the desire to tinker came along, I also have a couple other noteworthy bikes come and go.
The most notorious in this house was the Suzuki GS1150ES. That was only bike my wife has ever been scared of. She took one ride with me and said "Never again will I ride on that one." With those, you had a pile of power (mine even more, it had a cam designed for drag racing) but the frame, suspension, and brakes were NOT up to the task of controlling the power the motor put out.
The GS1150:
I wrote a whole story called "The Dinosaur Affair" about that bike too. Riding it was fun, challenging and scary all at the same time.
The last one to come and go:
Late one January night, I won an ebay auction. That auction was a repo'ed 2000 Supersport 900 in the same yellow as Molly. It was a match made in my mind. The next day, I went and picked up "Syreena." We drove home in a snow storm, so bad that when I got home, the entire bike was caked in ice. It was bad.
Syreena:
We had some great times. The "wheelie-on-command" of the 900 was a hoot. So was that nasty snarl from the airbox and the rumble from the Sil-Moto carbon mufflers. Sadly, I sold her a couple years ago now. Fun bike, but as I spent time riding and wrenching, putting in a clutch pack & replacing the chain at 15,000 miles, it was obvious the bike had been abused so I let her move on.
I went on to write a nifty comparison of the Monster 750 and the Supersport 900 as well.
That's the rest of my story for now.
JM
Source: http://www.esportbike.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145027&goto=newpost
Jacques Bernard Adrian Bernetic Manfred Bernsee Bruno Bertacchini Silvano Bertarelli
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