I got the taste early on…

I started riding when I was around 13 or 14. My brother was getting a used dirt bike, an early ’80s Honda XR80. The night before it was going to show up, he managed to throw himself off a picnic table at a birthday party and smash his collar bone. When it showed up the next day, he said in a huff “you ride it.” So I did.

I took to riding it pretty quickly.

When I was about 18, I got in a fight with my dad. He learned I’d been looking for a motorcycle, and tried to manipulate me so I would stop. That didn’t take. He was furious with me, and we weren’t speaking, but it was my birthday… so he drove up my mother’s driveway, handed me a card without saying a word, and then left again. Inside the card was $50.

I bought my first bike the next day for $50.

That first was a ’71 Honda CB350 that I bought on the side of the road at a yard sale. I saw it leaning against a fence and had to have it. The guy loaded it up in his pickup, and we got it to my house. We pulled in and my mother asked, “What is that?!” “It’s a motorcycle.”

It took me the better part of a year to get the shabby old bike back into some sort of running order, but I did it. By the time I got my motorcycle endorsement, I had a bike to ride. I rode it all over. Ran it out of gas, dropped it, thrashed it, generally had a ball. When I got on the ship, I still had it, but added a second bike. That was pretty much the end of the first, and I gave it away to a guy that worked at a bike shop when we moved South. I don’t have a single photo of it, but it would’ve looked something like this when it was brand new:

It did not look like that when I had it.

My second bike cost just a few hundred dollars ($400 or $600, I can’t remember). It was not quite as rough as the 350, which is to say, it was pretty rough. It was a 1981 Honda CB650 Custom, and I rode it across Massachusetts and back, down to New Jersey and back, and to the boat yard when I was working. Jess rode on it with me in the beginning of our relationship. I gave it away with the 350 when we moved to North Carolina.

The next bike was purchased after we moved to Greensboro. I got it on eBay for around $800, and the seller, who was in Maine, offered to deliver it! He and his son loaded it up in the minivan and drove it on down. It had a bad spot in the starter clutch, but was a beautiful bike. I proceeded to ruin it, then sell it as a basket case that I never put back together. Ah, the folly of youth. I wish I’d outgrow that.

My final bike, that sits waiting for me to see what’s left of it, was a pricey purchase at about $1300. I found original pipes to replace the 4-into-1 exhaust someone had put on, got some other original parts from CMSNL, and generally had fun tinkering on it. It’s a 1984 Honda CB700SC, known more commonly as the Nighthawk 700S. A fascinating bike, designed to defeat the tariffs the government (with Harley Davidson’s encouragement) put into place on imported bikes over 700ccs. It has a DOHC engine, a 6-speed transmission, and is a blast to ride. I’ve done a lot to it, but after a co-worker’s quite serious accident, I’ve lost the appetite to ride, so it sits and awaits its fate. Oh, and please, PLEASE don’t use Kreem tank liner. Use POR-15.

A coworker of mine knew I was into bikes and wrenching, and asked if I’d be willing to help with his. I said sure. It turns out, his was a 2001 Yamaha R6 that had been ridden for around 400 miles then parked. For 10 years. With gas in it. He’d been quoted something like $1500 just to replace the rusted tank at the Yamaha dealership. He had them trailer it to my house, and I got to work. I pulled, cleaned, and lined the tank. I rebuilt the stuck carbs, flushed and refilled the cooling system and hydraulics, and eventually got it running. He let me ride it that summer after I had it inspected for him, and I returned it with about 300 more miles on it. It has sat since. It’s the only sport bike I’ve ever ridden.

And, the only other bike I’ve ridden, my buddy’s spare. Took it from High Point to Denton for a bike fest. Pretty cool bike – I think it was a 1200.