06-20-2014, 08:21 AM
My story is about starting to ride late in life instead of quitting but similar to others on here. I grew up in the 70s and come from a family where nobody rode motorcycles. Only one person in my neighborhood even had a mini bike and he almost killed himself on it when he lost control and careened down a steep hill into a creek while celebrating with the brand new bike on his 8th birthday haha....what a fiasco. Anyway, my parents felt bikes were taboo so I never figured I would have one.
After my first year of college and a lot of partying I had a chance to ride on the back of a friend's CB350 (this was 1980). I loved the feeling of being on that bike and he said he was selling it to move on to better things. I offered him $500 for the bike and he accepted on a Friday, saying he would keep it that weekend and shine it up for me and I could pick it up Monday. I gave him a $250 deposit and he subsequently took it out for one last ride before turning it over to me and he totalled it after he broadsided a lady who had turned left in front of him. He was beat up pretty good and I took it as a sign that owning a bike wasn't meant to be. I got my money back and didn't even blink when I saw a bike for the next 30 years, had totally lost interest.
Then 2010 rolls around and I lost my dad to a freak accident and then my mother a year later and then the middle age stuff fully kicked in. The next thing I knew I was at the local Kawasaki dealer with my butt parked on a new Vulcan 900 with a stupid grin on my face and I had to have it. So, at the present age of 52 I've been riding a little less than three years and I'm on my third bike and loving it. I plan on riding as long as my body can take it.
After my first year of college and a lot of partying I had a chance to ride on the back of a friend's CB350 (this was 1980). I loved the feeling of being on that bike and he said he was selling it to move on to better things. I offered him $500 for the bike and he accepted on a Friday, saying he would keep it that weekend and shine it up for me and I could pick it up Monday. I gave him a $250 deposit and he subsequently took it out for one last ride before turning it over to me and he totalled it after he broadsided a lady who had turned left in front of him. He was beat up pretty good and I took it as a sign that owning a bike wasn't meant to be. I got my money back and didn't even blink when I saw a bike for the next 30 years, had totally lost interest.
Then 2010 rolls around and I lost my dad to a freak accident and then my mother a year later and then the middle age stuff fully kicked in. The next thing I knew I was at the local Kawasaki dealer with my butt parked on a new Vulcan 900 with a stupid grin on my face and I had to have it. So, at the present age of 52 I've been riding a little less than three years and I'm on my third bike and loving it. I plan on riding as long as my body can take it.