Why I ride on two wheels

I seen them on TV and knew I had to get one.
Brad Lackey on the kawi doing carlsbad.
King Kenny hitting a guard rail and still riding w/ a broken back.

So I started w/ the dirt bikes then moved on to Road racing.

 

I was never around bikes when i was a kid, noone in my family rides, but i always wanted one and when i was little i would tell anyone who would listen that i was gonna buy a motorcycle when i grew up. finally this past summer as a 21st birthday gift to myself i bought a brand new 07 rwb vfr800. best day of my life. a couple of my friends ride and they had let me get on their bikes and such, but now that i have mine i will never not have a motorcycle again. you feel so free, it relieves stress and anger like going to the gym. ive never been happier than when ripping down the highway lol.

 

Everybody always gives me crap about the fog lights, But they are the shit at night man. Let there be light.
I thought they were stupid when I got the bike and was gonna ditch em but once I rode around with them I liked em and figured I would be different than everyone else.

 

Its all commercially available and legal stuff. Photo included. Just referred to the fact that it is not used in its “raw” form but converted to a more user friendly format as in the bottom right of the picture. Then again, it would be easy to confuse it for that medicinal stuff they chat about on ‘hightimes.com’ would it not? Not that I have any interest in that sort of thing!

 

Have u taken the MSF course? It's a great learning experience and just might save your ass some time. Only reason I ask is that you are only 21 and may not have taken the course. If u did, that's great and if you didn't sign up ASAP. Congrats on getting that bike you wanted so desperately. I remember feeling the same way at 17 when I bought my first bike which was a Honda step thru scooter 50cc. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" was the slogan at the time. I rode the wheels off that thing and then came a series of bigger and bigger bikes until I got married and then went like 25 years w/out riding before getting back on 2 wheels about 13-14 years ago. Since then I have had a Honda, Kawasaki, three Harleys, and then back to cruisers before getting the VFR last summer. Traded my VTX 1800 even for the 04VFR plus a little cash. I got sick of horsing that 850 lb beast around and wanted a sport tourer of some sort. Tried a bunch of them before settling on the VFR. I actually went into the dealer looking at a FZ1 and I spotted the 04 with 2300 miles and pretty much spotless. Age 64 and riding a "sport" tourer. Never saw that coming but best choice I ever made.

 

Yes sir i have taken it. i took it about a month prior to buying the bike. Once I realized i had enough income to buy the bike and that i was actually going to do it, after talking about it my whole life, i immediately signed up for the course. It was awesome for me in learning how to ride properly, I knew how but didnt KNOW how. The one thing that sucks about those things is i learned in a nighthawk 250, which is like a bicycle compared to the vfr haha.

 

The first real freedom I ever experienced in my life was when I was 12 years old. My Honda 90 with a MACK truck bulldog bolted to the front fender was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Worked for three summers cutting grass to buy that thing. Freedom, its all about about adventure and freedom and the older we get the more important that is!

 

I grew up in the "Hood". Parents did not really "approve" of bikes (or so they claim) but I can't remember a time as a youngster that I didn't have a mini bike or some project bike around. While lacking in specific parental approval the notion was that a bike (or a cool project) would somehow keep me and my brothers out of other trouble which was all around. The real turning point came when the family finally left the hood and moved to 5 acres in the sticks. There was an old house there that required a complete overhaul and even though only 10-12 years old, my brother and I were expected to help. We had each saved some paper route money and used it to purchase a couple of Suzuki TS185's (early 70's). It really seemed to get under dad's skin that we would skip school and rip around on these rather than help him with the house project. One day he sanctioned our absenteeism from school by telling us he would keep us home but we had to help him. He had some topsoil delivered and was going to start a vegetable garden and we were to be the shovel operators (it was a really big garden). So we're shoveling and cursing our existance when dad announces he has to take the truck to the hardware store and we "damn well better keep shoveling and stay off those friggin bikes while he's gone". As soon as he leaves we fire up the bikes, ride them to the top of the pile of topsoil and start spinning the knobbies. When the old guy returned a short time letter he was visibly torn between his amazement of how well (and quickly) we'd spread that topsoil and just how pissed he was that we'd ignored his instructions. Obviously, amazement won out as my dad went out and bought himself 3 (THREE) (Yes, THREE) motorcycles the very next day and told us we needed to teach him to ride as soon as we got home from school! I have never since lacked a motorcycle and can't even recall a brief period of owning only one. I had many great rides with my dad but he only rode for a few years (seems his teachers could not provide him with the necessary skills to really enjoy the sport to it's fullest). My own sons have been riding since they were 3 and 5 years old, are both awesome riders (now 20 and 23 years old) and pilot some truly fearsome equipment with tremendous skill and much happiness!

 

Five acres = Nirvanna! for a 12 year old.

 

After thirty years of riding moto and streetbike, I am taking a riding course this spring to sharpen up my skills. I figured it couldn't hurt since my ninety-eight is the most powerful road bike I have ever had. Call me what you want, but it might just save my life someday. Dont worry about what other people think, there always room for knowledge.

 

I like them, who makes them? It can get real foggy around here in fall.

 

100% agree, and it usually gets you a nice little drop on your insurance if you produce the piece of paper they give you, saved me a couple hundred.

 

I like reading these, more please.