The ineluctable motorcycle posts of 2005
OK, first things first…a little background on me:

In 1995 my mother earned a living by babysitting from our home. One of her kids in particular took quite a liking to me and would hang around me all the time. One day, he brought a diecast toy motorcycle with him. This will seem very stupid to some, but that toy kicked off my entire fascination with motorcycles. I’ve been addicted ever since. I can still remember that toy. It was a red Kawasaki Ninja sportbike. And all my young mind could think was how cool it would be to have one of these machines. And thus began my two-wheeled dream. Unfortunately, I was only 14 years old and to get a license for a motorcycle, you have to be at least 16.

Jump ahead a year to 1996…my parents just bought their first convertible car and the Indiana Pacers were HUGE in my state and especially in my city. The family was out one day for a drive with the top down and the unofficial theme song for the Pacers came on the radio. So, naturally, my sister and I began waving our arms back and forth in the air (the customary and highly recognizable gesture for this song). Then I spotted the lime green sportbike coming towards our car in the oncoming lane. When the rider was close enough, he (or possibly she) took notice of the enthusiast antics from the backseat of the convertible, let go of the handlebars and began to wave his (or her) arms back and forth as well in rhythm with ours. As he/she passed our car, the rider (in full leather gear and helmet) looked our way, gave a big thumbs up and wheelied past us. At the time, in my young mind, this was undeniably the pinnacle of all cool things! And then my mother piped up with, “Don’t you even think YOU’RE ever getting one of those stupid things!”

So now I was 15 years old (still too young) AND my mother clearly disapproved of my dream.

Not that I'm one to let a challenge get me down…

In 2002, I was 20 years old, still in college and my parents had just divorced. My mother decided to move back to her childhood hometown in Kentucky and my father moved to a smaller house across town. My sister is an undependable terd 99% of the time so I helped my father as much as possible on weekends between school helping him get settled into his new house. And my reward was more than I could handle almost. Mom was gone and that meant that two-wheeled vehicles were fair game now.

The trip to buy my first motorcycle was the longest 30 minutes of my entire life!

And so, my addiction began…and has grown steadily ever since. In the past 3 seasons, I have grown in many ways as a rider and my skill level is remarkable.

And now it is 2005 and time for a new bike. See I buy a new bike every year in the spring (usually April) and then turn around and sell it in late fall (October or so). Normally you would think it would be a better choice to just buy one bike and stick with that one, but as my skills increase, I like to further myself by stepping up in technology, size, power and speed. In chronological order from first to most recent, my bikes have been:


2002 Kawasaki Ninja EX250 (250cc)


2000 Kawasaki ZX-6R (600cc)


2003 Kawasaki ZX-636R (636cc)

And this year, I have prospected and chosen my ideal next step:


2005 Suzuki GSX-R750 (750cc)

And if any of you are riders or safety advocates, I will also be adding these to my collection this year as well:





Anyway, so the general purpose of this post is really just to warn my readers that in the next 2 months or so, much of my blogging material will likely have something to do with accounts from riding. Hopefully this doesn’t get annoying, but the most interesting things happen to me when I’m riding.

And so it begins…

CHEERS!

- posted by The Outlaw @ 8:23:00 PM