Well, after 12 years of not riding, I finally jumped back on the bike bandwagon with a 2003 'Busa.
Scary! 70 mph out of the dealership parking lot without even trying and without even shifting. Whoa, horsey. Needless to say, I got it under control immediately and I've been putting around town since!
Let's see, first bike I ever rode was all the dirt bikes my buddies had as kids. My old man would never let me get a bike. Nothing faster than pedal power, that is. Dang. Anyway, my buddies would always let me sneak a ride in from time to time.
Fast forward to age 22 when I was so dirt poor, I bought a Honda CB400 from my cousin for $400.00. Got licensed and was off and running after that. Until about five months later. I and a 15 year-old son of a family friend jumped on the ol' CB and went down to the local C-store for some smokes. As we came out of the store and were getting helmeted up to go back home, he said, "Now don't get hit!" We laughed it off.
Half mile later, I was splitting traffic approaching a red light. When I was about 25 feet from the intersection, the light changed to green. I hate being between the lines of cars when the light changes to green so I gunned it to shoot through the intersection. A Toyota Tercel ran the light from the left and I very nearly got past him but he managed to clip my rear tire just enough to take us down. I estimate I was doing about 25 or 30 mph at the time and I hit the ground, falling left, and landed on my chest on the left side. My left knee was pinned under the bike as I slid on out across the intersection. My friend's son came off the back of the bike running and crossed the entire intersection behind me in two big giant steps. What's incredible is he didn't lose his balance and fall right away. As he came to a stop, he fell and skinned up his hands and knees a little and I think he broke the big toe on one foot.
Somehow, I had rolled around enough to look back at him during all of that and saw what was going on. A moment later, my helmet hit the curb on the other side of the intersection and the bike piled itself up on top of me. The Toyota sped off into the distance, never to be seen again.
I jumped up and rescued my buddy's son from where he had fallen. We jumped back on the bike, hurtin' like hell and drove away. The next day, something shorted out on the bike and it never ran again. I was able to sell it for $50 to someone who wanted it for parts. A couple days later, a couple of my other friends forced me to go to the hospital where an evil nurse with horns and fangs and fire shooting out of her eyes scrubbed the asphalt out of my knee with a wire brush while I screamed in agony. No, she didn't use any pain killers! ;-)
So, I was again restricted to the LA-RTD bus again. Bummer. About two years later, I bought a cheap car and a year or so after that, bought a Honda 750 Shadow. That was a great bike and I enjoyed riding it a great deal. But it had a clicking problem with the lifters and I turned that bike around a couple years later and sold it to a guy who said he could fix it.
At one point in there, my cousin's bf loaned me an 1100 GSXR so we could go cruising for a day and I was hooked. Permanently. Scared the hell out of myself on more than one occasion that day but that was the end of the road for me. I knew I needed a sport bike and that was the one I needed.
Got married somewhere in there. A couple of years after that, I bought an '89 1100 Katana, bored it out to a 1260, blueprinted the engine, put a V&H pipe on it, replace the box filter with four K&N's and had a VERY comfortable sport bike. The 1100 Katana was a much more comfortable ride than the 1100 Gixxer. I'm 6'4" and weigh 250 lbs and after a day on the Gixxer, I'd been hurtin' really bad. The Katana, however, was plenty comfortable to go to Phoenix or Vegas and not require three hours of recovery time.
At the same time, it was a sleeper bike. It wasn't able to get off the line like a quick little 600 or 750 Ninja but it would ALWAYS overtake them and leave them breathing fumes. Great bike.
Here's where you're going to laugh. I sold that bike 12 years ago to my brother-in-law so I could buy a piano. Yup. I'm a concert pianist. Or rather, became one in the intervening 12 years! Go ahead and laugh, I do! hehehe.
Okay, so for the last 3 years, I've been drooling over that 'Busa I saw in a shop one day. My old friend, the 1100 Katana was no longer being made by Suzuki and I was dreading getting a Gixxer. Great bike and all but not made for me, regrettably. The 'Busa, however, was just perfect for me. I was taking the occasion to sneak into a shop on occasion just to drool over the crazy thing but never could bring myself to spend the bucks. One excuse after the other would stop me.
For whatever reason, I read something a month ago or saw something that fanned that slow-burning ember into a white hot flame of desire for a 'Busa. Couldn't shut it off. I was consumed by it and I just KNEW I was going to finally buy the 'Busa. It was kind of a relief, actually. I had been eaten up by the cancer for so long, I was finally going to get the 'Busa cure! Went shopping and . . .
. . . as you all know, nobody has any any more. I called every dealer in So. CA and NOBODY had one. Even started calling Phoenix and couldn't find one. Finally, found a used 2003 with 6K miles on it here at a near local dealer. Beautiful bike. Gave me a great deal on it and the helmet.
So, after 12 years of not being on a bike of any kind, except in my dreams, I finally finish up the paperwork and jump on the bike to take it home. After a couple of wobbly moments in the parking lot, I took it out on the street and HOLY SMOKE BABY!!! 70 mph in a couple of seconds in first gear. Scared the you-know-what outta me, I can tell you that much!
And for the last couple of weeks, I've been puttering around like a little old man on a monster bike! Not really. Just have a healthy respect for what this puppy can do. And is it ever beautiful. The previous owner put a custom pipe on it and a Zero Gravity screen. Oh, and a pair of handgrips which are lifted an inch or so. It's a HUGELY comfortable ride for me.
One of the best things? My loving woman of 15 years has NOOOOOO problem with it and loves it nearly as much as I do! What could possibly be any better than putting your babe on the back and blasting around town! ;-)
Glad I found this board. I'm a beginner in every sense of the word but I will hopefully get back to at least the peon level I was at many years ago.
--Wag--
Scary! 70 mph out of the dealership parking lot without even trying and without even shifting. Whoa, horsey. Needless to say, I got it under control immediately and I've been putting around town since!
Let's see, first bike I ever rode was all the dirt bikes my buddies had as kids. My old man would never let me get a bike. Nothing faster than pedal power, that is. Dang. Anyway, my buddies would always let me sneak a ride in from time to time.
Fast forward to age 22 when I was so dirt poor, I bought a Honda CB400 from my cousin for $400.00. Got licensed and was off and running after that. Until about five months later. I and a 15 year-old son of a family friend jumped on the ol' CB and went down to the local C-store for some smokes. As we came out of the store and were getting helmeted up to go back home, he said, "Now don't get hit!" We laughed it off.
Half mile later, I was splitting traffic approaching a red light. When I was about 25 feet from the intersection, the light changed to green. I hate being between the lines of cars when the light changes to green so I gunned it to shoot through the intersection. A Toyota Tercel ran the light from the left and I very nearly got past him but he managed to clip my rear tire just enough to take us down. I estimate I was doing about 25 or 30 mph at the time and I hit the ground, falling left, and landed on my chest on the left side. My left knee was pinned under the bike as I slid on out across the intersection. My friend's son came off the back of the bike running and crossed the entire intersection behind me in two big giant steps. What's incredible is he didn't lose his balance and fall right away. As he came to a stop, he fell and skinned up his hands and knees a little and I think he broke the big toe on one foot.
Somehow, I had rolled around enough to look back at him during all of that and saw what was going on. A moment later, my helmet hit the curb on the other side of the intersection and the bike piled itself up on top of me. The Toyota sped off into the distance, never to be seen again.
I jumped up and rescued my buddy's son from where he had fallen. We jumped back on the bike, hurtin' like hell and drove away. The next day, something shorted out on the bike and it never ran again. I was able to sell it for $50 to someone who wanted it for parts. A couple days later, a couple of my other friends forced me to go to the hospital where an evil nurse with horns and fangs and fire shooting out of her eyes scrubbed the asphalt out of my knee with a wire brush while I screamed in agony. No, she didn't use any pain killers! ;-)
So, I was again restricted to the LA-RTD bus again. Bummer. About two years later, I bought a cheap car and a year or so after that, bought a Honda 750 Shadow. That was a great bike and I enjoyed riding it a great deal. But it had a clicking problem with the lifters and I turned that bike around a couple years later and sold it to a guy who said he could fix it.
At one point in there, my cousin's bf loaned me an 1100 GSXR so we could go cruising for a day and I was hooked. Permanently. Scared the hell out of myself on more than one occasion that day but that was the end of the road for me. I knew I needed a sport bike and that was the one I needed.
Got married somewhere in there. A couple of years after that, I bought an '89 1100 Katana, bored it out to a 1260, blueprinted the engine, put a V&H pipe on it, replace the box filter with four K&N's and had a VERY comfortable sport bike. The 1100 Katana was a much more comfortable ride than the 1100 Gixxer. I'm 6'4" and weigh 250 lbs and after a day on the Gixxer, I'd been hurtin' really bad. The Katana, however, was plenty comfortable to go to Phoenix or Vegas and not require three hours of recovery time.
At the same time, it was a sleeper bike. It wasn't able to get off the line like a quick little 600 or 750 Ninja but it would ALWAYS overtake them and leave them breathing fumes. Great bike.
Here's where you're going to laugh. I sold that bike 12 years ago to my brother-in-law so I could buy a piano. Yup. I'm a concert pianist. Or rather, became one in the intervening 12 years! Go ahead and laugh, I do! hehehe.
Okay, so for the last 3 years, I've been drooling over that 'Busa I saw in a shop one day. My old friend, the 1100 Katana was no longer being made by Suzuki and I was dreading getting a Gixxer. Great bike and all but not made for me, regrettably. The 'Busa, however, was just perfect for me. I was taking the occasion to sneak into a shop on occasion just to drool over the crazy thing but never could bring myself to spend the bucks. One excuse after the other would stop me.
For whatever reason, I read something a month ago or saw something that fanned that slow-burning ember into a white hot flame of desire for a 'Busa. Couldn't shut it off. I was consumed by it and I just KNEW I was going to finally buy the 'Busa. It was kind of a relief, actually. I had been eaten up by the cancer for so long, I was finally going to get the 'Busa cure! Went shopping and . . .
. . . as you all know, nobody has any any more. I called every dealer in So. CA and NOBODY had one. Even started calling Phoenix and couldn't find one. Finally, found a used 2003 with 6K miles on it here at a near local dealer. Beautiful bike. Gave me a great deal on it and the helmet.
So, after 12 years of not being on a bike of any kind, except in my dreams, I finally finish up the paperwork and jump on the bike to take it home. After a couple of wobbly moments in the parking lot, I took it out on the street and HOLY SMOKE BABY!!! 70 mph in a couple of seconds in first gear. Scared the you-know-what outta me, I can tell you that much!
And for the last couple of weeks, I've been puttering around like a little old man on a monster bike! Not really. Just have a healthy respect for what this puppy can do. And is it ever beautiful. The previous owner put a custom pipe on it and a Zero Gravity screen. Oh, and a pair of handgrips which are lifted an inch or so. It's a HUGELY comfortable ride for me.
One of the best things? My loving woman of 15 years has NOOOOOO problem with it and loves it nearly as much as I do! What could possibly be any better than putting your babe on the back and blasting around town! ;-)
Glad I found this board. I'm a beginner in every sense of the word but I will hopefully get back to at least the peon level I was at many years ago.
--Wag--
