I don't know when I started diggin' motorcycles. I have memories of a detailed, small scale toy as a child, with rubber tyres (as per the Triumph brochures) and springy suspension (that was also on a black and gold John Player Special F1 replica car model, but that's another memory). In Switzerland, as a small bueb, my father took me to a motocross race. I recall standing at the bottom of the hill as muddy bikes flew (literally) by, catching air before landing at the bottom and screaming out of sight, returning some minutes later, again and again.
As a youth in rural Virginia, i coveted my neighbor's Honda Trail 70 that she got for Christmas one year. Now as an adult, and an insurance professional, I can understand her father's hesitation to open up access to the bike to the neighborhood kids. But at that time, I eagerly accepted any occasional offer to ride that machine through the fields and woods.
I think I gave these machines not much thought after that (other than occasional pause when I saw one parked) until years later at work, a buddy who rode small enduro hondas for years around Texas brought up the topic. Unfortunately, the internet was available, and I was hooked for hours on sites by Harley, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Triumph...Reviews, Craigslist, Cycle Trader. Man, I was dreamin'!
Sometime around '00, '01, I finally enrolled in the Motorcycle Safety Course at a local community college. Spent the entire weekend on a Honda 250 Nighthawk, in the rain (except when in the classroom). I passed the test at DMV a couple of weeks later and had my license!
My pal Ken took the course around the same time (we tried to find a weekend we could take it together, but because we were so busy and important and had many duties, it didn't happen) and he was lucky enough to score a Honda Magna 750 (in line 4 cylinder cruiser) from his brother-in-law. Maybe it was a 500.He had many great weekends cruising around Pungo. Maybe I needed a better duty...I got to ride one weekend around the parking lot near his house.
Alright, so the reality of screaming around the roads on a motorcycle lost its appeal a bit. The gravity of what one takes on when mounting a bike was not lost on me in my career as an insurance adjuster. I stopped thinking about bikes as much...
But they were SO COOL! Invariably, I'd pause by a Cycle World mag at Farm Fresh (only decent grocery stores carry Cycle World. If they don't have a copy, then they are sub par. Whole Foods and Fresh Market and Trader Joe's make up for this deficiency in other ways (see past or probably future post on "Beer Selection"). So that ember did not die.
Finally took the plunge in November 2012. It was a busy year--personal best 1/2 Marathon in Chesapeake, last true camping trip (rained out in Crabtree Falls), mom died rather unexpectedly, eldest child graduated high school...what else? As a dreamer and options guy, I generally won't close the deal, but I did. And nothing from the list, go figure...it's a 1997 Honda CB 250 Nighthawk. It started and ran. 'Nuff said! My son and I actually picked it up and put it in the back of our Town & Country. Some cheap Bilt gear from Cycle Gear and I was ridin'....Oh yes, this saga continues....
MONTES Classic Series, Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, Chile
As a youth in rural Virginia, i coveted my neighbor's Honda Trail 70 that she got for Christmas one year. Now as an adult, and an insurance professional, I can understand her father's hesitation to open up access to the bike to the neighborhood kids. But at that time, I eagerly accepted any occasional offer to ride that machine through the fields and woods.
I think I gave these machines not much thought after that (other than occasional pause when I saw one parked) until years later at work, a buddy who rode small enduro hondas for years around Texas brought up the topic. Unfortunately, the internet was available, and I was hooked for hours on sites by Harley, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Triumph...Reviews, Craigslist, Cycle Trader. Man, I was dreamin'!
Sometime around '00, '01, I finally enrolled in the Motorcycle Safety Course at a local community college. Spent the entire weekend on a Honda 250 Nighthawk, in the rain (except when in the classroom). I passed the test at DMV a couple of weeks later and had my license!
My pal Ken took the course around the same time (we tried to find a weekend we could take it together, but because we were so busy and important and had many duties, it didn't happen) and he was lucky enough to score a Honda Magna 750 (in line 4 cylinder cruiser) from his brother-in-law. Maybe it was a 500.He had many great weekends cruising around Pungo. Maybe I needed a better duty...I got to ride one weekend around the parking lot near his house.
Alright, so the reality of screaming around the roads on a motorcycle lost its appeal a bit. The gravity of what one takes on when mounting a bike was not lost on me in my career as an insurance adjuster. I stopped thinking about bikes as much...
But they were SO COOL! Invariably, I'd pause by a Cycle World mag at Farm Fresh (only decent grocery stores carry Cycle World. If they don't have a copy, then they are sub par. Whole Foods and Fresh Market and Trader Joe's make up for this deficiency in other ways (see past or probably future post on "Beer Selection"). So that ember did not die.
Finally took the plunge in November 2012. It was a busy year--personal best 1/2 Marathon in Chesapeake, last true camping trip (rained out in Crabtree Falls), mom died rather unexpectedly, eldest child graduated high school...what else? As a dreamer and options guy, I generally won't close the deal, but I did. And nothing from the list, go figure...it's a 1997 Honda CB 250 Nighthawk. It started and ran. 'Nuff said! My son and I actually picked it up and put it in the back of our Town & Country. Some cheap Bilt gear from Cycle Gear and I was ridin'....Oh yes, this saga continues....
MONTES Classic Series, Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, Chile
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