Got divorced.

buddy bought 1000RR said it was fun.

took MSF (been 20 years since on a bike) to ride his bike and figure out what type of riding I wanted to do.

Rode 1000RR for a little, too much bike for me.

bought a 'buyers guide'magazine

read magazinewhile moving a yacht to Miami

called dealerships in Florida, cheapest one was in Miami

walked in bought bike.

told buddy with 1000RR to get a trailer

picked it up after it was assembled.

 

I wanted a motorcycle when i was 16. My friend always wanted a Harley, I wanted a sport. That kind of died away. Got married. About 5 yrs ago, co-worker said he was looking to sell his brother's bike who died of cancer. Showed me some pics...showed the wife. She didn't want me to get one so I respected her concerns. Got a divorce. About a year later, another friend calls

Friend: "You ever think about getting a motorcycle license?"
Me: "yeah, like when i was 16."
Friend: "Well, get your permit and sign up for the class with me. The class is free."
Me: "Um...OK"

Took the lessons. Then I watched about a gizillion crash videos to talk myself out of buying a motorcycle. I was originally looking at honda cruisers. Then the co-worker said that he still had his brother's bike. So I took a look at it. Purple/Red/Black '94 F2. Spent about 3 hours trying to get it to start (It was sitting for 5 yrs without running), but it wouldn't have it. Told him that I would buy it, settled on $1900.

Having no experience in carb work, I pulll them 3 times trying to make sure they were all clean. First time I followed step-by-step someone posted. 2nd time to manually clean jets (instructions were absent the first time). It finally started. Neighbors complained about me trying to start it in the morning (have to rev engine to keep it running during warm up), so, I pulled the carbs a 3rd time and found that I didn't clean out the idle jet.

Basically, what makes it mine, was the work I put into getting it running. I like learning to do things and teaching myself the parts that I have learned, in terms of carburator work, really made the experience worthwhile for me. It tossed me once...but that was just to teach me a lesson about tires. I'm not particular fond of the red on it...I have been thinking of repainting and learning how to airbrush...but decided to keep it stock for now. It's not a clean bike. Rash on the tail from original owner, Rash on the side from where I dropped it. Scratched up windscreen...but that is what makes it that much better for me. I won't obsess about the way it looks (which I don't like doing) and thus I won't spend a lot of time and money to maintain the appearance.

 

So your the little ***** that woke me up in the mornings
You would not believe how many guys I've met with new bikes, that have just gotten divorced.
Don't know if their divorced, so they bought a bike or divorced so they could buy a bike, either way, works for me.
Yeah I agree with ownership being the blood & sweat & tears that you put into the buggers, I'd also add,the bullsh*t stories that you can come up with to get a loan ("yes I'm going to re dercorate the bathroom") & then convince your friends, why you got a such & such make & model.
I also agree about learning as you go, (especially the lesson in, should have left the bloody thing alone) Its amazing how quickly you can come up with a fix when you need to ride.

 

aside from riding our honda fourtrax's and fiddies at Lake Texoma i started riding real motorcycles when i was 16. This guy I worked with in HS owned a red 954 and i had a love affair with that bike. So i saved up what money i could and bought a beat up laid down F4. Never registered it, was a total squid and drove the **** and rain out of it. Then i grew up and wanted something nicer, got an 01 F4i then sold it bought an 04RR, sold it last thanksgiving and now have purchased my first new bike ever. 07RR

At first it was all the Pu**y i saw my co worker getting from his bike that got me into riding. Then i bought one and realized that pu**y was just a perk, the real dividends were paid on the quiet country roads.

 

Okay... so my story isn't nearly as neat as some of these... but here goes! (Enter: Novel! haha)

Back when I was in gradeschool (early 90's) my dad had a small dirtbike, some kind of limited thing they only made for 2 years. I don't remember anything about what kind it was, just that it was yellow. My grandparents let me ride it around a few times in their yard, then my dad took it over and I'd ride it around out in the big field accross from my house. Well, a friend of mine came over, I got the bike out and went to "Show off". This being said... I knew how to make the bike go, I could shift... but I only knew how to shift UP... and I wasn't any good at the whole "brakes" thing. Needless to say I ran out of grass in a corner and right through a patch of "thorn" trees (those ones with the long, 2 inch spikes all over the branches). I remember closing my eyes and feeling the branches hit my face, kneck, arms... and clanking off the sides of the open face helmet I was wearing. Next thing I know, I'm laying upside down, down a hill in a small clearing in the trees, the bike is laying on it's side, idling facing the opposite way and I look like Freddy Crugar had come at me. That ended my motorcycle career for the most part. (rode a trials bike and a few other dirtbikes once in a while)

Fast forward to 2005. My daily driver was a 1971 Dodge Polara that got 10mpg highway/town, no matter what. Gas, the cheap stuff, hits $3 a gallon. I'm spending almost $250 a month on gas, and the only place I will drive is back and forth from work (about 15-20 miles each way, highway). With no raises in site... this was denting my budget pretty bad. So... and here's my dirty secret... I convinced my wife to let me go looking... at scooters. That's right... I was going to buy a scooter. Now, in all fairness, anything on 2 wheels is better than nothing (especially a black on black gas guzzler with vinyl seats, no AC, and finicky window motors). I knew it'd be a stepping stone either way. Anyways... so I get to the dealership and start looking around. Sure, I drool over the hot 600's and 1KRR's, the yamaha r6 and r1's, the big victory cruisers... all of that. But, fact is, I couldn't afford those. I was banking my entire hand (with the wife, who was deathly afraid I would kill myself on anything 2 wheeled, but scooters seemed more "harmless" to her somehow) on cheap cost, cheap insurance, and great gas mileage. So, I get to looking at a blue honda scooter. Little 250cc, "Sport" *snicker* looking job. Priced right around $4500 or so. Now... here's where I did something smart/lucky. My parents came along and I told them when and where I'd be looking.

My dad, thankfully, did some looking around in the dealership and found a little yamaha 250cc motorcycle while I was out figuring out things with the scooter. He told me to sit on it, "just to see". I did... and that was it... scooters were done. I was about to start the paperwork, and once more... my dad saved me. He reminded me that the whole reason I was looking at the scooter was because it was a Honda, and that I'd spoken highly of Honda reliability... so I shouldn't "settle". (My wife almost goes to tears in fear of this 250cc bike... she says that because it was an actual motorcycle, it scared her more, THAT took some convincing!) So, I ask the guy if Honda has a 250, he says "yes"... gets a book out and shows me a picture of the Honda Rebel. With that, I fill out the paperwork, they order me a white one. A day or two later, they put it together and I push it up into my dads truck with less than 1 mile on it. Rode it as "practice" around the neighborhood that was behind my shop for about 3 weeks while I was waiting for the MSF course. Took it, learned a ton and passed, got my endorsment... and proceeded to ride the **** out of that thing. I started riding everywhere again, it brought the love of "cruising" that I'd had as a teenager back into my life. I rode it rain, snow, ice, or shine

 

Well I was 6 years old and my Grandpa had my uncles old/beat 1669 Honda C50 in the barn at his old house. It was a fam TGT and they decided to get it out and get it running. After about and hour of playing they got it running, but had no brakes and dry rotted tires. I was scaerd to death of it-it's so loud! I would ride it a few feet at a time then jump off LOL! I got to the point where I could not stay off the thing and then I ended up getting a KX80 and loved it. I then moved to qauds and that was fun for a while, but I was getting hurt alot and got sick of hauling it an hour and a half away to ride so I traded it in on a GS250. I rode that for a month and got my endosment on it. The day I got my endoesment I decided to take the whole day off work and go back to the dealer to get a 600. I did not have alot of cash to spend and they gave me $1500.00 for my 250. I walked in the showroom and there she was. A nice, but kinda dirty 2000 F4. back in 2000 I wanted a new F4 so bad, but I was 21 and living at home and mom would not let me have a bike as long as i lived there so i never got one then. They were asking $4k for the F4. I talked them down to $3800.00 with new rear brakes installed at the time. I paid cash for her and I have loved her every since. She has almost 30K on her now and runs like a champ.BeforeI got herit was droped at about 5MPG so the stator cover and left plastic had a bit of rash,but nothink major. i fixed all that and added some new mod's and had a full service done. I looked at about 4 other bikes that day, but the F4 kept drawing me back to it. It's like Burnie Mac said in the movie Transformers " The ride picks the driver" Well my bike picked me that day and I named her Bumble Bee and was before I even seen the movie. She does look like a bike version of Bumble Bee from the movie.

 

First day of kindegarden was on the back of my dad's HD. Been around bikes my entire life.

Attempted to purchase a gsxr when I was 20. Had the credit approved, but could not swallow the cost of insurance. So I backed out.

I had an apprentice who had a few bikes at one of the last companies I worked for. He practically gave me a '03 R6 for asummer. I was hooked! When he needed to sell the bike at the end of the summer I did not have the cash to buy it, or I would probably be into Yamaha's now.

Waited till the end of the following summer and purchased a '02 f4i. I rode the **** out of that bike. Love and still miss my f4i. Put over 10k on it in 4 months.
Thought I was getting into financial problems and sold it. Ended up the day after I sold it, I ran into a very large contract and did not need to get rid of it[:@].

Spent the next few months keeping an eye out for a used '07 600rr with low miles and a good price.
Then I found a screaming deal on my '04 1000rr and could not pass it up.
Put about 3,500 miles on it in a matter of a month or so and stacked it into a gaurd rail[:@].

Currently in the process of putting it back together, been without a ride since the 24th of March. I should have the final parts (plastics) here in a week or so.
Soooooo looking forward to getting back out on 2 again.

 

well i've always liked sportbikes, they're loud, fast and look cool as hell haha. it always was eye catching seeing one parked....sitting perfectly still and looked like it was going faster than the speed of sound! i always wanted one but my family was always against it. i got a yfz450 quad to tool around on and ended up stunting the hell out of it and making 2 trips to the hospital. i finally sold that and decided to pay it off and begin looking for a sportbike. i had taken the MSF course in '05 and already had my license.

i found a '01 F4i on craigslist.com for a decent amount given its low miles and mint condition. w/ the quad sold and the loan long gone i decided to dive right in. got approved for the loan and picked up the bike.

this month actually is a year since i've had it. its seriously been there w/ me through good times and bad (weather)......i rode through the MD winter aswell. i've had it for a year and already put 23k miles on it. the bike has been so reliable thus far and i can only hope it keeps up.