My first bike: a 250cc Honda Rebel…cute eh?

I began riding when I was easily considered to be too old to begin riding. 🙂 But I did it anyway. Gary had decided to start riding and after being a pillion a couple of times, I opted for “riding my own”. I took the MSF class and got a cute little 86 Honda Rebel. I knew nothing about motorcycles and bought this bike without any assistance. It was less than perfect and our first month of my riding was spent getting to know my new Rebel, so to speak. It needed a chain, sprocket, tires and brakes. It was a great way to be introduced into the sport and some motorcycle maintenance.

I had the bike for several months, rode about 5K miles on it and stepped right up to an 03 1100 V-Star. I was a cruiser girl!

My V-Star leaped forward in power for me, but I endured the learning curve, that is until I had a minor crash for me, but a major one for the V-Star. It was pretty much toast, having been tossed off the road at about 45mph. I was able to ride the thing home, and once in the garage it became yet another testament to learning about your motorcycle. I was the deconstructionist of the bike, in more ways than one! I began taking the bike apart, one body part at a time. I needed to take it to the “Frame Man” and have the integrity of the fame checked and to do that everything had to be off the bike, all but the tires and engine. I had baggie after baggie covering the garage floor labeled and stacked with the larger baggie free parts. What a sight!

My constructionists…my SO Gary and friend Rob

The new look of my V-Star–don’t ya just love that soft lens look 🙂

I put nearly 48K on this machine before moving to a different format bike.

After I rode on Gary’s DL1000 V-Strom I couldn’t get into my cruiser anymore. I felt like I was actually learning to ride a “real” motorcycle with the Strom’s upright positioning and could get alot more aggressive in the twisties. We had a friend visiting from Great Britain who brought his Triumph Sprint ST. Well, I took it for a spin and returned several hours later, so my new quest was to find a nice Sprint. It didn’t take long before I purchased one a nice 03 from a cop in the bay area. It was a perfect bike, never had been dropped that is until the day I bought it and dropped it in his steep driveway. He ran to the bike saying, “did you hurt it?”, to which I replied, “no, seriously, I’m ok, thanks for asking”. Oh well, I couldn’t have christened it any better. I rode it home, with its newly scratched bag and chalked it up. I proceeded to ride Nigel, as I called him, for several months, but he had a nasty oil consuming problem, which baffled his dealer. Damned oil addict…

Meet Nigel, the day I picked up the bike and let me tell you just how sexy I felt riding this machine!!! Uber Sexy!!

Well, in the interim of all this bike shuffle, Gary wrecked his DL1000 and broke his wrist at the event. He was seeking a new motorcycle and decided that a Suzuki 1200 Bandit would suit the bill. He found one in LA and asked me to fly down and pick it up. How could I resist? I flew to LA with a friend, spent a couple of wonderful days in Disneyland and then went to get the bike. The owner asked if I had ever ridden a Bandit, to which I replied, “no”. He told me it was terribly twitchy and that I could easily wheelie it so to use extreme caution. Well, leaving LA, I could have won the timid award, but by the time i reached Death Valley, I was LOVIN’ it!! I spent two days getting back home and when I rode into the garage, Gary asked, “how’d you like my Bandit?” My reply, “whose Bandit?”. Well, he smiled that knowing little smile and then took the Triumph and traded it in on his current FZ1.

Riding home from LA

My first Streetmasters class

I toured everywhere on Bandito, as I called him. We totally bonded and to this day I have not ridden a finer machine. I put 70K plus on him and when reevaluating a new machine I decided that I wanted another Bandit, a newer fuel injected one so I got an 07 1250 with a full set of hard bags. This is my current machine and I have put on nearly 10K since last winter.

So, do I love this bike? Not really, but I probably need some more seat time. It’s about 40 lbs heavier than my 1200 Bandit sans the hard bags. With bags and gas it’s a serious pig. My slow speed maneuvers are tedious at best and I could show off slow skills on my old bandit. My confidence is shaken a bit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it makes my riding tentative, which it shouldn’t be.

What’s next? Who knows…I’m looking at lighter and more flickable, but in order to do that I need less of a bike with less power. Can I go backwards…hmmmm, at this point I am not sure, but I am certainly open for suggestions!!