Nice thread to read.
Thinking back brings many good memories.
I bought my first motorized ride in 1968.
A Big Bear Scrambler.... mini bike.
With a McCullough(sp?) chainsaw engine. No air filter and no muffler.
Stinking painful loud and too blasted scary fast.
Sold that after 6 months and bought a Yamaha 80.
This was the old pressed steel frame street bike stripped of everything to make it a dirt bike.
A previous owner had drilled hundreds of 1/4" holes in the steel frame to lighten it and added an expansion chamber.
I rode that for about 6 months and then bought a Hodaka Ace 100 with a leading link front fork that gave it 8" travel!
It had the typical expansion chamber on it and a 2" swingarm extension.
I added a large air cleaner with a Filtron, a home bent skid plate, and sent my front hub to Buchannon(sp?) for a 19" Akront rim to be laced up.
I rode in the desert, entered 2 enduros and raced mx at Saddleback Park and one night mx at Perris Raceway.
Racing blind in the unlit section of the track was not something I would do again! Crazy to blast down a bumpy hill with zero vision.
A year later I rode a friend's brand new Honda SL 100 and loved it, so I sold the Hodaka and bought my first (and still only) new bike.
$425 out the door was a huge amount for a kid working part time after school.
I got my mc license and rode the Honda to school, raced mx and entered enduros with it.
I added a fork brace, stiffer springs, a pipe with a J&R silencer, a 21" front wheel and other mods.
I sold the Honda when the family moved aboard the sailboat we built and then we sailed off and I was bikeless for a few years.
Settled on Maui and bought a Honda XL 350 to explore the island on.
After a few years I bought a Honda XR500R and did my first and last double jump on the local mx track.
Way too heavy and soft suspended to race mx on for me.
Got married and moved to Alaska where I was bikeless again for several years before buying a street bike for the first time.
A Suzuki VX800, a really neat V-twin standard.
Found out it made a lousy dirt road explorer so after a few years of minimal riding days I sold it and was bikeless for about 6 years.
Stumbled across ADV rider website and started reading all these great ride reports of the type of exploration riding that appeals to me.
I bought a DR650 (Suzuki) and have been finding lots of neat dirt roads near our house that I can enjoy riding after work on nice days.
My wife said she wanted to learn to ride a bike of her own so I bought her a TW.
She took the class and started riding the TW but was just not comfortable on it.
It is too big and heavy for her (a TW????) so I bought her a Honda XR80 that she loves!
She is 5'-1" 1nd 110 lbs so the 80 is her size.
I am not selling the TW as I am sure that once she gets more experience she will want to ride that big TW.
I love riding the TW since it is so much smaller and lighter than the DR so it gets ridden a lot.
Since finding the ADV site 3 years ago and finding a type of riding that I enjoy, I went from bikeless to having (currently, that means as of today):
(2) DR 650's, the TW 200, an XR80, an 87 Yamaha YZ250, a Honda VTX 1800, an 05 Suzuki RM 250, A Yamaha Venture...
and a Rickman Mk III Metisse project to build up with a Triumph 650 twin engine.
I have wanted to build a Rickman since the first time I saw one at the local dirt riding area when I was riding my mini bike in 1968.
Love at first sight I guess. I decided that if I didn't build one now that I am 57, I never would.
I ordered the frame kit last winter and had it shipped over from England.
The frame with fiberglass pieces installed is sitting on display in the living room now.
I have been gathering parts for it since last winter and now have the forks and front wheel (the new fork seals arrived this week),
a lead on the BSA B50 rear wheel I need, and finally found a TR6 engine locally last month.
The engine needs a total rebuild so that is a next winter project.
So, all that history but i have no idea of how many miles since I rode almost always in the dirt.
And I am a fair weather rider with many commitments for my time.
I put miles now equally on one of my DR's and the TW (the other DR I am building as a Sumo/Street Tracker).
The other bikes are projects... as are the 3 cars sitting in the yard.
My wife says I better live to 100 to finish the projects I have now......
