For the record, part II

This, a Kawasaki GPz550 from 1981 is the second bike that -like a black hole- sucked me into this madness. I was in high school when this bike came out. And at the time there was nothing else like it in the World. This is the bike that broke the UJM mold and and took all-comers in a bare knuckled brawl in a back alley. It screamed, "I'm fast, sporty and fookin' hooker red. So, step aside amatuers." My fixation with this bike is again squarely my brother Walt's fault. He's the one that brought home a brochure from some-who-knows-where-dealer in Illinois and said something along the lines, "now that's a motorcycle." Though neither one of us would come to own one of these bikes, a promo card  with the bike's image from a dealer stayed taped to the inside of my locker at school. Years later I'd come to own the ZRX 1200R that I ride today, and everytime I saddle up I can't help but think about that GPz550.

Don't know about you.....

But no one here is complaining about the weather and the near 80-degree temps for mid March. Last year this time we were socked in and knee deep in it, and riding a motorcycle was far from our minds. Already, some of us have burned off that stale tank of gas, and have started to rack up the miles. The good weather also coincides with the start of the Superbike season, which kicks off today with the Daytona 200, which will be watched at Rob's; 7 p.m.. It's all good, man.

Well, MMN might be a wrap for the year....

Thanks to Scot for hosting last night's activities. As usual, the Garage proves to be an awesome place to gather with friends to swill beer, talk smack, and play some foosball, and of course watch movies. The added bonus was that some of us got out for a ride on Saturday for the first time. Plans are for more riding around today, too. Stay tuned. If the weather holds for nice, next MMN will be next October. We can wait.

For the record.....

this is one of the early bikes that started the madness for me, a Suzuki TS250 dualsport. I will call this the Walt Bike as it was my brother's first motorcycle purchased from his college roommate, who moved up to bigger and faster offerings from Honda, a CB750F Supersport, I do believe. (That Honda, for the record, was the first bike that scared the beejesus out of me in a good way while riding with said roommate when I was 13.). As for the Suzook, Walt rode this thing many times from Batavia, Ill to Champaign/Urbana where he attended the University of Illinois. Dad was always worried when he'd take off with the bike loaded down with stuff for the 100 mile ride to the U of I. The bike proved far more reliable than Walt's '67 Mercury Montego which had a habit of always shitting out in some doo-hick town 30 miles from campus. Sadly, the TS250 met its demise in Michigan's upper pennisula when Walt was out blasting around on fireroads. I still remember being the one to answer the phone at home when Walt called to tell us that he crashed the bike and that he was in the hospital with a badly broken leg, which would eventually sidetrack him for more than a year. My response was, "Boy, mom and dad aren't gonna be happy about that," and "What about the bike?"

More sadly, it was 12 years ago this month that Walt passed away unexpectedly. Though he intended to get riding again, he never did having been sidetracked by life itself; marriage, a child, helping wife through medical school. So with that, let's get the 2012 riding season underway.

OK, people, this could be it.....

The final Motorcycle Movie Night is set for this Saturday at Scot's garage. Whooa, and does he ever has a slew of motor-sickle movies to pick from. Be there at 7 p.m. for some foosball, beer, and cuss words; the flick starts at 7:30 or thereabouts. Now if we get snowed in in April, then damn it all, we're gonna need another movie night and I vote for it being at Tim's.....

Someone's got a birthday today.....

though he is in total denial, as evidenced by this photo....

It's Mach 1st....

You know what that means? The riding season is officially here. 'Course we gotta get ride of that ice on the road first. Dear God, man, are those Harleys? How'd they get in here. Someone needs to fire the editor.