The first post from my first motorcycle adventure blog
Wrote this one as my opening before riding back from South America:
What is the underlying reason for such a love for motorcycling? I’ve been thinking about how to frame it for the last few weeks. This morning, after waking up and having a cup of coffee in a bit of a haze, I spent an hour talking to my dad about how he just broke in his BMW by covering 2,400 miles from Missouri to southern Florida and back…in just four days of riding. That’s where it comes from. It’s a family thing. He spent an hour talking about his new helmet, jacket, MPG, wind protection, and the bike. Then the conversation turned to this trip…and we covered gear, routes, Garmins and GPS tracking, fundraising and all the other details. Dad and I have done some amazing trips, which I’ll cover later. My brother, Matt, has a solid Suzuki V-Strom 1000, which he and his wife, Mary, use to scoot around the Midwest. It’s a family thing, and although I can’t clearly express why I’d rather ride a bike than drive a car when it’s 20-degrees outside, I’ll just explain how this infatuation has evolved.
Dad bought Matt a Honda Trail 90 when I was nine years old. The silly thing didn’t even have a clutch. Soon made a giant leap to the 1978 Honda CR250…clutch on the left, brake on the right. I remember the day I was riding along the pond bank and my loving brother jumped out from hiding behind shed, intentionally clipped my handlebar as I rode by, and forced my bike and me into the pond. It dried out eventually.
You’re allowed to get a learner’s permit at 15 year in Missouri, so I bought a little Yamaha SR250. Ironic, since I had wrecked Dad’s Honda Magna 500 just a week or two prior. Only nasty accident I’ve sustained over the years…50MPH around a curve that was fit for 25MPH. The SR250 was a good little starter, but after hitting a dog and wrecking into a ditch at about 15MPH, Dad convinced me it was time to return offroad. Next was a Honda XL250. Loved it. Learned how to ride properly and handle anything in my path. Got bored eventually (within months) and upgraded to a Yamaha FZR600, the predecessor of the YZF sportbike. That was not an easy sell for the parents—and they didn’t appreciate my helmet reading “Suicidal Tendencies” across the back. There’s really no good reason for a 16-year-old to have a bike that does 140MPH (I can vouch for that). After being pulled over a half-dozen times by local authorities, I decided it was time to have an evasion option aside from speed. Returned to the enduro world with a Yamaha XL350. Had that for a while, but soon it was time to upgrade again. I’d been trading up and investing cash from working at the local gas station for years. At 17, I paid cash for a 1999 Kawasaki Concours 1000, the mechanics at the dealership literally unpacked it from a crate, threw in some oil and gas, and handed me the keys. Soon, I learned that a shafty can wheelie. That was a smooth bike, and it lasted me until I left for West Point.
Upon graduation, I decided to go the chrome route and picked up a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic. That bike took me across the country twice, and “Suicidal Tendencies” was replaced with “The Good Fight”. Sold that machine before deployment and then purchased the exact same model upon returning home. Got rid of that one eventually and had been without a scooter for years. When working at Harley, I was lucky enough to have a great crew that lent me a few bikes…a 1200 Sportster, Iron 883, and a massive UltraGlide. Great bikes, but not capable of doing what Phillip and I need. Thus, after dreaming of the ultimate machine since Long Way Round, I picked up the BMW R1200GS locally. Will explain the reasoning for this ride eventually. So…now you see…nearly 15 bikes in 15 years. Nothing compares to the freedom of motorcycling. However…as fickle as I’ve been in the past. I’m quite sure I’ll never own anything but a GS for the rest of my life. Amazing.
http://expeditionrwb.tumblr.com/post/44950703602/andrews-evolution-of-motorcycling
