'72 CB500-four: My first bike. Black with a Hooker header, made nice sounds when it got to around five thousand rpm. Kick start and electric leg. Wish I still had it.
'82 V45 Magna: The exuberance of youth had me trading in the 500 on a first year Magna. It was a marvel for the time - DOHC V4, 16 valve, six speed, shaft drive, anti-dive air forks, two fuel tanks. Very quick and fast, kind of bland.
70's Sportster, I'm not sure what year but it had the brake and gear shift reversed: Owned it with my brother. We were, as far as we knew, the fifth owner and each before had their own idea of what was an was not needed on a bike. Along the way extraneous items had been removed - the front brake, the front fender, the footpegs (it had highway pegs), all instrumentation except the oil light we rigged up, it had a vinyl-covered piece of plywood for a seat which we replaced with an actual one. It was evil to ride, a knee-buster kicking it over, backward on the pedals, the rear brake was oil-soaked after an ill-fitting drag pipe wore a hole through the tank so didn't offer a lot of decelearation. On top of that, if you were making a left turn the brake pedal would hit the pavement and help you to release what stopping force there was; downshifting was your best chance. The only time you knew how fast you were going was at about 60 mph when the throttle cable would flop back in the wind and give you a kind of cruise control. You had to reach over and swing it back to slow down. Somehow we both survived it. Great bike.
'94 Magna: Very fast, not bad handling if you muscled it around. Very uncomfortable at speed, somehow every molecule of air within a quarter mile found its way between the handlebars and into you. Rather bland.
'95 Triumph Speed Triple: Not bland. Effortless power, ridden "exuberantly". The first generation was the best looking too.
'85 250 Rebel: The wife's bike, for a while anyway. An absolute blast to ride. It's like a Piper Cub - just fast enough to get you killed. 85 mph if you pinned the throttle and laid on the tank, 85 mpg if you were less enthusiastic.
'98 Anniversary Fatboy: Loved that bike, sold it to my brother two years ago, rode it behind the hearse at his funeral two months ago.
The current SERK will probably be my last one unless I get into restoring something old when I retire. Not that the SERK is the end-all of bikes, far from it.
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Topic: What other makes/models have you owned or ridden vigorously. (Read 2324 times)