New to the forum...A Brief MotorCycle History of ME

[Nat Sass]

My name is dana...and I'm new to this forum. I started riding bikes when I was 11. My first bike was a Yamaha 80.



My dad bought me a Bultaco 250 Pursang when I was 13 and I went Moto-X racing with grown ups. (didn't win, but I had lots of fun!) Continued riding and racing thru high school (started winning some, too! (but only on amateur level))





Sometime during my high school years, a buddy and I started competing against each other, doing wheelies. Looong wheelies. Every place we went, people wanted us to do wheelies. Once at a Coliseum race, we were outside the coliseum on our hopped up mini trail 50s doing wheelies in the parking lot. We thought we were going to get run off, when one of the organizers of the event came up and asked us to come inside and do wheelies for the crowd, between races. Wheelies are a lot of fun on a bike that does them well.

Jump ahead 10 or 15 more years, when I was 35, I decided to go back to school. I sold the Honda Aspencade that was the only bike I had at the time and used the money to pay tuition.



No motorcycle for 10 years. (I wasn't in school that long, just didn't get another bike, I guess this was my growing up and settling down period) I moved to Daphne in 1996 and went to work for Infirmary Health System. In 2002, I started pining for a bike to play with and do a few wheelies. So I bought a Honda XR650L (aka Big Red Pig). I opened it up (carb mod) and put a pipe on it and it really woke the bike up! I enjoyed riding back roads and doing wheelies!



[b]Then I got married...

I bought my wife a Kawasaki KLR250. (Dual sport like my BRP, but smaller) I think it was an '05 model. (it was the year before Kawasaki put an electric starter on the KLR250!) She rode fairly well, but had hard time reaching the ground, (she was vertically challenged with that bike, at 5'3") and a hard time kick starting it; therefore, she didn't really enjoy riding it. So, we sold the Kawasaki and bought her a Suzuki S40 (aka Savage). It had electric start and a low seat height. She jumped on that thing and rode it like she'd been riding all her life.

I soon realized that the BRP (dual sport on and off road) and the Suzuki Boulevard (Cruiser) did not play well together, (no more dirt roads) so I sold the Honda and bought a '06 VMAX. (I had always wanted one, since I rode one in 1986.) Shortly after I bought the VMAX, We sold the Suzuki (because she said she would be just as happy riding on the back of the VMAX and we could use the money from the Suzuki for a trip to Hawaii). (The trip was awesome! (I saw a guy in Maui, riding a BRP just like the one I used to have! ))

So, I ended up with a VMAX that was not as much fun as my old, beloved Big Red Pig. I read motorcycle magazines and lusted after many different machines. I sold my VMAX and was visiting the local Yamaha/Suzuki shop. I was talking with a salesman and told him, I could not make up my mind what my next bike would be. I wanted a GoldWing, a Concours, a Venture Royale, a hypermotard and a 250 motard either Kawasaki or Yamaha, but I could only buy one bike. He suggested a V-Strom. I had never even considered a V-Strom, although a couple of weeks prior, I had recommended a V-Strom to a friend of mine that was looking at a BMW RG1200.

So, I found a used one on Craig's list, went and drove it and decided it was the closest thing to a "swiss army knife/bike" that I could find. It was very multi purposed and could take the place of at least two bikes on my list. So, I bought it.

I have found it "feels" like my old Honda, and even sounds like it, except with a bunch more power and twice the cylinders. Haven't got the wheelies down yet, as it is very different wheelie-ing a bike with a windshield. But I'll get the hang of it.

So, that's everything there is to know about me. Hope I didn't bore anyone to death. (This was the super condensed version, after all.)

P.S. ***Disclaimer*** These pics were sniped from various Internet Sites for reference only and are not my actual bikes. No, that's not even me wheelie-ing the BRP.

[crispy]

Welcome to the forum

[Phantom]

Nice write-up and welcome. Keep an eye on the events section. Couple things happening this weekend.

[hayweed]

Welcome from west Mobile. Nice write up.

[joeyputt]

Welcome from Dothan, good to have you with us.

[Jack the Bagger]

hehe yur dating yurself , I hadda Bul 360 short tracker , Ossa 250 short tracker and a Maico K501

coliseum ?? wudna been the coliseum in Montgomery wud it ??

[Guest]

welcom

[Nat Sass]

The Stadium was the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, LA. Yes, home of Freddie Spencer, and where I grew up. We had Mini Trail 50s with Trail 70 motors. 4 sp manual trans. Only mod needed to switch engines was a single cut and weld to turn the intake manifold 45 degrees to clear the frame. Voila...50mph mini trail! We were about 17 or 18 when we did this! BIG kids riding mini trails on the back wheel shifting thru the gears from one end of the coliseum to the other! The track was set up for short track racing (oval on slick concrete). Yep...those were the days.
I test rode an Ossa 250 Pioneer once. Yep, I'm officially an old fart.

[Mrbadlands]

Nice write up... Welcome from Fairhope

[Dragon]

Great intro.

Neat about the Bultaco...I had two in my silly youth days.

Welcome from Daphne.

[Paladin]

nice write up and welcome from silverhiill

[Guest]

Welcome to the boards

[Guest]

Welcome from Gulf Shores!

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