At the age of 15, my older brother’s college buddy stopped by and took me for a curvy, 5 minute, 50 mph ride on his BSA 350c single.  The needle would be in my arm for the next 40 years, and would put me on a path on which I would:

1) Own and ride 55 motorcycles, from 50cc Honda manual clutch, to Indian Chief foot clutch, and a whole bunch of middleweights in between.

2) Teach my first wife and all three of our kids to ride, and would teach a Japanese nuclear engineer how to ride a manual clutch motorcycle in my back yard - so that he could return to Japan and leave the only family car for his wife to drive. 

3) Only sustain two minor injuries in over 200,000 highway miles.

It has been an amazing adventure.

The first bike, a 50cc Honda manual clutch, taught us (my older brother and me) to ride on slippery yard grass and gravel (cheap spills), and watch out for other traffic - without having enough speed or power to force ourselves into trouble.  But, with a top speed of 43 mph, it was too small to ride safely even on two lane state roads.  We needed "bigger, with more power".

Shoveling cow manure, and cultivating fields 12 hours a day during my 16 year old summer, I put together enough to buy a 160cc Ducati Jr.  It could cruise at 55 mph, but was still a little slow for the 60mph state 2 lane roads.  "Bigger, more power".

We got a Bultaco 175cc (2 stroke) road bike that could cruise at 65mph, but had no battery in the system.  The horn sounded like a siren as the engine speed changed, and it would blow out the headlight at high rpm just as you were showing a Harley 250 Sprint what it would do.  You guessed it, we needed "bigger, more power".

WE lucked across (1.5) Indian Chiefs for $150 (in 1966).  One was a troubled, but complete, bike that had springer front end and seat, right grip spark advance, left grip throttle, tank shift lever and suicide foot clutch.  The other bike was a frame and 3 bushel baskets of "stuff".

Unfortunately the carb was goofed up enough that you could not get it kick started.  We would rope tow it with my 1955 ford V8 to get it started.  On the third try, we got it to keep running without it running over the tow car.  I tweaked the carb settings some, and we took it for a ride.  At 50 mph, it began a speed wobble that wouldn’t stop until down to 30 mph.

I got it to kick start once, and headed down the road.  After a half mile, it stalled, and I coasted it to the side of the road.  When I put my foot down in the pea gravel, it slid under my foot and down it went at a dead stop.  At a tough 160#, I could not get it back on its tires.  I walked home to get help, stood it up, pushed it home and never rode it again.  Bigger with more power - hah!  I modified my plan slightly.

The number 5 bike was a NEW 441cc BSA Shooting Star 4stroke single with a compression release to get it started.  After the Indian, it seemed easy.  I had that bike from 1967-70.  It went across the country from Ohio to the San Francisco bay TWICE in a crate.  My dad was such a gem to crate it up twice to send it to his sailor sons.

The number 6 bike was a Suzuki 500 titan 2 stroke twin that I rode overnight from Vallejo to National City, California (550 miles), stayed two days, then did an 850 mile straight through to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I found out that it’s really cold overnight at the end of March in the Arizona high country near Flagstaff.  Even in ski gloves, my hands were freezing and the throttle kept going shut.  I dropped the bike at the dealer for its 4000 mile check and walked to a motel.

Slept overnight, picked up the bike in the midday, and went 1428 miles in 28 hours straight to meet my dad’s pickup truck just east of Indianapolis. I had taken so much noDoze with coffee that I couldn’t sleep for 12 hours after I got home.  It’s official - 20 year olds can be idiots.  That was the last of my "over 500 mile" trips.  Several hundred shorter trips occured. 

The number 7 bike was a Suzuki 250 X6 for around town riding only.