In the beginning...

One question that many people ask me is why/how I got started riding motorcycles.  I thought I would talk about that at the start of my blog, so that those questions are answered.  Riding motorcycles was never one of those things I dreamed about.  I didn't stare wistfully at motorcycles as they rode past our house or down the city streets as we were driving.  I never, ever dreamed I would some day enjoy riding motorcycles.  However, my brother John was fascinated with motorcycles when we were kids.  Every time a motorcycle rode by, no matter where we were or what we were doing, he would stop and look up.  Our parents were very much against motorcycles and laid down the law that many of you have heard before... "There will be no motorcycles as long as you live under our roof."  So, John saved his money and when he had enough, he bought a house with a garage, moved in and promptly bought a 1979 Harley Davidson Sportster.  It was a basket case and he took the winter to restore it.  A friend of his painted it Candy Cobalt Blue with an eagle head that faded back into the paint.  It came out nice and he would come by the house and take me for a rides on the back throughout NJ, NY and PA.  We had alot of fun on the rides but I still never thought I would ride a motorcycle on my own.  And I also never questioned my parents about why they allowed me to ride on the back of John's motorcycle but wouldn't allow motorcycles in the house .  I didn't want to bring that to their attention in case it caused them to change their mind about letting me ride with him.

My brother John on his restored 1979 Sportster late 1980s in our back yard

I had gotten married in 1991, and John would come by and take me for rides sometimes, but when I got divorced in January of 1996, and lived in Morristown, NJ, he started coming to take me for rides more often.  In May of 1996, I received a call from a company in Vancouver, WA that provided consulting services to clients that used Timberline Software... the same software I provided consulting for in NJ and NYC.  They said they were getting busy, heard good things about me, and wanted to offer me a position with their firm.  I had always had dreams of moving out west, and it seemed like this was my chance, but I just wasn't sure about it since I had just gotten divorced and didn't know how many changes I could handle at one time.  I asked them for some time to think about it and they agreed to give me as much time as I needed and they would check in with me periodically.  Finally in July, I decided that, if the offer was still available, I would take it and make the move.  I knew if I didn't take it, I may never get another opportunity like that again.  I also knew I could always move back to NJ if it didn't work out.  So, I called them and told them I wanted to accept the offer and we began to make plans for me to move there.

Up until that point, I was 29, the furthest I had driven was probably as far north as Connecticut and as far south as Washington, DC and here I was, looking at moving 3,000 miles away to the Pacific Northwest.  I decided to fly there, and have my car shipped.  It took a couple weeks for my family to get my car to the shipping area, and for the truck to take it to me, but I was able to borrow a co-worker's car while he was out of state traveling.  August and September were nice, weather-wise and I was missing getting out on the back of my brother's motorcycle.  One day, I was talking with him on the phone, and expressed this to him.  He responded by telling me I should get a motorcycle and learn to ride.  I laughed and told him that I couldn't ride a motorcycle.  He told me that I could and there is an organization called the Motorcycle Safety Foundation that teaches people how to ride motorcycles safely.  I thought "What the heck, I may as well check it out."  Sure enough, I found the local community college offered classes, and I signed up!!

Next came looking for my own motorcycle.  I had no idea about motorcycles at all, since it was not something I had been interested in, in the past, so I talked to my brother during endless phone calls.  He would tell me what bikes he recommended for me, I would tell him what ads I saw, and he would tell me whether he thought they were good or not.  He had me stay away from sportbikes, but look at "standard" motorcycles instead.  I spent countless hours going to dealerships just to look at their motorcycles, sit on them and get a feel for them.  There were some that were very comfortable and some that were too tall for me... I could not sit on them comfortably and touch the ground flat footed.  I learned a lot about motorcycles from the dealerships though, before I went out looking at private party bikes for sale.

I don't remember how many motorcycles I looked at, but I finally decided to buy a 1983 Honda CB550.  It was owned by an older man who had put a ton of miles on it.  He had photo albums full of pictures of his travels with the bike.  It was definitely used and pretty beat up... which is exactly what I wanted.  I think I paid $1000.00 for it, and I wanted a bike that I wouldn't care about if I crashed on it.  It wasn't a bike I was going to fall in love with, it was the bike I was going to learn on.  I wanted to know that if I crashed, I would throw the bike down and save myself.  If I had paid alot of money for a bike and/or really fell in love with a bike, I knew I would try to save it and probably hurt myself in the process.  Below is a picture of a similar bike.  I couldn't find any of me with mine.

Stay tuned for my next post where I will talk about my riding experiences before taking the MSF course, and then actually learning to ride in the MSF course!!