My second bike was Kawasaki 350 R. The R stood for Racer. How I came about getting this bike was a fluke. A friend was moving out of state. He had a Chevette that was pretty rough, and the Kawasaki that he wanted to sell. He was asking $300.oo for the Chevette, and $350.oo for the Kawasaki. The Motorcycle was in great shape, but the Chevette was pretty rough and planned to sell it for parts. As it turned out a mechanic friend of mine was looking for a parts chevette parts car to repair customers car. The parts he needed were in good shape. He offered me $550.OO for the Chevette. I told my friend about the offer and he told me to give him $50.oo and I could keep the Kaw. Great luck there for me. The Kaw was a 350 R. Supposedly the R stood for Race. All I know is the bike would be real slow until you got the RPM’s up Then if you weren’t careful you would pop a wheelie. I rode this bike for a couple of years. Itook my boys for a ride on it. A short ride. But my youngest who was about 2 years old enjoyed most. Years later while attending college he was asked his earliest memory. His answer was riding the bike with me. I had a picture of him on it with me, I dug it out and gave it to him. I only wish I had a copy. Somewhere during his many moves to colleges and jobs he lost it.
Siomeone gave me a Honda Scrambler, and I traded the Kaw for a dune buggy. I could get both boys in it. Later a guy who rented one of my bays in my garage to open a bodyshop. Butwas rusty after 20+ years being out of the business. I helped him catch up on techniques and the new paints. About a year later he moved to a bigger shop. But one day he called and had a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria he said he had $500.oo cash (not counting his time) in it and to thank me for the help I could have it for $500.oo. I sold the dune buggy for $500.oo. When I got home the next day and was going to get the car, I found a new refrigerator in the kitchen. My wife had taken the money to buy a bigger refrigerator. Bye, Bye Car.
The Honda scrambler was ok for a while I only had about a mile to ride to ride to work. But I had to tune it every day before I could ride it. One night, (by this time I had divorced) I came home to find my Honda missing. All the cops did was say ask the neighbors if they saw anything. About a year later the boys came home from visiting their mother and told me they saw my Honda in pieces in her basement. Apparently her boyfriend wanted it but knew nothing about bikes.
Any way I bought my next bike. A 3 cylinder 750 Yamaha. Fun bike to ride. I took it to a Yamaha dealer for a tune up and overall check. Worked fine for about a month. Then had trouble starting it. If I put old plugs in it started fine, just didn’t run so good. I traded it for a ford window van. Had some fun with it. But it wasn’t a motorcycle.
More to come later.
Remember it isn’t what you ride. It’s that you ride.
That Is How I See It,
It’s easy to ride motorcycles at speed, but hard to ride them sowlly because the bike feels unstable. But it’s something you can get better at.Try taking it to a parking lot and practicing your clutch friction zone. Once you’re happy with starting and stopping smoothly, start adding in low speed turns. And then U-turns and progressively tighter circles. It will increase your confidence, and make your motorcycle feel less big and heavy. Be in control of your bike.