I was always a MOTORCYCLE GUY...my entire life...

I was a motorcycle guy my whole life.  Almost 50 years of riding and had purchased close to 100 new motorcycles over the years.  I owned 4 or 5 at a time and rode all of them.  I was not your typical rider.  I was all about performance and I traveled everywhere on a motorcycle.  This picture was taken in Ohio, when I rode up there on my BMW 1200 RT.

Picture below is me on the "Tail of the Dragon" in North Carolina on my Honda ST 1300...

I have working in Technology since my retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard.  This is a page from the local Wilmington Health where I was the IT Director for many years.  It is one page in a newsletter from 2009.  On the road...

  OK, so I went back to the Harley Davidson dealer Carolina Coast HD and I bought a 4th Harley.  Yes, indeed, a 4th.  Seems kind of weird but is is the fastest regular Harley made.  Says 11.4 seconds in the quarter mile, which isn't really fast but it doesn't feel like a dog :-)

OK, I went Harley Davidson crazy again.  I am legendary at this Harley dealer.  On the new bike photo wall there are three pictures of me on new bikes.  Hasn't been done by anybody in two weeks.  But, it has by me...

It is another ZX-14R a 2021 year model.  They say it is the last year this bike will be produced so I may have one of the last ones.  My last one I called the "Beast".  This one I call the "Rocket".  This bike completely stock, right off the showroom floor, it will turn a 9 second quarter mile.  The Rocket is not stock now, so a little better than 9 seconds...

This is my brand spanking new 2020 Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports Electronic Suspension and it has a DCT transmission.

I haven't even picked it up yet but I will in the next couple of days.

I had one before, I think 2018.  They now have a litter bigger engine, 1100 cc is on the side.  And, this Adventure Sports is new too.  Intended to be a touring model, note the road tires...

This is my brand new 2020 Honda GoldWing Touring bike.  At a time when I tried to give up motorcycles completely I realized I couldn't.  It is in my blood, I'm just not complete without it...

I am 22 years old in this photo of my first new Harley (1980 Roadster).  I am on a trip to the Virginia mountains.  It was the most money I had ever spent on a motorcycle and I was proud of it.

The BEAST !!!  This was the fastest motorcycle I ever owned.  It would do 215 mph on the top end and it would turn an 8 second flat quarter mile.  It was a beast !!!  Never beaten by anything or anyone.  This was a revised version Kawasaki came out with in 2012, the 14R.  Mine was a 2013 and it replaced my 2008 Hayabusa (that I had to have when Suzuki revised the Hayabusa).  That Hayabusa was a heck of a good bike.  To this day I call it the Swiss Watch because it was.  But, the 14R was faster and quicker.  I only did some minor modifications to the bike.  Different exhaust saved a bunch of weight.  And an ECU chip tweaked it.  I was convinced the bike made 300 horsepower and weighed under 500 pounds.  I mentioned that to the Kawasaki dealer and he said they dyno tested the 14 R and the most HP they got was 229.  I laughed and said OK, mine was extremely fierce and not completely stock.

The BUSA  This was my 2008 Hayabusa, in orange and black.  It was a stunning bike to look at.  It was also a stunning bike to ride.  It was fast and never beaten...  I recall a few races that were quite prominent.  I won't mention any names but a guy I would ride with occasionally had a Kawasaki 12R and he would openly say it was the fastest bike, bar none.  One day I put the hammer down and pulled away from him.  Something he just couldn't live with...  The BUSA was King !!!

The small bike below is a 1974 Kawasaki 125.  It was the first brand new motorcycle I bought as a Junior in High School (16 years old).

This bike is a 1978 Yamaha 650 Special.  It was a great bike and I rode it all the time.  At 20 years old, it was the most bike I could afford financially.

The 1980 Harley Davidson Roadster was my first big (1000 cc) street bike.  Back then, Harley engines were cast iron not aluminum.  This bike was mine, paid in full, I was very proud of it (at 22 years old).

Several years later, 1983, I traded that Harley for this 1984 Honda GoldWing.  This was a 1200 cc four cylinder.  It was the last year you could get a standard GoldWing, no fairing or body work.  It really changed the way I perceived motorcycles. (at 25 years old).  The thought of this bike was the cornerstone of every bike I owned after it.  It changed everything, the King of motorcycles..  Over the years I owned and rode 7 of them.

This was a bike that I kind of built from scratch.  It was a new Honda XR 650 L and I tore the whole thing apart.  I wanted a Supermoto bike, notice the street tires and wheels.  I built it for Tail of the Dragon.  And it did...

On the Tail of the Dragon...on one of my GoldWings...

You might wonder, no Harley Davidson's, well no.  I had a few over the years.  This was a Road Glide, in the NC mountains...

This was one of my favorite Harley Davidson's.  The XR 1200 R.  A SuperMoto version of the old flat tracker the XR 750.  Note the sport bike tires.  It was fierce around corners...

While I owned the Road Glide, I also owned this Super Glide...

This bike was a BMW K1200R and it was fierce.  Normally you wouldn't think you could say that about a BMW.

But, this was the first bike I ever owned that would break the rear tire loose from the throttle only.  It did...

This was me arriving in Ohio on my BMW R1200RT, a bike I also rode to South Dakota from Wilmington, NC.

This was a transitional bike.  A 2001 Yamaha FZ1, it was a R1 motor in a kind of normal bike, not a sport bike.  Was it fast?  Not only fast, it would do things I had never done on a bike and it traveled well.  Road it to the NC mountains several times.

This is a BUELL.  Buell was kind of a Harley Davidson spin off.  He built kind of performance bikes using Harley engines.  This was a Supermotor style he made.  I can't even remember the model.  But, it was cool and it cornered like it was on rails.

This my Performance V-Rod.  It was a fun bike to ride but it had a few problems and I didn't keep it very long.

This is the bike that I died on.  It is a Honda FURY, a chopper style of bike.  It was fun because it was out of my normal element.  You can't see the back but the vest I am wearing is my LEGION RIDERS vest.  I was a LEGION RIDER.

 This bike, the Yamaha FZ10 was fast, very fast.  It now belongs to my Son-in-Law, Regan Norris.

This was my last bike before my current GoldWing, a 2019 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS. 

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