How Did This All Get Started?

Ok for those of you that know me I am an enginerd (that's engineer and nerd) as if one can exist without the other in nature.  It's very rare but it can happen.  Well  I am no exception to that rule.  Anywho, I have always loved riding motorcycles as far as I can remember.  In fact, the first bike I ever rode on was a 1978 Honda CB400 Hawk.  My dad bought it in 1978 when we lived in San Francisco as his daily commuter to work.  This was during the gas crisis and of course he wanted a cheap efficient mode of transportation.

Well, back in 1978 I was only four years old.  When we moved back to Ohio in 1979, he would sit me on the fuel tank and take me for a ride around the new neighborhood at a modest pace.  As I grew older I bought my first motorcycle helmet at a garage sale.  It was a white open faced model, not sure what the brand was but it didn't matter.  Sometime when I was in grade school my dad bought a 1986 Honda Shadow 1100VT.  This was a cool bike!  On nice sunny weekends my dad would fire up the Shadow and I would sit on the back against the sissy bar with saddle bags slung on either side and head off to a train or toy store.

When my folks divorced in 1989, my dad left behind the old Hawk per an agreement with my mom.  Well, to a kid just barely a teenager, that motorcycle sitting there was a pretty cool sight to see.  Sometimes I'd have friends over and when mom was away we'd take turns kick starting it and revving it up in the garage.  Eventually revving it while on the center stand didn't quite satisfy my need for adventure and having a few friends egging me on didn't help.  Eventually we all put on our stupid pants and took turns racing up and down the street on the bike.  I remember the first time I took off on it, skinny knees hugging the tank and my string bean arms outstretched on the controls gingerly working the clutch and throttle trying to keep from tipping it over.  As soon as I nurtured the cycle into the street a quick flick of the wrist ignited the twin cylinders into reciprocating fury and yanked me along the road in a swift pull.  Well, as I got bolder I got faster.  Pretty soon I was zipping along the street doing 40+ MPH in a 25 speed zone..at 13 years of age..no helmet, no endorsement, nothing..but just innocent idiocy!  Mom was never wiser when she sold the bike to help me pay for my college books.  I miss that Honda.

1985 Honda VF500F Interceptor

2003 Suzuki SV650

Fast forward to today.  I'm thirty six years old, have two children and a wonderful wife.  In that time I earned my motorcycle endorsement and my first bike was the 1986 Shadow my dad used to ride with me on pillion.  I cruised all over Ohio on the Shadow in my years immediately after college while I worked at Honda and lived in Piqua, Ohio.  When I returned to Cincinnati, I sold the Shadow for a down payment on a new BMW coupe.  I got back in to riding a few years later when my friends all bought motorcycles.  I purchased a 1985 Honda VFR500F Interceptor from a friend and tooled around on that for a bit before deciding to buy a new 2003 Suzuki SV650.  The 'Zuki was a great bike, well, they all were, but shortly after I got married in 2007, I decided to sell it to pay off some bills.  My wife, whom rode with me while we were friends and then when we started dating, was heartbroken.  She never wanted to see my sell that bike, but I did, and like every bike I have owned, I miss riding it ever since.

Until...