Any audiophiles into motorcycles


As its just getting into motorcycle season here in the great lakes region, motorcycling is beginning to supplant audio as my primary preoccupation. I recall there being threads as to car ownership, don't recall a motorcycle thread. And so, lets hear from the audiophile motorcycle enthusiasts out there; tell everyone about bikes you own, or have owned, and lets hear some motorcycle tales.

As for myself, I started riding around 12 years of age, little Suzuki 50cc trail bike, purchased Sears Allstate (Puch) 250cc street bike at 15 so I'd be ready for street legal riding at 16. Over the next 25 years too many bikes to list, mostly 650cc bikes and larger, migrated to super sports over those years, I was doing a lot of sports touring in those years, strap a tent and sleeping bag on bike and go for up to three or four weeks, mostly around great lakes region. I did great lakes circle tour: southern Ohio and West Virginia was a yearly tour, up into Adirondacks, northern New York, Vermont was always nice. Ontario, Canada was also a pretty common destination as was upper peninsula of Michigan. These days I  find myself pretty much sticking to weekend rides with my nephew, a budding audiophile with his Aprilia RSV4. I've been riding my little pocket rocket KTM RC390 the past few years, fun bike but lacking the thrill of bigger bore bikes such that I've now purchased 2021 Ducati Supersport S in silk white, expecting delivery next Wednesday. So, at this point my ownership of bikes includes the KTM, Ducati, Suzuki DRZ400S and 1973 Yamaha TX500 I'm in process of making into cafe racer.

My passion for motorcycles (and cars, but that's a different story) has certainly impacted my audiophile life. I don't have as much disposable income for audio, and bikes replace audio as my primary preoccupation in summer, but having passion for both sure makes for a richer life!
sns

Showing 1 response by ianrodger

I was brought home from the hospital at 2 days old in the sidecar of an old WLA.
My father always had bikes. Vincents, Norton, BMW, etc etc
I got my first one, a Honda 50 Super Sport in 1970 and have never been without a bike since then.
Next was a '74 250 Suzuki Trail Bike.
Then an '79 Suzuki 850 Shaft Drive. Fantastic bike!
An '83 Suzuki 1100 Shaft Drive followed that.
I bought a Harley Davidson Road King in '98 which is my current main ride.
I inherited a '76 Suzuki Water Cooled 750 2 Stroke from my dad in 2014. It has less than 7000 kilometres on it so I don't ride it, just start it up occasionally.
Around '76 or so I bought an original Kawasaki 500 Mach3 with a seized engine and rear brake for $20! Dad and I pulled it down and it was going to be a retirement project that never happened. After dad died, I put it back together so that you could see it was complete and sold it on Ebay in 2015 for just under $6000!

I also have an '89 Heritage Softail that I bought in 2019 off a mate who owned it from new. It's on Historic rego as it is over 30 years old. This costs just $60 per year.
Thanks for the great post!