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 2 responses by sfar

First bike was a a Honda 350 Scrambler bought around 1969. I rode it back and forth to work and around the Texas Hill Country for a couple of years. Sold it and had a beautiful single-cylinder Ducati 250 briefly but it didn’t take long to learn I was not a good enough mechanic to keep it running reliably. 

Then got interested in dirt bikes and bought a  Yamaha Enduro 250. That served as a weekend toy and daily commuter for a few years until I sold it to get the money to spend a summer in Mexico.

Moving to D.C. meant having a bike wasn’t practical and that was followed by years of young kids, work and house renovations that took my time and money. But after I moved to the Pacific Northwest and discovered that a motorcycle was the perfect way to do the daily ferry commute from Bainbridge Island to downtown Seattle I bought a Honda Magna because it was yellow. I started riding on weekends with friends on that bike but realized it really wasn’t meant for mountain twisties. So next came a Honda ST1100, then a Honda VFR800 sport touring bike, followed by another VFR800 with ABS (commuting in the rain on a bike in Seattle meant ABS was nice to have.) I brought that bike with me to Austin when I retired a few years ago but soon decided my 70-something year-old reflexes, balance and leg strength weren’t what they used to be and it would be a good idea to stop and preserve my record of never having had an accident.