My older brother left the Air Force in 1968 and purchased a new Yamaha DT1, a 250cc Enduro.  Wow!  was that ever cool.  In 1969, I bought it from him to replace my desert "sled" - 305cc Honda Scrambler, and began racing motocross at a motocross park nearby.  Of course, my "Enduro" couldn't compete with the Husky's and CZ's that were dominating at the time and after numerous spectacular crashes, I decided I needed something a little more worthy.  During the late 60's and early 70's when life was oh so much easier, Motocross was still relatively new to the U.S.  My brother and I began competing as "Privateers" but soon found some partial sponsors with both Maico and Bultaco.  Not blessed with great athletic abilities, neither of us achieved a full sponsorship but man we did have a good time!  We routinely competed at the Ellsinore Grand Prix, Mammoth Mountain Motocross, Carlsbad, Saddleback and Magic Mountain and raced against some of the best riders of the time.  We did a little trials riding and desert racing as well as a little street blasting on our Kawasaki Mach III's.  During that time, I was racing in the "Open" Class and my brother, somewhat "thinner" than his younger brother, raced in the 250cc class.  We raced on year-old factory Maico racers from the West Coast Distributor in Glendale, CA and some custom-made Bultacos by Pumfrey's Bultaco, a small shop in Canogo Park, CA.

Fast forward to late 1969 and by that time, my brother and I decided to buy new Kawasaki MACH III motorcycles that were all the craze.  At under $1,000.00 new, even a teenager could afford one.  My brother and I took delivery of two "Red-Tank" early 1970 H1's from Bert's Motorcycle in Azusa, CA.  For the next year, there wasn't a stock car or motorcycle that could outrun one of these bikes.  They smoked, they shook but Oh God they were fast!

Well, along came time for me to serve in the Military and my ambitions of learning to fly a helicopter were quashed early on because of my height.  Since I had wanted to learn to fly helicopters so that I could then fly them for a police department, I just went into the Military Police Corps and later became a criminal investigator. While I was in Germany, I befriended several German Police Officers and got to ride on a BMW R100RS that they were using to chase down speeders on the autobahn.  It was sleek, handled well and was fast for a Beemer since it was the first "liter" bike I had ever ridden.  It would set the stage for a later purchase.  For the most part however, I was too poor to buy a motorcycle having been married in 1975 and went until 1979 before I bought my next motorcycle - a used 1979 Honda CX-500.  It was a great bike and came at a time when I needed two-wheels under me.  They seemed to "balance" me a bit. (Note:  In 1984, I purchased the "Silver Wing Interstate" version of the CX-500 and liked that even more and used it for a commuter for quite awhile.)  After getting out of the Army in 1980, I bought a used Honda XL-500S since I was living in the desert - it seemed like a good alternative to be able to ride on both the street and the dirt and I had a blast on this bike - riding it back and forth to work and out and about in the desert near our home in Tucson, AZ.  Fast forward now to 1988 - I had moved back to Washington, D.C. and, of course, had sold all of my bikes to help afford the higher cost of living there.  But one day while pursuing the ads in the paper, I found a used Honda that looked like a good deal, low mileage and would make a good commuter. Back on two wheels I was.  It was my third V-Twin and I was developing a pattern for twins!  This was the Honda VT-500 Ascot.  A sharp bike. Like the other bikes before it -none of which were "classics", they went away when more pressing financial needs came along i.e., new children, houses, flooded basements, broken heat pumps etc.  The one good thing was that you could move these things in and out of your life easily and have some fun while you had them.  Without motorcycles however, life always seems a little less enjoyable.  I left Washington, D.C. in 1991 and relocated back to Arizona.  I had been without a bike for awhile and my wife agreed out of the kindness of her heart to make me a gift of one on our still limited, government employee, salary.  We found the perfect bike in the Phoenix paper and traveled up that weekend to test ride it and ended up riding it home.  We bought a 1978 BMW R100RS - Just like the German Police had let me ride almost a decade earlier.  It was a big, beautiful machine and took to the highway on the ride from Phoenix to Yuma like a champ.  It even came with Krauser Saddlebags and the solo and dual seats and a box of extra parts.  At the time, $1,800.00 was a lot of money for us but not for this rocket.  This was the probably the first bike I should have kept and never let go of.  I sold it for the same amount a year or so later but now see they are fetching three times that.  The photo on the right is of yours truly - waiting on my wife at the "Sun Beam" Rest stop near El Centro, CA.  We were heading up to Julian, CA in the mountains near San Diego for a romantic weekend get-a-way at a B&B there.  This was late summer of 1992. Life was pretty good but the other shoe was soon to fall.  In November of that same year, at the age of 39, I was diagnosed with rectal cancer and I was given less than a 25% chance to survive the next five years.  This would begin the tale of how motorcycling save my life.  To read more go here!