I am 65 and have had my license to ride on the street for 49 years and rode the fields for a few years before that. Many broken bones and road rash but they are all memories that I have grown to cherish.
I have been fortunate in life, it has been well rounded. I remember the day in my mid twenties that my ex told me it was time for me to move on and I left Arizona with everything that I owned in the world on a 1976 Harley. I made my way towards Ohio because I knew someone that owned a spot there and would have a place to park and hopefully enough work to get enough money to start over. It was the worst time in my life but it worked out. I was down to just enough money for gas to get me to where I needed to go. I stopped on a country road and walked through a few trees and the sweet corn was just getting ripe and I picked an ear and ate it raw. When I exited back to the road I was met by the farmer who asked me what I was doing. After hearing the truth he took me to his shop as a place to stay and fed me. He put me to work fixing and readying equipment. We still keep in contact to this day.
I went on down the road and met my wife that I have been married to for 30 years and we have a nice home, I am now retired after 23 years with the same company and I have a number of motorcycles. including the 76 Harley that I made my way into life on. I still club race, have done 8 sanctioned races so far this year. The secret is as we get older and slower so do the bikes I race.
Motorcycling has been my life and will continue to be until I can no longer breathe life into my body.
Yup- great post. Welcome to WildGuzzi.
There’s something about going through life’s adventures on a bike, especially when the same bike makes it through all of those adventures with you and nothing else does. My old V7 Sport has traveled a very similar road with me, through all the good and bad. It’s still here and it’s still
that important to me. Many people don’t understand- Restoring it would whitewash where we’ve been and what was done together. It was always good enough for me just like it was when it was the best bike I had. It still is and it still is.
I don’t ride as much as I used to or would like to, but that’s okay. My old Guzzi is still ready to go, even if I’m not. Even a short ride on it is still as good as it always was.