Hello all,
What a great place and a great group. I have been around a few weeks and just got around to posting an introduction.
I'm back on a street bike after more than 10 years away because I can once again enjoy a commute to work without using a California freeway. :great: To be honest, in 2008 I realized I was pushing my luck riding everyday on a road were everyone acts like they are the only vehicle on the road. Have you ever been "tapped" from behind by a car on a bike?!? I have, and that level of disregard for someone else was a real eye opener at 75 MPH!
April 2020 I found a Silver 2011 Connie 1400 with 19K on it, and just about every functional bell an whistle in the book installed on it. It seemed too good to believe because except for the add-ons, it honestly looked like it just came out of the shipping crate at the dealership, not a single mark on it and it runs like a dream. I ride 96 miles round trip daily. Across the high desert (3500 ft), up the mountain to work in Big Bear Lake, Ca (7000 ft), and then back down the mountain and back across the desert home. The ride is beautiful, but is too cold for winter commuting due to snow, and I'm sure I may need to take the car on the hand full of days the forecast says it will pass 110 this summer. I could handle it when I was in my 20s and 30s, but just this side of 60 I don't plan to tempt fate.
A little background on me:
I have been riding since I was big enough to hold up a bike. I got my motorcycle, car, and pilots licenses in 1977. While in the USAF in 82, I purchased one of the first 100 Honda Apencades ever built and Honda was very good to us first 100 owners - I still have a place in my heart for that bike. I bought it after a very bad run with several new and used Harleys, and after finally flipping out over my prized 76 Triumph Bonneville leaking brake fluid constantly and seeming to require more wrenching than riding. The Triumph went to a good friend on a fire sale - I was pretty ticked off at it and the assorted other bikes that had let me down. Anyway, I was 135 lbs soaking wet on a more than 800lb bike - but I loved it! I took my first MSF Experienced Riders Course on that bike, and did not have a great deal of sympathy years later for bigger guys riding large machines and making endless excuses for their lack of control after I became an MSF instructor in 1988.
I mention the Aspencade because it led to me getting a shot at riding a drag bike for a local Kawasaki dealer for a year. The dealership owner was blown away by the sight of my skinny frame on that massive Gold Wing and was sure I could control a new bike they were building for the strip that his mechanics were afraid of, so I got a shot! That was a wonderful Adrenalin filled year until the USAF made me quit racing - they considered it too hazardous - imagine that! Anyway, they did reward me with 4 years in Germany where I bought and rode an FJ1100 and a CB750 from departing service members. You have not lived as a bike rider until you experience the Autobaun and Nurburgring on a liter sports bike. The Ring was 12 and 15 miles around, and there were 2 configurations while I was there 83-86, with one configuration had 154 turns! It was open to the public when there were no races, and as I recall it was 3 German Marks a lap which came to about a dollar a lap in those days. We would ride 60 miles to the track in the morning on good tires, do two or three laps between breaks and lunch, and then limp home on well worn and cupped tires. It was completely crazy the kind of bikes and cars you would see on that track at any given moment. I even saw VW vans and Mercedes trucks!! I guess everyone wanted to "run what they brung!" And there were some silly, silly wrecks due to more nerve than skill.
I am a USAF vet that did 10 years 1980-1989. I guess I lost interest, so I made the choice to call it a career with an HONORABLE discharge in 89 to do something completely different. After the Air Force career I turned my hobby - computers - into a full time job and spent the next 10 years working in every area of computer technology and did look back. And for the past 20 years I have been involved in technology management for large and small organizations. Currently I am the IT Director for a small hospital in a great town, full of wonderful people that I enjoy serving everyday. I don't miss the bigger chairs - not one bit! :great:
I have been fortunate to ride some incredible bikes in some priceless settings, but I can honestly say my (new to me) Connie 14 is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden! This may be the last bike I ever need or want!
Enjoy the ride,
Jon
What a great place and a great group. I have been around a few weeks and just got around to posting an introduction.
I'm back on a street bike after more than 10 years away because I can once again enjoy a commute to work without using a California freeway. :great: To be honest, in 2008 I realized I was pushing my luck riding everyday on a road were everyone acts like they are the only vehicle on the road. Have you ever been "tapped" from behind by a car on a bike?!? I have, and that level of disregard for someone else was a real eye opener at 75 MPH!
April 2020 I found a Silver 2011 Connie 1400 with 19K on it, and just about every functional bell an whistle in the book installed on it. It seemed too good to believe because except for the add-ons, it honestly looked like it just came out of the shipping crate at the dealership, not a single mark on it and it runs like a dream. I ride 96 miles round trip daily. Across the high desert (3500 ft), up the mountain to work in Big Bear Lake, Ca (7000 ft), and then back down the mountain and back across the desert home. The ride is beautiful, but is too cold for winter commuting due to snow, and I'm sure I may need to take the car on the hand full of days the forecast says it will pass 110 this summer. I could handle it when I was in my 20s and 30s, but just this side of 60 I don't plan to tempt fate.
A little background on me:
I have been riding since I was big enough to hold up a bike. I got my motorcycle, car, and pilots licenses in 1977. While in the USAF in 82, I purchased one of the first 100 Honda Apencades ever built and Honda was very good to us first 100 owners - I still have a place in my heart for that bike. I bought it after a very bad run with several new and used Harleys, and after finally flipping out over my prized 76 Triumph Bonneville leaking brake fluid constantly and seeming to require more wrenching than riding. The Triumph went to a good friend on a fire sale - I was pretty ticked off at it and the assorted other bikes that had let me down. Anyway, I was 135 lbs soaking wet on a more than 800lb bike - but I loved it! I took my first MSF Experienced Riders Course on that bike, and did not have a great deal of sympathy years later for bigger guys riding large machines and making endless excuses for their lack of control after I became an MSF instructor in 1988.
I mention the Aspencade because it led to me getting a shot at riding a drag bike for a local Kawasaki dealer for a year. The dealership owner was blown away by the sight of my skinny frame on that massive Gold Wing and was sure I could control a new bike they were building for the strip that his mechanics were afraid of, so I got a shot! That was a wonderful Adrenalin filled year until the USAF made me quit racing - they considered it too hazardous - imagine that! Anyway, they did reward me with 4 years in Germany where I bought and rode an FJ1100 and a CB750 from departing service members. You have not lived as a bike rider until you experience the Autobaun and Nurburgring on a liter sports bike. The Ring was 12 and 15 miles around, and there were 2 configurations while I was there 83-86, with one configuration had 154 turns! It was open to the public when there were no races, and as I recall it was 3 German Marks a lap which came to about a dollar a lap in those days. We would ride 60 miles to the track in the morning on good tires, do two or three laps between breaks and lunch, and then limp home on well worn and cupped tires. It was completely crazy the kind of bikes and cars you would see on that track at any given moment. I even saw VW vans and Mercedes trucks!! I guess everyone wanted to "run what they brung!" And there were some silly, silly wrecks due to more nerve than skill.
I am a USAF vet that did 10 years 1980-1989. I guess I lost interest, so I made the choice to call it a career with an HONORABLE discharge in 89 to do something completely different. After the Air Force career I turned my hobby - computers - into a full time job and spent the next 10 years working in every area of computer technology and did look back. And for the past 20 years I have been involved in technology management for large and small organizations. Currently I am the IT Director for a small hospital in a great town, full of wonderful people that I enjoy serving everyday. I don't miss the bigger chairs - not one bit! :great:
I have been fortunate to ride some incredible bikes in some priceless settings, but I can honestly say my (new to me) Connie 14 is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden! This may be the last bike I ever need or want!
Enjoy the ride,
Jon