I
rode my first bike in '79. I was in my office working on a sermon when I heard someone come into the building. No one
ever came into that building! It was only a second or two later when my office door flew open and a church member was standing there, hollering, "Come out here! You've got to see this!"
This turned out to be brand new Honda CB750. He insisted I ride it, even after I told him that I'd never ridden any motorcycle before, much less a brand new, big bike. I rode it about 5 miles down the road in front of the church until I finally got to an intersection that was big enough that I could manage to paddle the bike around in semi-circle without dropping it. It was great!! I went home (a 150-yard walk) and told my wife that I had a great idea. I should get a otorcycle. It would save us a bunch of money and we could cut back to one car. She told me that we didn't "do" motorcycles. I was already sailing a small boat (13') in the Gulf of Mexico. A few years later, I learned to fly small airplanes and got about 300 hrs in flying Cessnas and Pipers. I had left the ministry in '73 but returned to that calling in '80 after I'd moved to Casper, WY, in '79. A year later, a younger minister was appointed to a smaller church. When I learned thjat he had a Suzuki cruiser that he had ridden to Yellowstone, my motorcycle lust was reignited. But once again my wife said, "
We don't
do motorcycles!"
So, a few years later, I started doing bicycles. I rode about 30,000 miles between '84 and '95. Then in '95, I was moved to Ft. Morgan. The first Sunday we were there, the church had a potluck to welcome us (they always do). After we had had desert, the choir director came over and said that there was a tradition there (there wasn't) that a new minister either stood up on his dinner table and sang a solo or went for a ride with her on her motorcycle. That wasn't much of a decision. She took me for a ride of 8-10 blocks on her '86 Honda Shadow 600.
A couple of years later, the choir director and my wife started taking long rides on weekends. Connie (the choir director) told me that if I'd get my learner's permit, she'd teach me how to ride and I could use her bike during the week. I rode it about 2500 miles that fall, but when my wife moved out at the beginning of February, I decided I had no interest in continuing to ride Connie's Shadow.
I came home from church the next day and decided to take a bicycle ride. On my way out, I flipped open my
Denver Post classified ads (remember those?) and there was an ad with a Fort Morgan phone number. All it said was "1983 Honda GL650i, 20K miles, $2500." I had no idea what it was, but I called the owner and told him I'd be out to look at it in 2-3 hours. When I got there, there were 2 bikes sitting in his barn. One was a Pacific Coast. I'd fallen in love with them when they came out and had talked to a rider who was on his way to Alaska about 3 yrs earlier. The other bike was the GL650i Silverwing. I'd never heard of them, much less seen one, and I'd always figured that I'd ride a cruiser-style bike. The owner answered some of my questions and then insisted I go ride the bike. I'd only planned on riding it out to a little town about 12 miles from his place, but he insisted I take at least an hour-long ride.
When I got back, I was sold, but I needed to talk to my banker. The next day at the office, I was telling my associate pastor about it. He was riding a GL1200 Goldwing and, it turned out, had owned an '81 GL500 Silverwing. So we went out so he could see the '83 I was looking at. Again, the owner insisted we take the bike for a ride. After another 60-70 miles, Jim told me that he was really impressed with the
oomph the extra 150ccs gave the '83. I saw my banker on Tuesday and he was willing to loan me the money as long I swore on a stack of Bibles that I'd never have a wreck on it.
I rode that bike for 19K miles in 13 months. Those miles included my first longest ride, 650 miles from my folks house to Gunnison, Creede, Pagosa Springs, Durango, Montrose, and back to my folks. 650 miles, with snow on Wolf Creek Pass, and then on the Million Mile Highway between Durango and Ouray. I also took Joanne on her first motorcycle ride on the 'Wing. After reading Melissa Holbrook's "Motorcycles, the Perfect Vehicle," I used to pretend that the baby 'Wing was a Moto Guzzi LeMans.
A trip from my folks in Grand Junction back to FM that took me through Delta and Hotchkiss on CO-92 and then home through Canon City and Colorado Springs occasioned my first notice of BMW R1100RTs. I leap-frogged a pair of them from Salida to the Springs. But they were out of my price range. One day on my way home from lunch, I saw what I thought was an RT parked a couple of blocks from the house. I turned around to take a look at it and discoverered the Kawasaki Concours. By then, Joanne and I were engaged and I said that we ought to buy a new bike before we got married. She agreed and with a month, I'd bought my 2nd bike and my first new bike.l
That '99 Connie took us on our honeymoon in June of '99. In August of that year, my associate Jim and I did a SS1K Ironbutt ride. The year after that, another friend and I did a BunBurner 1.5K ride together. I rode that Connie to several Concours Owners Group rides and to Hyder, Alaska. In the fall of '06, I totaled that bike after putting 115K miles on it. After a couple of months I bought a practically identical '99 Connie and rode it another 50K miles.
Then in March of '10, I bought Dudley, NT700V SN 079. I rode it until July of 2020. Then, with 139K miles on it, I traded it in August for NT700V SN 065. Horse had 22K when I got it from Empire Cycle in Spokane, where Joe Forsty (Frosty on this Forum) had traded it for a Triumph 900 GT Pro. I haven't ridden it a lot because of Joanne's Altzheimers. She died a year ago day before yesterday and I'm hoping to get back to riding soon.
Horse:
I am packing for the rockies so I dont have the time to list all 30 bikes. 
