Mike notices motorcycles.
Back in July of 1992, my work friend Ron Bolinger and myself used to take our 15 minute breaks by going out of the office for a short walk. Half of these walks, we'd simply make it out the back door and sit in our outdoor patio area and talk.
It just so happened that my high school mate Dangerous Dale Palmer worked at SSI, and owned a motorcycle. A rather large, intimidating motorcycle ('87 Honda Hurricane 1000).
Ron and I used to silently pass it, both fearing and lusting after the bike. One day, Ron suddenly broke the
moto silence.
Ron: "Mike, we could do this. Get bikes, ya' know?"
Mike: "Wow. I don't know. Dangerous... we'd kill ourselves."
Ron: "Yeah. But we COULD do it."
Mike: -nervously- "Yeah. We COULD... but man..."
I had just spent 5 years in college, working my ass off paying for school, rent, food... your typical starving college student. I drove a Yugo. I was looking for a reward for my hard work.
That next Saturday, we went to a motorcycle shop (the first time for both of us) and looked at bikes. Oh man... the excitement!
Monday morning...
Ron: "I've decided I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna buy a bike."Mike: "No shit?!!!? Well, if you're gonna do it, I'm gonna do it!"
Rons Motorcycle Riding Experience + Mikes Motorcycle Riding Experience = 0.
It took Ron 2 weeks to get the $$$ together and find the right bike, a Kawasaki Zephyr 550. Dale rode it to work for Ron.
I'll never forget watching Ron get on it for the first time and ride it in the parking lot.
I was next.
As I was working on getting together the necessary finances, Ron continued learning. He even was confident enough to take me for a few laps around the work parking lot, and then we ventured out into the city streets. Fun! (What we didn't know was that a Zephyr 550 was NOT designed to lug around two 6ft, 175lb. individuals.)
Mike's first motorcycle accident... sort of.
Tuesday night, late September. That weekend, I was set to go into the Yamaha dealership and purchase my new 1992 Yamaha Seca II.
Ron came over. We played some Super Mario Kart until about 8:30. We got bored.
Ron: "We could go for a ride."Mike:"Yeah!"
Ron: "We could go out to the coast."
Mike: "Cool!"
So, at 9:00pm on a Tuesday night, we set off...
Ron with about 2 weeks of riding experience (with learners permit).
Riding with a 6ft., 175# passenger (me). At night. On an unknown road.
We made it as far as Devil's slide on Highway 1, just south of the City. Ron went a little wide into a corner. I remember looking down, noticing that we'd crossed the double yellows. Mike (thinking to himself): "Hmmm. We've crossed the double yellows. That can't be good."
*Crash*
We were doing about 25mph when we hit the deck. We both had fashion leather jackets on, jeans, and high-tops. My knees were both banged up, his elbow got a nice raspberry. The bike was totalled by the insurance company.
That night, I swore to myself there was NO WAY in HELL I was gonna buy that bike.
Wednesday - 95% chance I wasn't gonna buy that bike.
Thursday - Go into work.Dale: "You look OK. What time you want me to come over and help you pick up the bike?"
Mike: "I don't think I'm gonna get the bike, Dale. Too dangerous."
Dale: "You'll get the bike."
50% chance I'm not buying the bike.
Friday
Dale: "Did you say 9:00am in the morning... right when they open?"
Mike: "I don't wanna die."
Dale: "Good... I'll be over at 9:00 am."
100% chance I'm buying the bike... maybe I'll just not ride it for awhile.
I buy my first motorcycle.
Saturday morning, went into the Yamaha shop. My bike to be sat proudly in the front of the shop... red red red. I set a price, and got Dale to ride it over to his house for me.
Luckily for me at the time, I was living 1/2 mile from work. I was able to ride the bike into work each day. For 1 week, every lunch and an hour after work was spent stopping and staring in works parking lot.
The next weekend, I ventured out into the surface streets, and went around the block 1000 times.
Phil (another moto employee): "You won't wreck in the first 2 weeks, but you will in the first 6 months". Geez... thanks for the confidence booster, Phil.
I was determined to prove him wrong.
And I did.
Mike rides his new Seca II... a lot.
I rode that Seca II everywhere. In the hills, down to L.A., up to Oregon. I took my first trip to the Grand Canyon on it. It was a 3 day deal, with Dangerous Dale and Jimmy "I got plenty of gas" Quan as my compradres.
I spent a lot of time around Lake Berryessa with my brother-in-law Tracy. He rode his 1994 ZX11, and I did my damndest to keep up. Learned about cornering speed. Learned you COULD keep a 45hp motorcycle with crappy tires close to a 130+hp motorcycle with top rubber. Read Keith Codes "Twist of the Wrist II" so many times it hurt. That book was my secret weapon on the street. It made sense to me. Better yet, it worked for me! Within a year, I was subscribing to 3 motorcycle magazines. (Right now I'm subscribing to 6 motorcycle magazines... Cycle World, Motorcyclist, Sport Rider, Rider, Motorcycle Consumer News, Cycle News.)
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The awesome power of the Seca II is hard to control coming out of turn 11... |
Here, I destroy Tracy's ZX6 coming out of Rainey's corner... |
I was starting to feel pretty confident with my riding abilities in September of 1994, and decided it was time to sign up for a class session at Laguna Seca with dp Safety School.
In preparation for this, I purchased a set of Michelin 59x tires for the bike. I had a local Cycle Salvage mount the tires, and the next weekend went up to Lake Berryessa with Tracy to scuff in the tires. It was a Saturday, and the track session was the next Wednesday. I put about 100 miles on the tires before hitting any twistys and all seemed good. The 59x's seemed to track the rain groves more than my previous ME33/ME1 combo, but everything else checked out OK.
Then we got to the twisty's.
The first few turns I took it real easy: minimal lean angle, and smooooth throttle inputs. About the 5th turn, a nice 25mph right hander, I decide to lean it over a little more. Mind you, I had been riding at about a 3-4 (out of 10) on my ability scale, and was only entering this turn at MAYBE a 5-6. 25mph recommended, I might have been doing 35mph at the apex. Just like Keith Code says, "Brake, turn, roll on the throttle." I rolled on the throttle, and started to lift the bike up when... WHAM... slide. I was in the dirt. Quick like. Lost the front end.
What happened? Tracy nor I ever saw any debris in the corner. I wasn't on the brakes.
I was being somewhat smooth.
The tires were still KINDA new... Later that evening (after Dangerous Dale trucked the bike home for me) we discovered that the front tire had 52psi... only about 16psi more than recommended.
I promptly ditched the Michelins, and put on some Metzlers. The dp Safety school was the most fun I'd had on my bike... maybe even in my life. It was that fun!
In December of 1994, the bike was stolen from my parking stall at my apartment complex. It had 38,400 miles on it.
The search for a new bike was on.
Mike gets a new bike.
It took me about 1 1/2 month to find my next bike, a 1987 Honda VFR 700 (white). The bike had 30,000 miles on it, but looked to be in fine shape. This is the bike my wife fell in love with.
It was a ripper... very fast. The bike had a Kerker exhaust on it, and the airbox had been turned into a cheese grater.
I sort of made a small mistake when buying the bike.
You see, I bought the bike from a local Honda dealer, assuming they checked the quality of the machine.
About 8200 miles later, I found out they didn't. I had a tune-up done at another local Honda dealer, where compression in one of the cylinders was down over 35%. Whoops. With that in mind, I decided to start looking.
Mike gets another new bike.
May 1995, there comes along a demo 1992 Honda VFR. With the recommended demo mileage of 330 miles on the odometer, I decided to bite.
When I drove this bike home, I knew something was different. No, not the fact that the dealer had left 24psi/25psi in the tires.
I knew this was the bike for me!
Mike's quality time with a VFR750.
It's hard for me to describe what I love so much about the bike. Many people will point to its smooth engine. I don't find it that smooth. Smoother than many bikes I've ridden... but not THAT smooth. Many will point to it's great comfort. I find it comfortable... but my wrists still have a little too much weight on them.I like the following best...
A) Looks.
Front view is awesome... the headlights rule.
Instrumentation. It's great... and the blue/green backlight... meow!
Black. I love the black (dark blue) color.
B) V4 engine.
It may not be the fastest motor, but at least it FEELS fast.
It's got a sort of flat feel to the power... it just PULLS.
There's no top end hit of an inline 4... but then again,
it pulls down low where I4's won't.
The sound... putting a Kerker exhaust let some of the roar come thru.
C) Single Sided Swingarm
It may do zilch for performance, but it looks COOL AS HELL!
D) Handling
I do LOTS of commuting, and it's a great commute bike.
It's stable at all speeds, and handles well at a walking pace.
In the fast twisties, it's great (although it does wallow a little).
In the tight stuff, it flicks side to side fine.
(In REALLY tight, slow corners, sometimes I find that I have to
counter-counter steer to turn the bike. Never noticed this on other bikes
(except an ST1100)).
E) Comfort
I may bitch a little about my wrists, but I've done some tours on this
machine, and it's nice to have a bike with a longer wheelbase than, say,
a RGV250.
Mike's modifications to his 1992 Honda VFR750.
Here's a list of modifications I've done...
1) Kerker Left-Exit exhaust system.
I like the looks a 9, the sound quality a 7, and the volume a 6.
I.E., it looks great, sounds good, and it's not overly loud, but
a little louder than I'd like.
2) K&N air filter.
What can I say... it's just a washable replacement.
3) Dynojet Stage I JetKit.
After the pipe and air filter, the bike started running lean.
I had Honda of Milpitas install this to get things running
perfect. It's not perfect. Raise the needles? Lower the needles? Pilot screw 2 turns out?
4) Seat cowl. A Honda option... this really makes the bike look great!
My tank bag and saddle bags are Chase Harper.
I bought them when I bought the Seca II, and use the tank bag daily. It's probably got over 65,000 miles on it.
The map pouches velcro died after about 20,000 miles. Other than that, it's perfect. It's roomy, and has a neat
little quick-access pocket on the front to store keys, cash, etc. For the price I paid for the tank bag and saddle
bags, I could barely afford a RKA tank bag... and the RKA's are ugly!