My resume, heh heh.
Well I have been riding motorcycles since I was 13. I am now about to turn 26. My father has been riding motorcycles for years. Now, my entire family rides.
My first bike that I learned to ride on in my parents front yard was a little Yamaha Special 50cc street bike. Had my dad teach me the ropes, run me through some figure 8s, and tight circles, clutch control, all that jazz. Pretty good teachings actually. A few months later, I turned 14, and got my motorcycle license. I stuck to just riding the lil 50 around the neighborhood until I was 18.
After graduating from High School, my grandfather decided he didnt want his Virago 535 anymore, so he gave it to me. Before My mother would let me ride it on the street though, I had to take the MSF class. It was alot of fun, and I am looking into taking it again as a refresher. Aced both written and ridden parts of the test, and so I was on my way to zipping around town on that Virago. I still remember tearing up backroads, ripping it down straights at full throttle, and grinding the ever loving crap out of the pegs.
After about a year of dropping it a few times, grinding the pegs, and about 2,000 miles, I got to looking around at sportbikes. I was just about to turn 19, and was so set on getting a Ninja ZX-6R. My parents though, the smart ones, told me that would be way too much bike for me, and found me a nice little 2003 Ninja 250. So, I sold the Virago to my brother in law for $2000, and bought the used little ninja for that $2000. I do not remember exactly how long I was riding it for, had to of been maybe around 2 1/2 - 3 years. Had ridden and trailered the lil 250 to east TN a few times, and even trailered it all the way to Sturgis. Thats right, I rode a green Kawasaki Ninja 250 around Sturgis, and lived to tell about it. Hell, even went up pikes peak on it while we were heading home! I had one accident on the 250, a labor day weekend. Used to ride the bike around my town like I was a racer. At an intersection, I was making a right hand turn, gave it too much rear brake on some sand/dirt, and lowsided it. Tore my knee up pretty good, and scratched up the bike, but other than a bent handlebar and my pride, everything was good, rode the bike home.
After doing about 12,000 miles on the lil 250, and a few times of taking my new G/F out on it, I decided I had enough money and experience to buy a larger bike, and needed one if I was going to be toting my G/F around on the back all the time. So comes my first FZ6, 2004, silver, low miles, absolutely gorgeous, flawless condition. Come to think of it now, I was 21 when I got it. Anywho, I bought it from the local motorcycle shop used for around $4500. For the next couple of years, I took the bike to East TN, and down to Florida for a bike rally, and a trackday at Jennings FL, awesome track btw. After doing some modding, trying R6S forks, fitting a nice carbon fiber Leo Vince exhaust, the bike developed a side to side oscillation. After delaing with it for a good half a year, I finnally took it to a local repair shop to see what they could do with it. So begins, the epic saga of the totaled FZ6....
About 1 1/2 weeks after I dropped the bike off, I get a call on my cell really early from the shop. I missed the call, and all the voicemail said was to call them back urgently, it was about my bike. Come to find out, the mechanic who was working on my bike, took it out for a "test ride", which involved riding with a local bike group, and doing wheelies down the interstate, as well as exceeding speeds of 120mph. Yes, the mechanic admitted all of this to me. What ended up happening, he told me, was he was doing a wheelie, and it start to wobble on him,so he sat it down between 2 semis, and slammed the side of one of them. It managed to bend the frame slider back against the frame, and cracked it. That was the only damage to the bike... at that time. After a bit of chatting, and having my insurance quote the repair work, me and the bike shop agreed to them just buying the bike from me. After a few months of back and forth, trying to get them to pay up to the agreed price, getting nothing out of them, I decided to go with my insurance and have the repairs done. I go to pick up the bike, and low and behold, the same mechanic as wrecked the bike... again... wheeling it. He managed to 12 o'clock it, and totaled the bike out completely now. Insurance settled up on it for me, and took them to court, since their shop was not insured. Note to self, never take a bike to First Kick again! So with a fresh check from my insurance, I went to the local Harley dealership, and bought a used 2004 Buell Firebolt I had been drooling over for the past month. Goodbye to my lovely 2004 FZ6, I had put about 8000 miles on her. Hello Buell
Me and the Firebolt had a decent run. Bought her with about 2400 miles on the clock. Put maybe 6000 miles on her, 2 accidents. The first accident, my 2nd one on a motorcycles, I was on a group ride. Was going through a left hand blind turn, when midway through I see a guy on a cruiser coming head on at me, with his rear tire locked up. I get hard on the front brakes, feel the back end lift off the ground, squeeze past his front tire and the edge of the road, sit the back end down, and immediately go into a slow speed tank slapper and hit the dirt hard. Damage wasn't too bad, traded insurance information, rode the bike home, had it fixed a few months later and was back on the road. Only damage to me was a bruised hip. Go go riding gear! A little less than a year later, I had another accident, this time a bit worse, and my own fault.
I was doing some "spirited" riding, running through the same turn over and over with my G/F taking pictures and a video. It was a fairly technical, double apex, blind corner, which made it fun to me. It tightened up real good at the exit when going one direction on it. After several passes, leaning more and more, and finnally feeling my knee touch down, I hit the 2nd apex, saw the exit of the corner, and aww balls gravel was all over the road now. A car I saw pass by going the other direction must have dropped a tire onto the shoulder. This was pretty decent sized chunks of gravel. I panicked, thinking oh god I don't want to hit that leaned over, and stood the bike up, hitting the brakes hard. I was doing about 55-60 when I left the pavement. Was running parallel to the pavement on the shoulder, now off the brakes, trying to get the bike back on the pavement. Too late for that though, the shoulder dropped off as an embankment, and the front-end of the bike washed out. The next thing I know, all I hear is the sound of my plastic helmet grinding on the pavement as I hit shoulder/head first, then sky ground sky ground sky ground as I half cart wheeled and rolled down the road. The bike ended up being totaled out, and I was one lucky SOB. Only injuries to me was a sprained ankle, severely sprained thumb, and a few scratches on my arm from the initial impact pulling my leathers across my skin. Was fully suited up, race boots, gloves, 1 piece leathers, and back protector. After this accident, I decided to calm down on my riding habits, and bought a Buell CityX setup for touring.
It was a good little bike, had some huge ass hard bags on it. Bought it with 24000 miles on the clock. Previous owner had ridden it from NJ to the grand canyon, and a few other long distance rides. I ended up putting around 6000 miles on it myself, only one decent length trip down to the barber museum. After about 1 1/2 years of owning it, Buell getting axed, and growing tired of that Harley motor, I sold it just a week ago today, and am picking up my new to me 2007 Red FZ6 tomorrow.
I am totally stoked. Loved the 2007 model when it first released, especially in the red color :BLAA:
, boubght my first sportbike about 8 years ago, Ninja EX500, 2 yrs later bought a 04 ZX6R 636, then October a year ago bought my 07 FZ6. 
Yea I know. :thumbup:
