Tough to categorize the V-Strom. I chose Dual Sport, but that's a stretch.
My first bike was one my buddy and I built using a B&S 2.0 HP motor from an old reel-type lawn mower in 1969. Does that count? At first we didn't have a centrifical clutch so we put a pully on the end of a shaft that rode in a piece of copper pipe that pivoted on the frame. Top end was 20 mph, but we were in heaven!
My first real motorcycle was a brand new 1974 Honda CB 360 that I paid full msrp for because I didn't know any better. The shop owner spent 20 minutes giving me a riding lesson in a vacant parking lot. In 76 I bought a used 75 Kawasaki 900 Z-1 (see avatar). Favorite bike of all time. I used to cruise the streets looking for vettes, mach 1's, Trans Ams, (baisically any thing with glass packs), Nortons, CB 750's and especially Harleys. This would be a recurring theme through the years.
In 77 I bought a new 75 CR 250 Elsinore and eventually began racing Hare Scrambles. I ended up dislocating my hip in a nasty jump in which I performed an unintended flying W over the handle bars. After straightening the swing arm I sold it. It would be almost 30 years before my next dirt bike.
I crashed the Z-1, had it repaired and it was stolen from my apartment two weeks later. After my deductible the insurance helped me buy Suzuki's first 4-stroke, 77 GS 750. Great bike but no Z-1. Sold the 750 to my neighbor and bought a 78 GS1000. In 1981 I bought a used 79 BMW R100RS,. which I still have. Sold the gs 1000 to the same neighbor that bought the GS 750 and bought a brand new 82 GS 1100EZ. I kept that bike for 21 years.
After the first kid got through college, I bought my 4th Suzuki, an 02 DL 1000 V-Strom. In 2004 I sold the GS1100 and bought a 1971 Triumph TR6R 650 (see personal photo). Last year I ordered and received the FJR A in June. After riding it I decided there was too much overlap in the sporting characteristics of the FJR and the V-Strom so the strom got the pink slip. I took the proceeds from that and finally bought another dirt bike, the 05 WR 450. I quickly learned that 30 years and 50 lbs. take their toll, but its a blast!
. Amazingly, through both good sense and luck I'm still alive. Though many have tried to end that streak, one even tried in the first 40 minutes I owned it. Too bad for them I know what rear view mirrors at stop lights are for, coupled w/ an almost psychic 6th sense for idiots and danger, spider man is my cousin!
