I can now admit humbly that these were the exact words spoken through my own mouth some years ago upon a friend’s suggestion I start riding.  Roughly a week later I had my license and my eye on a slightly broken in cruiser – a starter bike so-to-speak.

I’d made a promise to a friend I’d known for roughly 24 years at that point I’d never ride. He’s “on the job” and has seen enough for him to be dissuaded from taking the plunge. Nevertheless, he still eyes the Harley dealership and drools over my bike.  Clearly, I didn’t keep that promise.

My earliest memory of motorcycles is the show CHiPS which followed the lives of two motorcycle California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers.  All reruns when I started watching as they began in 1977 and went through 1983.  That show was frikin’ awesome.  Two buddies got to ride through California on Harley’s with pistols and chase bad guys day in and day out.  That’s basically what I was doing, but it was in the woods with of Central Mass with a cap gun that would always jam.  I’d long repressed the memories, but as a young kid I’d ride through the neighborhood with a squashed soda can on the rear tire – as when caught up against the frame it’d make the closest noise to a motorcycle I could create.  Nobody else did this – I was the only one. Other friends would put those mutli-colored plastic bead type things on their spokes which just looked dumb and made a pointless sound.  I may have been on training wheels with my socks hiked up high, but I was a badass.

Share with us – what is your earliest memory of motorcycles?