Some of the motorcycles owned and some very subjective opinions, and recollectons of each.
Hodaka Ace 100 Bananza. This was basically a mini-bike with a way too powerful an engine. It had an odd chain drive gear reduction system that flipped the drive chain from the left side to the right side: Probably so it could run the tiny wheels. As I recall, it didn't have a front brake and almost no suspension. This bike taught me, "the hard way," why judging stopping distance was important, especially if you had a passenger. Other than that, I don't think I ever learned anything else about riding a motorcycle.
Kawasaki 90 G3. This was the first and only motorcycle I've ever bought that was new, with my own money as a kid. I learned to ride it on the street by sneaking out late at night and starting it at least three blocks away from our house to meet up with my other friends that were doing the same thing. It would be an entire year before any of us could get a learner's permit. It caught the attention of the local community, in that they were trying to find out who the, "loud," mid-night rider was. It worked out for us, cause we could always say it was someone else. They never realized it was a whole group of kids doing the same thing. This was a lesson in the sense that one had to have situational awareness when doing extra-legal things. Know where the cops are. We would have to remember who was also out that night, and who ever wasn't, was the one, that would have the alibi. What I learned from this bike is that the frame would load in a fast corner and "spring" back out for a split second. This could mess up a corning line and cause a residual, frame flex, oscillation that was very scary. The G3 was also not a trail bike, yet it was used for mostly off road. This destroyed the bike. It simply was not designed for that sort of use. So lesson learned was that bikes are designed to do certain things: Street bikes are for the street and Trail bikes are for the trail.
Kawasaki Triple 500CC H3. This was my older brother's bike, though i rode it more than he did. This bike made no sense as a road bike. Either there was something wrong with this particular bike, or it was designed in a crazy way. From a dead standstill, you either stalled the bike off the line, or you wheelied it. It had almost no power band or low end torque. Felt like you were riding a milk toast 250 CC, till you hit that Oh S*** moment. Just riding it was a study in unpredictability. I had learned to run the revs up in a two stroke before up shifting. This bike was entirely different, because just before you were going to normally up shift, it would hit this little, paper thin, power band, just when you thought the HP was slightly dropping off. There goes the front wheel off the ground again. And add to that, all the frame flex loading, this bike never followed a line. The only time i found that bike pleasant to drive was with the added weight of a passenger and not exploring that insane power band. After any session of spirited riding, I'd look at this thing and wonder why it was so intent on killing me.
Yamaha RD 350. This was the first motorcycle I ever learned to ride with any grace. It went exactly where I wanted it to, would fall in to the line of a corner and stay there, and had a completely predictable power band. It didn't flex like the last bikes. It was a bike that didn't dictate to me how i wanted to ride. Nice little commuter bike in town, and a sharp, curve carver for some fun. It also could stop on a dime. This bike allowed me to re-think some of my stopping distances and still have a sense of margine of safety. Loved its gear ratios, they were near perfect. Didn't even need to use the clutch most of the time. Rode it till it wore out the pistons, and then sold it for exactly the same amount it was bought it for.
Looked at and test drove many bikes of different sizes, mostly 500 to 750 CC in the three years with out a bike. 1979-1981. Didn't like anything. Bikes were changing rapidly and the era of the UJM was over. Riding "style" had also changed. Bikes were designed to drive in an entirely different manner than the way I wanted to ride a bike. They were either Cruiser OR Sport Bike. Test drove a Honda 700 CC Night Hawk and hated it. It had no soul, no power band, didn't matter what gear you were in and the first time entering a corner at speed, this thing dropped completely down off the line. It was not a neutrally balenced bike. This was the same experience with most the others I was looking at, including the "Cruisers." Then it occurred to me that they were designing them that way, cause this was a new style of riding. Then there was the Yamaha SR 500.
Yamaha SR 500. This is the bike I've kept for over 36 years and the one still owned today. When you find that first perfect love, its hard to ever find fault. The RD was the first bike that introduced grace to riding, however this is the first bike that became an extension of my being. I can't bring myself to sell it even though, I'm too old to ride it much: it vibrates too much. And even in my worst financial times, it was never a consideration as an asset. Its a marriage that can't be broken, full of too many good memories, 10s of thousands of smiles, and it never let me down in all the far distant places it could have. That bike isn't, and will never be for sale. I should give it to Jay Leno in my Will: He doesn't have one.
