I’ve had about 10 bikes starting with. a Suzuki 305 when I was 14 or 15 and still a paperboy in Knoxville. That was around 1970. Went from there to a Kawasaki Mach III then a Suzuki 750 then a Norton then a BMW. Had a few accidents too but fortunately survived it all in one piece. I still have the 2nd BMW, a touring bike I bought 30 years ago, and it still runs but I hardly ride anymore. I thought about getting a new bike a few years ago or a boat but just been real busy,,, until a couple months ago.
Glad you’re mostly ok. It doesn’t take a lot of speed to cause serious injuries. I was riding my bike several years back and had just come down a decent sized hill so I was going 20-25 mph..... a dog ran out to chase me, but ran up under me and caught my peddle.... I went down hard... landed on my elbow then to my side.... rolled two or three times and somehow ended up popping back up on my feet. The bruises on my hip and road rash on my knee and shin was nothing compared to the bruise and chunk of flesh missing from my elbow..... sucked
That Suzuki 750 was the only bike I ever bought brand new. After 3 years work as an engineering co-op and with less than a year till I graduated, I bought what turned out to be a lemon! First time I opened it up after carefully following the break-in guidelines, when I got it up to 100 mph on Alcoa Hwy the engine bogged down and quit! It only ran sickly after that; the dealer checked it out and found “nothing wrong”. So in early Fall of 1976, after graduating summer quarter, I set out (stupidly hoping the bike would make it) on a cross-continental trip but only got as far as Minnesota when the engine seized up for good. Long story short, after two weeks waiting for parts I ended up trading it for a used Norton 850 that carried me on to Montana and back to Knoxville over the next 3 weeks, just in time to get moved to Baton Rouge to start my first job as a degree holding engineer. Good times.
It was indeed the ride of a lifetime. The kind of thing best to do before you settle down. In my 30’s and 40’s I did a lot of shorter bike trips, usually 1 or 2 weeks, usually in October and either from the Poconos to the Smokies (when I lived in the Poconos) or from Baton Rouge to the Smokies (this was during my second time living in LA) when I had season tickets... But that bicentennial trip is the only time I ever got to ride out west.
Myself and 3 others did a coast to Coast in June of 2011 in 13 days, averaging 400+miles per day on secondary roads. Several miles ridden on Route 66. We were all riding Bonneville's. One day lay over with no riding was spent in Prescott , Az. Three of us in our mid 50' s and one in mid 40's at the time. Yes it was a trip of a lifetime. Still riding today.
