3. Gettin' Started

January, 1978. Big blizzard in Topeka. What better time to buy a bike than during a major winter storm? So, there we were at the Harding Wheel Yamaha shop wheelin' and dealin' for a pair of "BIG" Yamaha XS 400's. We figured we needed two bikes and that we’d get a better deal if we bought both at the same time. The blizzard was a stroke of luck that we took as a good omen because buyers weren't exactly beatin' down the doors to get in.

We negotiated for the best price and settled back to wait for warmer weather so we could get the bikes home. It proved to be a long wait. Several weeks later the weather finally warmed up enough to melt the snow and ice off the roads and we were able to ride our purchases home so we could at least look at them any time we wanted to. We spent lots of time sitting in the garage “test sitting” and "practicing head turning"!

Winter had set in with a vengeance. It was late in March before we actually took the bikes out for the first time. It was so cold the engines wouldn't run well without a little choke. Could be we neophytes didn't know much about ridin' either! On this first ride we stopped in the left turn lane at a stoplight on an uphill grade. When the light turned green, I made it through the light but Miss Judy kept stalling her engine. Seeing she was having troubles, I made a U-turn and headed back to help her. Immediately I dropped my bike on the sand in the road. As I picked it up, it occurred to me that this was going to be more demanding than we expected.

Several light changes and bike drops later I finally got to Judy's bike and pushed it out to a car lot. It was only then that we realized what great entertainment we'd provided the salesmen when one of them grinned at us and asked, "Been ridin' long?"

Well, that's how we got started. Today, of course, we're somewhat more competent riders having become Kansas Certified Motorcycle Safety Instructors and more than passable mechanics.

The idea for this book came from friends we rode with who read the monthly newsletters we published. They encouraged us to "save the good stuff" and put together a collection of adventure stories. Some are brief, some long. Names have been changed to protect the guilty. Sometimes our (my) conservative value system shows through and I preach a little bit.

Basically, I like things society frowns on; guns, hunting, racing, motorcycles, independence and freedom. I don't like liberal politicians, whiners, taxes, biased news media, bandits, welfare or personal limitations imposed on us by special interest groups in the name of "fairness".

So, for better or worse, here are some of the stories we remember best. As we put this together, we remembered the wide variety of wonderful and funny people we met along the way. Some are really unique as you'll see. All have a special place in our hearts and memories. We hope you enjoy reading about these real folks as much as we enjoyed ridin’ with them.