Swerbo's Motorcycle History
Posted by Swerbo on August 14th, 2003
Tags: Motorcycles, Photos, Swerbo, Video
The paragraphs and pictures below tell the full story of Bill’s motorcycle history in its full glory. You can click on each of the images to the left of the paragraphs to view the full size versions, and you can also watch a sweet wheelie video from the link at the bottom of this post.
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First Bike: Toy Red Bike.Well, let’s just say my parents probably regret giving me this particular toy in retrospect, as it led to bigger and better toys as I grew older. It first started with dirtbikes, then moved on to sport bikes, and has finally come full circle back to dirtbikes again. |
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First Dirt Bikes: ‘80 Yamaha YZ80 & ‘81 Kawasaki KX82. The bike shown in the picture is really my second dirt bike, a 1982 Kawasaki KX80, which I got a year or so after my first bike which was a 1980 Yamaha YZ80. It was an absolute blast to grow up riding enduro style in the woods on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York — I was hooked immediately. |
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First Road Bike: 1986 Honda VF500. This was the first bike I bought after graduating from college in Boulder, Colorado and moving to San Francisco in 1992. It was a bit older model from ‘86, but was still a great ride and a powerful and trusty workhorse for use in the Bay Area. |
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First Sport Bike: 1993 Honda CBR600F2. This was my first serious sport bike, which I bought brand new from Golden Gate Cycles in San Francisco in 1993. It was a cherry new CBR600 from Honda. Riding this bike to Alice’s and up to Point Reyes and back from San Francisco was pure heaven for any rider. |
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Urban Dirt Bike: 1991 Suzuki DR650. Buying this bike represented going “back to my roots” in a way because it is basically a dirt bike designed to ride on the street. Nowadays this is sometimes referred to as a “Supermoto” bike when it’s decked out really nice with 17″ rims and slicks. I decided that for an urban commuter bike, the dual sport models couldn’t be beat, they sit up tall for a good view of the road, they’ve got great low-end power, and they’ll suck up any pothole with ease. This bike was a joy to in and around San Francisco. |
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Upgraded Dirt Bike: 1998 Suzuki DR650. I loved that last bike so much that I eventually upgraded to a newer ‘98 model of the same bike. That’s seven years newer than my last bike, sweet! They made a lot of great changes to an already great dual sport bike in those seven years, and there’s no doubt that I continue to absolutely love riding it on the streets of San Francisco. Best urban bike ever, which is demonstrated by the sweet wheelie video linked below. |
