My First Motorcycle

My First Motorcycle

Wanting to buy a motorcycle took a lot of imagination if you have never owned one before. It takes a lot of time to do it right and research it carefully so that your first motorcycle is not your last motorcycle. 

There were plenty to choose from and to be honest, I didn’t have a brand name preference but I knew two things for sure. Japanese motorcycles were cheaper than the American made and the American made were not as good as the foreign made back when there were a lot of trouble with Harley Davidson bikes. it seemed they had labor issues and production quality related problems as their workforce was impacted by their bankruptcy and other financial worries. 

First I had to figure out if I wanted a sports dirt road bike, a highway cruiser or a dual sport bike. Being a new rider I wanted something to fit my body frame and height. I wanted to be comfortable and yet, I wanted to go fast. I had to decide to buy one used or new but regardless what I bought, I had to be satisfied with the size because I needed to keep it for at least two years before I could afford to look at another one.  

The mid-70’s was not pleasant for motorcycle owners. The 70's is widely recognized as the worst period for Harley with regards to quality and reliability. The choices were few and they all looked the same. Some were loud and racy for the off road enthusiast. Others were quiet and smooth for the laid back down the highway crowd and so, well some were just fast and nothing else. A pocket rocket designed to get you down the road quick. 

Some of the people I talked to said “smaller is not better.” Their argument was you will outgrow yours and work your way up to a bigger bike eventually. I must agree, there is a lot of truth to that statement but it’s not an absolute truth. Some stay with the bike they bought and keep it forever. Looking at 750 cc for the highway cruiser seemed practical but would I be able to keep up with the other bikes my friends had. 

It was a dilemma that was easily solved by starting the whole process all over again. Others were making an argument that smaller bikes don’t do well on the long trips and the rain. Things like that I had never really thought about so I went back to re-figure my priorities.

The truth is I did everything wrong buying my first bike. I looked at speed, size and power but I didn’t look at some of the integral parts of up keeping a motorcycle and the technology knowledge required to keep it running in top shape. It was a time when ignition systems were changing and I had no clue how to keep it up.

I bought a reddish orange like Kawasaki triple 500 cc H1 Mach III. Yes this is a rice burner and it was first introduced about three years ago in 1968. It offered a high power to weight ratio and for the first time, I had a motorcycle that was faster than any car I had ever driven. The test ride was pure adrenalin rush.

What I didn’t take into consideration was how all that power effected the bike’s handling, stopping and upkeep. It had a high vibrating motorcycle and tested the quarter mile at 12.96 doing 100.7 miles per hour if you could handle the power and speed. 

How did it cruise on the highway? It wandered badly from lane to lane and anything bigger than a pickup truck would blow it sideways into the path of others in inattentive to the direction or steering with two hands on the bar at all times. It was a high strung sport bike but not made to cruise the open roads. It had plenty of bite but it ran out of juice after reaching what were considered cruising speeds for the larger bikes.

The bottom line was the 500 Triple was a pocket rocket. It was a marketing genius of Kawasaki because they knew anyone under the age of 30 or so simply wanted to be the fastest kid on the block and this bike was just that, the quickest two stroke engine under $ 1,000 which was something I could afford.