Friday, December 26, 2014

Coming up: My 35th season as a motorcyclist

kawjmf

As 2015 nears, it occurs to me that I am about to embark on my 35th season as a motorcyclist.

This Kawasaki KE175 was my first bike, purchased in the summer of 1980 from the now-defunct Keystone Kawasaki in Indianapolis.

I loved that bike and rode the hell out of it.

I somehow managed to avoid crashing for the first few months until the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's first beginning rider course in Indianapolis was offered in the autumn of that year. I was so impressed with the course that I became an instructor and taught in the ABATE of Indiana Motorcycle Safety Program for 10 years.

I don’t have a good photo of the bike in profile, but I found one just like it online:

ke175

It could go pretty much anywhere anytime. I remember taking it out in the middle of a heavy snowstorm one day when there were several inches of snow on the pavement and reveling in how well it handled.

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