I started on a Kawasaki

My motorcycling career began in the summer of 1980 when I bought a used 1977 Kawasaki KE175 from Keystone Kawasaki in Indianapolis.

I survived somehow for a few months before Divine Providence steered me to the Motorcycle Safety Foundations beginning rider course. I can’t count the number of times the skills I learned in that class saved my life.

I put both of my sons through the course, but they weren’t really interested in riding and neither has ever owned a bike.

But shortly after Sean completed the course, probably around 1982, he and I would take the bike to some then-undeveloped land along the east bank of the White River where it flows under I-465 and ride the trails.

The trails are gone and the land, being close to the Castleton Shopping Mall, has been developed as apartments.