Recumbent Detour (2003)

Ok, it's not a motorcycle or even motor bike or scooter, but it's different. Looking for an easy way to keep up with my wife and daughter on those long bike rides, I researched recumbent bikes and settled on this beauty, a Sun EZ-1 Sport.  

Rod on the EZ-1 in 2003

I know... there is something wrong with this picture. Either I need a bigger bike or need to lose a lot of weight. I got a bigger bike!

Actually, I promised myself I'd loose 10 pounds before I got a motorcycle - and I did - eight years later!

Graduate Cycle (ca 1977)

Rod's Suzuki 500
(anyone know the model number?)

The last time I rode a motorcycle I was a pharmacology graduate student at Temple University Medical School circa 1977. I owned a used Suzuki 500cc 2-stroke twin which I bought from a fellow grad student, Len Jacob.

I can't believe I never took riding lessons or read a book on motorcycling. I did have a helmet though. I commuted to grad school and my adjunct instructor job at Drexel University.

Early Cycles (ca 1967)

Rod, Guy Irwin & Terry Hersh

Rod on the Jawa

Even before driving age, my friends and I somehow found a rusted old Czech Jawa WW-II era motorcycle. Having no real mechanical skill we could never get it to start up, but we had fun pretending.

I saved all my grass cutting money until I had ~$400 to buy a brand new Yamaha 80cc 2-stroke when I was 15. You could ride MCs back then with a learners permit - no lessons required. And my parents ALLOWED me. How crazy is that?

Rod on his new Yamaha 80 (1966 YG-1). Where's the Helmet?

I rode it to high school and commuted to my summer job at Fabri-Tek in Ft. Washington, PA. I eventually bought a helmet.