Me on the right, wide-eyed at Willow Springs.
Motorcycles are memorable. Some bring good memories, some not so good. This is #3 on My Top 5 Most Memorable Motorcycles list. To see what I chose as #5, click here. For #4, click here.
#3: 1996 Suzuki GSX-R750. The Gixxer will go down in history as one of the most influential street motorcycles of all time. It defined the “superbike” category: Grand Prix performance that’s somehow legal for the open highway. For reasons I cannot explain, I got the road riding bug in the mid-‘90s. And with my racing background, of course I had to have the zoomiest model around. Talk about jumping in head first with both feet — my first ride on this bike was pure shock and awe. I was breaking the speed limit in first gear! But I could not ride without worrying about what debris or officer might be waiting around the next corner. I was spending way too much time dawdling behind cars. So I took it to Willow Springs Raceway and enrolled in a riding school that was offered free with the purchase of the bike. I’ve never gone so fast in my life with anything that didn’t have wings. I’m not ashamed to admit that it was too much. I sold the bike less than a year later. I’m putting this one in the number three position not so much because it was one of my favorites, but because it taught me a lot about myself and was the most eye-bulging, seat-puckering bike I ever owned.
