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| BILL'S Plus, I've owned 8 motorbikes. The first was a 1976 Honda XL 250 that I bought in 1977. I used it to commute up and down the Hollywood and Santa Ana Motorbike #2 was a 1979 Suzuki GS1000E, very much like the one pictured here, only black. A darling of motojournalists, I bought mine from Cole Brothers Suzuki (in North Hollywood) while working there. It was big, great at accelerating uphill, and had a comfortable two-up seat. Among my strongest memories of the Suzuki were rides to Las Vegas with my horn bungied on the back on the way I put well over 60,000 on the GS1000 before trading it in for a paint job for my VW Bus. The transformation of the Volkswagen from tired blue to brilliant red was worth it, as the front suspension on the Suzuki was in dire need of attention. Also (by then), I had acquired 2 other bikes. I bought my 3rd bike at a small Honda dealership in Eagle Rock (near Glendale, CA). It was an '82 XL250R, similar to my first bike, but lighter and more modern, with a single shock rear Oddly enough, I don't remember the circumstances in which I let the bike go. It's funny, I didn't put a lot of miles on my 250 cc "dual purpose" motorcycles, but I sure missed them after they were sold. So this wasn't the last bike of this type I would get. [This page is under construction. More will be added.] |
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES 
Freeways when taking motorcycle mechanics classes in Santa Fe Springs (a year after I got my Bachelor of Music degree from USC). They called me a part time student at that mechanics school because I was already starting to get occasional jobs playing French horn. But those music jobs weren't frequent enough to prevent my taking on a job setting up motorcycles at Cole Brothers Suzuki in North Hollywood. I ended up selling the Honda 4 years later for an engagement ring. (Yes, I was once married ... to a violinist ... for 6 years ... and I constantly had grease underneath my fingernails when we first met, from working at that motorcycle shop. She and I actually met carpooling to Santa Barbara Symphony rehearsals.)
to playing a few weeks of Frank Sinatra gigs at Caesar's Palace. Once, it rained so hard between Barstow and Vegas it took me the greater part of a rehearsal to dry out. On another trip, during an excursion with a local Gold Wing group to Kingman, AZ, the Suzuki slipped in some oil at a gas station, catching my foot and ankle. Fortunately, one of the Honda riders was a podiatrist, and ended up taking X-rays, and bracing up my ankle. I lost mobility of my left foot, which made shifting gears on the bike difficult (but not impossible). I could shift by moving my entire leg up and down (instead of hinging at the ankle). The funniest part was that although I continued to ride, I needed crutches to walk. So there I was riding with crutches bungie corded to the back of the motorbike.
suspension. As a "dual purpose" bike, it worked well on the quarter-mile dirt road/driveway to my residence in Laurel Canyon. It also fit inside my VW bus (barely, through the side sliding door), which was handy when I decided to jog 7 miles to work at the Shubert Theatre in Century City. (That's where I played Dreamgirls ['83] and 42nd Street ['84].) By taking the bike inside the VW bus, and then riding the bike home, I'd still have a vehicle at the Shubert ready to drive home on days I ran to work. These were part of my serious jogging days.