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New member from VB, VA

laplaya7

New member
Hello from Va-Beach
Brand new to riding let alone BMW MOA. In May 2011 I asked my son if he wanted to take a cross country trip from VA to CA and back. I was thinking motorhome. He said "what if we did it on bikes". I responded like a typical parent "it's to dangerous, neither one of us has the ever ridden a motorcycle". He proceeded to sell the notion. An hour later I began to warm to the idea. That evening I signed us up for the local MSF class (it was booked two months out). My excitement has only grown (almost to the point of an obsession) since then.
FINALLY the end of July arrived. We took the class. It was great. A month and a half later we purchased our bikes. (will not bore you with the extensive research prior to purchasing our motorcycles. Sufficied to say I wanted wanted touring bike and BMW was the way to go)
September 2011 I took possession of a beautiful, well cared for 1997 BMW R1100RT. My son decided on a Suzuki SV650.
After discussing it further with some experienced friends I asked my son to give me 1000 miles (riding together) before riding alone. (he is 20). He agreed. So far we have about 700 together.
I've ridden the R1100RT about 1100 miles now. Love it! What a great sport! What a great motorcycle!
That's it for now.
 
Welcome to riding and welcome to the MOA! Glad to hear you took the MSF course. Take it easy and hone your skills a bit and you will be in for many grand adventures!
 
What a cool thing to be doing with your son! Awesome. I have owned a similar RT and I think you will find it well suited to long distance travel. Put up pictures if you get a chance. You may also want to post as the trip is in progress or afterward in Ride Reports forum.
 
Riding with kids

My son started out at 5 on a Suzuki 50. He started motocross on a Suzuki 80 at age 6. I rode my BMW on the street; he was a dirt devil.

I finally found a couple of Honda trials bikes so he and I could ride some off road together. He was 12 at the time. They were doing the grading on the I-20/I-77 outside of Columbia, SC and I thought that would be a good place for our first ride. Long story short, the local sheriff did not think we should be there and a chase ensued. So our first ride ended up with us flying down the RR tracks into Dentsville and on into Forest Acres where we lost the deputies. After that, we trailered the Hondas to a friend's big farm in Lexington County.

My son still tells his buddies that story.
 
My story is how I got my dad to ride my Suzuki 90 to help bail me out of a jam. This took place in South Orange County back in the days when we were known for our oranges and not housewives. I was 16 and worked for a newspaper franchisee for the L.A. Times. He employed route drivers to deliver the papers and I worked in tying the papers on Sunday for delivery.....nothing like delivering a paper from your bicycle. These were adult men holding down two jobs and delivering papers to the customers home using their cars. Well my mom would not let me ride my bike at 3am in the morning to get to the job so I would use my dads 1965 VW Baja bug. One sunday we got done early tying all the papers for the drivers and I figured I would go out into the back hills of Dana Point, which had yet to be developed in the early 70s. I took the Baja bug out there around 6am and was out there doing donuts and climbing hills and doing jumps with the the thing and l to make a long story short some one calls the local Orange County Sheriff on me. From a distance I see lights coming from the main road into the undeveloped land where I am at and first thing I knew is that it could not be good. The Sheriff was always chasing us from undeveloped land when we were on our bikes. So as fast as a little 40 hp VW 1200cc engine will take you I took off for the deeper hills to get away from them. Since my bug was no match for them they were able to get close enough to me that if I could not find a way out I was busted. So I aim for a place on the hill top that if I can get down it, it will take me to a residential street and from there I figured I could blend in. So off I go all 40 or 50mph the poor bug could muster, with my dual exhausts giving me away. So when I make it to the spot that I think will get me out I realize that it is a steep 45 degree angle down.....so I back up a bit and get a run at it and take a leap of faith that the bug will hold up. I go over the jump and rumble to the residential street with the everything intact. I look back and see that the Sheriff's car is at the edge of the inclince and can not negotiate the steep decent. Unfortunately he gets a good look at me, as I him, and I know that if there are other cops out there they will be looking for 1 16 year old in a red faded baja but. So off I go with my headers blaring and make my way back to the newspaper shop where, with my key, I am able to open the garage and drive my bug into hiding. From there I use the shop phone to call my dad and tell him what happend. After he stops laughing and my mom stops yelling at me he asks me how do I think I am going to get home. That is when I suggest to him he take my little Suzuki 90 and come get me. Though my dad did not ride then he had ridden in the USMC so getting back on one was like riding a bike, you don't forget. So he comes to the shop and he tells me to take the bike on home and that he will follow in a bit. So off I go and start to ride down PCH in Dana Point and come to he intersection of PCH and the Dana Point Harbor. Well what do I see coming down the hill is a roadblock of OC Sheriffs and CHPs. Wow! My first reaction is what the hell did I do, I was just a kid off roading on an empty patch of land. I am passed through the interesection and I hear my dad and those loud headers coming up from behind. I pull up ahead and look behind to see the that the cops have stopped him, but only momentarily and he passes through. When we got home I asked him how he was not detained and he said that he told them would a 46 year old man driving a baja bug with newspapers in it, who delivered them for a livng , be off roading at 6am after delivering newsapers all morning long. Though my dad did not deliver papers he knew the guys that did and I had a few papers in my bug that I usually took home for us, that it made for a reasonable story to the cops and since the one officer who saw me knew it was a kid driving they looked at my dad and let him through. Though my dad never road again I alwasy remembered that story and told it everychance I could when I went back to school on Monday. I guess this was more of a story of a dad and his soon than it was about a motorcyle......7 years since his passing and I still miss him so.
 
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