AjaxTheDog
New member
Figured it was about time I joined this outfit after a dozen years of riding BMW's. Blah, blah, blah...
Started about 1970 in NJ on a Yam DT125 which I outfitted with knobbies and thrashed in the local woods. In my mind I had invented the dirt bike on the east coast, ha ha. Moved on to other dirt bikes and when I went to Rutgers college came up with a new money making scheme with my roomate who had managed to save the grand sum of $1500. I told him we could buy bikes in the dead of winter and then sell them in spring for a thrifty profit. So I ended up with a trio of Hondas in my Mom's garage for a few months, during which time my neighbor friend and I would take them out for evening rides sans license, registration, insurance...those were details I didn't want to be concerned with. Once we rode them into Manhattan and did a little drag racing in front of the UN on second avenue. Lotsa fun and glad I lived through it to finally get some sense into my head.
Came out to Denver in 1995 and immediately got the idea I'd like to start riding again after a 10 year hiatus (kids, etc.) because of all the old mining roads out here. So I bought this absolutely terrible Suz DR370 and geared in down so far that max speed was about 40 mph. I would put my son on the back and we'd trailer up and take little adventure jaunts into the high mountains which was lots of fun for both of us. Have had a few nicer more competent dirt bikes after that and have had a lot of fun riding them out here.
At the urging of a neighbor friend got back into street riding about a dozen years ago. Had a few Japanese street bikes, ST1300 and VStrom, and then decided if I was going to do this right I wanted a bike that already had all the farkle options on it and got an '07 RT new. Great bike until I crashed it on a wet road in Texas last year. Amazingly all the gear worked and I walked away without a scratch. Bike was totaled, and even with 67K miles the insurance company gave me a what I considered to be a very fair settlement. Soon after that I got a K1300GT which I liked OK but did not love and have now gone back to a 2012 RT. I am selling the GT but would like to have another "around town" bike for local short jaunts. Maybe a new Bonneville or something like that. I had a pristine 2001 R1100RLS which was a very sweet looking bike but just too small for me, I always felt like a circus bear on it. Oh well, just as soon as the K bike sells I can move on to that next one...
As for the club thing I am more interested in the technical side than the social clubby stuff. There's that curmudgeon thing again! Reminds me of a personality test I took at one job in which they said I was "gregarious but not friendly". Hmmmm...still don't get that. Anyway, looking forward to being absorbed into the BMWMOA Borg, maybe just a little.
Bill Henning in beautiful Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Bill Henning
Started about 1970 in NJ on a Yam DT125 which I outfitted with knobbies and thrashed in the local woods. In my mind I had invented the dirt bike on the east coast, ha ha. Moved on to other dirt bikes and when I went to Rutgers college came up with a new money making scheme with my roomate who had managed to save the grand sum of $1500. I told him we could buy bikes in the dead of winter and then sell them in spring for a thrifty profit. So I ended up with a trio of Hondas in my Mom's garage for a few months, during which time my neighbor friend and I would take them out for evening rides sans license, registration, insurance...those were details I didn't want to be concerned with. Once we rode them into Manhattan and did a little drag racing in front of the UN on second avenue. Lotsa fun and glad I lived through it to finally get some sense into my head.
Came out to Denver in 1995 and immediately got the idea I'd like to start riding again after a 10 year hiatus (kids, etc.) because of all the old mining roads out here. So I bought this absolutely terrible Suz DR370 and geared in down so far that max speed was about 40 mph. I would put my son on the back and we'd trailer up and take little adventure jaunts into the high mountains which was lots of fun for both of us. Have had a few nicer more competent dirt bikes after that and have had a lot of fun riding them out here.
At the urging of a neighbor friend got back into street riding about a dozen years ago. Had a few Japanese street bikes, ST1300 and VStrom, and then decided if I was going to do this right I wanted a bike that already had all the farkle options on it and got an '07 RT new. Great bike until I crashed it on a wet road in Texas last year. Amazingly all the gear worked and I walked away without a scratch. Bike was totaled, and even with 67K miles the insurance company gave me a what I considered to be a very fair settlement. Soon after that I got a K1300GT which I liked OK but did not love and have now gone back to a 2012 RT. I am selling the GT but would like to have another "around town" bike for local short jaunts. Maybe a new Bonneville or something like that. I had a pristine 2001 R1100RLS which was a very sweet looking bike but just too small for me, I always felt like a circus bear on it. Oh well, just as soon as the K bike sells I can move on to that next one...
As for the club thing I am more interested in the technical side than the social clubby stuff. There's that curmudgeon thing again! Reminds me of a personality test I took at one job in which they said I was "gregarious but not friendly". Hmmmm...still don't get that. Anyway, looking forward to being absorbed into the BMWMOA Borg, maybe just a little.
Bill Henning in beautiful Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Bill Henning
