Hi all
Paul, 55, widowed by cancer in 2002, three "kids", 27, 25, and 17, riding since I was 12, lawyer (presently on lengthy sabbatical to go riding), Got my first street bike and licence at 16, haven't been without at least one bike since, usually have half a dozen in the garage. Live in western Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My 17 year old is signed up for the motorcyle rider training course starting in about two weeks, then later in the summer a track skills course, I have had him riding dirt bikes since he was little.
Don't know exactly how many bikes I have had over the years, ranging from Honda 50 to numerous British, Italian, Harley Davidson's, and Japanese, mainly Kawasaki's.
Drag raced in the 70's, mainly Kawasaki 900's and 1000's, including a 1978 Z1R 1000 bought brand new back in the day. MTC Engineering and Russ Collins got a lot of my rather limited funds in the late 70's
I have a soft spot for Laverda's and Benelli's, not so much Ducati's, last Benelli owned was an 81 900 Sei (six), kept for 15 years. Still have two Laverda's, neither even remotely stock and both "performance" modified, modern brakes, modern ignitions and charging systems, "modern" carbs, up from 50 - 60 hp to close to 100 hp, which is plenty fast on old frames and skinny wheels etc..... Last dedicated vintage track racing bike was a 1971 Laverda SFC 750 8000 series, a real deal factory race shop built endurance racer, finally became worth way too much money to keep beating up on the track, and sold on to a museum collection a couple of years ago.
I have set up my 2008 ZX 14 SE for long distance sport touring, LSL bar backs with superbike bars, GIVI hard bags, etc. At 55, I am not old enough yet for a Concours 14.... :-) although I did enjoy my 1994 Electra Glide Ultra Classic with 100+ hp motor build for 14 years before letting it go to a new home about five years ago. My late wife and I did a few laps of North America on the Electra Glide. I have also had the privilege of riding in various other parts of the world, including various parts of Europe, Australia, etc.
I taught part time as a motorcyle riding instructor for about 17 years, have taken as many riding and track day courses as I could over the years, and am doing yet another track day/riding course in a couple of weeks, this time on the ZX 14 to try and really learn what its cornering and braking limits may be, although I am unlikely to find its absolute cornering limits as I have discovered the hard way that as I age it takes much longer to heal.
For riding these days on the ZX 14 I usually wear an Arai Corsair helmet, Aerostich Roadcrafter in high vis and including a full size back protector and hip pads, and SIDI race boots.
I have been lurking here for a while, searching out great information, most of my online time is spent moderating a Laverda forum and web site, set up my first Laverda forum on MSN Groups back in 1999, grew to the largest Laverda site on the web at 1,700 members (remember how obscure these bikes are....), MSN Groups folded last year, we are back up and running at www.laverdapedia.com , and back up to about 800 members. I know how much work hosting a site and moderating a forum is. My hearfelt thanks to bgordon, this ZX 14 site has already been a great source of information for me. I'll contribute what I can, as I can.
Paul
* Last updated by: laverda1200 on 7/9/2009 @ 5:03 PM *