Birthday Ride

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firebolt

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Well, I'm 41 today.

17 years ago this evening I was being wheeled in for emergency surgery to repair about as badly of a broken leg that you can have before they decide to just cut it off and give you a titanium one. It was due to being t-boned by a car on a beautiful old Shovelhead that the boyfriend at the time and I had spent a year and 10k$ restoring and powering up. The ER doc was concerned and they pleaded with me to quickly call my parents and let them know what was going on in case I didn't make it through surgery. I woke up the next day, a semi different person - better, grateful, and with an appreciation for life and other people that I didn't really have before and I'd never take back what happened to me that day!!

After a solid year of recovering, I rode a few buddies bikes here and there, just around the neighborhood - anxiety ridden every time, and not sure what my riding career looked like in the future.

I had wanted a Vmax since high school, and fell harder in love upon seeing one of the owners of Dynojet at the time's brand new crated carbon Gen 1. Like...wholly shit....love at first sight. He wasn't going to take it out of the crate...not even to Dyno it! Not even to put a kit on it!

9ish years after the wreck, a sweet ole 73 CB350 fell into my lap. The guy that basically gave it to me said he just wanted to see it running, and he decided he'd never get to it (for $100...I TRIED to give him more and ended up mailing him a sporting goods store gift card for a couple hundred more figuring he couldn't tear it up like he could a check) . I put spark plugs in it, changed the oil, and rebuilt the carbs. Cost maybe another $75 and a few hours of my time. A decade to the day after the wreck, she was running and I took a long ride...and the love came back like no time was lost. I bought a couple more old Japanese fixer uppers after that and got them running, chopped the ugly off them, and rode the wheels off, then sold them. Except the CB...I'll never sell the old girl that got me back on the horse.

So...last year, my dad had just died, my brother about killed himself in a drunk driving wreck, I had just split with a boyfriend of 5 years, and I was about to turn 40...and the only thing in the whole world I could think of to fix all that was a Vmax. And it did! Thanks Kyle - and several others who chimed in on helping me find a good one, and also who sold me parts :) Next up for me one of these years SOON is a Gen2, in addition to my 95.

Tonight, I have dinner with my brother and his fam, and then I take my 7th annual birthday motorcycle ride - on the Max. It always feels so good to park the bike afterwards, and know that I'm not going out that way today. CHEERS, guys - thanks for all the help, information, and camaraderie over the last year!
 
Thank you! Happy to be here and even happier on a Max!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Happy Birthday! and congrats on the Max! Nothing like having the Vmax dream realized after wanting for a long time.



T$
 

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