Rita

I was working in Houston, TX.  I was managing a bar and was bored in general with my life and I wanted another Harley.  So I sold my car, and started building.  I bought an old Yamaha 1100 so I could get around town and started to gather parts in my living room.  Early on I decided that the bike had a name and it was Rita.  That is a long story and not a very interesting one but Rita occupied my mind and heart for a lot of years.  She evolved a bit over time and suffered mostly because I was the chief mechanic but she was a great bike.

This was the final configuration.  3" belt, jockey shift, 21" front tire.  I had to sell Rita to finance a move to NYC which in the end was the right thing to do and one of the best decisions I have every made.  I met my wife in NYC and it was there that I met my first Italian Sportbike

Either out of my system or in for life

So a Yamaha XS 750 Triple was how it all got started.  Prior to this, it was just longing and desire.  I was in college, and I bought it from a guy for about $400 if memory serves me.  I figured that I would either get bikes out of my system or I would be done for life and I guess it was the latter.  I had an experience on this bike that might have saved my ass.   Prior to plonking down the $400 I had never ridden a motorcycle before, not even a mini bike really.  It was about two days after I bough it and I was out on a country road, flying along, having a blast and believe it or not I was belting out 'Wanted Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovie at the top of my lungs inside my helmet.  You know, 'I'm a cowboy, on a Steel horse I ride' - that part.  Anyway, I was flying along, not paying attention completely unprepared to handle any situation that might arise when suddenly I noticed, a bit too late, that the road was a much sharper curve than I realised.  I hit the front break pretty hard, and I was riding the edge and the wheels slid in some sand on the side of the road and I went down.  Went down fast.  I ended up on someone's front lawn with the bike still idling (god those old Japanese bikes could take a beating).  I was shook up but no worse for the wear.  I had slid on one side and that sleeve of my leather jacket lost the zipper and was scuffed ( I still have the jacket today) but I was wearing a helmet, boots and the leather jacket so I was fine.  It scared the shit out of me and I realized how fast things could go wrong.  It was a good lesson to learn early on and without too much pain and I think it helped me stay out of too much trouble until I actually knew what the hell I was doing.