Right about when I was 20 years old I had gotten myself a 1980 Suzuki GS750E. The first of the dual overhead cams four valves per cylinder generation. It was my second motorcycle; first new one. The first one was a 1975 Yamaha SX650, which I had purchased the year before. I didn't even know how to ride a motorcycle when I bought that one; my cousin had to ride it home for me. By the time I bought the Suzuki I had just enough experience to be dangerous.
Here's a shot of my bike (the silver one I'm standing next to) and my cousins (Look! I still had some hair!... But my fate was clear...). This was actually the start of our longest bike trip together; my longest trip until just recently ('08) and probably his longest trip on a bike ever.
Of course, standard was never good enough; the fairing is a Vetter Quicksilver; the little radiator is a Lockhart oil cooler; notice the case guards (hmmmm... didn't put those on until after one of my self induced getoffs). Somewhere during the ownership of that bike I also added a fork bridge/brace, a Supertrap header, S&W shocks... Anyway... Seems that I had started a trend... not long after I bought my Suzuki, a good friend of mine also bought one, and obviously my cousin did as well.
Hmmmmm.... nice T-shirt
.... LOVE that pinstriping.... So this long trip was going from my parents place in the far Northwestern Suburbs of Chicago, through lower Michigan, into Mississauga Canada, Sudbury Canada, through Niagara Falls, down through NY, across Pennsylvania, and back home.
Some of the photos I dug up I'm not sure where they're from... others have clues... Fore example, this shot... I'm thinking this was somewhere in Michigan. Obviously we had decided to go climbing the rocks along the road... My best guess is some of these are actually from an around-the-lake (ATL) tour we did, and others are from the Canada trip.
Here's a couple pictures that make a statement about automobile drivers... The brown sign said Glenn Lake... so I take it that's somewhere near Glenn Arbor Michigan. So, this is most likely from the ATL trip.
See, if you own a motorcycle, the car drivers are out to get you even when you're not riding the motorcycle... Good thing a car didn't actually come along while my cousin was taking this picture... the road must have been fairly deserted. By the way, did you notice the riding attire; denim jacket, boot cut jeans, cowboy boots... yes I did wear a helmet and gloves also... but there were no knuckle protectors on the gloves, no armor in the jacket... glad I survived those years... I do have some photos of a few self induced accidents. I'll get to those...
Here's my cousin taking a picture of me taking a picture of him... More clues too... looks like this was after I had the headers and S&W Street Stroker shocks on the bike. Backrest and luggage rack too; it was a nice one.. the back rest part could be removed, or it could be slid forward and back. In this case I think I had it slid forward and all my luggage was piled up behind it. Tank bag too. Yeah, Cuz had a full Windjammer fairing with a stereo.
Here's Cuz trying to get a creative shot of the tracks...
I took a "shot" at that too...
Funny how the photos just don't have the color depth and saturation that I'm use to, and these were taken with an SLR camera (And apparently some really crappy mail-order film). Here's another interesting shot. I'm pretty sure this was taken somewhere in Ohio. Not much scenery in Ohio (Along the Interstate).
... there's much more coming... I'm here ALLLLLL Winter...
Definitely looks like fun...
