BACK IN THE DAY

Where the photos are blurry but the memories are clear!

T

he photo on the left is my brother on his 1968 Triumph Trophy 500. He was five years older than me and was killed in Vietnam less than a year after this photo was taken. It was him taking me for rides on his first bike, a 1965 Honda 305 scrambler, that got me hooked on motorcycles.

My first bike was a purple Taco minibike I bought in the summer of 1968 with the help of my brother.The Taco was followed by an all-white street legal 1969 Honda Cub 90.

The second photo is me with my 1983 VT500 Ascot and my two kids. This bike was used to commute to work in SoCal for 13 years. Sure wish all states had legal lane splitting like California! The Ascot photo was taken in 1988. Each of my kids born in the mid ’80s took a ride around our cul-de-sac in my Ascot top box when they were less than a year old…unbeknownst to their mom.

Like many in the day, my first “cycle” was a Schwinn Sting Ray — metallic gold with white tuck and roll seat.

Jay Antognini

This is me at 17 years old in 1972 on my 1971 Yamaha CT1-C 175 Enduro, somewhere near Ringwood, N.J. It was my first bike…the one that started me on my journey. I have numbers 11, 12, 13 and 14 in my garage now. Of course, I am now an ATGATT rider…but obviously I wasn’t back then.

Young and foolish? Weren’t we all?

Gene Heil

I learned to ride in 1966 while assigned by the Air Force to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. My classroom was a clapped-out Ducati 125. The picture is me in ’89 on my ’88 Kawasaki Ninja 750R. Hiding behind me under the cover is my ’87 Toyota MR2.

Bill Smith

This photo was taken at the local Honda dealer in 1976 or ’77. This day we were testing a CR125. The dealer ended up sponsoring me on a CR250. Loved motorcycles, loved racing and loved working at this dealership. How much better could it get? I was in heaven. (Yes, the pants are leather and, yes, I still have the pants and jersey!)

Barry Hesson

My first bike was a Honda CL70; I think it was a ’73 model. I got my 5hp Tennessee license and rode that thing everywhere! I delivered papers on it, rode it to school, rode it to my ball games, and rode it off-road on the mountain behind our house. I took that little bike to places it was never designed for! It never had a problem, and you couldn’t kill that engine. I remember gasoline being $0.19/gallon. The tank held 2.5 gallons. I filled it up for 50 cents and could ride 250 miles!

Mark Ray

My brother and I were best buds, and this is me trying to style on his Yamaha YZ100 circa 1978 at our private practice area in Northern Ohio. Note the iconic Team Dynamic jersey from Dynamic Cycle in Troy, Mich.

My dad Edmund and his four sons in 1965. Left to right, Niles, Mark, myself and Eric, the oldest. My dad didn’t keep the Indian; he ran it into a stone fireplace in the yard when the throttle stuck and it caught fire. But he did leave me with his 1968 CB450 K0 that my brother Mark used when he was in Fort Schuyler Maritime college. It took 15 weeks to get it cleaned up and running like new. We love this old Honda, but we all wish he would have kept the Indian.

Reid Tagliamonte

The recent news of Can-Am getting ready to release their first new motorcycle in decades inspired me to send this picture to you. The bike of my dreams in 1979 was this Can-Am MX 5 250cc that I was so fortunate to be able to purchase with the money I saved from cutting lawns, scooping ice cream and borrowing a few bucks from my parents. I was 15 years old in 1979 and absolutely had the time of my life on this amazing motocross bike. Long Island is a very crowded place and there weren’t many places to ride the bike, but I found a few and also enjoyed racing in AMA-sanctioned motocross events in Bridgehampton and Rocky Point Long Island. If you look closely on my helmet you can see that Bob Hannah was my teenage motocross hero, as I made my own “lightning bolts” to put on my helmet just like Hannah. Man, I loved that bike! I am so happy CanAm is coming back on the market with what looks to be an amazing futuristic new electric motorcycle, and I do plan to be one of their first customers!

Don Goldstein