BACK IN THE DAY

Where the photos are blurry but the memories are clear!

This is me riding my beloved 1981 Bultaco Sherpa T 350…one of the best bikes I’ve ever owned. My first several paychecks after college were endorsed to the local Bultaco dealership. The thing was bulletproof despite my best (or

worst) efforts to break or disable it. Several times it drowned during unsuccessful river/stream crossings. SOP was to remove the spark plug, turn the bike upside down, handcrank the kickstarter a few times to drain the water out of the cylinder, reinstall the plug and kick it back into action. (Two or three good kicks would do the job.) Never failed! Oh, Back In The Day!

—Ed Juranovic

In 1970 there was no better way to keep teenage boys out of trouble than to buy them all motorcycles. Pictured are my brother William with a Honda CB160, brother Danny with a Kawasaki 100, Dad (George) on a Honda 50 moped and myself (Scott) on a Yamaha 60 Mini Enduro. Taking the picture was my Mom (Irene) who also had a Honda 50 moped.

—Scott Marek

Christmas 1969. Pictured is me at 5 years old, sitting on my new “Sprout Green” Honda QA50. In the other image it’s me on the left and my brother Ron showing off his donut skills. Our grandparents were not happy we were tearing up their driveway!

This is my grandmother Irene Lyon in either the late ’40s or early ’50s. She rode her own! No one can recall what she was riding, though. And no, the Moby Grape song Motorcycle Irene was not about her!

—Dennis Lyon

—Bill Smith

I raced Pro-Am flat track in the 1980s. My two daughters and I would travel every weekend to races around Ohio. We met so many amazing folks along the way and often traveled with them. Twice our group trekked to Virginia where the Pro-Am Nationals were held. I came from a motorcycle family, so it was only natural that my daughters gravitated to the races. I started out racing at Buckeye Lake when the ice was thick enough, and remember attaching hoses to my van and blowing out warm air so my engine would stay warm in between heats. Brrrrr. Those were the best times of our lives (and the kids both told me that!). Aww, to be young(er) again.

—Judy McClelland

This is me on my super cool 1974 Honda MR50. Photo was taken in ’74 or ’75 in upstate N.Y. I was rockin’ red leather Bates pants! They looked good back then but I doubt I could pull off red leather pants these days… This was taken sometime in the summer of 1973, just after I (center) had gotten my motorcycle license (which I actually had before my automobile driver license!). Left to right is Paul Sr. on his CL350, me on my CL175, and little brother Mike on his SL70. Paul Sr. is in his 80s now and no longer rides, but Mike and I, both in our 60s, still do.

—Paul Vona Jr.

The first picture is me back in 1952 at 17 years old with my 1948 HarleyDavidson FL. The second photo is also me, 70 years later in 2022. I’m 87 years old and I’m pictured with my 2017 Can-Am Spyder R/T. —John Blackstock.

I didn’t get a picture of my first scooter, a 1954 Allstate. I gave $75 for it and got $125 for it on trade on this new 1962 Cushman when I was 12. I bought these with money I earned delivering newspapers. The following year I traded for a new Super Silver Eagle, then a ’64 HarleyDavidson 175. And so it went until 85 two-wheelers later, and now at 72 I’m still riding…and thankfully not delivering papers.