motorcyclebloggers.com

Hello, I am the new contributor to Motorcyclebloggers.com. Please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is AngiPants, but you are more than welcome to call me Angi. I am 22 (almost 23) and live in sunny Orange County, California. I have two ferrets, one named Frankie the Girl Ferret and the other named Lil’ Shit, but whom everyone just calls Turd.

And getting to the pertinent stuff, I have been riding for just over two years now, and am just shy of my two year anniversary for being a proud motorcycle owner. This is the story of how I got here.

About six months before my 21^st birthday, I took a MSF class. I had been bitten by the motorcycle bug a while ago, but had yet to do anything about it besides just drooling over bikes in Cycle Trader and on show floors. I wasn’t exactly a starving student, but I had figured it may be a few years before I could actually own a bike.

I had heard someone mention that people can take motorcycle riding lessons at Orange Coast College. I jumped onto Google and finally stumbled across the MSF website. I called and they faxed me over a sign-up sheet for classes. Since I was 20 at the time, class costs were only $75.00. I felt that fate was telling me that while I couldn’t afford to buy a bike, I could at least know how to ride one.

Class went by fast. I did drop the bike the first day of riding, and sported some pretty nasty bruises for a few weeks afterwards, but I passed and got me certification. All I had to do was take the written test at the DMV and I would have my motorcycle license. I would have my “M” class!

The written was a breeze and I was a proud new motorcycle licensee. I started looking for a used bike in earnest.

I have two uncles who live very close to me, and both love to ride. One currently had a bike, but it was a Honda and the rest of the guys in his Department had Harleys, so needles to say he didn’t ride much. The other had owned three or four sports bikes at previous times, and was looking to get a new bike. I usually tagged along with him as he hit every dealership in southern California looking for a new bike. I got to sit on a ton of bikes and had a few in my mind for what I wanted. Everyone had strongly suggested that I start out with a 250, but once I actually sat on one, there was no way I was going to be able to ride it comfortably. I am 5’ 8”, and my knees were somewhere under my chin on those things. I spied a Vulcan 500 one day and had a sit. It had a tall seat height, which was good, and wasn’t too heavy. I knew that I wanted a Kawasaki Vulcan as my first bike.

My uncle finally bought his bike in March of ’04, a gorgeous blue VTX1300R. Seeing him ride that thing almost every day made me very jealous. I wanted a bike too! I finally found one on eBay about two weeks later. It was a little red ’95 Kawasaki 500. A serviceman was selling it down in San Diego. He had been called out and his wife didn’t want a bike sitting in the garage. I drove down for a look-see and bought it. It had 5700 miles on it when I bought it. I spent the next few months relearning how to ride, since it had been six months since my class. I would also occasionally ride it into work. In October, my car blew a head gasket and I was stuck got to ride my bike every day! The novelty wore off in about January as California had its rainiest year in 100 years. I arrived soaking wet to work and home every day for about three months.

Just before the ’05 Love Ride, the one uncle that had the Honda and finally decided to get a Harley. He let me know that his Honda was available for purchase. I immediately listed my Vulcan for sale in Cycle Trader and Craig’s List. It sold just before Thanksgiving for $200 less than what I had bought it for. As soon as the old bike was trucked away, I was on my way over to my uncle’s house to buy the Honda. I sold the Vulcan with 22,000 miles on it.

The Honda is a 97 or a 98 (a little confusion on the year) Shadow ACE deluxe 750. I bought it with 3200 miles on it, and am up to 6100. I bought a car in September, so I no longer have to rely on my motorcycle as my solo means of transportation, which is a good thing as I was getting really tired of riding in the rain!

So that is my (long) story of my thus far short riding experience. I look forward to contributing many more stories and experiences on this site, while also bringing a woman’s perspective to things!

Catch you all on the road!