I enjoyed Darrell's pics and talk about former bikes. So here are a couple of pics:

First bike. My older brother is just 15 months older than me. He was a 'super student' in high school so my parents couldn't refuse him a bike in high school. I got to follow in the foot steps even though I did not excel in the grades department. Dad bought Tall Steve a Ducati Bronco at 125cc. This is 1965 or so:


After four years in the Navy, and returning to civilian life I got a Kawasaki H-1 500cc triple. Bought it for $500 with 500 miles on it. Sorry all pics of this one are lost. Got rid of it at 10,000 miles due to awful brakes and wobbles.

Next was matched Yamaha RD350 for me and the wife in about 1974. First disc brakes and a really good bike:


Here are me and Tall Steve with he wives in 1974:


I got afraid of my antics on the street and went to dirt for a few years:




For a short time I had an R50/5, but due to no power it was traded. About 1977 I'm on a TDM850 and the wife has a Seca-II. Tall Steve is on a K75:


More in a bit.

Continuing, in 1998 We visited a rally in Greenfield, MA (local to us), and I zeroed in on an R1100RS which. Put 40k miles on this one. Great bike. Me ant Steve in VT. His was a 1997 model:


Next up I got a 2005 GS in preparation for an Alaska trip:


Sold that one as it was just too big in the garage and went to a Guzzi Breva thinking it would get away from rear drive failures. Didn't work out. Traded after two seal failures in warranty:


Went to an F800ST which I took on several nice trips:


Next was a Yamaha FJ-09. Great bike but cheap hardware and used a chain:


Getting rid of the chain I went to an R1200R:


And finally the R1200RS (if I didn't forget anything). You know what they look like so here's pic of my collection at one point:


Ok Time for some of you others to do up your history.
Thanks for watching, Ain't

Neat pics Bob!

My first street bike was a '77 Yamaha RD400. Bought it in '79 with 4K miles on it, from my neighbor. Disc brakes, tubeless mag wheels, self-canceling turn signals. Bike was quite a wheelie machine.

Great pics, Bob! Nice 2 wheel timeline.

Great photos Bob.

"Here are me and Tall Steve with he wives"

I read that as Here are me and Steve with his wives

Wonderful Bob to see all the bikes you have experienced and likely based on comments some great memories of the trips you have taken with many of them. Thanks for sharing with us.

Always fun to get to know a person a little better via the motorcycles they have owned.

Darrell

Many thanks for sharing. Some classic choices.

The Bultaco brought back fond memories of one of the bikes I was able to cajole friends into letting me try. (Yeah - my early history with motorcycles makes me seem like a bit of a mooch.)

I agree with Darrell - the history of your bikes explains a lot of your good qualities.

Ray, The dirt bike phase was in the mid 70's. I had been through the military and so was a couple years older than some of my friends. Maybe had a little more cash available though I wasn't well to do by any stretch. But my riding friends had Honda and similar type dual sports of the day. Every time we went riding something would break on their bikes. I never broke anything on that Bultaco. What a great bike!

(01-10-2021, 07:44 AM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: Next up I got a 2005 GS in preparation for an Alaska trip:

Bob, did you make the trip?

Bob - Wonderful pictures and impressive collection of bikes too. Wish I had some memories like that I could share. Thanks for sharing.

(01-10-2021, 08:45 AM)Lee Wrote:

(01-10-2021, 07:44 AM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: Next up I got a 2005 GS in preparation for an Alaska trip:

Bob, did you make the trip?

Lee, Yes made the trip. Me and a buddy trailered to Polson, Monatna and then it was a 12000 mile ride up and back. Would you like to see my 800 pictures??

(01-11-2021, 08:22 AM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: Lee, Yes made the trip. Me and a buddy trailered to Polson, Monatna and then it was a 12000 mile ride up and back. Would you like to see my 800 pictures??

Maybe just the best 10 - 20 ...

(01-11-2021, 08:22 AM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: Lee, Yes made the trip. Me and a buddy trailered to Polson, Monatna and then it was a 12000 mile ride up and back. Would you like to see my 800 pictures??

Yes lets see some of your pictures.
We took 5.5 weeks to do the trip back in 1988. 10,000 miles and camped almost every night.
It was a interesting adventure. No internet for planning.
No GPS, no cell or satellite phone.
Had the Milepost book and a lot of maps.

   


Top of the World Highway Yukon.
   

Wow. Classic bikes. Classic style. Epic trip.

OK Lee, I'll match you with top of the world:


Dalton Highway (Haul Road):


And one of my favorite Pics from the trip:


I think this will get you to the gallery if you want to look at all 800 pics. Might also get you to other trips, but I really don't know that for sure:
https://aintstoppin.smugmug.com/Travel/Alaska-2006

Thanks for sharing that link Bob. I will have to get some popcorn and a beverage to look at these great pictures.

(01-12-2021, 02:29 PM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: OK Lee, I'll match you with top of the world:

I didn't know the Top Of The World road is no longer gravel.
Are you watering the grass?

That last picture is great.

I visit the ADV Forum for the Flea Market and the Photo forum.
https://advrider.com/f/forums/photos.78/

Bob, you're a talented photographer, you should post some of your photos there.

[/quote]

I didn't know the Top Of The World road is no longer gravel.
Are you watering the grass?

That last picture is great.
[/quote]

Lee, I noticed that the Dalton also looked a lot more primitive in your shots. The top of the world had a few paved sections. This pic was about the highest point on the road. My riding partner was admiring the view. I hear tell that the Dalton is getting continual upgrades. We went through a lot of construction but no paving work in 2006.

(01-13-2021, 07:57 AM)BobAintStoppin Wrote: Lee, I noticed that the Dalton also looked a lot more primitive in your shots.

We didn't take the Haul Road, it wasn't open to the public back then.
If it had been open I'm not sure if we would have taken it since it was the first year of Debbie riding her own bike.
She did good with all the gravel and sloppy gravel, but the Dalton might have been too much.
It was a wet year when we went. We didn't ride in much rain but the gravel was usually wet. Top of the World was about our only dry gravel.
We had two mud slides that closed roads that trip.