My old man.

My dad is 80.

He's the one that taught me to ride a bike when I was 4 (a 26" girls bike). He gave me the basics, then shoved me down a hill. Right before I hit the garden furrow and crashed, he said; "TURN!". Then he came and picked me up and said; "If you don't want to crash into the garden, you are gonna have to learn how to turn."

He said "Lean over the way you want to turn, then catch your fall by steering into it." (Guess he knew "counter steering" before counter steering was cool).

When I was 8, he horse traded my 4 hp Clinton engine for a whole minibike with a 2 hp techumseh. Been riding something with an engine and two wheels ever since (I'm going to be 51 very soon)

Anyhow, he just got a basket case Yamaha XS750 triple that was laying beside one of his pilot buddies garages for over 10 years. It looked like it came out of a shipwreck.

I swore he was crazy, but in less than two weeks he had it running and new tires on it. He didn't farm out one bit of it, and I only had to help him remove the front calipers, which were both frozen solid. He took it out for the first ride yesterday! His comments were; "I don't remember them being this heavy." And "That bike has a lot of snot!" The last bike ride he had was a very brief encounter at my sisters house with a Suzuki 90 that left him with a broken leg and a concussion on his 70th birthday.

I never quit learning from him.

I still swear he is crazy, and I mean that in a good way.  

Good stuff Joe.   I miss my pop.  We rode together a lot.  Near the end, after he visited me I'd have to turn his VT500 Shadow around facing the street and off he'd go. I still have the mini flat tracker he built for me.   Briggs 2 HP.  

Enjoy your time with him.  

Thanks Joe, I will.

He's taught me a lot more in life than just riding and how to work on bikes, that's for sure.  

Good for him; and you!!!  

My dad still rides at 72. I still remember when he taught me how to ride a bicycle too.  Oh, the crashes!  

The funny/scary/ironic thing is I have the same feeling when I see him ride away as he must have felt seeing me ride away on my first road trip on a 71 BSA in 1977.  

Today he traded his ultralight airplane for a 2007 VLX600 and a pile of money. Now he has a "ladies bike" to ride instead of old "unreliable".  

Nice post Joe. In driving learning almost father is ideal always.My father is alos my ideal.  
Motorcycles || Yamaha India

You guys are fortunate, my Dad is ten years passed and I miss him almost every day but he never rode a bike, never liked that my oldest sister rode or raced and REALLY  disliked it when i showed up one day on my new to me, 350 Honda. Although he never said anything about it, I think that when I didn't kill myself riding or racing for several years, he realized that maybe he wouldn't lose his eldest son to an accident. To be able to share riding with your Dads has got to be a very, very cool thing so treasure and enjoy it guys.....you're awful lucky!

jeff  
Present only:

My VStrom 1000 K7

'74 RD350 in great shape & 1975 GT550 restored&built up and a beautiful, low mileage '73 CB350(same as my 1st bike), another '75 GT550 taken in pymt for port work on an H1. All original, nearly flawless '75 H2, '74 H2-fire breather finally completed and everything I'd hoped it would be, 82 Yamaha 650 turbo running 18psi,72 & 75 H1 for restoration