Cool motorcycles in the photos! Back in 2006, I was seriously interested in getting a Buell (I wanted a Cyclone), but once they became an orphan motorcycle brand, I backed off. I actually interviewed for a Quality Engineer's job at Buell back in 2002 (they were located about 38 miles from where I live [nowadays], in East Troy, WI [I go through East Troy occasionally, when I'm out and about motorcycle riding]), and no, I did not get the job. I remember seeing Kawasaki triples pretty often in the ;ate 70s and early 80s, when I was a teenager. They were prety common back in the day. A week ago from last week Saturday, I saw one for the first time in well over 20 years, parked at the Indian dealership, I bought my FTR1200 from.
Motorcycles I've had? Well, I've had several. My first one was a 1978 Kawasaki KE250, that I got permission to buy, when I was 16 , in 1979 (I got pestered by a boyfriend to try riding his motorcycle, and I had so much fun, I wanted one - you should have seen the riot act my dad read me, about how I was "going to behave responsibly or else!", when I bought the motorcycle). My next motorcycle was a 1982 Honda XL250R. I had that motorcycle from 1982-1989 (I really wanted a Honda 450 Nighthawk, or Suzuki GS-550T, but being a college student who was living at home during her first 2 years of college, I had to live by dad's rules, and dad basically said "not under my roof - all you're going to do is race those bikes!!" ugh!!!). In 1989, my XL250R needed repairs that cost more than it was worth (the exhaust was rusted out, and the only one available was a stock exhaust, that cost a bundle), so I sold it to a coworker, who welded on a leftover exhaust from BSA, and used the XL250R as a beater bike, around his farm. I don't have photos of either my KE250, or my XL250R.
Life intervened, and I didn't start riding again until 2013. At that time, I bought a 2004 BMW R1150R
My old 2004 BMW R1150R
The R1150R had 40,000 miles on it. The shocks and the tires only had a year or two left in them, and it was a bit of a big, clunky moose, so I traded it for a 2014 Triumph Thruxton 900, which was a fun motorcycle to ride, but had excessive vibration in the handlebars (my hands ended up numb, if I rode more than 25 miles). Still I had some fun times on that cycle (I'll always remember the "adventure" I had, where I went for a ride on backroads on July 4, 2015, got my directions mixed up, and almost wound up down in Illinois!).
My old 2014 Triumph Thruxton
I replaced the Thruxton in 2016, with a 2015 BMW F800R. I never took a photo of it. It was a nice bike, but I wanted something with a little more horsepower and low end grunt. so I replaced it with my previous motorcycle in 2017 - a 2016 BMW R1200R.
2016 BMW R1200R (my previous motorcycle)