By Bill Kenney
This article was recently submitted by the author but was written for the IBMWR (Internet BMW Riders Club) in 2006. The RUMBLE would like to republish any past articles that members still have access to so we can add to the club legacy documenting our history and all the relationships we all cherish so much.
When my son Bryan was in diapers he used to like to sit on the bike in the garage, I would fire up the bike (Yamaha Virago at the time) and let him throttle it up some just so I could see him laugh like hell!!! My wife used to come down to see what we were up to and give me the “look” …. you all know the “look.” When he was tall enough to plant his feet on the pegs, I would take him for short rides around the country roads. It was quality time with my son.
Skipping up a few years, I bought an 1988 K100RS in 1996. Bryan and I started going on longer rides; RA rally in Greenfield, where I first met Don E, who helped me get the RS running like new, also met Barry Blank and some others from the IBMWR group. For a few years in January, a bunch of us would meet at the big motorcycle show in NYC (Javits Center) and go out for lunch. More quality time with my son!
When he turned sixteen, he took the course for the motorcycle license and I bought an ’85 Honda V65 Sabre for him to ride and also for me to put a sidecar on now and then for the dog (Aussie that goes by the name of Beemer). I bought and insured the bike for two reasons. Insurance here for a sixteen-year-old is $2500 per year just for liability (I get it for $100 per year) and also by me owning the bike, I controlled the bike. He wasn’t out riding with other testosterone-charged teens, he was riding with me and learning how to ride correctly… and still smiling as much as when he was in diapers.
He is twenty-one now and no longer lives with my wife and I, but we still get together to ride as much as possible. Yesterday I went out and bought an ’05 Suzuki DL650 Vstrom, both for me to play with and because the Sabre is getting a little too old for some of the rides we are planning. Bryan wants to do some adventure-type riding. We are thinking of a Southwest tour this winter/early spring (when it is easier for me to have the time from my job) and possibly an Alaska trip is in the future for us.
I didn’t think when it all started that it would continue as it has but am grateful for the quality time that it gives us. We have Autocomms installed on the bikes so we have the opportunity to share thoughts or something that we see while traveling down the road also. I worry about him at times but do not regret the decision to take him at such a young age, with all the gear I might add. (Although, when we first started riding, it was with open-faced helmets and fingerless gloves. This list has taught me many things over the years, including the proper gear that we both wear now.) Bryan is also an accomplished motocross racer who competes all over the Northeast. Gives me an excuse to hop on the bike and go be a spectator for the day.
More quality time :0)
I also believe that his involvement in riding/racing has kept him from going down that awful path that so many youngsters get caught up in, the drugs and drinking. Motorcycling has had a profound effect on him becoming the fine young man that I am so proud of today. Even when he was twelve and thirteen, he and his buddies had to save money for gas, tires, and other things needed to support his hobby instead of other things. He was rarely bored and he learned to weld and do all the other things mechanically needed to keep the dirt bikes running. (I have a fully equipped garage that he and the other teens would hang around in.) All in all, when I think back, this community has touched my life in more ways than one.
