my motorcycling career 1975 Indian Dunes 1975 LA Times photo 2001 Ninja 250 1976 Oak Hill Wheel World 1974 Motocross Action photo 1977 faster in plaster 1999 pre-surgery xray 1972 our 1st bikes 1973 Bay Mare 1975 LA Times photo 1981 So Cal qualifier 1975 Muntz cycle Park my birthmom 1952

Click on a collage photo (above) for larger view

Bikes I've owned:

1970-1973: 1969 Honda CL175 scrambler
A Christmas present received when I was 5 months pregnant... I learned to ride on the streets of Santa Monica (gulp!) and often took pleasure rides through Old Topanga Canyon.

1972-1974: 1969 Bultaco Sherpa-S 125
My first "race" bike was obtained soon after reading the Nov. 1972 Cycle News headline article titled, "Should Women race?" Within the article was contact information for the End Does Motorcycle Club based in the nearby San Fernando Valley. I attended my first meeting in January 1973 at Jeannie Allen's house. Also there for her first meeting was Robin Sauls, who became one of my two lifelong friends. The first race ever for both Robin and I was a local motocross held on March 4, 1973, at Muntz Cycle Park. I was 4th and she was 5th (out of 6, but Suzi Hallmark DNF'ed.) We spent nearly every weekend for the rest of the year - at least - racing each other for the coveted second-to-last position. With me on my ragged old Bultaco and her on her old Penton, we sounded pretty much like this (add a bunch of dit-dit-dit's for accuracy):

1972-1975: 1972 Kawasaki S2
Bought brand new! Completely stock except for K81s and a drag bar, this 350 cc 2-stroke triple (see picture) had three cylinders, three pipes, three carburetors, three sets of points, three spark plug heat ranges. It was a maintenance nightmare, but I sure loved that bike!

The same model, year, and color of my "sweetheart bike" from college days (sigh!)

1973-1974: 1972 Bultaco Pursang 125
This was the STP project bike Jeff Blix pounded into a literal basket case. I got it (mostly still in the basket) for Christmas 1973. The better parts of the two Buls were combined in various [pathetic] permutations for my second motocross racing season.

1975-1977: 1974 Suzuki TM125
I sold my beloved street bike to get a better race bike! This was Paulette Napoleone's bike used for Motocross Action magazine's FMF Project Bike article.

1975-1977: 1973? Honda XR75
One just HAD to have a "pit bike" to be "in" with the motocross "in-crowd"! As a college senior, I used it to tear up my back yard in stress-releasing, 10-minute study breaks!

1976-1978: 1969 Kawasaki H2?
The classic 500cc 2-stroke triple (green), used for commuting.

1977-1981: 1977 Suzuki RM125

1981-1983: 1981 Suzuki RM125
I bought this for my last stand as a motocrosser!

1983-1988: 1981 Yamaha IT200
Ack! I tried to become a cow trailer!

1986-1990: 1978? Yamaha IT175
This was Russ' (my then-teenage son) bike but we swapped all the time because I like the IT175 better (handled more like an MX bike!) and he liked my IT200 better.

2001-present: 1996 Kawasaki EX250R Ninja
I bought the "Ninjette" on ebay the day after Christmas, 2000, and trailered it from Toppinish, WA a couple weekends later. It had a salvage title from a low-speed lay-down - guess the insurance company didn't want to replace the slightly-scraped-up (not broken) fairings. About $300 worth of levers, brackets, turn signals, oil level window, shop safety check, tuneup, and labor and I'm on the road with a low-mileage bike I've lusted after since 1989!!

2003-present: 1989 Suzuki GS500E
I am the third lady owner of "Strawberry" - all of us are involved in Wetleather.


Picking up my latest bike

 

A BIG THANK-YOU TO "BUBBAJOAN" AND "TIGER"
(sisters of the pink)

of

Wetleather

*** Why I think I ought to someday own a Triumph ***

   
Left: Me at a Seattle motorcycle show, 2002. Right: My birthmother on her wedding day, 1951.

Written on the back of the photo:

Saturday, Sept. 22, 1951
"Mrs" & my bike
1948 Speed Twin Triumph "Tigerized"
1st cycle



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updated 10/23/03