| My first motorcycle was this 1977 Honda CB500F. I bought it in 1991. It's an ideal bike when you just have your driver's license. It's cheap, which was good because I was a poor student back in 1991. It doesn't have too much power so you'd be overwhelmed by it. It starts to complain in time when you're driving it at it's limit. And it can be dropped without too much damage ;-) |
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I still have it, but right now it's not in driving condition. It leaked oil everywhere and third gear is missing, so I decided to rebuild the engine. Right now it's almost completely in pieces, so I'll have get some replacement parts and build it back together...
I've dropped this bike a couple of times, not much harm done (to me or the bike) in most cases. Just one time when I was on my way to the Dutch Army headquarters (I was serving my army-duty back then) on my CB on a sunny afternoon in 1993 the results were worse. I drove into a stopped car on the Utrechtsebaan (a highway directly into the center of The Hague). I wasn't driving fast or anything, but got blinded by the bright sunshine and didn't see the car in the dark under a fly-over. When I did notice it, I couldn't go to the left, as cars were passing there at high speed, or to the right, where there's a concrete wall. I just thought I had a little chance of braking in time. I almost made it... There are a lot of traffic jams on that road so there's a thin layer of leaked oil spread all over it, so it was hard to come to a stop.
I wasn't going that fast when I hit the car and went flying through the air. I landed on the street next to the car. I didn't break anything, but needed some stiching on my chin (I was wearing a full-face helmet) and had bruised wrists, arms and ribs. I could hardly use my arms for weeks. It took quite some time and revalidation before I could even drive again, but as soon as I could, I started driving again :-)
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