File Under: Long Lost Loves – My 1996 Kawasaki ZX-6R
Over the weekend, I was digging through a box of old photos, scanning them and creating digital copies. I came across this photo from November of 1996; it was me hugging my firecracker red ZX-6R.
I had so many great times on that bike. Long summer weekends riding and riding and riding… anywhere and everywhere. Those were the days.
“Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw
How about you?
Do you miss any of your old rides? Do you think you miss the bike or the time in your life it represents?
Totally adorable pic! LOL
Someday I’m really gonna’ miss my Aero.
Nice one. I bet you have a lot of sweet memories going with this pic.
I adore this photograph. Adore. I feel as though I’m looking at myself 15 or 20 years ago. (I’m a brunette, with curly hair, and black on blue denim was something I used to wear all the time.) You look so happy. 🙂 I don’t even ride a motorcycle! Though I do love them. Great photo – thank you! K.
You nailed it: it isn’t the bike, it is the experiences we had with a bike that are unforgettable. It’s impossible to separate those from the machine itself.
For example, my first motorcycle was, in retrospect, an unimpressive bike: a 1995 Kawasaki Vulcan 750. And yet I grew up on that machine, learned what touring is like, and found its cherry red gas-tank to be irresistibly attractive.
I rode my Vulcan 750 to North Dakota, duct-taped a pillow to its seat midway into that journey to soothe my aching butt, survived crossing the Mackinac Bridge (in MI) in windy rain at night, once surprised my Dad at his home in Florida, and rode down Main Street in Daytona during Bike Week. I’ll never forgot those amazing experiences.
Great question!
@Ralph That must’ve been some sight seeing your pillow-ed bum riding down the road! 😆
Those all sound like sweet memories to hold on to. Motorcycles are so cool 🙂
I once owned and loved a BMW 650 GS. I sold it and then a year later I bought the same bike back. I loved that bike and the freedom it gave me. I loved riding along back country roads smelling strawberry fields and blueberries and all the other wonders that you miss while in a car. I thought I’d keep that bike forever but ended up selling it and buying my current bike, a 1200GS. For me, it’s always about the bike and not the me I was back then! I’m so much better now!
With very little care and upgrade those Kawasaki’s run forever.
Does Ian miss his old rides? Nah he’s still got them 🙂