1978 Honda CX500 (Ugly Duckling)
In 1982, while working for San Diego Motorcycle Salvage, I put one of these together from 2 wrecked ones. It was my 1st shaft driven, water cooled motorcycle and I had so much fun with it. The motorcycle was totally reliable and required almost no maintenance at all. I really miss this one.
1969 Wards Riverside 125
This motorcycle is for sale in Southern California for $1200. It is all original and has less than 2000 miles. I have emailed my offer in case they cannot sell it for what they want. I would love to add this to my collection!
1968 Benelli 250 aka Wards Riverside 250 & Mojave 250
This is a picture like the motorcycle I owned right before I turned 16. It was a nice little “thumper” that I eventually put a megaphone exhaust on and even stripped it down and used for short track racing on weekends. The engine eventually dropped a valve and busted the piston into a zillion pieces rendering the motorcycle to an early grave.
1968 Honda CB160
I put one of these together from parts while working at San Diego Motorcycle Salvage in 1979. It was a great motorcycle for getting around town and I sold it making a pretty good profit. I wished I would have kept this motorcycle as it has become known as the “baby” Superhawk.
1969 Suzuki 80
I bought one of these while working at Gentry’s Cycle Center in Houston, Texas in 1970. I rode it for a while and used it as a trade in when I bought my Suzuki 125 Stinger.
1974 Yamaha TX500
I owned one of these I resurrected out of San Diego Motorcycle Salvage in 1979. Rode it around for a while then sold it for another project. Pretty neat little motorcycle and handled great.
1971 Kawasaki 500 H1 Triple
After I sold my Volkswagen bug, this is the next motorcycle I bought. I tooled around Southern California for about 6 months before going back to Vietnam. This motorcycle was a blazing quick wheelie king, but did not handle worth a darn in any turns. It even had a hard time going straight sometimes because of wobbles! This bike did have character though!
1968 Kawasaki W2SS 650cc
In 1977, while stationed in Kingsville, Texas, I purchased one of these motorcycles in a basket case. It was only made for a couple years and parts were very hard to get. I never got it completely together and passed it on when I transfered out of the area. These were a Japanese clone of a BSA back in the day.
1968 Benelli 125 aka Wards Riverside
In Jan 1969, at the age of 15, I took my driver test in Texas on one of these. The law back then was at 15, you could ride a motorcycle with 5 BHP (Brake Horsepower) I don’t hear that term anymore (BHP) and I think I used to know the difference, but now only remember that the European motorcycles on the list were all 125’s or smaller, while the list of the Japanese motorcycles were 90cc or less. The Benelli was a large motorcycle in comparison to the Japanese counterparts and I remember mine costing $179 at our local Montgomery Wards. I put many miles on this before I picked up a Riverside 250 single cylinder 4 stroke right before I turned 16 and got my full motorcycle license.
1972 Yamaha R5C (350cc)
On the way back from Vietnam, I bought one of these in Okinawa and brought it back on the USS Blueridge LCC-19. I put clip on’’s on it and in September of 1972, rode it from San Diego to Houston in 2 days. It was hot, I was young and dumb and only wore a sleeveless shirt during the day and got sunburned very bad. The bike was nice, but I wasn’t going to ride it back to CA, so I used it in a trade to get my first car, a 1960 VW bug. I got the car and $400 cash for my Yamaha. I drove the car back to San Diego and within 2 weeks, sold it and bought a 1971 Kawasaki 500 H1. I never did get another car until I got married.
1971 Suzuki 125cc “Stinger”
I bought one of these brand new when I was 16 years old. It was a fun bike and I have many fond memories of it. As you can see it was a very unique looking motorcycle and has not been duplicated since. I found this picture on Ebay and wished I had the room and resources to add this to my collection.
1987 Kawasaki Ninja 250 Track Bike
I got this motorcycle off Ebay a few years ago and made a track bike out of it. This is a picture of my friend Gene riding it at Buttonwillow. It was an ugly motorcycle, but it would blow past the 600/750’s in the turns.
Honda CBR1000F
Had this for a short while. Was given to me, and I ended up giving it away. The plastics sure were heavy on this model.
MSF RiderCoach Class of Saddleback’08
We finally made it today! There are now 9 more RiderCoaches in Southern California. We all worked hard and made good friends in the process. Thanks Gerard!
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