Topic: New member from Central Illinois

[Jimscoma]

Hello all. I’m Jim Scoma, live in the USA in central Illinois and am 52 years old.

My first motorcycle was a 1982 Kawasaki GPz 550 purchased in ‘86 after high school graduation and sold in 1991 while in college. Several years after I got married I bought my second bike, a 1995 Yamaha YZF600, which I got in an accident with 2 months after I got it.  With two kids under the age of 3, a new house and stay at home wife, I was politely 😁 asked to give up motorcycles until my children graduated college and I had it paid off.

Fast forward 25 years and I finally got the clearance to get back at it. My kids took a basic rider course and got the itch to buy motorcycles. My daughter was the first and bought a 1974 CB350F with 5,500 miles. Plans are to do a major clean up, touch up, and rebuild anything mechanically necessary, but keep it as original as possible.

Guess I’ll be wrenching instead of riding for awhile yet, but, excited to have my kids involved and loving the vintage rides!

[RAFster122s]

Welcome from Southern Arizona

[rocket johnny]

welcome from western colorado !    nice project  !

[Stev-o]

Welcome from Texas.  The GPz is a fine bike, I have one  [want to buy it?!]


Start a thread in "Project Shop" area so we can follow along and answer questions.

[goodtryer]

Howdy!

[tool14]

welcome aboard

[MD]

Welcome from Lake Superior,

-MD

[newday777]

Welcome aboard Jim! That's great your daughter got the itch to ride. The 350F is a great bike to start off on. Have a blast with her getting it squared away.
I also gave up riding for 25 years while raising the family. I did miss riding all those years but I had decided to wait until they were grown(I've put on another 250,000 miles in the past 12 years to make up for lost seat time). Now I ride cross country on my goldwing to see the kids and grandkids for the winters in San Diego and then back to NH for the summer and fall and get to ride my 75 CB750 here.

[Jimscoma]

Thanks all for your warm welcomes.

Steve-O; I want to buy your GPz, unfortunately I have found over the years that what I want isn’t always good for me and/or my marriage. Once I’m done with my daughter’s bike and catch up on the “honey do” list I may be looking.   Once I start pulling the 350 apart, I will start a “Project Shop” thread and am already grateful for the support I know I will get from this group.

MD;  A Lake Superior Circle Tour is on my bucket list. My grandmother was from Calumet, MI. I try to spend at least a week there every year and ALWAYS make sure it’s during the summer!

Newday777;  Thanks for sharing. During my 25 years of not riding, I felt like I was the only one who gave it up. It’s nice to know I have company. Hopefully I’m on the same path as you.

[dusterdude]

Welcome

Sent from my LM-X420 using Tapatalk

[HondaMan]

Welcome to the fun!

[Don R]

 Welcome aboard, I'm in Galesburg. If you ever need 750 stuff let me know. I have a decent stash of done bikes, projects and parts. Tomorrow it may double in size.