33, turning 34 in a couple weeks. A running joke in my family is that I got hooked on bikes in the womb... my mom went for a motorcycle ride when she was pregnant with me.
My first bike was a 1982 Yamaha Maxim XJ750J with the sweet rectangular headlight. I sold that for a lowrider 84 Sportster (the late model 1000 with an alternator instead of the generator). I thought I was living high on the hog with my Harley, until I spent more time fixing it than riding. It literally needed repair almost every time I rode it, which was endlessly frustrating because I didn't have enough money to keep it running. I don't think I put more than 1000 miles on it in three years because it always needed work. I sold it to pay for school.
Around that time, a friend gave me a 1980 CB650 that we had torn apart to "restore" but he lost interest and funds. It came to to me in three boxes. I put the engine in the frame and got it together enough to be a roller, but the engine was seized and, as you might guess, I didn't have the money to fix it, so in the shed it sat.
A couple years later, while trolling Craigslist I came across a 1980 CB650C "parts bike" for $150. The guy happened to have the title, and it was less work to put the parts bike on the road than fix the one that was given to me in boxes. That's what I ride now. I raked the neck of the gift CB650 5* and it will eventually become my chopper. I also have a 1964 Dream 305 in the shed awaiting funds for repairs, too.
