So - settle in, and we'll begin....
Long ago, when forums were just developing from bulletin boards, a much younger, spunkier, less battered by life, me found the internet.
I was already a keen motorcyclist, having learnt at my father's knee, and had progressed from small 100cc Japanese bikes to learn on, to joining my father in riding his small collection of classic British bikes from the 50s and 60s. My first 'big' bike was my mother's Moto Guzzi V50, which I rode as if I had stolen it for a couple of years, before deriding the choices of anything Japanese and purchasing an Italian Ducati TL600 which was 10 years old when I bought it. I crashed it, rebuilt it, and loved it. Until it started to have electrical issues.
I then happened to be browsing the wares in a large motorcycle store and came across a mint, year old Kawasaki ZXR400L. I liked it, I test rode it, and bought it there and then on the 'never-never payment plan' (pushing myself into loan debt for the next 10 years). I was young and didn't care though.
So - when I found the internet and discovered motorcycle forums, and realised that you could be whomever you wanted to be: you could hide behind a 'persona' which you could remake afresh, better (or worse), than your genuine personality, I decided to take on the name 'Riceburner': a name used by fans of British and Italian bikes for those bikes that came from the Orient - yes, a derogatory name in it's first usage, but (as occasionally happens), a name that had been taken on by the fans of Eastern vehicles and amusingly been turned around. I am quite well known now across certain bike forums by this name. (I'm also a terrible cook, and yes, I
have burnt rice in the past).
Recently (16 years ago, ahem) however, I changed my allegiance in motorcycles again, this time to Germany. I decided that I wanted a bike that would do 'all' my planned travelling - a 55mile (at the time) journey to work and back, weekend trips, long tours, and everything else. I tested a big-block MotoGuzzi, but when I took out a BMW R1150R Rockster I was absolutely smitten. The customer service was excellent, the bike was easy to ride, easy to maintain and: whilst built specifically as a road-bike, was actually capable of so much more, I've taken it off-roading across Salisbury Plain, trackdayed it at Silverstone, toured and had a lot of fun with it. I loved it so much, I bought another when the first was written off after 2 weeks. The second lasted me 2 years and about 45,000 miles of riding when it was written off on a cold January morning when I centre-punched a Land Rover which had lost control in front of me. The 3rd I bought 2nd hand with 1200 miles on it, and I blew that up 13 years and about 120,000 miles later. The 4th I bought after a gap, and 15 months of van-touring around Europe, I simply kept missing both riding, and the Rockster.
So - I've registered now on a few forums as 'Rockburner'.
😁
There - all the little children are asleep now - I can go for a ride!
😁