My first bike was a brand new 1972 Honda CB350 that I bought in March of 1973. The thing seemed to be indestructible as long as it was me who was riding it.
A few weeks after I got it I was on a 45 MPH turn on a highway going about seventy MPH. Although I had passed the riding test with flying colors I had no concept of counter steer. I tried to increase my turn rate by turning the handlebars in the direction I wanted to go. I flew off the high side of the highway and into a farm field at a high rate of speed, not dumping it until I was almost stopped. The bike restarted immediately and was only dirty, not damaged at all.
A month or so later I took it, and my girlfriend, down a road that just an hour or so earlier had about six inches of water. After it stalled with water halfway up the sides of the tank it took and hour or so of drying out before it started and we went back to the dorm. It ran just fine despite me never checking the oil, the fuel or the air filters.
I’d had it for several months when I was checking out a cutie on the sidewalk rather than looking at traffic when I rear ended a Mustang convertible and ended up almost in his rear seat. No damage to anything but my ego as the babe I was looking at laughed quite loudly as she walked away.
A month or two after that I was checking the traffic to my right in preparation to change lanes. I looked back ahead of me to see that a car had suddenly stopped right in front of me as the driver had decided to turn left, without a signal, and had slammed on his brakes so as to not miss his turn. I rear ended him without even touching my brakes, I guess I was going 35 or so. I leapt straight over him, rolled several times and came up on my feet with my hands out in front of me to keep my balance. An older lady who witnessed the entire thing said she thought it was some kind of circus stunt. After bending the gear shift back out and using a bicycle rack to straighten the front fork I rode it home. Everything on the left side of the bike had road rash but it ran just fine. The car I hit was an old beater and the guy driving it was just happy I wasn’t hurt. Me too!
A few weeks later (mid October 1973) my brother borrowed the Honda and totaled it when he hit a guy who turned left right in front of him. He didn’t have a motorcycle license so he told the cops he was me. The cagers insurance company paid me 100% of what the bike was worth and I used it as a down payment on a brand new 1973 Super Beetle.
There were a few other incidents but the details escape me now, 34 years later.
From brand new to totaled in about seven months. Considering what I put it through I was lucky to have survived the summer. It’s amazing how resilient we are when we’re 19.
Oh, I bought another Honda CB350 the next Spring
