Passion
By: Steven Wong

I met John at work a few years ago. At lunch, he would reminiscent about the good old days showing me pictures of his Honda Hawk 250 and Triumph 500 in the streets of Chicago. He started riding motorcycles late in life at age 26 handicapped by a missing left thumb lost to a circular saw accident in his youth. He told stories of racing in Florida and pitting for Gary Nixon, a national short track champion.

His passion for motorcycling kept him riding even after a serious accident the classical case of a vehicle turning in front of a motorcycle had caused his painful accident.

Years later, he would give up his passion for a married life with kids.

Many years later, John was now single and had not ridden in over 15 years. He could only relive the best times of his life though the stories he told others. I had never ridden a motorcycle but knew that life is not fun without any kind of passion. It was obvious to me that John's first love was riding scooters (his talk).

I encouraged him to find his passion in our daily conversations. One day he walks into the store, checks out the new products, laughs as the young sales people say, “Go for it Pops”, and leaves the store with a new shiny red 2001 sv650s sport bike.

3 years later, everyone is in awe as he stops on by to visit. John lives in San Diego but has taken several trips cross-country including Daytona many times. His completely stock motorcycle has given him close to 60,000 miles trouble free service only requiring your standard routine maintenance.

Motorcycling is his passion and hopes that all motorcyclists (cruisers, sport bikers, and others) enjoy the sport, treat others with respect, support your rights by joining the American Motorcyclist Association, and ride safely at all times. Everyday he lives for the ride and continues to tell me it is much better than sex. Then again, John is only 69 years young!