Kim's Motorcycles - age 14 to 21

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When I was in sixth grade we moved to Sagittarius Drive in southwest Reno (white house in photo below). Our house was on the edge of town, and the "Plumb Lane Pits" (Google Earth link to Plumb Lane Pits) were a fantastic riding area. (Although we never went that far, it would be possible to go to Lake Tahoe over the mountain behind the house.)

Wayne Lamay had a blue Honda CT 70. Here Bill Henderson is jumping his Gold Honda CT 70 at age 13:

Neighbor Eric Schuft also had a CT 70:

I wanted one too:

I subscribed to Mini Bike Guide - and would have settled for a Trail Hopper:

The summer I turned 14 I had saved the $300 from my paper route for a motorcycle and bought a new 1973 Yamaha 100 (Those were the good days when the dollar had a good exchange rate with the Yen. Now I cannot afford a new motorcycle):

By the winter my neighbor Joe Ganser also bought a Yamaha 100, and I had stripped the lights off mine:

Also that winter (ninth grade) on a muddy road I was giving my brother a short ride on his paper route when a German Shepard dog ran in front of me. I ran over it and went down hard, breaking my leg. It was only a crack and so far has been my only cycling injury.

Here I'm in a power-slide in the Plumb Lane Pits. (Today this is where McCarran crosses Plumb Lane and is full of houses.)

You can see the landscape behind me in this Google Earth view:

Riding with friends at Plumb Lane Pits

My other riding partners where Conrad Stitser and Jeff Ehrlich.

Here is Conrad's Suzuki 90 and my Yamaha 100 - after I had used a Dremel tool to polish the ports and generally converted it into a flat-track bike:

The stickers on gas tanks are the synthetic 2-stroke oil that we used:

In summer 1974 I turned 15 and was ready to go faster. I moved up to a Suzuki TM 250 and it was definitely faster!

Conrad bought a TM 250 just a few days after I got mine. Early one morning I was returning from the Pits on the ditch road and came around a turn to see Conrad coming at me. We missed each other - good thing as it would have been a bad head-on crash at that speed.

Airborne on the TM 250

Posed the new TM 250 at the plumb lane pits (Pevine mountain visible in background)

Age 15: Bill Henderson on my 250 respectfully disagreeing with Conrad Stitser
(Some photos are black/white because I had set up a darkroom to process my own B/W photos.)

This followed an incident like this, where someone got in someone's way. (Mike Torst in purple, Conrad in Red, Tim Hutton in white - maybe me behind Conrad)

Kim Jumping

Kim followed my Mike Torst

Kim going in circles

Often My black lab "Arthur" and Jay's dog "Barney" would chase us the one mile to the pits, and follow us around:

From our house we could drive up towards "Hunter Lake." There is still a "Hunter Lake Loop" that goes far into the mountains from Reno, and then comes out at Boomtown. Here's a view looking down from the mountains. Look to the right, driving into Reno past Boomtown (See the Google Earth Hunter Lake link above):

We arrive at Boomtown - age 14 and no licenses, we drive over the freeway and gas up

Here I drove up in the mountains towards Hunter Lake into the snow - miles from anyone alone.

Kim in Suzuki 250 power-slide

The following year I traded to the Honda Elsinore 125 that had just come out - It was Honda's first 2-stroke - these were exciting times for motorcycle  technology changes - as shown on cover of a magazine I subscribed to:

I used to practice wheelies up Sagittarius Drive:

I raced the Elsinore in a motocross at T-Car raceway in summer 1975, but have no photos since the film didn't load correctly. I placed 7th in the pack of 15, and realized that to win you've got to be crazy. Here's some photos of T-Car.

The start was intense - hard to hear your own motor with all the others screaming:

I was in middle of the pack in the first turn - not good - I got my foot run over and was being bumped. (#256 is friend Paul McCain on a Yamaha 125)

This is a Honda Elsinore 125 - same as I raced

I saved this Peanuts cartoon during this time:

Summer 1976 - "Discovered" Foresthill, California

The summer that I turned 18 while still living in Reno I aimlessly took a dirt road (red line) south from Soda Springs (Donner Summit) on the Yamaha 400. Had no map. Just kept following the best descending roads. The roads kept getting nicer, then pavement so I knew it was leading "somewhere" - 90 minutes later was the first time I saw Foresthill Bridge - never knew it existed - and still no idea where I was... Then to my amazement I-80! I tanked up and headed back to Reno via I-80 (purple line). A few years later I assisted my friend and Formica coworker Gene Rodman build two homes for himself in Foresthill.

Fast-forward to 1980. After working at the Formica Factory outside of Sacramento and attending American River College part time, I needed a break and returned to live in Reno for a year. I worked at WES construction during the summer, then as a welder/rebar fabricator at Jensen Precast through the winter and following summer.

I had already outrun cops a few times in my high school days. But as outfitted below I intended to take the kids of my mother's friends (Ray and Dean Hambrick) visiting from Oregon on a mellow ride down McCarran Lane, which was still under construction and barricaded off. But a cop saw us and gave chase. I headed for the "Seventh Street Pits" flying down a rough dirt road, but the cop was on my tail. I finally lost him by going over Pevine Mountain to Stead.

My mother's friends were worried sick - we were supposed to be gone for 10 minutes and there were no cell phones in those days. Anyway these kids have never forgotten that ride.

My best friend during that year in Reno was Randy Howe. He had a Suzuki RM 125 so I bought one too. It was probably my favorite motorcycle since during this period there were lots of advances in suspension.

This is me on Randy's bike in Las Vegas.

Here's Randy on his bike - great rider - great friend - I can't locate him, and I hear that he died in a drag racing accident:

Randy 1980, and wedding photo around 1982:

      

A few shots Randy took of me on my RM:

 

Update on the following!
Randy and I reconnected online and met January 2019. Shock after believing the rumor for 25 years

The last I heard from Randy was a June 22, 1987 letter that he was working for his father at Peppermill in Las Vegas, living at 1001 Declaration Dr., and got into drag racing though his wife Tami's father, who had the world's fastest Chevy Luv at 7.95sec/168.93 mph in the quarter mile. He wrote that he got out of motocross because it was too dangerous.* He had picked up this funny car "Dream Keeper" for $7250 and so far had run 8.99 sec/142mph - after his 69 Camaro got stolen (after winning the first race of 1986 season). He said he planned to be at Sacramento Raceway in August, but I never heard from him again.

(*MX is dangerous. Google "Danny Magoo Chandler" - of Foresthill California - "Lance Armstrong" showing up Europeans until he broke his neck.)

That summer 1980 I raced in a 100 mile desert race - crazy flying down roads and creek beds. I placed near the end, but many who started did not finish. Note my friend Conrad above placed 2nd as was then a sponsored rider by KTM:

 

I saved this cartoon around 1978

In 2004 I had the opportunity to buy a 1972 Yamaha 125 - virtually the same as my first motorcycle 1973 Yamaha 100. I had some fun on it and Stephen learned to ride on it. But there was no practical use for it so I sold it for about what I had paid for it:

In 1997 got a Yamaha XT 600 dual-sport - which I still own as of 2008