Oh my goddess, come to mommy. She’s my new black bottom girl and she’s mine all mine! Now I just need to find a good replacement for that stylin’ seat, unless of course some lucky lady wants to be my First Mate. It’s a 1979 850T, btw and she’s sitting in storage just waiting for the very first nice day when I can go spring her. Anyone want to buy my V50?

I came to Wisconsin and decided I wanted an old toaster BMW. I found out about a BMW club who hung out in Hudson on Saturday mornings and approached them. They were wary, but finally gave me a name: Walter.

Walter has a huge garage. I believe it is smaller than his home. The front is filled with bikes, some in dusty disrepair, like the 850T with the seized engine and then the bright yellow Ducati. Eureka! This old guy and his wife Elaine became our lifelong friends. After tooling around on the Honda Dream my sweetheart had procured from yet another toaster owner in Hudson, I knew I was ready to step up to the 500. I just wasn’t ready to leave the vintage class. Not yet. I ended up selling her right back to Walter when I bought my own Ducati a few years later. And just like Walter, we can’t even park our cars in our own sizable garage–just too many bikes.