I once picked up a Rider magazine only to find myself inside of it! I was riding over to Ballard one day and remember thinking “why is this guy photographing me?”

The article was on riding in downtown Seattle, I think. This must have been in about 1998.

I loved this bike! It was the first sport bike I ever sat on that seemed to fit…most are designed for 5′6″ guys who weigh 125 lbs. The Triumph was definitely not for them, shorter friends had a hard time even getting their feet to the ground. Moreover, it was top-heavy, especially with a full tank of gas, and it was very hefty for a sport bike, 500 lbs all-up.

I bought it in 1998, when it was three years old, with 3,000 miles on it. Rumor was it was a repossession…it had been over once, doing some minor damage to the exhaust on one side, and a couple of scratches. I think I paid $6000 for it. This was a bike which had cost more than $11,000 new, I think. I wonder if one of the aforementioned smaller guys owned it.

It had plenty of power and sounded great. The scuffed-up pipes bothered me and I put a set of carbon fiber slip-ons on it, which really increased the rumble.

I eventually sold it for $2600. It had 13,000 miles on at the time, and it needed fork seals and some other maintenence work. The guy who bought it had the one and only key stolen out of the ignition while he was on a road trip in eastern Washington, which stranded him completely.