Total Recall

Vintage Vantage: 1972 YAMAHA XS 650

A life is a warehouse of sensations and experiences best opened and shared with as many others as possible. Whatever we choose to stock the warehouse shelves with indicates our particular passions and often leads us back to our inner selves. For me, the vintage bike experience holds a prominent place in "the building." Each time I ride one my senses go into overdrive, hauling up recollections of time, place, smell, sound and even taste. Good, bad or indifferent, any time I set off on a vintage bike, I ride to recall the way things were.

I have been a motorcycle enthusiast since the mid-sixties and, as I've mentioned, I am particularly fond of vintage bikes. My timeline opens in Millbrook, New York. The year is 1972. Nothing much distinguished Millbrook significantly at that time other than the fact that it was the home of a very engaging individual, Dr. Timothy Leary. His influence in the town and on its adolescent populace was quite apparent.

A small town in Dutchess County New York, Millbrook was "a great place to grow up" or so the parental party line went; but we, the disaffected youth of the time, were eternally bored yet most creative when it came to entertaining ourselves. And, at the very least, the infamous tales of Doctor Leary and his eclectic entourage helped to stimulate our exploratory juices. We were a cynical group of devout partiers. A social revolution whirled about us and we wanted to participate in all of it, especially in the music, muscle cars and motorcycles. Vietnam weighed heavily on our minds as did all the typical questions about life. A close cousin had just returned from the "conflict" when he was killed in a motorcycle accident. It changed me forever. I became a man that year on a gold-and-white Triumph Bonneville. ...

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