Michael Newman:  

Life Short bio: Got a Culinary Arts degree from CCC in 1979, and was a Chef in Bay Area for 8 years before moving from San Francisco to Bexley, Ohio in 1987. I rode my motorcycle across the country to get here. I married Janet in 1987. Had our first child (boy) in 1990, then another (girl) in 1994. Went back to college in 1990 to study Architecture 3 years, then changed major in 1995 to Industrial Design. Went to Manchester, England on a scholarship in 1998-1999 to study design and tour Europe. Got second BS degree in 2001 in IT. In a bad auto accident in 2001 and hurt back; took 3 yrs to recuperate. Started my own business in 2002. My Dad passed away last summer; my Mom 8 summers before that. Purchased another BMW motorcycle last year, as I still love to travel. And I always miss California when it is cold and snow covered in Ohio! School I had such a fantastically huge crush on one fiery redheaded beauty. She was like an Amazon, that Nancy Amador, who I had one dance with at an honor society party. And then afterwards I remained under her hypnotic spell for another three or thirty years. Trying to talk to her always seemed so awkward after that dance, and so the relationship went absolutely nowhere! Invariably when see any redhead nowadays, its hard not think of the way she nervously caressed me during that long slow dance so many years ago! Motorcycling To fill you in on a little of my motorcycling history: I had a friend that lived across the street from me in Rollingwood, Steven Beavers, whose family all had dirt bikes. My first ride ever was on a Honda 50cc bike in his backyard around on an oval dirt path. I hopped on, twisted the throttle wide open and promptly went straight into the fence at the opposite end of the yard! Unhurt, and undeterred, I later mastered that bike, and we would have a blast just going around and around that back yard circuit. My guess is that was around 1972 when I got on for that first ride. Then we later went to the hills in Richmond to ride in the dirt on his Yamaha Enduro 250. In the summer of 1982, and ten years removed from those early years of dirt riding, I went by the showroom of Richmond Motors, to get some tool I needed for the rebuilding of the engine for my 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. I went in and immediately that old longing for a bike returned when I saw all the new bikes there. I remember going back in to sit on that first motorcycle I saw that caught my eye there. I returned at least ten more times again to look at it before I took the plunge and eventually purchased it a month later. That first bike: a new 1982 BMW R65, a 650cc naked bike in metallic turquoise green with gold hand painted pinstripes on the tank. That engine was a lot like the Beetles, horizontally opposed but with two fewer cylinders, and the simplicity of it was one of the things that attracted me to it. With a full leather motorcycle suit, touring gear, and lust for travel, I went all over California for the five years that I had it. For about two years it was my only mode of transportation, and I commuted between San Francisco and Emeryville with it till it had about 28,000 miles on it and I got the bug for a faster machine with more wind protection. Then in 1985 BMW came out with a radically new bike design ...Expand for more