The start of the addiction…
I’m not actually sure how it began. My parents, hard-working Asian immigrants, had no time for indulgences like motorcycles. I’m sure they felt them to be a dangerous waste of money, though we never actually had a conversation about the topic. My friend Svend, whom I’d known since the age of 6, had a motorcycle in university, but I only ever saw him on it once, so I don’t think that was the catalyst.
I simply chose one day to take a Learn to Ride course one wet weekend at Humber College, pushing and then riding a 125cc dirt bike in the college parking lot for 2 days, navigating cones and getting my license at the end of the weekend.
Yup, just 2 days of training and off I went to buy my first bike!
McBride Cycle was started by Percy A. McBride in 1909, selling bicycles and sporting goods on Yonge St. in downtown Toronto. The shop started selling motorcycles, and eventually moved in 1966 to the Junction area, then a gritty manufacturing area full of mills, foundries and meat-packing plants. In 1992 I met the owner, John McBride, grandson of Percy A., and Kai Piechatzek, salesman supreme. They sold me my first bike, the beautiful Kawasaki EX 500 pictured here!
I was apprehensive about the reaction my parents would have when I arrived on my bike one day, but all my mom had to say was: “It’s pretty.”
Pretty.
If there was ever a bike to capture the spirit of the late 80s and 90s, this was it! Racer-boy pretensions dressed in blue/white/pink graphics! Wow. I would say it went well with the Rick Astley hair I was rocking back then!! And, somehow, I felt that a Marlon Brando jacket and cowboy boots were the right look to go with my baby racebike!
For years this was a commuting vehicle, a recreational vehicle, a ticket to freedom.
Like all things fondly remembered, I can’t think of a single serious flaw in that bike. It had enough power, good handling, it was small and light, easy to manoeuvre in downtown traffic, and great on gas.
Maybe it’s not just the graphics that were rose-coloured.
