My earliest memory of motorcycles was just on 50 years ago when my uncle had an Indian Chief with a box side car. I was 5 or 6 years old and can remember riding in the box with the engine just to my right and even at that age I thought it was a beautiful sound. You might say that this sparked my interest in motorcycles in general.

When I was at school in Surry Hills in Sydney, I heard stories of brand new '42 Harley Davidson WLAs still wrapped in grease proof paper left over from the war in a garage in Redfern. I asked around and found Redfern Motor Cycles in a back lane in Redfern. It was an old weather board workshop and they had all sorts of Harleys being repaired or restored etc but alas no brand new WLAs. I couldn't do anything even if they did as I was only 8 or 9 by this stage but I remember thinking "One day I'll get a Harley"

Travel forward to the early Seventies and I find myself on dirt bikes. I rode a lot in motocross but mainly observed trials. Around 1971 there was a show on TV called "Then came Bronson" (some of you may remember it) and this sparked my love of Sportsters.  At this stage of my life I couldn't afford two bikes so the Harley idea was put on the backburner. I then got married and new priorities took hold. I then divorced and remarried and my two boys came along. The Harley went further into the backburner.

Well after the second divorce I thought, "Hey, now it's my turn" and that led me to Sy's Harley at Moorebank and after waiting most of my life for a Harley and in particular 31 years for a Sportster I now find myself the owner of a XL 883. When I placed my order I found that they put it on the slowest ship to ever cross the Pacific, or was that just me?

I planned on doing 4,000ks a year but have done 6,000 in 4 months and I love it to death. I plan on keeping it till I'm too old and decrepit to ride any more. You might say "The bug has finally bitten".