Miss my 'Killer Bee' - but I'll stick to fake motorcycles

As I pulled up at the stop light next to the really loud motorcycle in my minivan, I couldn’t resist doing my motorcycle imitation as I accelerated from the light. I tried to get my wife to join me but she just scowled.

You guys know what kind of motorcycle imitation I’m talking about, where you twist the right grip to accelerate and run through the gears. If it’s a good imitation you can even downshift.

I informed the wife that the reason my motorcycle didn’t sound like the Harley Davidson leaving us in his dust was that I was riding a 90 cc Suzuki street/trail bike. It’s not the only motorcycle I’ve ridden, but it’s the only one I ever owned.

You can go ahead and laugh, but no, I never got my official Hells Angels ID card or whatever they hand out. I never did motocross either. I saw some of those guys come through and do a demonstration at the Midway Speedway once and it sounded like really loud killer bees and those jumps they were making scared the beejeebers out of me.

I don’t remember where I bought that little cycle, but it was bought used while I was in high school. I knew other guys with motorcycles and I wanted to dip my toe into the culture. My parents didn’t like the idea, but it was my money so they allowed it but made me wear a helmet.

At some point I took a couple of cans of spray paint and painted that thing bright yellow. It turned out really good and folks started calling that little cycle the “Killer Bee.”

I rode it on the street and in the country for a while, but I would be lying if I said I ever got to feeling too comfortable on the thing. More than once I had people miss seeing me and nearly run me down.

The deciding factor in my motorcycle riding days came one evening at Jack County Lake as we were tearing across the salt lake flats and I tried to follow others on bigger bikes across a little jump. Yeah, I ended up over the handlebars into the sand.

I think I had some repair work to do after that wreck and I never got the thing put back together. Somehow I just didn’t have a lot of motivation to get it back together.

This spring I’m sure I saw that little bike parked on a porch across from the high school. It had to be the same one; how many yellow 1970s Suzuki trail bikes could there be out there. I went back later when I had time to see if I could talk to someone about the history of the bike but couldn’t find it.

It would be neat to know it’s back in commission and still a yellow “Killer Bee.” For my part I think I’ll stick to my fake motorcycle. Wheelies on that thing don’t hurt anywhere near as much.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]