Member of the Month
BMAC Member of the Month
Randy Meyer
Standing in Randy’s garage, surrounded by a dozen motorcycles, you might hear him say “You know I’m just a really happy guy, I have a really great wife, this collection of motorcycles --that I ride--and so many friends that I have made through the motorcyclist community of which I am a part”. When it comes to motorcycles, Randy really is part of it all.
His first bike was his only British bike, a Greeves 250 scrambler. Then there was a Honda followed by a 1978 Suzuki GS750, both wrecked, the victims of youthful stupidity. Then came a 16 year gap with no bikes until 1993 when his brother in law said, "Randy, you live in Colorado, you need to get a BMW GS”. Randy’s naive wife signed off on the GS and spent the next 10 years riding all over the western US on the back of that GS, more than 60K miles. Somewhere along that path, she signed off again, this time on a touring bike. Then came the first vintage bike, a BMW R75/5. This meant 2 bikes could still fit in the garage with her car and the vintage bike could go in a store room, but things were soon to change.
When Randy found a Ducati on EBay in Birmingham, Alabama he rode it home in a day and a half and put it into the "one car garage". The naive wife was no longer naive, as the Italian addition to the collection meant that her car would be evicted from the garage. For things to get better, it would mean a move and a garage built just for bikes. In the mean time, Randy drops out of the corporate rat race and somehow gets tangled up in managing two motorcycle shops, and she still hasn't divorced him.
But it gets worse. The dirt bike bug bit! Starting out with a portly Suzuki DR350, learning to ride with guys that had been on dirt bikes all their lives was a big challenge, but fun. About this same time, going to AHRMA races and watching became very painful. The only thing Randy had previously raced was a bicycle. Now he becomes the naive one and decides to build a vintage motocross bike (1974 Maico 250) and a vintage road racer (200 GP, which started life as a Honda CL175 bought from John Dunham) in that same winter.
This turned out to be a blessing as Randy had two immediate family members dealing with cancer that winter and the bike became his therapy. Both machines were successfully raced in the Rocky Mountain region the following season with the Maico taking top honors for the season in two classes. However, it became obvious to Randy that a real dirt bike was needed to get any better and to be able to try and keep up with his friends. Enter the 2007 KTM 200 EX-W. This light weight machine should take Randy as far as he wants to go with dirt biking.
Thanks to another BMAC member (Paul Swenson) a 1966 and 1955 BMW showed up in Randy’s garage. Paul also contributed a 1966 Honda 305 Super Hawk to the garage. Then three Ducati singles, all these came along about the same time as a 1971 Honda 350. Next after many years of deliberation, his sister-in-law in Seattle shipped her vintage Vespa to Randy to bring back to life.
One of Randy’s all time favorite riding experiences was being pass by a Hyabusa (doing triple digits) on the straights of hwy 67 heading to Deckers, only to later pass him in the twisties............on his 1973 BMW /5. Riding with Malcolm Smith and listening to him tell stories at breakfast one day was pretty cool too. All that said, there is no better riding than going anywhere new with his wife on the back. OK, taking the grand-daughters for their first bike rides was really neat.
Ten of the sixteen motorcycles that Randy owns are legally plated. He just likes riding, but especially the old crocks. He feels very lucky that his wife tolerates his obsession, however she really gets PO’d over the speeding tickets.
