Welcome to my first column for naked news. I would like to introduce myself. Some of you already know me as sprbeast from the net. The history of the name comes from “superbeast” a song by Rob Zombie for which I labeled my TLR fighter project. Seemed appropriate for the energy and vibe the song gives off. Anyway, on with the intro, I am a soon to be 35 year old from central Pennsylvania that is married with no children except for the array animals living under our roof. Some would call me a redneck since I enjoy hunting, fishing, trucks, etc. however, I keep things exciting with the passions in my life for motorcycles / racing (no cars here please), all sorts of music (no hard core rap or classical), and the jack of all trades / master of none handyman projects and house remodeling. Some have told me I have a different way of thinking but of course I wouldn’t be into fighters or on this site if I

didn’t . In retrospect, I feel fortunate to have had the history for which to write about. The stories will be kept short and easy to read. With the intent to supply you with some interesting and entertaining events and experiences that happened in my life so you can read and enjoy them....hopefully.

My motorcycle life started in 1990 at the age of 18 on a 1984 RZ350. The red, white, and blue that wasn’t the Kenny Roberts edition one with the typical checkered line pattern up the side. Mine had the regular straight stripes over the top and along the sides splitting the red and white. It also had the solo seat cowl, Spec II race pipes, and

pod filters. It seemed so amazing. It was light, fast, and handled well (at least I thought it did) all for a whopping $1,200 bucks. Absolutely nothing can beat the shrill of a well tuned two stroke. The sound echoing thru the hills as it painted a hue of light blue smoke along it’s trail. Those times are long gone. Some people have never had the chance to see or hear bikes with that old of technology. Hell, I remember a time sitting at a buddies house, I got a chance to hear that RZ up on it’s song. My brother took off up the road to grab some tools and boy, that thing sounded awesome. It was almost like music. The sound was so sweet, as he let off the throttle to pull in to the driveway it would burble down to an idle and you could still hear the bellowing across the valley. Well I soon realized the short comings of that old RZ after riding my brother’s new 1992 Katana 600. Sure it was heavier

but the power was there, all the time. The brakes didn’t feel like wooden pucks cut from a broom handle (inside joke), and the handling was spot on regardless of the bumps in the road. No matter how I tried justifying why I would keep the RZ, it still bounced off the fork bottoms under braking, kept shaking like a wet dog when the pace got mildly aggressive, and though it seemed fast in reality, it wasn’t. There was a time when my bro and I lined up with a friend in his 69 Camaro that he put a pretty worked over 427 in. We threw the flag, as I launched, I saw his car jump, but that was it, I was gone! There I was flying down this ½ mile straight obliterated by my brothers Kat. Oh well, at least I had the Camaro taken care of, right? It was getting smaller and smaller in the mirror. Woo Hoo! However what I didn’t realize was that he stalled the car at the start got it restarted and still caught and passed me by the end of the straight.....Fug. What to do, what to do.....

After much debate, the time had come. I sold the oil burner for 900 bucks to a friend of mine who was going in the Navy. Little did I know he was going to get out a can of spray paint and paint the assorted pieces on the bike red.

Puke! Now after he uglied it up a bit, he was sent out to sea. So for a couple of years it sat outside under a shed roof collecting rust and age. While in the navy he sold it and never gave me the chance to buy it back. (Not that I was going to). In the mean time another buddy of mine was in the transition from dirt to street and he sold his XT600 and was in search of an RZ too. He ended up getting an ‘85 KR edition with the checkered stripes. Beauty of a bike, how it reminded me of my old RZ. He ran that bike for a few years until it locked up on him going down the road. Well, it was time for a rebuild. While he was in line at the Yamaha shop getting parts, the guy behind the counter said he had an RZ he wanted to sell. However, it didn’t have a title. Shawn figured Ok! I’ll get this one and just put the motor into the ‘85. Then the day came when he went to pick up this “new” RZ

and voila! An uglied up 1984 R,W, &B RZ with spray bombed “accessories”! Seems, that my Navy buddy never got the title work done when he sold it to the guy at the Yammie shop. So Shawn rebuilt the 84 motor and put it in the 85. He parted out the rest of my old bike and rode the 85 for another year or so. Until he too realized the performance world keeps turning, regardless of where you plan on being.