Seasons of two-wheeled cheer

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Back when my oldest girls were young, I also owned a bunch of motorcycles. I was riding pretty much every day myself, and I used to occasionally “ask Santa” to get them motorcycles for Christmas.

I have four daughters and one stepdaughter who is like a daughter. The oldest two, Christina (Christy) and Anna, are now 37 and 33, respectively. The whole tradition of new motorcycles for Christmas, if you can call it that, started with a new Yamaha PW50 purchased from Andersen Cycleworks for Anna when she was about 5 or 6 years old (see pic). The kid could already ride a bicycle pretty well and she took to that minibike like a duck takes to water. I mean she just jumped on, and even though we lived in the Boston area and it was cold outside, she immediately started riding. Within a few hours (not days), I pulled out both the throttle stop and the exhaust restrictor to open that little thing up! She never had a problem with this bike and learned to kickstart it on her own.

Christy started riding on an absolutely mint 1972 CL70. She went from nothing to a manual four speed. Riding around our yard with me running beside her, she got to be an excellent rider by the age of 10 or 11.

Anna on that little PW50, Christmas day.

The next Christmas bikes we got were a new TTR125 for Christy and TTR90 for Anna. Because we wanted to give them the motorbikes for Christmas we had both bikes at my office on Route 9 in Natick. It wasn’t odd to have bikes in our lobby or displayed outside of my personal corner office where I had a 12-foot long, framed lifesize poster of the infamous Wild Bill Gelbke on “Road Dog”, and this time the TTRs were there for a couple of weeks before the holiday. One afternoon I decided to fire up the TTR90 and ride it around in the office. My business was a good-sized management consulting, publishing, and training firm, and we probably had 50 or 60 people working there at that time. We also (unbeknownst to me) had some clients in that day. They reported to their boss that I was pulling wheelies inside. I don’t remember doing that, but it was entirely possible! The company once filmed me riding wheelies on my new Goldwing in the parking lot.

Needless to say, I was pretty crazy in my early 40s.

We had moved the year before from Sherborn, Massachusetts to a new house over in Dover, and went from one with an acre and a half of property adjacent to some public trails, to one with six acres that had trails tying into a huge public trail network. That’s when the dirt bike fun really began!

A few years later, on yet another Christmas, when Christy was 15, I bought her an almost new red Kawasaki Ninja 250 and a matching red and white leather riding jacket. I had a red Kawasaki Concours as my new bike and it sort of matched it. She loved that bike. I have always thought they are a perfect starter bike because they handle so well, much better than a Rebel 250, even though they seem to be the gold standard of starter bikes.

Christy and her Kawasaki Ninja 250, with matching jacket. I’m on the Dunstall Norton.

After that, life took an unexpected turn. I went through a rough three year divorce from the girls’ mother. I remarried and we moved from the Boston area to the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks. Everything changed. Christy was in college and owned a bunch of different bikes. I never put Anna on a street bike. Even though our Christmas tradition of new motorcycles under the tree came to an end, our family got stronger. Two more girls were born, Olive and Hazel, and still later when I married my best friend Sonya, a stepdaughter named Sophie joined our ranks. None of the other girls got to be riders because their mom wasn’t fond of motorcycles, but Sophie sort of followed in my footsteps and worked at a local scooter shop for a couple of years.

My beloved family. I am a blessed man.

I’m still into it, still riding, and a couple of years ago became a partner at Janus Motorcycles. So today I get to participate in building truly unique bikes that bring the joy and freedom of riding to so many, young and old. All five of my girls are doing great and we have been joined by some husbands and grandkids. Life is sweet!

From my family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Mark Zweig