I'm Alex and I'm still not quite sure how I got into motorcycles. Up until April I had never really given motorcycles much of a look. But before I knew it I was taking the MSF basic ridercourse, earning my motorcycle licence, and at the beginning of June I bought my first bike.
I chose a Versys-X 300 as my first bike because it's not too powerful (for a newbie like me) and was not too expensive (for a new bike). Because I live in the city I wanted a bike that was good on the pavement, but I love camping and backpacking in the wilderness so I wanted a bike that could also take me exploring down the back roads. The Versys-X seemed perfect for what I had in mind and so far it has been a pretty great little bike. If I were to buy my first motorcycle again though, I might give more thought to getting a nice used bike instead.
So far I've put almost 3,500 miles on my bike in the three and a half months I've had it. I've ridden on some gravel roads of varying quality but nothing too terribly technical. A while back I had the idea to ride out to Colorado and do some motocamping when the leaves changed colors this fall. I realized that the time window for that is coming up soon and was going to go on a short solo motocamping trip this weekend to prepare. But I learned about the Flint Hills Stampede a few days ago and figured I should do that instead. I'll meet some new people and will probably learn much more than I would on a solo trip!
I currently live and work in KCMO but I'm basically still a Kansan; I grew up in Olathe and graduated from KU.
Looking forward to the ride this weekend and meeting some of you!