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Team Elves |
Hardware Guru Josh Andrews
I bought my first bike from my dad in August of '94 - an almost-stock 92 Sportster 883 Hugger. I put ~4500 miles on it before I sold it back in May of 95 to buy a new Formula Firebird. That summer I met and began dating a beautiful girl from Ecuador (Mariabelen) who told me I was quite loco for selling a Harley to buy a car & urged me to purchase another. I showed her pictures of the Buell S2s and the new 96 S1, but she was in love with Sportsters. I received a States Blue Pearl 96 Hugger 883 in Feb of 96. Added passenger pegs & the pillion and gave Mariabelen a few short rides. The first ride of any duration was about an hour each way to watch my parents skydive. She fell asleep on the way back. Her habit of sleeping on the back hasn't abated. When I finally had the money to afford 2 bikes (she won't let me sell the Sporty) I ordered a 99 S3T. After some practice rides (and a stint in Reg Pridmore's CLASS riding school) I started taking Mariabelen on StLouisAreaBuellers (SLAB) rides. I'll never forget when we stopped in Hermann, Mo & someone asked her what she thought of going so fast on the last tight section. "I don't know, I was asleep..." The look on his face was priceless. Last year we bought her a 00 Blast, which she has updated to the '01 Yellow bodywork (and added StLouis Blues stickers for a Buell Blues Blast) and logged just over 3500 miles in less than a year. Since she showed so much promise on the bike (not to mention sharing the garage) in Dec I asked her to marry me. We'll have a double-Buell wedding in June '01. I suppose the Sporty can give the bride away. My only experiences with racing are drag-racing my car (13.79@101) & Buell (12.29@111) at Gateway International Raceway near St Louis, so when I saw Aaron's first posts about getting a land speed record team together I quickly responded offering to host the site & assist a little with the pages and set up the store, knowing that for someone with minor wrenching abilities and real shallow pockets it was an easy way to make it on a real race team ;) My personal website is Highwayride.com. I work as a Senior Network Specialist for Advanced Resources Inc who are hosting all of this. |
