First.. Freedom! machine:
Whizzer motor-bicycle.. wanted to ride it from San Diego up to Palomar; luckily-Not -- with one bicycle-brake on rear wheel, the descent would have preempted any entries here. No licence.. managed to run it around S. Diego for many months, finally crunching it into a car; fixed - sold to a sailor.

Doodlebug/ with no brakes; stopped via shoes. Kindly Pasadena cop suggested.. don't let me see you again.

Lambretta LD-125 - the svelte enclosed-model Scooter, contemporary to Audrey's Vespa ride. Was stopped on Market St. SF, a couple days before heading back to school/South: guy on a mint Matchless 500 cc twin wanted to trade (!) Did..

Year later, Matchless traded in on first Vincent Black Shadow; tiny Italian engineer bought a new one ~ every couple years. Lucky moi, few miles, broken-in fanatically-well. One $1 failure of a small spring for the gear-shifter ratchet/pawl. Not merely a 'classic' - it Worked. As did the 4 brake-drums (for its day.) Speedo "geared to twistgrip" aka Torque where/when you needed it.

More Vincents, incl. a 500cc Comet = Just like the V-twin but with no rear cylinder.
Mint Shadows now approach $100K on the yuppie circuit.

Morris Minor side-valve 803 cc (??) Gutless, bulletproof; a Vincent traded {sob} because, while ya can get girls on a bike, you ca ..never mind.

'42 Buick --> '51 Studebaker Starlight coupe, predecessor of Loewy's boffo redesign.

Norton 99, 600 cc version of famous 88, then new 650cc 'Manxman' (a vibrating pig. Error.) BSA A6(?) 650cc twin - good all-round ride. Akin to the tricked out boy-racer one lent me on the Isle of Man - 'featherbed frame' handling was no myth, Many adventures on the 'Sunday Morning Ride' (a local Legend, also across the cycle press of yore.)

New '60 bug-eye Austin-Healy Sprite, picked up in London via old Vincent 'parts stockist' friend, who also dealt Austin. Grand Tour of the Continent with stops at Dachau [just. because.] and the usual assortment of exotic places, including the Grossglockner Pass at night, in a drizzle - but with Michelin-Xs to ease the odds.

Sold ~ year later.. Brief foray with a ~56? Studebaker interim ride till first Citroën needed to be tried.

Briefly a tarted-up (Over-restored) Norton International, classic 500cc OHC-single.. made the Manxman seem smooth. Sold to collector {whew.} Honda 305cc OHC twin -- cute, also too much vibration: first of their march into larger territory.

Suzuki X-6 2 stroke; amazing power, but not lovely to anyone used to Vincent-torque. Yamaha DT-1 for a brief foray into The Dirt. Fun, instructional but not mesmerizing.

First (mass-produced) '69 Honda 750-4. Smooth as butter but Too Heavy, especially around town; traded-down to the new 500-4 ... no torque again, but smooth and light-enough to handle ~OK. With two female friends (on own bikes) went pass-storming in Sierra: Ebbetts, Carson, Lake Alpine ... sublime with occasional camp-out then some Inn, for a clean-up, dinner and decent beds.

Citroëns -- 5 'DS's, from a '57 ~junker to vet the design; a '61 so-so, a new '64 DS-M bought here, a '68 picked up in Paris. A fine compromise enabled by the capability of having soft spring-rates, yet with excellent damper control (as the fluid passing in/out of the dash-pot Nitrogen-filled spheres was 'damped' by a series of thin discs == you could easily tailor for best handling.) An engineer's car but also loved across the spectrum. UmMurican too -- part of its local charm.

Saabs -- 5. First (New Model '69) picked up in Malmö, Sweden.
One near-new, totalled head-on on San Pablo Ave by drunk in a VW; another one run into an earthen bank in Mexico by new-driver grilf.. who, at least turned the Right-direction in an oncoming near-pass on a narrow road. Last, a '77 bought new - given to friend at car-age 25; went on for 3 more years til a ham-fisted friend of hers broke the ign. key mechanism; local repair too pricey. Utterly reliable, decent handling -- never a scratch on it, though the Eldorado Brown paint had long-since faded-->unlovely.

The 550cc Kawasaki DOHC-4, tricked out with Grimeka brake and floating cast-iron disc super-stopper ... now mainly sits in garage, as I deign to embark on any marketing hassle, and local roads are inhabited by cluless Tourists-with-cels.

'94 Acura Vigor remains pristine; is no appropriate ride for Depression Era denouements.. but can still manage 28+ mpg on road with no thrashing. 'Tis a Japanese vision of a well-made Jag (said to be Designer's inspiration; much as the original Citroën was, "inspired by a waterfowl..") -- IMhO it succeeds in that aim. It Handles as Well as such a long-wb car could be expected to; my first ride with modrin air-bags, ABS / don't need no fancy-shmancy 'stability controls' unless you're totally inept or regularly fail to Pay Attention.

Futchah? (if there is one)
Will likely settle on ~~ a restoreable HX-Honda of the 45+ mpg variety, whenever I stumble into one not totally trashed by racer-kiddies. "Gallons/year" is the appropriate metric for those not needing to commute; anything >45 mpg implies a high premium for cutesy techno and expensive batteries + the remaining parts at High-$-markup.

OK, that's most of them...