I started street riding on a 1981 Yamaha XS650 way back in 1985. My next street bike was a 1992 ZX7 that I bought new as soon as I returned home from the Gulf War followed by 3 months in the Arctic Circle. My next purchase was a 1991 ZX7R somebody had traded in for a CBR 900RR at a local Honda dealer. That was in the spring of 1994. I had all 3 for awhile. The ZX7 was eventually sold. Still have the other 2.
The next purchase was a 1987 GSXR 750 project bike. The story about it was that the original owner was living with his girlfriend in her house and got caught cheating. She threw him out but wouldn’t let him get any of his stuff for about 2 weeks. Every time she thought about it and got mad she went out to her garage and took a hammer to the GSXR. I ended up buying the bike from the best friend of the original owner. He bought it from the original owner for cheap and thought he was gonna rebuild it. Figured out he was in over his head and sold it to me. While I was rebuilding that bike I bought a 1998 ZX9R new in the late spring of 1999. The owner of the dealership was a friend and gave me a great deal. Ride it for less than a year. Went to Daytona Beach Bike Week in 2000. Saw the ZX12R in person and fell in love. Came home and put the 87 GSXR and the ZX9R up for sale almost immediately. Sold both within a month and bought the first green ZX12R available in Southwest Ohio (remember the owner of the local Kawasaki dealership was a friend) only one red 12 was sold here before I got my green one. Still have that one. After that I started collecting a whole bunch of different bikes. Some to fix up and flip, others to restore/repair/rebuild and keep.
A side note to this is that my brother and I built a couple pro-mod drag bikes for a friend and I travelled all over the country with him as the crew chief/mechanic. I didn’t own them but I helped build and maintain them so I’m including a picture. It was a lot of fun and a cool thing to do for a few years of my life.
1987 GSXR 750
1990 Suzuki Katana 750
1987 Yamaha YSR50 (still own)
Pro-Mod drag bike