I am the all around guy, your host, the owner, the webmaster and general big mucky muck here at Trailer Dogs and my name is Mark.
Bikes have been an on and off and on again pleasure of mine for as far back as I can remember. The first scoot was a real scooter, a Vespa, which I rode and rode and rode until it would not ride anymore... Dad used to let me ride it up and down our street occasionally and he let me loose on the forest service roads when we went camping which we did with great regularity. There is no memory of what eventually happened to the Vespa but no matter because its replacement was bigger and faster.
The replacement was also an Italian and I doubt many will know of it. The Benelli was a real motorcycle 
in my eyes back then. Its 125cc engine seemed pretty powerful when I first rode it. When dad wasn't home, I would sneak out and ride around town. It was great fun until I got popped for riding a passenger without a license. That little ticket cost me about 3 months driving as I could not pick up my license until the suspension was over. Very soon after I got my license the bike was stolen from school but the thief got his when he wrecked it....
The Honda CL160 was the next bike and let me tell you, I rode that one all over Southern California from San Bernardino to Santa Paula and everywhere in between. As the realities of life hit me after high school I enlisted in the U.S. Army to avoid the draft and hopefully Viet Nam and of course the year after I went in they abolished the draft. One year stateside and two in Germany before I got to ride again.
After my discharge I went looking for another bike. Didn't have to look far as my neighbor was ready to get rid of his as he wanted a newer one. He had done a JC Whitney custom job on it and it was not too bad looking in '75. This Honda 750 carried me many miles, up and down the Pacific coast and a nice road trip to Denver CO. It was not long before I got the bug for a Harley. It took a few years before I was able to come up with enough cash after selling the Honda to afford my first Harley Davidson (okay only half a Harley)
Just before moving up to Redding CA from Big Bear Lake CA I managed to get my hands on a '71 XLCH Sportster.
I hate to say it but it was a breakdown waiting to happen... It did fine as long as I did not venture more than 150 miles from home. The minute I left on a longer trip I swear the machine just waited for the wrong time to die and then it did its dirty deed. It broke down on every trip I took over 200 miles. Once on the way to LA from Redding I got half way before it died. The next trip to LA I got to LA and was on my way home passing through Santa Barbara when it died. The '79 Redwood Run I made it there and almost all the way home; almost made it, less than 5 miles from home it died. I quit taking it on long rides after that one... Then one morning I went out and started it, popped it into gear and the tranny blew apart my case... I sold it to the local shop and bought myself an airplane instead.
A few years pass by as I learned to fly the airplane, and got married a couple of times.
Upon awaking one morning I found myself in love with Jackie, who is now my beautiful wife. One day before we got married she said "why don't you get a bike"... Whew, she had no idea of what she was getting into. Budget constraints forced me to by the Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 which overall was a nice machine. We rode it down to Sacramento and over to the coast during the summer along with a few trips up into the mountains to get away from the summer heat.
It was not long before the Harley bug got me again. It must have been love at first sight because my truck stayed at the bike shop and I rode our second bike home before selling the first. This one was a very clean '91 FXR. Jackie and I rode it a little while before I found another Harley for a cheap price on eBay. This one was a '98 FXD,
a nice quick machine which I turned locally for a few bucks. With my money back in the bank I began looking for another bike. This time a '94 FLSTC,
"Thumper", a salvage bike, it was listed on eBay with no reserve and sure enough I won. It needed a lot of work and lots of new parts. Most of the replacement parts I found on eBay and a couple of things I purchased from the local HD shop. After several months Thumper passed inspection and I was given a salvage title. In '06 the FXR took me to Sturgis and that was a blast. Now, after Sturgis I really had the bug and began looking for another Harley, again eBay supplied me with one.
The last bike I purchased through eBay was my '02 FLSTC "Big Red" got it the day after Christmas '06 I ordered the trailer hitch for it soon afterwards. Since Sturgis was only 7 months away I quickly purchased a touring trailer and had it painted to match "Red". In late July '07 my wife and I took off for Sturgis, me on "Red" and Jackie on her '04 FLSTC (which we also purchased on eBay).