Suzuki Vicki's GSXR Page

Hello everyone, and thanks for visiting my page on my motorcycles. I first started riding in the summer of 1993 and learned on a Kawasaki Ninja 250. In 1994, I graduated up to a purple and black 1993 GSXR-750 that I named "Penelope", also known as "The Purple Piranha". I rode this bike for many years and had a LOT of great times, but she just couldn't survive all the crashes, especially when she was hit with the neighbor's SUV.




After losing Penelope, I didn't own a bike for a while. I went a couple of years without a bike, often borrowing friend's bikes, until I bought the "Silver Streak". The "Silver Streak" was bought from a good friend and riding buddy that I've had for many years. The bike originally was a really neat color combination of silver with pink graphics and wheels, but Larry felt it looked to "girly" and promptly removed the decals and painted the rims black shortly after getting it home. You can see the way I got the bike above with me sitting on it. It was solid silver. Terry watched eBay for months and eventually found another set of original plastics. Over the winter, we are hoping to get the rims powder coated pink. LOL





I rode the bike for a couple of months, and on June 22, 2003, I had the unfortunate luck to have a head-on collision with a stupid, teenage girl who was COMPLETELY on my side of the road, in a blind curve. I was riding a friend's 1993 GSXR-1100 because the "Silver Streak" needed new tires. The "Great White" met a miserable death, the Oldsmobile that the girl was driving was totaled, and I was severely injured. The bike really didn't look that bad for what it had been through. As for me, I won't go into much detail, but my pelvis/left hip was shattered, femur was broken, tibia and fibula crushed at the ankle, and the ankle itself was shattered. Due to the extensive damage to my ankle, doctors talked about amputating my left foot twice. Almost three years later, my left foot is still paralyzed, but I finally got rid of the crutches and cane. I still have a fairly noticeable limp, though, and I am just about constantly in pain of one degree or another.




The "Silver Streak" was put into storage for nearly three years, during this time, I got married, gave birth to our daughter, and had several surguries, including a total hip replacement in Dec of 2005. Once the bike was at the house, we had to modify it a little to compensate for my left foot being paralyzed. This next picture shows the left side of the bike, and you can see the electric shifter we installed that allows up and down shifting with the press of a button. It took several months to find a shifter that will do both, as most electric and air shifters only go in one direction because they are mainly used in drag racing.





The Pingel electric shifter allows me to make up and down shifts with a push of the button. We found the left clip-on to be the best place for the button control, and, since installation kits are not available for this bike, we had to fabricate a bracket and shifter extension. The kits come with an engine kill, so you only need to use the clutch when taking off or stopping. I felt that it was important for street riding to be able to have control over the clutch, and we found one that didn't have the engine kill feature. After 4000 miles, an electrical connector fried, but Pingel sent us another one to repair it. During this down time, Terry redid the shifter bracket with steel from Wade's business, Specialty Steels, in Greenville, SC, and the bracket was cut out by Rick at Motorcycle Parts Plus in Mauldin (Thanks, guys!).




I rode the bike for the first time since my accident on March 17, 2006!!! Terry got home from work, the doctor had just lifted some of my restrictions from the hip replacement surgury, and there was some daylight left. I was very nervous at first, but by the time I got about a quarter of a mile from the house, things just started to click. I was grinning from ear to ear inside my helmet. Terry was with me riding his ST2, so, about a mile from the house, I pulled over and asked him where he wanted to go. He told just me to lead, and he would follow, so......we rode a little over 30 miles before making it home, just before the sun went down.....I'm hoping to be able to ride this bike for a good long time to come.....My new motto: "Get Your Oldsmobile Outta My Damn Way!"

We've been getting chances to ride, at least, one weekend a month. I've ridden over 3000 miles in the first three months since getting back on the bike. Things are going pretty well with it, and the shifter has been working wonderfully for me, except for the little connector issue. Terry and I have been taking weekend-long bike trips to the mountains of northern Georgia and western North Carolina. I've really enjoyed getting back on the bike and am always anxious for my next bike ride. Here are a couple more pictures, and, hopefully soon, I'll have an action picture or two to add.














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