The Rider

Joe Melchionda
Expert #330
Can-Am 125/250 Grand Prix (FUSA/RACE)
U.S. Grand Prix Riders Union (FUSA/CCS/FIM)
Loudon Road Race Series (CCS)
U.S. Classic Racers Association
Vintage Road Racing Series

My behavioral problems became apparent during the summer of 1992 in Ames, Iowa.   The cause was a 1975 Honda CB360T that found it's way into my possession.   After a summer of beating it into the ground, I moved back home and a friend gave me a 1986 Honda V65 Magna.   A couple years of pushing my eyeballs to the back of my skull on a warp-speed cruiser led me to a 1996 Ducati Monster 900.  This bike was a wheelie/stoppie machine, and had the added bonus of being great fun on track days!  Sometime during 1997 I became an MSF instructor (those 2 things probably don't go together, do they?).  In April of 2000, il Mostro was sold off and a 1993 Ducati 888 SPO arrived.  The fun-o-meter went off the scale!  The 1996 Honda rs125 showed up around November 2000, and was put to use the following April for the first 2001 LRRS races.   Here's where I had to extract glass shards from my face as the fun-o-meter blew itself up.  The newest addition to the racing family now includes this '96 B-kitted Yamaha TZ 250.   Among the toys also sits a 1993 Aprilia Extrema (rs125) which I bought, disassembled and rebuilt from the ground up (here's the before pic), a 2002 Honda CR 250 dirtbike, a 2002 Honda XR100, a 1976 Honda Z50, and one of those annoying 47cc pocket bikes!   The overcrowded Fat Baby storeroom has also been a waypoint for a variety of other bikes, including a 2001 Aprilia rs50, a 2001 Suzuki RM125, a 197x Triumph Daytona 500, a 1970 Ducati 450 r/t, a 1965 Ducati 250 Monza and a 1969 Ducati 250 Monza. 

Move it, or move it over!