I am not really wealthy enough to buy pristine ones or just have them as weekend toys, so they get used year-round, in all weather. 

After quite some time of being completely hopeless with doing my own servicing, I enrolled in a City & Guilds course on Motorcycle maintenance. This has given me the confidence to try and resurrect my CBR myself rather than taking it to a dealer. Unfortunately, I don't seem to get time to finish the job, so it still sits forlornly in bits. 

My FZR is one of the very early SP models, dating back to 1987. Despite being an old bike, it still goes like a goodun. It isn't as fancy as some of the other 400's, but I am very happy with it. I had a minor spill in the wet, damaged an engine casing and smashed the left hand fairing panels to bits. It took a lot of work, but the fairing all went back together beautifully. All I need now is a new paintjob. 

Before I had these two, I had a Honda NS400R. For those of you who haven't heard of these, it was Honda's answer to  Suzuki's all-conquering RG500 in the early eighties. They were VERY expensive/trick bikes at the time, if a little underpowered compared to the RG/RD500's. Unfortunately mine was loads of trouble, I only had it about 18 months and it spent most of that in the garage after it threw its crank. When it was running though, what an ace bike, and totally distinctive. Being a big V3 2-Stroke makes for the most amazing exhaust note, nothing like any other bike. 

Once my CBR is back together, I will probably sell it. While the CBR may be a very competent all-rounder, I can't see me ever using it. My FZR is much sweeter to ride and definitely ten times the fun.