I guess I owe all this motorcycle craziness to my father, Andrew Early, and a man named Bob Leppan, the world's fastest Triumph rider............
I loved car racing and my father allowed me to start racing karts in my early teens. Although he was a great golfer and he competed successfully in many amateur tournaments, he saw that chasing a white ball around was not going to cut it for his somewhat rebellious son. He gave up many weekends for me.
In my senior year of high school a friend that we had made through karting recommended me for my first job- working at Triumph-Detroit (T-D). T-D was the largest motorcycle dealer by sales volume in the world. It was also the home of what at the time was the world's fastest motorcycle.
I knew nothing of motorcycles. I wanted to race cars. I started working part time as a general laborer doing all the jobs that teenagers do, including walking and cleaning up after the dog. T-D also sold Suzuki as the Jap motorcycle craze was just beginning. One of my jobs was taking the bikes to the nearby car wash. Tired of pushing them, I asked if it was OK if I rode them. My boss asked if I knew how to ride and of course I said "sure!" I then had one of the mechanics take me out back and teach me how.
I worked my way up in the dealership and was doing some new bike assembly and assisting the mechanics. Of course before a new bike could be sold it had to be test driven. I "test drove" about 15 bikes a day. Soon I convinced the mechanics that they were losing money every time they rode a bike to diagnose it, and again, when they rode it to test the repair. Soon I was a full time "test driver". "Hey Dave, this motorcycle has a wobble above 80mph, go check it out for me!" The sales staff and Bob were also tired of teaching new riders and giving demo rides. That also became part of my job description. Some crazy rides were had!
Through a number of lucky events Bob Leppan decided I had some natural talent (his words, not mine). One day we went to Baltimore, MD which was the headquarters of the east coast Triumph distributor, Butler & Smith. It was also the home of Gary Nixon the current A.M.A. National Champion. We went to Gary's house and he suggested we go trail riding. At that time a "trail bike" meant a Triumph Tiger TR6C, 650cc. NEVER having done this before Gary just told, " We are both riding the same motorcycles, there's no reason yours can't do the same things as mine". Logical I guess. So off I went into the trails following the current A.M.A National Champion and the world's fastest motorcyclist. Great stuff for an 18 year old.
Through the years I left Triumph and later had managerial positions with Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki before being accepted in 1977 by the Detroit Police Department (oh yeah, had to do a stint with the U.S.Marines also).
I had some great adventures and experiences along the way. The ironic thing is I never once owned a motorcycle until I bought a touring bike in 1985, Kawasaki KZ1000. I wanted to race cars!!!!!!!
