September 2024 - Bill and Janine Ganger

Fast Facts:

MSF Instructor
Family of riders
Wearing Aerostich since the 90s

Where are you from/where do you currently live?
Both Janine and I were born and raised in Central Ohio. Spent a few years on the east coast of Florida. Then in 2016 an opportunity moved us to Minneapolis, MN where we currently live. In the not-too-distant future, we would like to retire in Utah, where our oldest son is stationed in the USAF. Utah has everything we love to do in one place; skiing in the winter, camping and hiking some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the USA and riding curvy roads for miles and miles.

How long have you been married?
Married for 36, Together for 39 years!

How did you meet?
I was a cook and she was a waitress at Rocky’s Cafe when we were in college at Ohio State University.

Why did you first start to ride?
The first bike I owned my dad bought for me when I was 12yrs old. He made me promise to be better at being an honest boy and get good grades in school, and stay away from drugs (it was the 70’s), I hope I did him proud. That bike was a '74 Yamaha MX100 dirt bike. I used to ride at a small oval track some older kids built behind a warehouse near the railroad tracks by our house in Columbus Ohio. Some other friends had motorcycles too and we used to all trade off with each other, one had a Honda 50 and another with a Kawasaki KX125, and My MX100, it didn’t matter what we were on, man we had fun for days back then.

In the late ‘80s, Janine and I were living in Melbourne, Florida for a few years as a newly married couple and I was working up at the Kennedy Space Center. The 60-mile trip to the Cape twice a day was killing my car, so in the interest of economy (yea, that was a good excuse, wasn’t it!) I came home one day with a 1989 Yamaha Radian 600 and two helmets.

Janine said, "What’s that second helmet for? You’ll never get me on that thing". Well, it seems a friend of hers in college took her for a wild ride trying to impress her and scared the crap out of her and nearly ruined my chances of needing that second helmet! I am a patient man and after a while, convinced her to take a very brief ride to get an ice cream cone nearby, then a few weeks later to a local festival, eventually she started enjoying the mostly easy riding pace I was taking and eventually we were riding all over Florida two up on that little Radian 600!

That was the very beginning of a decade of riding in the 90’s with an amazing group of friends and growing into 15,000 - 20,000 miles a year for each of us.

First motorcycle?
My dad got me the Yamaha MX 100 in 1976 when I was 12yrs old, then a few years later I bought a ’78 Kawasaki KE250 which was street legal, but really my first street bike was the 89 Yamaha Radian 600. After that came the Kawasaki Concours, the Honda VFR 750 then eventually a ’98 VFR 800.

Janine started on a 88 Honda Hawk 650, rode that for a little over a year, then found a beautiful white 93 VFR 750 and rode that for about a year, and then WON a '98 Honda VFR 800 on a raffle ticket we bought from the Honda Sport Touring Association.

Current motorcycle(s)?
Bill rides a 2019 Honda Africa Twin DCT
Janine rides a 2021 Honda NC750X DCT
We both ride a 89 Honda VFR 800 that we found this year and bought for sentimental reasons.

What makes you most excited about motorcycling?
Mostly we love riding because we can do it together, and we both love the intricacies of the sport. The riding skills challenge is fun for both of us, but it is way more than that. We get so excited packing for a trip and making sure we have everything dialed in. We love having good gear and all the right gadgets that make riding a pleasure.

Another reason we are so excited to be back in the saddle again is we love hooking up old riding friends on the road, going to a rally and seeing people people we haven’t seen in decades. It’s also exciting meeting new friends out on the road, it really is a brotherhood (and sisterhood) of riders that truly care about each other. Riding with new friends and seeing new places we have never been to, what an amazing thing to do and at 60+ years old we feel like the adventure is just getting started again, we have so much yet to see… before its too late!

How did you first learn about Aerostich?
When we were both on our own bikes in the mid-90s, our first riding gear was cheap Cordura suits we bought from a local dealer. Then Janine low-sided her beautiful White VFR 750 and did the Superman slide about 60’ across the pavement. Man, that cheap Cordura suit got shredded! It scared us and made us think about our choices in riding appeal.

I had seen the ads for an Aerostich suit in various Motorcycle Magazines in the mid-90s and thought it was likely the best type of suit for sports touring, where leathers were just wrong for what we wanted. Janine had some insurance money from the VFR crash and used that to purchase her own two-piece Roadcrafter, I ordered a one-piece Roadcrafter, and we were so much happier being surrounded by a high-quality riding suit that was so well thought out. The Areostich had tons of pockets, padding was great and in the right places, heavyweight material, waterproof, amazing air flow on hot days, and we felt so lucky to have them!

As a teaching tool, I took Janine’s shredded cheap jacket from her VFR crash to many of my Motorcycle Safety Classes and showed the students the difference between a cheap suit and the quality of a well-made and well-thought-out riding suit like the Aerostich.

Tell us about your history with Aerostich gear.
We bought our first Roadcrafters in the late 90’s, mine was a red one-piece suit with black accents, and hers was a gray two-piece with red accents.

“Aren’t you hot in that?” is the most common question. The answer is “Yes! When I am stopped and stuck talking to you, it gets hot. But when I am moving, even a little bit, it’s got great airflow, and I am rarely ever too hot.” Then our answer to them as we walk out the door is, “I’d rather sweat than bleed!”

Now, in Minneapolis, just a couple of years ago, when we sold our boat and got the adventure bikes, we pulled a dusty storage tote down from the attic and lifted two well-used Aerostich Roadcrafters out of that tote. Other than our waistline and girth expanding (Janine said the suits must have shrunk in storage), the suits still fit pretty well and were still in great shape - faded a bit from miles in the sunshine, but SOLID. Putting on our old suites was like getting hug from an old friend. It felt so good and so familiar to be back in our suits and back on bikes. We had some learning to do for sure, but we were back and being well protected just felt right.

Since we were living in Minnesota and Aerostich was just up the road in Duluth we HAD to make the pilgrimage. I remember walking into the shop there for the first time and I was actually emotional. I told one of the workers that I really felt like I needed to hug somebody there for keeping me safe for so many years and so many miles! I am guessing I’m not the only person to feel that way. Your gear is such a personal thing to have, and the Aerostich is so well thought out and so well built you will spend decades and tens thousands of miles with that suit on. I love the people at Aerostich and try to go up there at least once a year.

Tell us about riding together as a married couple and as a family.
They say that communication is the key to a long-lasting relationship. Well, we believe in that wholeheartedly! Currently we are using Cardo Bluetooth units and love having the freedom of speaking to each other when we ride. In many cases we actually talk more while riding than if we are in a vehicle sitting next to each other, it’s a whole vibe thing I think.

Now that my 22-year-old son AJ is riding with us on his 2004 Suzuki DRZ40, I handed him my mid-90s Aerostich Roadcrafter with about 100,000 miles on it as soon as he showed interest. He loves it!

Have you taken any favorite roads together?
Our Ohio home state offers some of the best roads in America. The landscape cannot compare to California or Montana, but the condition of pavement and density of curvy roads make Southeastern Ohio one of the best places to ride.

Now that we are closer to the western states, we have Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and everything past that to explore in this next season of our lives. In July we did a nearly 2000-mile-long weekend to Wyoming and Montana and even rode a stretch of the Wyoming Back Country Discovery Route. At 60 years old, we feel like we are back where we belong on two wheels rolling across the landscape of the most amazing country on the planet.

Favorite Aerostich gear?
For me my one-piece Roadcrafter is my go-to for most riding conditions we encounter. In colder weather I like my Darien jacket and pants because I can layer fleece and an Unobtanium electric vest under the jacket. The Darien pants are plenty warm on their own.

Janine loves her Roadcrafter two-piece and ordered it just big enough to get a fleece or electric vest inside when it gets colder outside. For both of us, we feel naked when we try riding with just a sport riding jacket. In cold or hot weather our Aerostich suits keep us safe and comfortable for what seems to be unlimited miles and decades of service.

Aerostich-related or Aerostich-specific stories?
An interesting story involved my friend Mike Solace. Mike was in a pretty bad accident in Tennessee on his own Honda VFR 800. He was in a corner fouled by fuel oil and pea gravel at speed and low-sided into a guard rail that nearly broke the bike in half. He slid a good bit on his back and followed the bike into the guardrail, and hit it hard.

When the police came to file the accident report, the officer asked what hospital the rider was taken to. Mike was standing there in shorts, a tee-shirt, and riding boots. He said, “I’m the rider,” and the officer was shocked to see Mike completely unscathed. Mike held up his Aerostich Roadcrafter, and the officer was blown away by the results of the protection. He even made Mike put it on for him so he could see how it worked. The suit worked so well that Mike rode in that same suit for quite a few more years, and still rides in an Aerostich today!