I've been riding about 32 years now having started on little pieces of junk cobbed together in the garage for a precious few minutes of glorious freedom between blow-ups. Dad was very tolerant if not very supportive, Mom, I think, understood (she still wants a Vespa).
At present I've a very good Morini 500 Sport and a Y2K Jackal. I'll probably aquire a spine frame soon, most likely a LeMans, when the Jackal will retire to sidecar duty since the kids want to ride along.
I've been called a wasteful over-maintainer, but I enjoy trouble free motoring much more than roadside repairs, especially with my 190 mile commute and a couple of 600 mile trips each summer. And it's a hoot to see how shocked people are when they see the milage on my odometer (almost 50,000 on the 'Guzzi) and it looks and sounds like it has a quarter of that.
I've briefly roadraced a car but have never been tempted to do a track day on a bike. Maybe I've missed something, but I don't think so. Motorcycles to me represent honest machinery in a very pure form and maybe just a little bit of the freedom I was looking for back in dad's garage in Apalachin, NY with a borrowed wrench in my hands on a fine summer day in 1971.