La Cañada Flintridge Outlook Valley Sun
“When the Open Road Comes Calling, Yang Answers”
By Natalie Miranda
July 11, 2025
When Michael Yang was 15 years old, he bought a used 1972 Yamaha LT2 100 motorcycle for $200 that he saved for while working part-time at 7-Eleven as a clerk.
The modest green-tanked and knobby-tired bike transported him to and from school, his job and, on the weekends, to the Santa Cruz mountains in San Jose — this teenager’s oasis to roam free.
Nearly a year later, his beloved motorcycle, one of Yang’s most prized possessions at the time, was stolen off the street outside of his family’s two-bedroom apartment where it was parked overnight. The bike, the biggest purchase of Yang’s youth, was eventually replaced with a car. Yang wasn’t sure he would ever ride on two wheels again. It wasn’t until nearly three decades later that the biker-at-heart would revisit his teenage passion as an adult.
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