‘Outlaw’ Bike Rider, 73, Tools Along in White Clothes to Let Everyone Know He’s Coming

Picture diminutive Angelo Posito of Laguna Hills, all decked out in white motorcycle clothes, tooling down the highway on his 500 CXB Honda enjoying the rush of the wind and the great outdoors. Never-you-mind that he’s 73 years old and bought his first motorcycle when he was 65.

“My five kids think I’m nuts and too old to ride a motorcycle,” said Posito, who lives in Leisure World and has logged 60,000 miles on his $6,000 cycle without an accident. “My wife (Barbara) thinks I’m crazy too, but she prays a lot for me.”

Posito is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and his wife stands 6 feet, 2 inches.

Said his wife: “I get worried when he’s late, but he truly enjoys his little rides.”

Those “little” rides oftentimes stretch 300 miles and sometimes Posito and companion Donald C. Smith, 70--”He’s just a kid,” notes Posito--camp out in state parks for the night. “I find a table to put my sleeping bag on and sleep that way,” said Posito. “I don’t like bugs as sleeping companions.”

And while he enjoys the outdoors, “When it comes to food, I eat in restaurants. I don’t cook.” Before he started riding a motorcycle, “I never camped out in my life.”

Whizzing along on a motorcycle is a 60-year dream for Posito who remembers his father’s adventures aboard one. “I guess I’ve wanted to ride a motorcycle since I’ve been little,” he said, “and now that life is passing me pretty fast it seemed about time I did what I always wanted to do.”

Posito said it’s his need to be out in nature, the sense of freedom and a feeling that “I’m the boss of my own destiny” that puts him in the driver’s seat. “I’m the big cheese when I’m on the bike. I guess you could call me an outlaw bike rider because I really don’t like to ride in a big group.”

Posito knows the dangers of bike riding and contends he always drive defensively. When planning a ride, usually twice a week, the route is mapped out to keep them from getting lost. Smith rides the point and Posito follows 100 feet back.

“Look we’re no fools. We know the rules and the dangers of the road,” said Posito. “That’s why I’m always decked out in white. I’m what you would call conspicuous.”

A Laguna Beach marketing executive decided one day he wanted to spend his life flying helicopters so he took lessons and became a pilot. He applied for a commercial license and was crushed when he flunked the vision test.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires 20/20 corrected vison with no worse than 20/100 uncorrected vision. The executive had 20/400 uncorrected vision. But by chance he read about the success people were having with a process called radial keratotomy surgery to correct nearsightedness so he decided to have a go at it. He later passed FAA vision requirements and is now a busy helicopter pilot.

His dream was like another flyer.

The executive’s name is Orville Wright, 38.

The 1986 Miss Brea-Fullerton Pageant this year was open competition, which means anyone could enter. The winner was Susan Rene Jeske, 24.

She lives in Sherman Oaks, about 50 miles from Brea-Fullerton.

Ever wonder how much money people toss in a wishing well?

Paula Neisen of Anaheim, a spokesperson for the Anaheim Hilton & Towers, said $1,818.32 was recovered when the hotel emptied the lobby wishing pond after a year.

“It took the bank two full days just to count and clean the coins so they could be put back into circulation,” said Neisen. The money was donated to Orangewood Home for abused and abandoned children.

Neisen did not have an individual breakdown of the coins, but together they weighed 617 pounds.

Dennis Bock, 38, of Costa Mesa feels that it’s time to end the bickering on what’s really the toughest ultraendurance physical event of them all. Some people think it’s the swim-bike-run triathlon. Think again, because Bock has entered the Tri-Amer-athon.

Get this. Bock, who feels he’s “beyond tough,” is planning to leave Orange County in July for a 3,120-mile cross-country bicycle ride to Atlantic City, then take a 28.5-mile New York Manhattan Island swim and come back for a 146-mile Death Valley to Mt. Whitney run.

This in 28 days, he hopes, and what for?

“Just to do it,” explains Bock an engineer with Northrop Corp. But then again, he plans someday to open a physical fitness shop. “The Tri-Amer-athon would get my name known.”

He’s the only entrant.

Acknowledgments--Ellen Gould, 34, of Westminster, who doctors predicted would never walk or talk again after a drunken motorist changed her life in 1978, was named Goodwill Industries Achiever of the Year. Gould is virtually independent, having learned to walk with a support and is regaining her speech.