You’ve heard the old cliché that age is just a number, but Bob Osborne of Waxahachie proves that with a little passion the years truly can’t hold you back.
These days he’s known by some in town as the Motorcycle Man and is still the go-to guy to get repairs on a bike or to get just about anything else with a motor up and running.
That’s definitely not the reputation many 92-year-old's can claim, but Osborne’s no average nonagenarian.
His father was a sailor during World War I, so in his teens Osborne followed in step and joined the Navy during World War II.
In 1943 he left San Francisco on the U.S.S. Chester and began fighting with the war effort in the Pacific.
In his collection of memorabilia Osborne still has handwritten notes he put on the tags of gun powder bags, detailing bombardments in Saipan, the battle of Iwo Jima, and D-Day in the Pacific.
“We lost some boys there out in the harbor,” Osborne said recalling some of the fighting and close calls he experienced through the war.
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Upon returning to the US, Osborne married his wife of 62 years. The couple had multiple children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren before her death just a few years ago.
Their home on the outskirts of Waxahachie is filled with pictures from their happy years, and many of those memories feature a common theme: a motorcycle.
"All the boys that was coming back, they all got Army surplus little Harley 45's,” Osborne said. “They was all buying them so I had to have one too."
The war-time sailor became a road warrior.
Over the years he learned to not only ride, but to tune up, fix and bring once-dead motorcycles back to life.
It's a lifestyle he simply never quit.
In his yard you’ll find the workshop that Osborne personally built and wired himself is overflowing with parts, tools, and enough projects to fill decades.
His most recent addition, a covered outdoor work space he built a few years ago and plans to wire before his 93rd birthday, is filled with several motorcycles he’s working on for people.
That’s just his home work space.
Osborne still works a few days a week out of The Shop in downtown Waxahachie where he helps get riders back on the road; many making him their first stop for help.
Osborne said he doesn’t take much in the way of pay these days, maybe a free lunch here or there, but the work and the love of doing the jobs is his pay.
Osborne still attends reunions with his crew from the Chester every year, though he said their numbers have dwindled from dozens to just three that are still mobile enough to make it each year.
Even after falls, broken bones, and the aches of age though, Osborne said many tell him they’d never guess he was nearing the century mark as he keeps on moving and working as he has his entire life.
His secret, well, Osborn said maybe the good Lord’s just been pleased with him or maybe the work keeps him young, but he said at this point he plans to keep going; no quit in sight.
“I hope to make 100,” he said with a smirk.
