Topic: What started you on the world of the motorcycle?

[ElCheapo]

Was it a movie, an icon, whatever?

Here is my blurb form the Knievel post-earlier........................

The fact is for many of us we remember the days of owning the Evel Knievel cycle toy and terrorizing the house and neighborhood with it.   I remember when Evel Knievel was my idol.   I would take that little bike and launch it just about anywhere. We would always look for the bigger better stunt. #$%* I think I sent it down the steepest hill in town at a ramp for our bikes. The damn thing got like 10 feet of air and God only knows How far it really went.   Many times we could actually get the toy to land the jump! Needless to say, poor my Evel Knievel was beat on pretty bad after we were done. His apparent craziness inspired a generation of people. I remember as a kid, a real motorcycle was the only thing I wanted. For many years I put playing cards on the fork of my bike so it would sound "motor-like".  I put the motorcycle on my christmas list for 5 years until I figured I had to go out and get it myself when I bought a 75 Yamaha 175 form the guy down the street. From there is was a sealed fate. 

I remember a time pushing a junk bike back to home from a mile away in hopes of getting her to run. She never did.

Just who inspired you to this craziness?

[6pkrunner]

Bought a 150 Honda when I was 14 years old. Guy hit a bus with it and scared himself chitless. I got it for the vast sum of $30. Used it as a trail bike when some buddies had 50s and 90s as trail bikes. Bought a CB77 in 1967, black bomber in 1968, a K0 in 1971 and the first new to me K3 in 1973. Many in there and after that but that's a highlight recap. CBX in 1979 would be the next highpoint I guess.

[ElCheapo]

For reference the Launching days of Evel for me were the birth of the "Table Top" stunt as you jumped. We found it by accident on a 5% grade on our bikes. 

[bwaller]

Not sure how I caught the bug, but my old man helped me but an S65 in 1966. I was crazy for Nortons early on. A high school teacher/ guidance councellor who was himself a motorcycle enthusiast knew I leaned that way and it was he that suggested I take a motorcycle mechanics course because my future must have looked bleak otherwise! I worked in a race oriented shop during the boom of Honda sohc 4 sales and it was a great period to be involved. I've never owned any other street bike.
 My kid followed in my footsteps only he rides newer sportbikes so it's great for me, I get to take his scoot out when my back is up to it!

[heffay]

Plain and simple... it's all dad's fault.   

thanks pop!

I was always riding on the back of his bikes and when it was time for me to learn to ride we took a 73 suzuki tc125 that had been in gramps barn for 15 years and got it running.  from there it was all downhill... well, i guess there were some uphills too and a lot of twisties   

[Gordon]

Same as Heffay!  I was hanging onto my dad on his various motorcycles from the time I was about 5.  That was his main vehicle, so whenever he picked me up from somewhere, it was on the bike.  I especially loved it when he would meet me at school.  I got to ride off on a motorcycle in front of all the other kids in their station wagons!

[scunny]

playing card on the fork same as ElCheapo, one day dad comes home with a 50cc yamaha step thru to use for getting to work... Two days later I had that sucker stripped of it's plastic bits, a 21inch HD front wheel fitted, seat and fuel tank removed, an old tin was strapped to the frame for a racing tank and comfort provided by a bag of rags strapped to the frame. He never got to ride it to work and I've pulled every bike apart since.

[Ted Nomura]

During my junior high school days of summer of 1971, my friend Jeff rode to my house's driveway with his new blue Gemini SST50 mini-bike. He insisted that I kick-start it. Before that, I never sat on a motorbike so I hesistated at first but after I started the bike with just one kick, I was hooked. Now I own nearly 40 motorcycles, including three early Honda Z50s.

[Tim.]

My uncle - circa 1976 - even the right bike, and check out all the custom goodness - raked front end (done right), finned covers, some sort of shaved fins on the cylinders, 16" rear wheel, dual front disks, 4 into 2 exhaust - all on a brand new CB750K with a custom fuscia paint job

Oh, and of course that's me along for the ride.  Helmet, who needs a helmet with all that hair!  My earliest rides were sitting up front on the gas tank.  Shame there isn't a pic of that!

[glendaler]

everyone always says how their dad's enfluenced them. my dad was the type that seen my bikes/sleds as junk. the reason i got started was neighbors that would wheelie by my house on dirtbikes, after which i begged for one and got an 86 XR80 when i was 10 and i've never been without a bike since. it seemed natural that my need for speed should be filled with a street bike once i got my license so off i went looking for a bike and of course i love everything vintage, so i found my 650 and thats where i am now. 

[74cb750]

Seem to remember having to drive my brother home, from the bar on his Triumph 650
a few times....so when I reached 15 I bought my own new Honda steed.

And no, Dad did not approve, at all. He was afraid I would drive like my brother!

[SuperVel]

While you guys were dreaming about Hondas, Kawasakis, Yamahas, Suzukis, BMWs, Triumphs and Harleys, I started out small.  I would have settled for a Riverside which was a 125 or 250cc sold by Montgomery Wards.  I wasn't greedy, anything with wheels and a motor would do.  Years past and finally in 1977, the wife surprised me and asked if I wanted a bike.  Can ya beat that.  Well, I began riding my own scoot soon afterward.  The excitement I had imagined was there and I still feel it even though my ride is down for a major refurbishing.  Soon though, Soon...

Marty

[Rushoid]

For me, it was a lot of little things. My dad converted my sister's bike to look like a motorcycle (for my Christmas present) when I was 6. Evel Knievel, my uncles old Honda (no idea what it was), and the show CHiPs! Oh, how I wanted to ride around with Ponch & John.  Then, when I was 14, my best friend got a Garelli moped. I rode that thing all over the neighborhood...until another friend ran it into a parked car. When I went into the Navy I had a few friends with bikes and I guess that's when I really developed bike lust. But I could never afford one. Always had it on the back burner until last summer when I had the chance to ride a ZX-12. Scared the crap outta me but I had to have a bike. The rest, as they say is history.

[bill440cars]

     I grew up in my Grandfather & my Dad's Indian Motorcycle shop (that's what it started out as) around the Chiefs, Scouts, Arrows, Braves, vertical twin Warriors, Scouts, then the Enfield/ Indians, all the british bikes of back then (50's & 60's) and finally the Parillas, Ducatis and the Jawa/CZ/ESO line of bikes. From the time I could walk, I was doing something with motorcycles (taking them apart so parts could be shelved, riding a 50cc Jawa that my Dad modified to look like a small motorcycle, Building a 58' 125cc Jawa from scratch at the age of 14 and it went on from there. I'm told that I was mechanically oriented from a very early age. I hoped that, when I returned after my 4 yrs active Air Force, I'd be able to work at my Grandfather's motorcycle shop and learn all I could from him and my Dad. That never happened because, while I was stationed in Japan and doing TDY (temp. duty) in Korea, I got word that my Grandfather had died. That kinda took the wind out of my sails for awhile.

                                                 Later on, Bill

[scondon]

 Wish I had a great story about how I caught the bug but the plain and simple truth is economics and the need to get my butt from one place to the other. First it was a skateboard, then a bicycle, then a Moped, and finally, when I was 17, my first car, a '67 caddy for $700. Being 17 I thought that all you had to do was buy the car and the rest was just gas money. Then came mandatory insurance(grossly inflated for young males), Smog certificates and the costs of fixing the vehicle to pass, registration,speeding tickets, parking tickets,vehicle upkeep, tow fees,etc... Not all of us can boast of making $50,000+ yearly or having a nice pension to retire on, for some of us(like me) choices have to be made based strictly on "what can I afford". My first Honda(550/4) cost $250 and $26 to register $64 to insure(liability) and the rest was just gas. I learned to work on it to keep costs down.

 That was over 15 years ago and that bike is long gone. I picked up my first "dead" cb750 5 years ago because I wanted to try my hand at repairing something besides the machinery at the job. Always wanted to take apart an engine and see how it worked. And I found out I really like doing this. Oh, and riding too

[Raul CB750K1]

I was caught just a few years ago. I guess it was the midlife crisis.


Raul

[quietlikeachurch]

   Hmm...I'm jealous of all you guys who had bikes in the family.  I was never interested in them (mostly into old cars) until a guy I used to work with showed up one day on an un-faired '76 GL1000.  It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.  He eventually offered to sell it for $800, but I couldn't scrape up the cash...though thinking back that probably wouldn't have been the best starter bike. 
   A couple years later I befriended the owner of a '76 CB200T who let me ride it around in a parking lot.  Right after I got comfortable with the 200 I plunked down $300 on a '77 750F and $30 for the PO to trailer it to my house.  I was so excited I didn't even check if it kicked over until I got it home...and it had been sitting for twenty years! 
   Of course, being an SOHC/4 it was running within a few weeks and has been my daily driver for the past 4 years with all the repair work done by me.  It's gone through ups and downs, but it has never quit (well, except for one time when the points got wet, and a few times when it ran out of gas ).  The 750 is as interesting as it is reliable, and old-school riders seem downright shocked that I'm 24 and own a '70s Honda instead of a plastic street monster. 
   Old motorcycles have become my greatest interest as well.  Now I'll turn my head away from a cherry '66 GTO to catch a glimpse of that rattly cycle coming up the road!  Just gotta find that job at a resto shop...

-Ian

[Dave Wyatt]

It was a long slow process with various influences.  Dad had a new Duo Glide back in the 50's, but I only remember it from pictures thanks to some jerk in a 55 Ford who punted him and the bike off a bridge.  Dad survived, barely, but the bike was history.  Later there various HD riding aquaintences of dad's who would ride in on old Harleys.  All the time my mother would rag on about bikes being dangerous.  That made me even more interested.  One cousin gave me a ride on his Honda Cub, another let me ride his new Kawasaki 250.  One of dad's friends gave me a ride on his Electra Glide and that was the last straw.  I had to have a bike.  Later my brother-in-law had a series of Kawasakis that left an impression.  It wouldn't be until 1979, at the ripe old age of 24, that I finally bought a bike.  A brand spankin new KZ750 twin with pull back bars and a king/queen seat! 

At the time, Honda was king with the 750, but I like to be different, so I went with the Kawasaki.  Now to be different I ride a Honda, go figure.

[TARKUS512]

When I was just a little #$%*, I was introduced to a new toy. Does anyone recall, a little device that would attach to the frame of a bike "spider bike" of course, called, in my case it was the VaRoom or another one called the ZaZoom?  See http://www.feelingretro.com/view_toy.cfm?id=53 was the only reference I could find for the moment. I'm at work and I can't spend all day on the net, he he

[Dave Wyatt]

When I was just a little #$%*, I was introduced to a new toy. Does anyone recall, a little device that would attach to the frame of a bike "spider bike" of course, called, in my case it was the VaRoom or another one called the ZaZoom?  See http://www.feelingretro.com/view_toy.cfm?id=53 was the only reference I could find for the moment. I'm at work and I can't spend all day on the net, he he

I rode many miles with the Mattell Varoom motor in the frame of my old Sears bicycle.  It looked like a single cylinder engine and had the control, (with a key!) on the handlebars.

[dusterdude]

well lets see,ive always had a hard on for bikes.in my late teens i lusted after the yamaha midnight special.got my first bike,an early 70`s cl350,in 1982.after the corps i still wanted a midnight special,but a friend of my dads talked me into buying a 73 sportster,damn glad he did,then i sold that to my dad and bought my panhead in about 5 boxes.i finally got my 750 in november of 2004 and damn glad i did that too.

[ProTeal55]

Always been into classic/muscle cars, really never into motorcycles.
As I went thru school, most of my older friends had bikes, and I started to gain interest in them.
After working at a high level V-Twin shop for awhile, the damage had allready been done. At one point while I worked their, I had 5 HD's a sportbike crammed in my garage...

I bought the CB to cure the itch I have for motorcycles, while my main love is still for cars, IE the 55 bel-air I have sitting in my garage...I do plan to buy another HD RoadKing to fill the "over the road" bike itch I have been having lately...

[dusterdude]

joe,i know what you mean.i still have the car itch too.

[pablo78cb550]

I was about 10 years old. My family and I were headed north on the NY87 in the family station wagon. We pulled off at a reststop for my brother and sister to use the bathroom. So I'm sitting in the car. And a guy pulls up in a pick up truck. Ok no big deal right?
I look in the back. And there sat the silver/seafoam green 1972 750 Ducati. It was then that I realized I wanted a bike. That only thing that came out of my mouth was "was is that?" my father who apparently had lost a friend on a bike. Said "it's a suicide machine". Oh really? I think to my self. "it's beautiful".
It wasn't until later in life I found out what a cafe racer was, or the rarity of that bike.
But I've got it in me now to keep that feeling of that moment as a 10 year old boy.

[lrutt]

My dad and my Grandpa. They taught me how to ride my Grandpa's 1964 CT200 trail 90 when I was 8 years old. Later on my Grandpa gave me that bike when he bought a 1970 Trail 90.

I sure wish I had the original CT200 yet. I did manage to get my Grandpa's 1970 trail 90 and restore it though after he died. I will never part with that bike. I spent many a mile sitting on that God awful flat metal rack on the back.