Topic: Here's My First Experience With Hondas, What Was Your's?

[bill440cars]

        My 66' CB72 Hawk was the first Honda that I had and the story goes on from there. Let's hear YOUR story! BTW, This was in 1968. I've changed just a bit.

         

[mattcb350f]

 I'm a young feller' 25 yrs old. My first Honda was a 81' XL80S. My older brother got it going for me when I was about 8 or 10 years old and I carried on from there. I put around 8000 kms on that little bike (Speedo never stoped working) riding around our family farm and I still have it. I take it out now and agian but she won't fly like she use to with my big rump on it
 Cheers, Matt

[medic09]

Bill, that photo is great!  Did that come from your folks' house?

Well, I didn't own my own bike till last year, when I got my K8.  The first Honda that I rode pretty frequently was back around '74 or '75 as best as I can remember.  My school friend James Didier had a little CB100.  It was the first real bike I learned to ride.  It amazes me now that we sometimes rode around town two-up on that thing!

[Sam Green Racing]

My first Honda was a Monkey bike in 1963.

My second was a C95 in 1965, a 154cc twin. I had it on the road for just over a year then started sprinting it. I still race it 42 years on.

In 1969 I bought a P50 moped, the one with the engine in the back wheel. I traded it in 1970 for a SS50. I also built from second hand parts a C114 engined C100 step through. I had some fun on that one. Everybody had them, and were shocked when I passed them and changed up another gear, most didn't notice it had a clutch leaver on the left bar.

About 9 years ago I bought My RS125 GP bike, a year later my VFR400R and a year after that my MVX250F a V3 stroker.

Amen

Sam.

[ofreen]

My first ride on a Honda was on a friend's Honda 50 Cub.  The next year I had my own bike, an S90.  When I was 15, my dad started letting me ride his Harleys.  Had my own Harley for a while, and some Suzukis and Yamaha, but I've always had a Honda around, sometimes several.

[okie]

1964 305 Dream.  With the pipes and knobby tire on back, can you guess that I really wanted a 305 Scrambler?  I got this bike in 1965 and the picture was taken when I was home on leave from the Army in 1967. 

Bill, that looks like military post stuff in the background.  Where was it?

[DarkRider]

First honda i ever rode was also the first motorcycle i ever rode. It was when i was about 8 and it was on a family friends farm...i know it was a small lil honda maybe about 80 or 100 cc...cant really remember the bike..may have been a CB even...i do recall it was a street style bike..

[gerhed]

Bill,

You scooped me!
Your bike is quite a bit farther up the scale from
my '65 CB160 which I bought new ($580) from a hardware store in Stamford, Conn.
They just had this one and it was in the window.
They must have been the local dealer ?
Don't know who the brave young lady is (was) ?

[SD750F]

My first Honda was a 1981 CX500 with a fairing and crash bars. I rode it in Phoenix Arizona when I was going to school and I sold it after the forth time I had a snow bird make a left hand turn in front of me and I had to lay the bike down to miss being smacked! The bars looked like hell but better them than my legs! 

I really liked the shaft drive. clean and quite.

Scott

[bill440cars]

       To answer medic & okie, no that wasn't my Dad's house. That was by my barracks at Misawa AFB, in Japan. I bought the cb72 250 Hawk for about 9,000 yen (which, back then in 1968 was $250) In the States, it would have been about twice as much. I had actually figured on getting a Yamaha (sorry guys) but my Grandfather told me that a Honda would be a better choice (imagine that) and I started looking for a 305 Super Hawk and the best I could do was this 250 Hawk. Didn't take much for me to get over not getting a Super Hawk (one ride ). I wish I had pictures of it AFTER I worked on it!  I swapped out the gauges and headlight for the new (then) CB350 pieces, painted it (the gas tank & fenders) a pretty metallic blue, had the side covers chromed, warmed the motor up a bit and put on a set of megaphones. When I got through, I could take on a 305, but not the 450s!

          BTW okie, good eye on noting that it was a military background.

           Phil, Sorry bout beating you to it man. Every dog has his day, even me (once in a great while)!

           This thread is bringing out some interesting stuff as I had hoped it would. Let's see how long we can keep it going, shall we?  

                                   Later on, Bill

[eldar]

I first bombed around on a honda trail 70. The handle bars were really close together and I had no front brake! I beat the crap out of that thing! It just kept going no matter what! It was probably a 71 model to 76. I cant remember for sure.

[medic09]

These photos are great.  You guys must be more GHOF than me, I only hit legal driving age in '73.  'Course, few of us worried about driving legally...

Phil, you lived in Stamford?  Was the hardware store on High Ridge Rd?  That's the area I grew up in.

The very first Hondas I rode were also a Trail 50 and a Trail 70; but I didn't ride pretty regularly till my buddy got his CB100 and let me learn on it.

[dusterdude]

1972 cl350 in 1982.

[nickjtc]

It was 1972. I was pootling around on a 50cc Maxi Puch moped and had just dropped out of school to start work as an apprentice dispensing optician. I had to be more mobile, but on $19 a week I couldn't afford a car. So Dad agreed to co-sign on a loan and I went motorcycle shopping.

Because my best friend had a 250 Honda, that was the brand I decided to look at. If he had been on a Yamaha I would probably ended up on one of those! Anyhoo I went to the dealer and looked at what I could afford to make payments on, and ended up with a brand new 1972 CB175 in the gorgeous cherry red colour. That's where the relationship with Honda started.

Over the years I have had a 250 G5, a XL125, a VFR800 and now the CB650. Great bikes, all, with lots of memories.

And we enjoy Honda cars too....the missis has a '98 CRV.

[HITMAN]

First bike for me would have been in 1978, when my dad (an avid motorcyclist) told me to get into the truck and off we went.  After a 20min drive we were standin in an old barn looking at a very dusty bike laying on it's side in a corner, he says "perfect".  A 1960 Honda 160 (twin), I am still unclear what exact model it was to this day but I was the coolest kid on the block at 10 years old and a street bike (small town law didn't care at all then).  It ran and ran for ever, although I  had many other brands, I ALWAYS had and will have a honda!

I miss that bike and if I could ever find out what it exacly was I would find another one, until then, I will drown my sorrows with a garage full of Honda's.

[gerhed]

Phil, you lived in Stamford?  Was the hardware store on High Ridge Rd?  That's the area I grew up in.

Medic,

I actually lived in Darien, but passed through Stamford often on my
way to Port Chester, N.Y.=as you could drink at 18 down there.

The hardware store could have been on High Ridge Rd--South side of the street.
Or on the left as you headed up the hill.

Phil

[cpoulton]

1972 Honda SL100.  Bought it in 1973 to ride to and from work and school.  When I think about all the places I went with that little 100 it makes me wonder what I was thinking!  I thought nothing about riding on the interstate around town fire trails in the mountains etc...  Shoot, my family would still be looking for me if anything had happened to me up in the mountains.  ...ahhh the things we did when we were young and invincable.  I think I paid 300.00 bucks for it in 1973 - bought it used from an old guy who put 200 miles on it riding it around his yard.  Then it rained for 3 weeks solid the day I got it licensed.  Sold it for 250.00 buckes 3 years later.   ...I should have kept it.

Chris

1974 cb750 K4
1999 Yamaha Road Star (the blue and white ones have more torque)

[Chris Schneiter]

A kid down the street had a Cub 50, it was about 1964..I was 10... I thought that thing was about the coolest thing I ever saw...it was just about silent, and all the plastic seemed so clean.. I really went for the "nicest people" ads.. then when I was about 11, I rode a (I think) 160, or maybe even a Benly.. I remember all the plastic (again) and the square downtubes.. again, it was very civilized... Then I got my own minibike, but traded often with a friend with a 50 minitrail... again, Honda made all other bikes sound crude.
It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I got my K6.

[medic09]

Phil, you lived in Stamford?  Was the hardware store on High Ridge Rd?  That's the area I grew up in.

Medic,

I actually lived in Darien, but passed through Stamford often on my
way to Port Chester, N.Y.=as you could drink at 18 down there.

The hardware store could have been on High Ridge Rd--South side of the street.
Or on the left as you headed up the hill.

Phil

So we were neighbours.  And went to Port Chester for the same reasons every other teenager in our area did...

[333]

A neighbor got a Trail 70 and Z50 for Christmas in '69.  We tore up there corner lot lawn and by spring ventured out on the streets.  Around '94 I was working a dealer parts counter across from a bulletin board.  A customer asked for a thumbtack for a card.  I looked at the card and refused his request and said I would put it on the board if my wife said no.  It was a '69 Trail 70 the same color as the one way back when.  I still have it today.

[bwaller]

1966 S65 brand spankin new, thanks Dad!! Still have it.

[mcpuffett]

My first encounter with a Honda would have been around 75/76 when i used to ride my mates Honda SS50 moped illegally on the road  , we used to borrow his licence & if we got pulled by the police we had memorised his name/ address / DOB/etc etc  , cant remember if it was a 5 speed box or 4 ? but it was cool to ride and it would do 50 mph  , first bike i bought for my 2 sons to learn on was a 90cc Honda cub  , cheers mick.

[pae]

May 1980, just turned 17, Honda SL125 which had been bored to 140cc  - wow    

(I think it used a piston from a 'big bore kit' for the CB500 or 550 or something like that, from Dixon Racing in Godalming, Surrey - remember them any UK riders?)

Great bike, used it for getting to work, green lanes at weekends and the occasional enduro  - which proved to ultimately be the undoing of it...

regards, Phil

[mark]

1977-78... somewhere around there. I found a well-used CT70 at a yard sale for the princely sum of $20 (almost like a real bike - 4 speed with a clutch). Talked him down to $15 and dragged it home. Fixed the leaky carb and the punctured tube and terrorized the neighborhood for a couple of summers. Had almost no compression left when I sold it - kinda surprised that it still ran at all. Spent the $75 that I got for it on some pieces to get the MT125 going - YEEHAW!!

Happy trails.

[Sam Green Racing]

May 1980, just turned 17, Honda SL125 which had been bored to 140cc  - wow    

(I think it used a piston from a 'big bore kit' for the CB500 or 550 or something like that, from Dixon Racing in Godalming, Surrey - remember them any UK riders?)

Great bike, used it for getting to work, green lanes at weekends and the occasional enduro  - which proved to ultimately be the undoing of it...

regards, Phil

Phil, what are we remembering, the big bore kit or Dixon Racing ?

While I am in a daft mood I would like to add.....I noticed in your signature the clubs you belong to.

I'm glad you're not a member of the Tunbridge Wells Angling Team.

Sam.