Topic: where and/or how did you learn to ride?

[heffay]

i barely remember learning to ride a bicycle... nanny and pappy's back yard... started out by the street, across the sidewalk, thru the yard, between the camper shell and garage, crash!, repeat.

learning to ride a motorcycle was very similar.  12 years old, 1972 suzuki tc125, bigger yard, slip the clutch, wheelie... redo... slip the clutch, slide out on the grass, bust my ass... redo... slip the clutch, thru the trees, round and round in circles for nearly the entire day!!!!!!!     

ok, does anyone have a legitimate time machine because, well, i'd like to have a go at that wheelie again!   

[troppo]

Good days admitted.
I was taught by a mate, he sold me my old cb 250 ran me around the yard on it for a while then said "follow me" bastard took me out on the street and up to a really windy uphill stretch  we knew as "copperload road" and dissapeared at a great rate of knots on his 650 katana (which i bought off him a year or so later)
cheers
troppo

[heffay]

i've purchased many a bike that outran me 

[DarkRider]

Must be a reoccuring trend...seems i may just be buying a buddies CBR 600 F3 later this year...(then i will finally know if the CBR is a good bike for me or not lol) But my first time on a motorcycle was an old honda of unknown type...all i remember of it was it was brown and i think it was a single cyl...and im pretty sure i wasnt shifting it right...unless there was an single cyl that had a clutchless manual trans like the old honda ATC trikes.

[techy5025]

I learned to ride in 1966 on a Honda 305 dream that someone gave me to repay a debt. Just went to a parking lot and got with it. 

Must be a reoccuring trend...seems i may just be buying a buddies CBR 600 F3 later this year...(then i will finally know if the CBR is a good bike for me or not lol)

I love to ride the 600F4I....light, handles well, lots of horses, extremely good brakes  . Having said that, my limit is about an hour on it. Then my back, hands, and ass hurt. The same would be true for any other sport bike....not made for the elderly! 

I like the F4I because it is fuel injected...no more carbs. I think the F3's still had carbs.

Jim

[Demon67]

First bike I learned to ride on was a 1951 500 single Matchless and it took me about 5-6 tries to get it started because I couldn't master the decompressor and the spark advance jesus did that thing kick back, I mangled a pair of desert boots in a week and a pair of flight line boots in about a month. First time I had it out, the little ferrule that spaced out the throttle cable had been lost and the only way you could slow it down was reach over and slide the outer cable back and then take a turn and half on the twist grip to get it going again, any how, I'm out exploring and went into a little housing development on a cul de sac and forgot
to allow for the slow down process so I'm trying to turn and can't slow down so I clamp on the brakes and start my turn and the old Matchbox keeps on digging, so through a ditch and up on this guys freshly seeded lawn by this time I'm going slow enough that I stall it, he's standing there with a look of profound shock and a garden hose in his hand, I tried to apologize whilst fiddling with the cable and trying to start the bike which all of a sudden goes and I pop the clutch and leave an even bigger furrow on my way across the rest of his lawn, he still didn't say a word as I disappeared down the road. I spotted him a week or so later turns out he was a Sargent in the fighter squadron next to us, so for the next couple years I dodged him.
Bill.

[nickjtc]

My first two wheeled experience was on an adults bicycle that was so big for me that it needed pieces of 2x4 bolted to the pedals so that I could reach them, even with the seat at its lowest. I survived.

I learned to ride 'power' starting with my Maxi Puch moped and graduating to my '72 CB175. No one was around to educate me in the intricacies of the friction zone of the clutch so it took me over a hundred attemps to get going without stalling. That first day I rode a long way, only because I didn't want to have to stop because of the kerfuffle I went through to get started again. It got better.

[heffay]

I like the F4I because it is fuel injected...no more carbs. I think the F3's still had carbs.

Jim

aren't there even non-injected F4s?  just w/out the I ?

great stories guys... i can see that this thread may get pretty hilarious.  oh... dumb uncoordinated kids 

[neil young]

I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic.i met a few people from my neck of the woods after a couple of days.
at the end of the night they said they were renting bikes the next day.i told them i would be interested in going with them.i guess they figured i had ridden before
after a few pointers i stalled out and bunny hopped this honda 125 a few times and was off and running.after a 4 hour tour....you couldnt wipe the smile off my face.
when i returned to Toronto i went to every bike show in the region.
i bought a helmut,jacket,gloves and i didnt even have a bike
the rest is history.

[heffay]

great stories guys... i can see that this thread may get pretty hilarious.  oh... dumb uncoordinated kids 

i bought a helmut,jacket,gloves and i didnt even have a bike

how old were you?  that was not dumb... maybe a bit neurotic... but not dumb.   

[super pasty white guy]

1st ride was on a friends dirtbike while I was in high school.  I think it was a 70s 175 Yamaha maybe, with a sticky throttle?

Anyway, we're riding around the woods behind his house with me on the back and I convince him to let me have a go at it.  We switch places and I promptly pull a wheelie.  I'm so panicked and just trying to hold on so I can't get to the clutch.  We go this way for 10 or 15 yards before hitting a small bump and bouncing him off the back.  Front comes down and I get it stopped not too far from the barbed wire fence.  Later lessions were conducted without a passenger 

spwg

[heffay]

ha!  that reminded me!

my very first ride was a 3 wheeler w/ my buddy on the back... tried to turn around in a left... thumb throttle on the right grip... gunned it up a tree trunk!      he fell of the back and somehow managed to scramble out of the way before the wheeler and i came back down on top of him... he said i was done for the day.   

oh, geez... the memories are streaming back...
another 3 wheeler incident... really hot outside and i think i may have suffered heat exhaustion or something because i was on top of a hill... blackness... next thing i know i'm careening down this hill and wind up in an electric fence!       damn i hope i never get the chair cuz that sucked!   

[medic09]

Started with lawn mower engine driven minibikes in the neighbourhood when I was around 12 or so.  My folks wouldn't allow me to have one, but lots of other kids did.  Then my schoolmate Gary something got a Honda 50 and 70 as gifts when we were 13, and he would let us kids ride them around their property.  The my friend Dale used to take his dad's Lambretta scooter into the fields nearby.  We rode that thing like a dirtbike!  Someone I knew had a Rupp Roadster that we rode alot.  My buddy James Didier had a Honda 100, and that was when I really started learning riding skills in HS.  Then someone got a Suzuki 360 (?) that I rode a bit.  After HS I hardly rode at all until about two years ago when my wife and I decided it was time for me to get back on a bike.  I had a Yamaha SR500 for a little while (awesome and fun bike), then got the K8.

[nickjtc]

PS. I didn't learn to ride well until I'd been riding for twenty four years. Then I took a 'licenced riders course' and learned more in those two days than in the previous twenty four years. In retrospect I'm lucky I only had four accidents (in the first two years of riding...all avoidable) and that I made it that long.

Take training boys and girls; wear the gear boys and girls.

GHOF, out.

[Johnie]

Good stories and good memories guys.  Mine was a white 1965 Honda 65 Sport that I got at age 15.  That was in 1969.  I pushed it across the street to the local grocery store parking lot when they were closed and road around there.  But...you know how that road riding sort of calls you.  So here I was with no license and decided a quick ride around the block on this Sunday afternoon would be OK.  Well, as I pulled back into the store a cop saw me start to push it back home and he pulled up in front of my home.  Asked for my license and I said, "ahhhhhhh."  So my Dad came out and the cop gave me a warning, and I lost the keys for a week or so.

[hoodellyhoo]

The first powered two-wheeler I ever piloted was an old yamaha 80 dirtbike in a field when I was about 10. I never took it our of first gear, didn't know how to and it didn't have brakes anyway.

Fast forward to last summer. I had been on many motorcycle rides with my father, and asked him many questions, so I kinda knew how to run a motorcycle. The day I got my 350f running, I figured I might as well put that knowledge to use and give it a go. It took me a while to get going (sticky clutch plates from sitting) but I went. Only thing was, I could only go as far as the gas in the carbs would take me because I knew I had rust in my gas tank. So I could go halfway up the block and back before I had to hook up my funnel and refill the carbs. Sure was fun though.

Eventually I took the msf course, got my license, and the rest is history.

[Gordon]

Mine's pretty boring compared to other's learning experiences.

I bought my first bike (Hawk 650GT) when I was going to college in Lubbock, TX.  I had been a passenger on my Dad's motorcycles countless times as a kid, but he never taught me to ride because he had a bad wreck and gave up riding before I was old enough.  I bought the Hawk out of the newspaper, and the guy rode it to my apartment for me and I gave him a ride back in my car. 

I gave myself a quick lesson in the apartment parking lot and then rode it to the nearby mall parking lot where I rode around long enough to be comfortable on the streets.  Luckily, being in the Texas panhandle, there were no hills anywhere and the roads are perfectly straight, so you can see what's ahead of you for miles, and there's no traffic.

[nickjtc]

Only thing was, I could only go as far as the gas in the carbs would take me because I knew I had rust in my gas tank. So I could go halfway up the block and back before I had to hook up my funnel and refill the carbs.

Now that is what is called 'keen'!!

[fuzzybutt]

i learned on a 50 or 51 triumph 500cc single hardtail chopper i got off a prison bound co-worker for 170 dollars back in 92, i got it home in the back of my lowrider isuzu pickup and wobbles around the front pasture for about 10 minutes or so, then i headed out onto the road we lived on. i rode a little further every day for a week or so. i never intended to buy a motorcycle but it was there and i had the cash. i never owned anything BUT vintage brit bikes till i got my 750k in early 2005.

[mattcb350f]

I was about 9 years old... I can't remember when I first rode a (powered) bike. Had been driving a fourwheeler till then and thought I'd like to try a bike. My oldest brother had a XL80 he wasn't riding so he said if I could get it going I could ride it... Dad got me a manual for it and with a little guidance from big brother she was running again. Took it out around the yard and never looked back.. I should have though cause my brother was trying to flag me down to put some gas in it first before I go too far.......  It was a long walk back 

My oldest brother and I went and did a weekend training course at the local college this past summer (2007) and both got our licences then.

Bought the 350F about a month later, manual too...see a trend?

Never been out on the road (legally  ) yet but should be in the near future. I can't wait!

 Matt.

[neil young]

we will have to hook up for a ride this summer Matt

[tsflstb]

I'd wanted a bike as long as I can remember.  I used to drool over those minibikes they sold at Montgomery Ward's department stores.  I was saving my pennies until an older brother wrecked an XS1100 (I think) when I was about 9 or 10.  He was fine after the wounds healed, but the jackass ended any chances of me riding until I was out of the house and could afford it on my own.

I think I was about 20 when I took the MSF course with a buddy in college.  After a summer of ball busting labor I had an old Suzuki GS750 and endured the "you'll shoot your eye out" treatment from the family.  Couple of weeks after that I ran it into a ditch trying to keep up with some fast guys.  Oops.  The bike was fine and I thought I made up a good story to explain my limp and bruises to the folks.  Pretty sure they figured it out though.

I wish I'd started on the little dirt bikes at a young age like most of you.  I'd probably be a better rider today.  Still looking for the right XR100 when it pops up to live my childhood dream.

[heffay]

Couple of weeks after that I ran it into a ditch trying to keep up with some fast guys.  Oops. 

i nearly did the same thing w/ my first street bike... only i was alone and trying to keep up with myself 

[nickjtc]

Couple of weeks after that I ran it into a ditch trying to keep up with some fast guys.  Oops. 

i nearly did the same thing w/ my first street bike... only i was alone and trying to keep up with myself 

Hmmm................one of the highest accident scenarios here in BC.

[BobbyR]

Bought a 250cc Ducati from a guy at College for $120 with helmet in 1968. Got a set of plates and Insurance and took off with a bunch of guys to a concert called Woodstock not far from here. Got a License a few years later. I actually learned how to properly ride from an MSF course I took 10 years ago. I had some baaaaaaaaaaaaad habits to unlearn.