Topic: So... What got you guys & girls riding in the first place?

[void909]

Wait... I forgot to search first. Hope no one has asked already. If so please disregard.

[tramp]

stationed in hawaii in 73
boat was going on patrol without me for 2 weeks
whats a 20yr old boy to do but go buy a motorcycle
walked down to the honda dealer and drove away in a 350-4
great stories riding on that island

[Johnie]

It is sort of hard to explain.  I was in the 7th grade when I got a ride on a Bridgestone in 1967.  I was hooked.  I guess some of it was the freedom I got on the bike as a kid.  Moving from street to street with little effort.  And just being able to ride around all over town.  I could spend a lot of time just riding around in my high school days.  Plus, it was easy to meet girls on a bike.  I never met a girl that did not want a ride.  Price of gas was like 28 cents a gallon.  You have to remember in those days we did not have video games, DVD's, cell phones, IPods, etc. to keep us busy.  We found our excitement on the cycles.  Here we are in 2008 and I still have that cycle bug and enjoy it as much as I did back then.  And I still have one of same girls riding with me after 29 years of marriage.  She took her first ride with me in 1971...time just keeps on a moving!!!     

[UnCrash]

I only ever remember wanting a motorcycle.  I pestered my dad so much  that at 9 he said save up your money and I'll double what ever you save towards the purchase of a bike.  So I save chores money and birthday money and christmas money and when I was 10 I found a Rupp Black Widow mini bike in the local paper for $175.  I had just enough to cover my half and talked my Dad into looking at the bike.

We bought it and brought it home.  It had a Tecumseh 5 hp motor in it with a pull start.  I think he liked the thing as much as I did and really wish I still had it.

I've been 2 wheeling off and on ever since.

[tortelvis]

Dad was a biker. Always went with him 2 up on family outings, Mom and siblings in the car. He let me drive when I was 8, never looked back!

[DarkRider]

Was let loose on a friends old honda on their farm after being the basics as to how it worked.  went from that to bashing up an old yamaha 50 cc scooter a year or so later...been riding off and on ever since..

[Frankenkit]

Dad  bought a little honda 350/4 after his hon. discharge from Vietnam.  Rode it 'til he married my mom and she made him sell it in the 80s. He got his revenge by telling his daughter stories about the joys of riding, then she got the bug and bought one not long after striking it out on her own...
and so it goes. 

[rhos1355]

Was 44, walking the dog for the nth week-end running, bored out of my skull. I wondered;is this it? Is this the rest of my life? Walking the dog every week-end? I got to get myself a life. But what?
"Play golf" said the little angel sitting on my right shoulder. Nah, I thought. The golf courses around here are God's great green waiting room. People just going around and around smacking a little white ball until they die.
Then the little devil sitting on my left shoulder said "Buy a bike."
The rest, as they say folks, is history.

[micol]

Had a mini bike in the late 60's.  Rode it pretty much everyday.  A friend had a Honda 65 I got to ride.  Knew this was something way fun.  Got a Honda 90 the same day I got my license.  Have had a Honda of one kind or another for the last 38 years.

micol

[dusterdude]

grew up in the late 60`s and early 70`s listening to those 750`s howl,always wanted one.got my first bike,a cl350,in 1982 and been riding ever since.

[Uncle Ernie]

When I was about 2 or 3, I have a next door friend with a big sister who had a boyfriend who had a big-ass bike as tall as me.  A whole mighty black wall of wondrous smelly mysterious and magnificent God.

Around 11 or 12, a friend of my Dad's gave me a ride on a very black and shiny BMW.  That's when I knew what my first bike would be.

When I hit 18 and the folks no longer had a say, I bought a used BMW R27 for about $300.  I could get that just for the tank today...

[sparty]

Answer: The NEED for SPEED

The old BMX bike racing just wasn't doing it for me anymore, so I went to MX racing.  Then when it got too expensive, I went for a road bike...

Sparty

[martino1972]

was looking for a reason to get away from the wife..

kidding,grew up with little moped's,racing on my dad's farm,that turned into dirt bikes and now into racequads and street bikes...

[333]

Upon entering my teenage years, a neighbor family got a CT70 and Z50.  I fell in love.  Then at 19, I got my first street bike (CB450K4) to become a courier (1977ish), and like many have said in this thread, I have never looked back.

[azuredesign]

Watching Easy Rider and reading Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels pushed me over the edge, but I already had Velocette photos all over my walls. Not sure what the original motivation was, but attracting girls and being cool probably had some place.

[fuzzybutt]

a co-worker at the freightliner dealer was prison bound and needed to get his 50 or maybe it was a 51 t-100 chopper sold. he asked me if i wanted it and i said i have 170 bucks here, all i was going to to was buy an 8-ball (i was heavy into cocke in my early-mid 20's) and i told him i'd just as soon have the chopper as the coke. he told me he couldnt take less than 500 for it (this was in 91 or 92) and i told him oh well thats cool. next morning (he was surrendering that noon) and asked me if i still had the 170, i did and i got the thing home in the back of my little isuzu pickup. got it started and rode around the front pasture/hay field for about 10 minutes then hit the road. i had never even thought about owning a bike till that afternoon. havent looked back since. i owned a series of british bikes during the early- late 90's, 3 or 4 triumphs, a commando 850 and a beezer lightning 650. got out of bikes in 98 when i was almost killed in a wreck on my bonny 750 and didnt think about bikes again till i started watching biker build off. i went out and got the first jap bike i ever owned then, a 76' 750k and from there on it was just downhill 

[mrbreeze]

Late 60's....early 70's... Bikes were so cool then.Lots of cool dirt bikes in my neighborhood.When I was 13 (San Jose,Ca.)....this guy up the road had a Honda 125 (low pipe....CB?). I had a drum set in my garage and he used to come over to let me ride his bike all over the place while he played my drums.Hell.......I was far from having my license.The 750 came out at this time and it was the most awesome thing out there. I was too young to have one but did admire (and still do) everything about it.I grew up around alot BSA's,Triumph,pre AMF Harley's,etc.but that all went away when the jap invasion really hit.Can you say Kawasaki Mach 3???

[Haggis]

The whole family were/are in to bikes.My first day at school and my Mother takes me there on the back of her bike .I remember lots of great runs on the back of my Dads BSA,which i've still got,Its hard to say what got me into bikes,they've always been there

[void909]

Wow there are all great stories guys, keep um coming!!!

[jsaab2748]

Started on a ct70 owned by a family friend, learned to ride, and got one of my own from Santy Clause in '71 Never able to get it out of my blood since. Many others in between then and now, including my current 550 and 750. Just last month, got an '08 cbr600rr. At almost 51 years old, I am still mesmorized with speed.
Some can relate, some can't, and some even get pissed off. One of my favorite ways to celebrate life is to throw a leg over any one of my Hondas.  

[Ichiban 4]

Hey Void..

Why don't you set this thread up as a POLL?  Think there have been related topics posted here..but not quite as specific as yours.

Personally..I feel like I've been riding so long..I can't remember the original motivation.  Guess it was part wanting to have independent, powered transportation (bikes were much more affordable than cars then..for me)..and the fact that in California in late 50's..one could ride a bike @ 15-1/2 versus 16+ for regular driver's license.

But because I worked in local Whizzer dealership then..I was just naturally attracted to bikes..I guess.

Hope this doesn't seem too "old fogey" to you younger guys/gals.

Ichi

[Skonnie Boy]

The idea of riding and fixing a bike scared the sh!t outta me, so I kind of had to do it.

Oh and I had a 125 scooter when I was in high school, so I figured a 750 would be 6x better.  Just do the math.

[Raul CB750K1]

Midlife crisis.....

[rhos1355]

Midlife crisis.....

Jeez Raul! You're only 36! Mid-life crisis? Your'e still a kid! You wouldn't know midlife crisis even if it bit you on the leg! You're gonna have to submit a better one than that, I'm afraid.

[Raul CB750K1]

Midlife crisis.....

Jeez Raul! You're only 36! Mid-life crisis? Your'e still a kid! You wouldn't know midlife crisis even if it bit you on the leg! You're gonna have to submit a better one than that, I'm afraid.

Allright, it was not the "midlife crisis" as we know, but when I turned 30 I felt that my young days were gone, I was getting into adulthood -though I was married for six years- and I said to myself: "my dad would have never allowed me to buy a bike. I don't need to ask for permission anymore".

To convince my wife I explained practical reasons -commuting, avoid traffic jams etc- but inside, it was the need of something different, raw and crude but exhilarating. As I'm very much inclined towards things mechanical, it was not long till I got into classic bikes.

Most of the new bike buyers/owners here are in their thirties. Some kind of "baby boomers" as I am. I bask in the thought that in a few years there will be a lot of bikes that will be sold cheap, when their owners change their minds. Well, provided I don't change my mind either....

[rhos1355]

something different, raw and crude but exhilarating.


Phwoa, that sounds like my missus.......................... when I first met her.

[72 yellow]

Summer of '66, a high school friend and his brother had a just painted 64 Honda Superhawk.  Let me take it for a short and scary ride.  He figured I needed a few lessons.  That's how it all started. Been riding ever since.

[void909]

Hey Void..

Why don't you set this thread up as a POLL?  Think there have been related topics posted here..but not quite as specific as yours.

Personally..I feel like I've been riding so long..I can't remember the original motivation.  Guess it was part wanting to have independent, powered transportation (bikes were much more affordable than cars then..for me)..and the fact that in California in late 50's..one could ride a bike @ 15-1/2 versus 16+ for regular driver's license.

But because I worked in local Whizzer dealership then..I was just naturally attracted to bikes..I guess.

Hope this doesn't seem too "old fogey" to you younger guys/gals.

Ichi

What would you poll exactly? Maybe I'm missing what your saying.

[Demon67]

Had a buddy that had one and it was a hell of a lot cheaper than a car, so in 58 I plunked down my $ 125 and wound up with a 1951 Matchless 500 cc that was tenth hand actually got it running decently sold it and bought a 59 Triumph Bonneville so on and so forth only time I haven't had a bike was after being a bike mechanic and for about 30 years had nothing till my son in law was showing off his old 125 Kawasaki dirt bike and I asked if I could drive it. "Bang" after 15 minutes all the old skills started showing up again and I was away.
Bill the demon.

[pale rider]

I'm originally from Illinois and when I was a boy, once or twice in a summer my father would go through the inconvenience of moving things around in the garage in order to get out his '72 Triumph Bonnie and start it up. So, I must have been excited the first time I saw and heard it because every time thereafter, I got REALLY excited. Sometimes the BEST excitement was when I didn't know he was getting it out and all-of-a-sudden I'd hear him start it. Boyyyyy would I come runnin! So, I have to say that was when I first fell in love with bikes.
When I was 8, my dad bought my 14-year-old brother a 1980 Honda XL185 enduro. 5 years later and after some abuse it was mine. I would ride that bike evvveryday after school and evvveryday in the summer in the forest preserves near my house. I really miss those times.
Anyway, I love classics and sportbikes, so at 21 I bought a Yamaha YZF600R brand new. Sold that 5 years later for my dream bike - a 2003 Triumph Daytona 955i - bought an '03 Kawi to race on the track with - and pre-inherited my first love, my father's 1972 Bonneville; in pristine condition. 

[brianzenk]

Three years ago I was sitting at a bus stop and it
did not stop because it was a full load. I had to wait another
hour for the next bus. A scooter passed before my eyes and at
that moment I decided to ride. I purchased a 1980 Honda NC50
Express and than a CB550 1976. I ride all the time now and do
not wait for the bus anymore.

[tom8Toe]

I used to watch my dad leave for work on his BSA A75 Rocket3 when we were living in VA and he was stationed in Chesapeake with the Coast Guard back in the early to mid '70s. My dad would take me for a ride on occasion. It didn't take much after that to know that some day I would ride a bike. Later when we moved back to Washington state and I was about 7, we would go to the family farm up on Mt. Rainier where my grandfather had 80 acres of property we could ride around on. So my father put me on the 80cc Gemini and taught me which was break, which was the clutch and off I went.

[sinister902]

when I was a kid all i can remember is my dad having a moto guzzi....

he used to take me around the block once in a while when my mom wasnt home when i was 5 and 6.

my parents got divorced and he moved out toward farm land where there was nothing to do, so one weekend he brought home a 78 honda50 minibike he got from a friend that sat next to his hunting cabin for years. Me and him got it going together and I was riding all over the yard at 8yrs old, i was a natural he always told me....that 3spd with auto-clutch was bliss.

when i was 13 i found an ATC in the garbage, got it running fixed it up, and had some fun on that for a year, and found a '73 suzuki TS100 two stroke in a friends barn and we agreed to trade, although his was a box of parts.

so i put it together and got it running and had a ton of fun on some trail rides with it.

when i was 16 i got a job and bought a motocross bike and was riding the heck out of that thing all through highschool. sold it when i was 18 to hop-up my car to where it is now....I was stuck to four wheels until this past spring when i found the non-running CB550 local and just HAD to get it. Mom still doesnt know, lol. She was never fond of me on two wheels (too much like my father i guess)

[SD750F]

In 1980 I was attending college in Phoenix Arizona when a couple friends introduced me to motorcycling as mode of transport in the city. Hadn't rode a bike for 10 years before when I had a small 125cc Suzuki as a kid around Texas. Stopped after the 5th time I had to lay down to bike to avoid hitting someone making a left turn in front of me...

Scott