Topic: how did you get into riding motorcycles?

[72500john]

i personally started out as a teenager tearing through the woods on a Honda xr75 and moved up to a  yamaha tm 250. lots of 3 wheelers and beater bikes mixed in there some where. first street bike was a 70s something honda 360. i was living out of state and the old man told me if i could find a way to get it to where i was  at i could have it..and i did! rode it for a few years..still wish i had a kidney belt or something to hold my guts in!! next bike was a 80s cm400. rebuilt carbs a clutch and a ring job made for a great ride for a few years.
well that one went away with marriage as most do and did the no bike thing for for almost 20 years. got a second wife who is cooler than the first and now have a 72 cb500. blast of  abike to ride and don't plan on giving up the cycle thing till i cant get on one anymore!!

[TwoTired]

I started with bicycles.
Figured out how to put a lawnmower engine on one.
Still...
I survived.

 

 

 

[bjatwood]

Just thought bikes were the bomb! Loved the sound and the Chrome and after my first ride on a big bike. I was hooked 

[72500john]

orvil and wilber wright would be proud of you. they started out with a bycicle shop!!
and all they did was fly an airplane..that some said would never catch on. go figure?

[Rigid]

Started out begging rides on my cousins "mini" bike with a Briggs&Stratton when I was 8.  Parents felt sorry for me and I ended up getting a Kawasaki 90cc street bike when I was 10.  The rest is history, I have had hundreds of bikes over the years.  4 wives, each one cooler than the last.  One of my first memories is my grandfather's Lilac, or Indian, parked in its own white shed on the farm with hawk talons on the wall he was selling for bounty. 1969.

[heffay]

Grew up on the back of dad's bikes.  Our biggest ride was from Manhattan, KS to Pike's Peak and back, on his 84 R100RT.

When it was my turn, we cleaned up my grandpa's 72 TC125 that had been sitting for 15 years and I learned in the yard on our farm.  Continued to wreak havoc with that bike for many years until it was stolen within a week after moving to the Phoenix area.  That thing was fun, a buddy and I were talking about it recently.  It had a dual range transmission like a 4x4 truck.  We used to climb all over the place, then got the bright idea to pile 7 of us on it at once.  We were "grown men" by that time.

[veloracermike]

I blame Roger DeCoster. It was all his fault.

[72500john]

looks like i have started a fun thread! keep em coming guys!!

[Dimitri13]

Crashed my Evo (not my fault). Decided to do something different.

[72 yellow]

I was about 9 and was at a family gathering when my sisters godfather showed up on his new 1958 Harley Sportster.  Took 2 of us for a ride, me on the handlebars.  That's all it took for me.  Been riding and playing around with bikes since 1966.  Still lovin' it.

[CrankyOldGuy]

Back in the late 60's motorcycles caught on here at the high school level.  I was in Grade 9 at the time.  There would be probably 200 motorcycles parked across the street backed in perpendicular to the curb; the largest motorcycles (Triumph and BSA 650's)on the right side working to the smallest size to the left (Honda 50).  It was always a great scene to watch them leave after school, especially the Yamaha Twinjet 100's which sounded like a sewing machine on steroids.

Believe it or not my sister bought a Honda 90 in 1968 and upgraded to a Honda CB160 in 1969.  I use to ride them even though I was too young for my license.  When I finally got a license I bought a CB450 in 1970 ( I had always liked  the CB450 Black Bomber at that time) and upgraded to the 750K1 in the spring of 1971. 

For some reason I always liked Hondas and still do.

Harry O.

PS   I always wondered why my parents never objected to my sister or I having motorcycles.  Found out my father had gone through 13 of them in WWII as a dispatch rider, riding at night from England to Scotland.  Guess the slit style headlights did not light up the road much.  He survived so I guess he thought we would too, which we did.

[Imago]

When I was about 23 years old I was working on a sewer and water crew for the City of Saskatoon driving my maroon and white 1959 Chevrolet Apache Fleetside when I spied, in a residents driveway, a 1975 Honda CB550 in factory metal flake orange... the owner came out of his house to see what we were doing and said he liked my truck... my response 22 years ago?

Want to trade?

We did, and the rest is history.

[blackhog02]

When I was a kid we got a weekend place out in the woods it came with 2 used 1969 Honda CT70s.  Both bikes are currently in my garage and my kids and I ride them.  I begged my parents to let me buy an RM 125 so I could start racing in High School.  totaled that bike in a race and bought a new one the last year of the air cooled RMs. I too blame Roger DeCoster its all his fault.   I had a pic of the man on my wall as a kid. 

[72500john]

ok the rest of the story.. guess the old man got me into it more than anything. he had a few honda cbs from time to time and eventually ended up with a bmw rt1000 touring bike. dont mean to offend anyone here. but sohc4 bike are great but bmw bikes are great too. thanks dad!!

[Danno]

I bought a minibike at a garage sale made it go faster broke the frame welded it made it go faster still  blew up the old motor bought a new motor then my father sold the bike and bought me a c70 passport which i made go 54 mph instead of 47 mph had it for years then got a car which took all my attention(1971 spyder)  then I turned 17 and bought my 74 cb550 it was bigger then what I was looking for but I liked it... although in the begining It was heavier than I was used to and I felt it to be a bit unruly found the headstock was a tad loose tightened that up and the rest is history you can see the bike in the 550 section under danno's 550 open archive to anyone that wants to look I now have 5 antique classic bikes in various stages of restoration

[imamotohead]

I begged, cajoled, whined, and begged some more until one beautiful Christmas morning Santa dropped a Kawasaki MT-1 75 down the chimney.  Best kid Christmas EVER!

[geminimotors]

Growing up, motorcycles were a bad word in my house. A high school friend of my parents was killed in a moto accident. As a VW driving teenager in the 80's I was drawn to these bizarro Hondas with 4 carbs and 4 pipes in a freakish wrestling match with a collector on the right side. I fell in love. Fast forward to age 36 and I started dating a pretty lass who rode a new Bonnie. It was on. I started shopping and found the bike of my teenage dreams- right in my neighborhood. 76 550F, Black, Magura clipons, dual discs, etc. Lots of bikes have come and gone, but my first will be my last.
 Side note- I think I'm genetically predisposed to the
Supersport. The story is I was conceived in a 65 Malibu SS. Go figger.

[CoachDoc]

I started with a Honda 90 street bike in 1966. Couldn't get it over 50 mph. In 5 weeks I sold it and bought a CB77 305 Honda -"Superhawk". Man, do I wish I had kept that bike. I sold it for $200 in '74 and bought the 550 I still have now. Later I got Goldwings as well. I figure I'm at about 300,000 miles lifetime on all the bikes combined, most of it on the Wings, which devour miles on the highway. It's sure nice to be back on the 550- it can scoot.

[Retro Rocket]

I use to live on a little peninsula in Queensland from 1966 till the mid 70's, every weekend there was a parade of motorcycles going down to the end and back past my house, i was hooked early on. A guy down the road from me used to use the road to tune his beautiful 850 Norton and a couple of his mates bought brand new Jap bikes, one was a puprle GT750 Suzuki and the other a z900 Kawasaki. I never really did much dirt riding, rode a mates old CR125 elsinore and an old XL250 Honda but no much at all. I was at work {2nd job} in a panel shop in Brisbane in 1979 and at lunch time i would go across the road to what used to be Phil Beaumont motorcycles. In one of my lunch time expeditions an old K1 750 caught my eye and after looking at it for a couple of weeks the guy in the shop made me a deal i couldn't refuse, so at 16 years of age i bought my first 750/4 Honda. Had 22 of them since and around 20 other road bikes, all over 750cc except for a GSX550 Suzuki that i got for virtually nothing that needed a new CDI unit.... Finally got my car license at 40 years of age......   I really do like bikes.....

[INSANE REINDEER]

When I was around 8, my dad bought a big red which he used for hunting and I rode around the neighborhood. I still have that thing today (12 years later). After that I never really had my own motorcycle till this year which was a buddies dad and he could get it running right so I bought it and now it runs almost like new. Although I didn't have my own I drove everything with handlebars or a steering wheel. No body ever taught me how to drive a stick shift car/ manual bike I just learned on my own. Don't remember when though.

[singedebile]

I was out at my friends cabin in the pocono's and a friend had long promised to let me try out his bike a CX500 that looked like it had survived a zombie apocalypse but somehow had always been bullet proof reliable for all the long crazy trips my friend had taken it on.
So hanging out there we were all kinda hanging out around his bike and the opportunity came up, I hop'd on and road it for a good mile on this gorgeous repaved single lane road that gently rolled and sweeped along the other cabins, just feeling the weight of the bike shift as i conservatively shifted up and down felt so utterly and perfectly right and natural that, that day I decided I would someday own a bike....  fast forward a year and the opportunity presented itself when i inherited a little money, I did a ton of research and decided upon the 500-550 and the ideal bike for me.

I've been having a great time ever since (going into my second season),

[dhall57]

My first motorized 2 wheeler was a sensation mini bike with a 3 1/2 hp Briggs. Wasn't fast enough so I put a 5 hp Briggs on it and felt like I had strapped a rocket to it. Than around 1970 I got my first Honda a  CT 70(mini trail) and saw the movie On Any Sunday and it's be been on ever since.

[jessezm]

When I was 17 (god, that was 15 year ago already!) I was driving past the park one day and saw my friends there, so I pulled over to say hi.  As I was walking up, my friend debbie was saying to my best friend bryan, "do you want a motorcycle?" so I pushed him out of the way and said yes!  It turned out her dad, this old greek who had a lawn service and a gambling problem, had won a beaten up '78 yamaha xs650 special in a gambling match and he wanted $100 for it.  I went the next day to have a look and her brother just said take it, he doesn't need it, so I called a friend with a pickup and we hauled it off.  My friend Ward's dad had a warehouse in the old 4th ward in Atlanta where he worked on his collection of old BMW 75/5's, and he let me keep the bike there till I got it running, and showed me the ropes after school about how to clean and approach working on old bikes.  Finally one day I got it started, and went on my first ever ride on a motorcycle through the ghetto.  It didn't have a first gear so that took some getting used to...   later I took it to a shop and the owner traded me my bike and $600 cash for a fully functional and quite pristine '83 xs650 heritage special.  It was just in time to get my license and take Claire Church to the prom.  Damn them were the good ole days!  Been riding ever since.

[Stev-o]

My Dad bought us an Allstate moped when I was around 10, drove it all around the roads by the family lake cabin. Then I bought my first "real" motorcycle from my brother, a Suzuki 250, it would do 100 mph!
I was hooked...

[BAchvytrk]

when i was 7 years old, i found an old rupp mini bike buried in the back of my grandfathers garage. My mother and uncles used to ride it when they were little. I asked him about it, he said that old hunk of junk will never run. Well, that summer, everytime i'd go to my grandfathers house, the first thing i would do is crawl to the back of the barn and sit on the old rupp, then go hound my grandfather some more asking him if he;d dig it out and let me try to get it running. this went on all summer. ONe fall day, i was playin out in the yard and my grandfather pulled in with the rupp in the back of his truck, he had got it out and running for me. he showed me how to start it and the rest is history. I've been hooked on bikes since. I rebuilt my first motor on my 85 kx 80 when i was ten, (i had watched one of the guys that worked on my parents farm rebuild it for me the year before), twenty two years later, i've had over a hundred bikes pass through my hands, i currently have around twenty in my collection, my favorite being my 71 flh, which was my grandthers until he passed away 9 years ago, it had 6k on it when i got it and i just turned 12k on it yesterday. Thanks for getting me going and keepin me going grampa