Where did it all begin?

[RJM2096]

Honda 175 Sport

I bought my first motorcycle from a friend at college. It was a bright blue Honda 175 Sport (side pipes-2 cylinder). It had to be around a 68-69. I rode it one summer back and forth to work (10 miles one away). Learned to ride on it and and loved it. Loved the gas milage. Gas was 49.9 at that time. Wish I had a picture of it, I had to settle for a search result on Yahoo.

 

[getset]

First Bike I ever rode, was a 1974 Honda MR 50 (Elsinore?) I was 5 1/2 years old and drove it into a tree and couldn't play kick the can with my cousins that evening. That Christmas I was given a 1980 Yamaha YZ50, yellow and black with a #1 plate. The first thing I did on that bike was drive it into a barbed wire fence. 6 years old on a screaming little 2 stroked and I was hooked for life. A few years of absence here and there, but now I am hooked again, on a 78 R100/7

 

[126255]

pops54 77 R75\7

First bike was 1948 Indian 74 ci bought used in 1952 for $125.00 including a sidecar that I took off right away beautiful red

 

[Rpbump]

Bought a Blue 305 Honda Dream new out of the packing crate in San Jose, CA. The year was 1968 and I was stationed at NAS Moffett Field.
Ride Safe

 

[nhbmw]

It has been established in other threads that BMWs are rarely the first bikes that a young rider throws his/her leg over. However, we all started somewhere...

So what was your first motorcycle and how old were you when you got it?



Bonus points awarded for complete and utter lack of coolness.



(Forgive me if this is a thread that has been exhausted in the past. I did numerous searches for this topic and came up with nothing remotely recent.)

If you don't count a 1952 Cushman scooter, and it didn't count for much! my first *motorcycle* was a 1953 DOT trials bike with a 200cc Villiers 8E engine, about '65-'66 while I was still in college. The '64 R-27 came a year later.

 

[ctyankee]

So what was your first motorcycle and how old were you when you got it?

Bonus points awarded for complete and utter lack of coolness.

(Forgive me if this is a thread that has been exhausted in the past. I did numerous searches for this topic and came up with nothing remotely recent.)

Well, you wanted uncool so here it is...

When I was in college, I was 19 years old I believe. Late one winter circumstances left me with a dead VW, $800 to my name and a need to get back and forth to the local university where I was pursuing my undergraduate degree while living at home and working nights.

I made my way to a Honda dealership in a nearby town (a dealer that is now gone.) I walked in, and was poking around the showroom when I was approached. I explained that I needed a cheap motorcycle, had 800 dollars to my name, and could he help me.

I was brought to the back room, where after rolling a 50 gallon drum out of the way, and moving a tarp - there sat a 1983 Honda CM 250. It was the only year they produced the bike with a belt drive. "It isn't much", he said, "but it is reliable, an a good starter bike. We'll clean her up, get her running and out the door with a helmet, 800 even." I later learned that I was dealing with one of the owners.

I can remember that bike like it was yesterday. They loaded it on a trailer and dropped it off at my house. I can still remember as he handed me the key... "Take a class..." and I was on my way.

So my first bike was born of financial necessity and looking back on it, that was a great little bike. I wish I never sold her.

 

[1150RoadRunner]

First bike

1968: I was 15 and Dad out of the blue decided to buy me a motorcycle. Went down to the Yamaha dealer and purchased a 60cc, 2 cycle of course, with AutoLube, 5 horsepower of pure fun ....never been without a bike since then Lost count but in the 41 years since then there have been about 25 bikes, the last three the Beemers.

 

[sit]

First dirt bike - an old Yamaha 100 at the ripe ol age of 12.

First street bike - R1150R at 35.

 

[stkmkt1]

First bike was a Honda 50 in 1967. It was a full size bike with a 50cc motor, a manual clutch and a 4-speed. Rode it all over. Then came a brand new blue Honda CT70 in 1968. Automatic 3-speed. Then came a new Honda CB750F in '76. Then a CB750A which I still ride today. And then came a '09 Vstar 950. Now I';m ready for the Beemer, so in May I'm getting a new GSA. I also rode a lot of other bikes, like Bultaco, Penton, Husky, Kaw and Yammys. But they were dirt bikes and were used for racing off-road, so I'm not counting them for this thread.

 

[alkoivisto]

First bike 1966 Bridgestone 175. Sweet running rotary valve twin. 305 Super Hawk beater up to about 50 or 60 if memory serves me right. Then on to new '70 CL350 Honda, trashed and rebuilt '69 Mach III Kawasaki, new '71 CB750, and a bunch more.

 

[Brettendress]

Nine years old and a Coleman Sachs five speed 50. I rode the wheels off that bike for years and got the bug that has led to many motorcycles and over 150,000 miles of fun and excitement. Thanks dad for the bike. Anyone have one of these I would love to have another one.

Brett Endress
Altoona PA.

 

[rmarkr]

1950 Triumph TRW (500cc twin side valve)
My first bike- acquired a military job lot in a crate containing two bikes in pieces and restored one (very poorly - I was young). I learned to do handstands on this bike at 50 mph due to lack of rear suspension.

1970 Honda XL 350
My firsy "adventure" bike. Great memories

 

[sgborgstrom]

First motorized two wheeler:

First "real" motorcycle:

There was another vespa in there, a white Rally 200 complete with police-style windshield and a big touring trunk on the back. As one of a very few students at my high school with two wheeled transportation I was very cool...

 

[Rod Sheridan]

1973 Bonneville purchased in 1974, I was 16 at the time. Thought it was a great bike until the first electrical problems appeared.

Next bike was a 75 850 Commando I purchased new, still own it.

Presently working on wearing out my second R90/6, I also have a 1930 James 500cc single.

I'm fortunate, Diann rides an R60/7 so we've always been a riding family.

There were some very interesting posts in this thread.......Rod.

 

[NavyCWO]

First two-wheeler I ever rode was an Allstate, slab-sided motor scooter (was my Dad's and he forgot to lock it one day). First one I actually bought was a Lambretta motor scooter. I think it was a 125cc.

 

[120116]

1972 Yamaha CS-5, a 200-cc two-stroke twin that could not run without fouling plugs. I kept a bag of sparkplugs and a wrench strapped to the back so that I could do a plug change in 2 minutes on the side of the road. I was 17 years old, with dreams of hitting the road and seeing America.

In the summer of 1973, I was headed to Duke Forest with my date for some late night strolls in the woods. The countershaft twisted like a Tootsie Roll and locked up. It was a 5 mile hike to her house, followed by a "I don't think we should date anymore", followed by a 6 mile hike to my house. I knew that I needed a better bike very badly.

Got a R75/5 in January of 1974, and started working on my dreams. Things worked out much better with a BMW.

So with the new bike did you get to go for the "stroll in the woods?"

Not sure that I have ever heard what you were planning to do in the woods that before!!!!

 

[yellowrosefarm]

1979 Kawasaki KZ750 twin (horizontal, not V) in 1981 when I was 20. 2nd bike was a 1973 R75/5 in 1986. My 10 year older brother had bought it as his first bike a few years earlier, crashed it and broke his collar bone, then sold it to me. The first bike I ever rode on was a '70's Yamaha, I think, 2 stroke triple. One of my neighbor's older daughter's boyfriends had it and would give all us little heathens rides up and down the street. Fast, noisy and stinky, it was all a little boy's heart could desire.

 

[MARTYW]

First love

My first and most beloved bike was a '75 Honda cb550, metal flake orange, the best color ever. I bought it from a friend of a friend on campus at MSU. He had a leather jacket and converse hi tops, riding this bike with a rumbling 4 into 2 exhaust and chrome fenders. I just wanted to be that guy.

I got my chance when he hooked up the battery backwards and burned up some wires. He sold it to me for $50 and a promise to resell it to him when I was done with it. I replace the melted wiring with some lamp cord and duct tape from Ace hardware, and I had me the bike of my dreams. I couldn't even tell my parents because they would have cut off educational funding. I had no licence, no insurance and I rode that bike all over the state of Michigan.

In Jan and Feb of 1989 I was a cab driver for Spartan Cab company. I'd drive the drunks home from the bars until 3 am, bring my cab back to the lot, get on that bike and ride it home. It would be snowing like crazy, so I 'd keep my feet off the pegs just above the pavement of I-496 in case I started to slide out. Did I mention that I had no license, no insurance and no sense whatsoever?

That was the first two wheeler I took to 60 mph. It felt like I was strapped to the nose cone of a rocket, my helmet shaking, my vision blurred by the wind. 60 mph? It felt like 160. That first high speed sensation, that's the one I'm always chasing after.

I eventually upgraded to a cb750 supersport, and sold the 550 back for $50 as promised. Did I mention that I had no sense whatsoever? I wish I'd have kept that bike. I don't even have her picture. Sob.
Thanks for the opportunity to reflect.
-Marty

 

[tinboatcapt]

OK here they are

New first love.
1966 Suzuki X-5 New first love.

Favorite Bike
1972 Suzuki GT750J Water Buffalo

First Beemer
in 2003 a 1986 K100RT used abused and tossed aside; and yes, you can polish a tur...bin. But it gave me 55K trouble free and enjoyable miles before selling it for a newer one...also trashed.

jim

 

[Manfred]

My first bike - an 1969 or '70 Yamaha 50 (European model), 2-stroke scrambler. If I laid down on the gas tank and wrapped my feet around the rear fender, I could hit 100 kph (62 mph) on a flat road. I was 14 years old in this picture, taken in Mannheim, West Germany.