Story Time How did you get into street riding?

I'll start
When I was a little kid like 12 the neighbors down the street in Venice Beach LA had 3 Suzuki 90's and a Honda mini trail. I got to go with them out the the desert a bunch around LA and ride dirtbikes, so much fun. They were a Italian family and Mom would come and cook in the desert! Great people.
When I was 19 in 1978 a guy where I was living, in June Lake Ca, being a ski bum, had this 1976 Honda CB 750 with a full windjammers fairing. Gold with black pinstrips. I saw it in his garage and it never seemed to move. One day I went up there to meet him and ask him about it. He said he had bought it new and one day" it wouldn't start". The tires were low and it was covered with dust and a dead battery, but it looked almost brand new. 7000 miles on the clock.
I offered him 1000 cash. He took it. I had some real mechanic skills growing up in a VW family as they always were blowing up on us. I filled up the tires and pushed it up to my trailer and bought a battery. I opened the points up with a screwdriver and it started right up! Ha!! I was mobile. I commuted to Mammoth Mt. all summer for work on that thing with a friend and ended up riding it all over the Western US border to border. The fairing was nice in cool/ bad weather. I always lived in the high mountains.
I kept it waxed and cleaned up, and covered. One day in Telluride where I live now, a guy came up to me to see if I wanted to sell it, back in say '95. It had over 100 k on it and I got 3500 for it.
That was a very nice luxury ride for a young rider. Fast, Smooth, very reliable, easy to maintain.
Nick

In the middle of my ski bumming career I was living in Jasper, AB and ended up staying the summer working as a river guide. I can't remember who influenced me to look at bikes but I found a guy with a Yamaha Vision 550 for sale for a lowly $1000. I got it and started to ride and got my license. I traded it and some more $$ for a Honda Interceptor 750 the following year and I rode that home across the country. It was a slow start and then I went 8 years with nothing before I got my 640 Adventure and that led me down the path to really being a motorcycle rider. Now I own 5 and am opening a B&B for touring motorcycles.

Bought my first bike with money made in HS working at a book bindery [ mans job/mans pay after school ]. It was a Honda 150 dream, and it allowed me to ride home at 11pm after pulling an 8 hour shift at the bindery instead of mom having to come pick me up every night.

Then I entered the Marine Corps, and upon returning, started back up with a bigger bike, Honda 750. That led to Harley's, then to Goldwings, then a crotch rocket [ that last all of one summer ] and then onto a K100rs. Then back to Goldwings, with a Kawi Nomad thrown in the mix and now back to Beemers.

Been riding since 1969.

There was a dealer just down the road from my dorm in college, after several months of stopping in I bought a brand new 1972 Honda CB350. Never ridden a motorcycle before, just found them cool. After the transaction, the sales guy trained me how to ride in the style of the time. In other words he reviewed the controls and how to start it, then said "If you want, you can ride it back and forth along the tracks out back until you feel comfortable". After several passes I'd completed my training, and rode through the parking lot and out into traffic. So I've been riding street since the beginning.

After a couple of years I got tired of crashing, oops, I mean "failing to negotiate a curve" and sold it. Never looked back, and life continued to happen. Eventually one night at our empty-nest dinner table, my wife said to me "you should get a bike so you can take me riding". Um, happy wife, happy life? So I said OK. This time the bug bit hard. Since then, she's passed away and I've retired. In retirement I've had the time to take the long road trips I've wanted to do since I got back into riding. I started with a mid-size V-twin, then a Gold Wing, an RT, a K1600, then another RT.

Finally I found that a GSA suited me well in terms of comfort, weight, and performance, and since I have a GSA I should ride it in dirt, right? So I took the off-road course at the Performance Center in Spartanburg SC ... and hated it. I think temperamentally I'm too cautious, and prone to overthinking the situations. Too, I'm always aware that compared to 20-year-old me I break easier and heal slower. So I don't think I'll ever ride dirt - and I'm fine with that. If people feel the need to give me static because I have pure street tires on my adventure bike, well so what? I ride to make me happy, not them.

1959. I was 14 years old. I bought a lightly used Sears and Roebuck moped made by Puch in Austria for $100. Despite what I was told, I didn't die.

Sears minibike at ten years old, then dirt bikes, then street bikes. Roughly twenty different motorcycles over the years. I rode various models from the Japanese big four, went to Harley about 15 years ago. I have gotten tired of a heavy, poor suspension, low performance hog, although I still have one. I bought a RT in 2018 and love it.

Honda 90 and up. Trailered for a few years then rode bikes too slow for the 4 lanes. Once I found the comfort of the GS and RT and the speed I stuck with it. A warm up coming this week so time to ride. I am taking drinks, snacks and ground cloth for long day rides, enough to keep me happy without going into convenience stores .

Nice sears and roebuck highway rocket. I stood one on end without dropping it when 15.

1983, I was starting my 2nd year at university and applied for a student loan. Before I had my license, I took $1000 from my loan and bought a Honda CM450E. The salesman told me what the controls were and told me to practice at one end of the parking lot. Ten minutes later, I was in traffic stalling at any red lights with an incline but I lived to see another day.

Years later, my daughter, after graduating from university, now rides. I told her I was a poor example for a teacher and she should take a motorcycle course. She successfully passed the course and has taught the old man some things that he hadn't figured out for himself. I look forward to coming to next year's rally in Great Falls with her if all goes according to plan.

One of the last Honda CL160 ,1970. high school was my first street bike. Senior year brand new Yamaha R5C 350. Pre RD Yamaha model. Remember Kenny Roger! Even out ran a 750 Norton.

Neighbor had a minibike and a friend had a Honda 50.
Bought a new Honda Sport 65 in 1965.
55 years, 700,000 miles and 40 bikes later I still love motorcycles and camping.
It’s been a great ride!

I took my MC operators test on the first nice Spring day was I was 16-yrs old. Now, I could legally go somewhere on the trailbike. Yeah.

I still have my first bike. I was 17 in high school, 1979. My father had a Yamaha 305 with the oil injection that I wanted badly. He said no and sold it. So I found a 1975 Norton that a neighborhood guy was racing at New England Dragway. It was hardly drivable on the street when I bought it, had to put it back to stock setup, lights, mirrors etc. It now has halogen head light, electronic ignition and still crazy fast. The whole bike was restored by a Norton guru who raced them his whole life. Good times, excuse me while I have a major flash back.

I grew up just a few miles from the shop of the most famous dirt bike rider ever, John Penton in Amherst, Ohio. He was a BSA, Ariel and BMW dealer. I used to hang around his shop on my Cushman scooter wishing I could own one of those BSAs. When I got out of the Air Force in 1967 I got a job as a Flight Instructor in Orlando and bought a new BSA 650 to ride to the airport so my wife could have the car. Had a bad accident on it which kept me out of work for three months so didn't get another bike until I moved to Birmingham, AL in 81 and I bought a new Honda 750 Custom. In 96 I fell in love with a BMW R850R Olympic edition. Beemers ever since by the dozen at least.

Was it a BSA thunderbolt or a BSA Lighting?