Your First Bike...

[pinecone]

First bike was a KZ650 that had been sitting in a cornfield for a couple of years - paid a hundred bucks for it. Got it running with not much more than some Marvel Mystery Oil & Sea Foam(?) carb cleaner. Awesome bike - great memories. Sold her a few years later for the same hundred bucks when she needed a new chain & sprockets. Here she is -


Also had a 360T for awhile just like the one in the picture from DSKYZD. Cute bike, but not nearly as fun as the Kawi!

[MIXR]

First bike I owned was a Yamaha RD 350 that was traded in on my Hillman Arrow. Nice bike for its time and seems to have been a common first bike among our friends on the Board.


First bike I ever CHOSE to own was a Honda CB 500/4. Terrible thing with the standard problem of weak clutch springs and poor performance. Crashed it on one of my first rides. Damn thing just wouldn't corner like the RD!


Then I went to a string of Honda XLs and Kawasakis - Loved the Kwaka 750 tripple (yep - the Mach IV) and did many, many miles on the Kwaka 900. I'd get too teary if I started talking about my Ducati 750 SS (the Imola special!) that I sold for a song way back! And all the rest of my toys.

[HiOSilver]

This is a stolen image of the first bike I ever owned - a Hodaka SuperRat. I chewed up a lot of east Tennessee dirt on this bike.

Followed by...

I bought this CB500T brand new in 1974 (well, not this particular one). It's basically a bored 450, but I put about 25,000 miles on it and even took it to Cuba with me when I was in the Navy.

[dilligaf]

I learned to ride on the "T", in fact one time i put it in a neighbor's field after trying to take a left hander with the sidestand still down, luckly there was no fence!

[riceburner]

First ever bike (at age 9) was one of these :



Then went onto a Honda Karen moped (at 16 a 50cc moped is the legal maximum on UK roads),

Then a Suzuki GP100 :


(mine was blue)

Then a Yamaha YB100 (cos the Suzuki wouldn't run under 6K revs and prooved useless for the test)


(Passed my test on this thing, crap it was - you could get seasick!)

Then onto a Guzzi V50 MkII

(Ours was Red - it was my mum's first "big" bike too. )

Then a Ducati TL600 (A Touring Pantah)


Dear God that thing was ugly....

I turned it into a cafe Racer with a gloss black paintjob, shortened side-panels, a Le Mans bikini fairing, Conti Race exhausts and rearssets - great bike...

[Pat]

CB100:

CL175:

CL360:

400 Super Sport:

XS750 triple:

Guzzi V50:

550 Super Sport:

Ducati GT900:

Yamaha XV-920:

Yamaha Vision:

XL1200 'S':

Honda 750 Super Sport:

Roadster 1150:

Triumph Sprint RS:

[DJ Downunder]

Nice collection there Pat...I can't wait to see what's next for you...it's good to see you still posting.

DJ

[154mph]

1979 yamaha xt500
then in 80 I bought a Kawasaki Z1R

[mistercindy]

Heckuva post, Pat! BTW, I learned to ride on a buddy's CB360, but I don't recall the hot 70s era blonde coming with it!

[tor1150r]

First bike was a 2002 Honda Shadow Spirit 750. Rode it for just over 1 year before I traded it in for my 04 R

[darthrider]

I wanted to post to this thread but just now got set up on SmugMug and got some images on-line. I have a LOT of gaps to fill in on the bikes I've had, looks llike I need to warm up the scanner.
Here's what I have in digital so far.

Before I got into it, my dad, "CM" was. This was on a motorpool Harley somewhere in California ~1942. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! My poor mother (Joy)...she married one and raised two like this.


This was in Amarillo, TX in 1948. CM had traded the family's only transportation, a 3rd hand Dodge for a 2nd hand Indian. Mother didn't know anything about it until he pulled into the drive. It was our only transportation for over a year. He put a longer seat on it and I remember many nights with CM on the front, Joy on the back, me in the middle and all of us holding bags of groceries! The 5 year old rug rat on the front porch is yours truly with my dog "Weavy" looking through the door. I didn't know it at the time but I was already hooked for life! The day he brought this home was the first, and last time I ever felt of a hot motorcycle engine...on purpose!


Next up, Amarillo 1957, young Dave's 14th birthday and a brand new Sears Catalog Puch "Allstate" moped. 50CC 2.5HP, two gears on the left grip...Hoochie Mama, I had arrived! Man, I mowed a lot of lawns and delivered a lot of papers to make this happen but I soon learned many lessons, most the hard way.
4 months later my best friend was killed while "throwing his papers" on a Cushman Highlander scooter one Friday afternoon when a woman ran a stop sign and smashed his un-helmeted head into the curb. No one but racers had helmets then, no one even carried them for sale.
Lesson learned.
Monday after that tragedy was a school day and they were going to let us out of school early to go to Charles Sibley's funeral. On the way to lunch before that, on the moped with another friend on behind, a woman ran a yield sign and I T-boned her, sending me sailing over the top of her car and landing on my feet at 20 MPH, and my friend slamming into the driver's door. We both went to the hospital but nothing very serious. The moped was totalled but her insurance replaced it.
Lesson learned.
I'd had the new one for a few months when I squeezed into the single car garage one night and parked next to CM's Rambler. The moped caught fire when I killed it and I panicked, running into the house thinking the Old Man would be as concerned about the moped as I was. I was amazed to see his priority was saving the car and house. Adults!
Lesson learned.
But it sure as hell was not all bad! I was the envy of all my buds and left them furiously pedalling their Schwinn's in my dust as I raced off at 45 MPH. I was mobile and could ride to the Harley shop where my life's ambition was to become their "Gunk Boy". The old farts will know what that is. I found out where the girls were. I found out where "those" girls were! I was Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty I was Free At Last!
Lesson learned.

(I don't know why that didn't work?)

Amarillo 1958 and I was moving up to a very used but *much* faster (65 MPH!) 1954 Harley Davidson "165", a larger variant of the better known 125cc "Hummer" (even at that tender age I was already missing out on those...hmmm.)
Anyway, this pic is not the actual one. Mine was red with a white racing stripe and not nearly this nice. And I found it attracted much more female interest than the moped.
Lesson learned!!!
http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/32936549-S.jpg

Next was a nice little Mustang Stallion scooter/motorcycle. Don't laugh, burned-rubber breath, these were pretty hot little bikes. At one time there was nothing on two or four wheels that would stay with a Mustang, stop light to stop light! A 375CC 4-stroke with the carb & exhaust mounted on the front of the cylinder, a 3-spd. English gearbox and an external flyweel that must have weighed over 10 lbs. spinning right where your right boot was. We kept the flywheels polished with our engineer's boots and it was a badge of honor to have that "Mustang Scuff" on your boot!


This is where my story skips ahead a bunch of years (until I get some things scanned) so just imagine an assortment of street, dirt & race Yamahas, Pentons, Kawasakis, Rickmans, Bultacos, AJSs, Triumphs, BSAs, Ducatis, etc.

We pick up again in 1975 when I got this 1973 Norton Commando 850 Roadster, one of my life's dreams and fantasies! It didn't look like this, or run like this when I got it. It's suprising what you can accomplish by spending w-a-y too much money and a l-o-t of work over 30 years! This morning was actually cool and I took the Nort out for some excercise. I have no words for the pure, visceral sensation(s) of this bike...the looks, the sounds, the "communication", the feedback, the performance, the drop-jawed on-lookers and well-wishers at Starbucks. The trophies, the street races lost and (mostly) won, the fun and friends. It has certainly been worth the trouble. (Should anyone like a large, hi-res version of this professional photo, send me your email address and I'll hook you up)


I do have a (not very good) image of the great 1984 R100RS I was lucky enough to have owned for about 15 years. A little mild hotrod/custom with lots of handling & go-fast goodies. This was the best sports-touring bike I've ever ridden. If it had lots more power I'd still have it. But it is in a great home. One of my best buds has it and will restore it (again) someday for his old-age touring bike. In September he and his grown daughter are riding to the Sipapu, NM BMW rally. She will ride the old RS. He has trained her well!


Next is a 1994 R100RM "Mystic" custom/hotrod with a radical airhead motor. This was a very special bike that I intended never to sell but a rich guy kept bugging me about it and I kept telling him it was not for sale. Finally he decided he liked it a LOT more than I did and wrote a big, stupid check. With part of the proceeds I bought my 2002 R1150R. The Mystic has changed hands again and now lives on an island off the coast of France and belongs to some wheel with Michelin. This little bike was way cool...


Here's a pic of "Darth" right after I got him. His name came from a bud who was trying to needle me about my new scoot and said it "looks like Darth Vader's bike". I said yeah, it does & Darth was born.


Here's Darth in his current guise.


And here's a pic of "The Most Fun" bike I have ever owned...my 2002 MZ 660cc Baghira Black Panther Street Super Motard! Soon to be for sale by the way, I caught the dual sport itch.


And another...cool!


And lastly,one racing pic. This my favorite pic of me on a bike 'cause you can't see me! This was a wicked-hot 1951 Triumph Speed Twin 500cc Vintage Bonneville Salt Flat Racer I raced a couple of times.


That's all...

[DJ Downunder]

Hey darthrider....looks like you've been having 'too' much fun...

DJ

[darthrider]

looks like you've been having 'too' much fun...

Guilty your Honor...I throw myself on the mercy of the court!

[yjleesvrr]

Dave and Pat - I am NOT worthy! I feel like a brat compared to you guys. I have much to ride and learn...

[darthrider]

I have much to ride and learn...

Yes we do, Grasshoppa...

[BMWChef]

Awesome posts Dave and Pat!
Unlike Dave and others I didn't get the motorcycle bug from my father. He was a surgeon, so he used to make us work triage at the hospital some weekends in hope that would disuade us from riding. I guess it worked somewhat since only two of us out of eight ride. Three of us used to ride together in the old days (late 60's and early 70's), but my older brother Randy had a head-on accident with a county truck while blazing up Deer Creek Canyon one summer night. He survived, but, somehow, lost his taste for riding. Even after all these years Dad still asks me, every time we talk, when I'm going to give up riding. 'ain't happenin'!
The first bike I rode was my best friends Honda C77, which got me hooked.
The first bike I owned was a '64 Maico Blizzard, followed by a Bultaco Pursang 350. In High School I rode a Kaw KZ 900, folowed by a KZ 1000. In 1986 I bought my first new bike and First BMW, an R65, then an R90, followed by my dream bike R100RS ( which I totalled... ). Next came my K1100RS and finally my Sleek, Black, Nearly Naked...1150R ( kinda reminds me of a Jamaican Girl I once lived with... )

Aloha,
Chef

[AndyfromPoland]

1960s Honda C90 step-through when I was mid-teens.

Less said, probably the better.

[Gord]

This is my very first bike. Had her exactly 480 days. Some of you might be familiar with this particular marque.

[Blitz]

First bike??? NAKED of course!! A 1981 Suzuki GS450E, maroon. I was stationed at my first base on active duty in Florida and sold my Mom's car for the money. It wwas $1400.00 brand new and I put a Kerker exhuast on it...sweet and fun I will never forget that wonderful machine that brought me many memories and into the world of 2 wheels forever! I actually learned on my buddy's yamaha 900 seca, which he crashed in front of me showing off one night.....ooops!

[rchop]

1969 Honda 350. My parents didn't let me ride bikes as long as I lived at home so I moved out when I turned 17. I sold my 64 chevy and bought a Honda 350. I had seen Easy Rider and was going to make a chopper. After painting the honda and adding some chrome and other parts...I was the coolest guy at my high school (at least I thought so!)
So started a motorcycle tinkering career that is still going strong today.