BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

What was your *FIRST* bike?

The first bike I *rode* was really a mini-bike - a Steens Taco 44, powered by a Briggs & Stratton 3.5 HP engine - and the first bike I really got to spend some time on was a Yamaha 50cc two-stroke step-through borrowed for some time during a hunting season and abused on a hunting lease...

But, my very *FIRST* bike, that I owned and rode unmercifully for just over two years was a 1970 Penton 125cc Six Days... bought used by lots of lawn mowing, paper throwing, and tree trimming money.

It looked like this (though this is not my personal bike, and pictured is actually a 1969 model... The pipe, seat, and cylinder/head arrangement on mine was slightly different...)



So, fellow Beaksters... What was your own *FIRST* bike?

Cheers!

Dallara

1987 Honda Nighthawks 700s. It lasted 6 months til I was run over by a cement truck on it. It was ahead of it's time w/ shaft drive and oil in frame.

1973 Yamaha RD200 2-stroke. I bought it in 1986 for $200. It was my very first bike. I was just a stupid kid back then and the first day I had it, I did a vertical wheelie in front of my friend and promptly dumped it. From what I recall, it did very little damage to me and the bike and I just got back on and continued to ride like nothing happened.

My first real motorcycle was a Triumph Tiger Cub, prior to that some Cushmans and a Lambretta Moped.

I had a Honda 50 when I was a kid in the early 80s. It was followed by some larger dirt bikes.

The first bike I purchased was a 1981 R65 in 1997(or '98 brain fart).

Benelli 65 dirt bike

first street bike 1973 Yamaha RD 350B Ring-a-ding-ding! a lot of fun though.

ken k

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/30334842-M.jpg
Ducati Monza Junior.

1976 r90s - hence my user name. I purchased it new in 1976 at age 21 and put about 2k miles on it before crashing. I fixed it up and rode another 20k miles or so before selling it. Subsequently I've owned about 10 more BMW bikes (also 10 or so other brands, i.e. guzzi v11sport, ducati monster & mh900e, etc.) all classics in my mind.

Mine was a Yamaha 90, year unknown (early 70s) that I traded a BMX bike for when I was 15. The Yamaha didn't run when I got it, ran for a few hours after working weeks on it, and didn't run when I dropped it off at the junk yard. Good experience, as far as ripping into a 2 stroker goes. My first "operating" bike was a Honda CX500 that I bought used in 1984. It lasted about a year, until a lady yappin' at her kids in the back seat of her car ran a 4 way stop, and knocked me off my intended course of a left-hand turn. No broken bones, but I was off of my feet for 3 weeks with a drain tube in my leg. The CX was my communter bike, since I didn't have a running car. Oddly enough, I was returning from the county tax collector, where I had just registered the 1976 Nova that I bought from a friend. Now, I have the Roadster and a Yamaha Bear Tracker ATV.

1967 Yamaha 305 Twin. Presage of the RD twins. Took off the handlebars and put Clubman bars on it, Boge rear shocks, Continental tires, and natural rubber Tommiselli grips. That and a black Buco helmet made me the terror of Ward Parkway in Kansas City in 1971, where I soon learned that if you passed a pack of hard tail Harleys all at once on a curve, you would probably get to meet your first thrown beer from a member of the El Forestero's, a back patch club here in the Midwest. I survived because one of them recognized me, knew I worked at a cycle parts shop, and I had custom-cut a chain for him on his hardtail. They let me live with a warning.

I liberated the name of my R1150R from an El Forestero's bike. He had a blue-green hardtail Triumph 650 Bonnie, the first Rainmaker.

My first - 1975 RD 350:

My first bike was an '86 Honda Nighthawk 450. A very, very used one I bought for 75 bucks in 1998. Didn't ride it much as it ran poorly as it was neglected most of its life.

Dallara, Holy Crap! We had the same first bike!!! Same color as the picture you posted. I was fifteeen and bought mine used with money I made bailing hay. Paid two hundred bucks for it. It was set up for ice racing when I got it. I still remember my father complaining about how loud it was. I rode it for about a year but eventually sold it to a kid down the street because the shifting fork (???) kept breaking. I then went out and bought a 68 Opel Kadett with no brakes...nice memories. Thanks John Penton!


Brakecheck

RIVI
Put a pair of Boyeson Reeds, a K&N in the stock airbox, a set of Bassani or DG pipes on that bike, move the needle clip down one and screw in a set of 145 mains, and WHOOSH

2002 Atalanta Blue R1150R. Not very ancient or original compared to all of the above, but has all the same sentimental attachments.

For myself it was a Suzuki 90(early 70s) with a selector lever that would let you choose street or trail gears. At 14yrs old,i had a lot to learn and i did. Several other bikes since those early days,some good and some not so much and thats why i'm enjoying my latest bike(04 r1150r) so much.

Let me get this straight. Your first bike ever owned is a R1150R and your second is the K1200R? That's doin' it right!

Easy question, trick answer.

My first bike was a Panhead, I believe I was eleven years old at the time:
It was the motorcycle that opened up a world I wouldn't discover for another five years. Covered in dust, it dwarfed everything else in the little shed that it had been stuffed into. Beams of sunlight streaked across it's Black & White saddle built for two (mounted on a single shock); I remember fringe and lights, lotsa lights.

My other first bike was a White Honda Dream 305:
Just like a commercial, it cruised by in front of the school with it's "cool" pilot wearing saddle shoes and a button-up shirt. The "Big Bike from Japan." Everyone knew that only "Beatniks" or "Hoods" rode the big bike from Britain....

Ah yes...... I was already riding Hondas, but my other first "real bike" was a Blue BMW:
There it was, used, sitting on the show-room floor with it's chrome "Toaster" gas-tank, glittering like the Hope Diamond among plastic looking Hondas. The new BMW's just looked to be ten times the bike that the Japanese imports were..... The owner couldn't find the key to fire it up for me, so he wriggled a ten penny nail into the top of the headlamp housing to give me my first listen to a real motorcycle.

I never owned any of the above bikes, but like that Black Norton 750, an El Dorado Guzzi, or the Hurricane Trident, in my mind I had already had many "firsts" before even knowing how to ride a bike. These were the bikes to first make an impression on me, and though I had owned a few Hondas & Yamahas up to this point, my most memorable and my first exotic was my Blue Ducati GT900.

I don't mean to overlook or ignore that red CB100 that made my motorcycle riding dreams a reality, as it was truly my "first"..... but there have been a dozen more 'firsts' since, and more yet to come.

First bike - '85 XT 600 in '89……all my buddies were riding full fledged dirt machines, got rid of the XT, entered the dirty world for 10 plus years.

Missed my first love and replaced it with its redheaded stepbrother with ten times the miles.

Once again in the stable

A 50cc Maserati.

It did not last that way for long - replaced the motor with a '56 Mosquito motor bored to 70cc, 20mm Delorto carb, fully ported and blue printed, home made expansion chamber, bored out the transmission and fitted a Garrelli 4speed - used my fathers businesses tooling.

I still have the brass Maserati tank badges. There are 2 of these bikes in their original form in the Barber museum in AL.

It was dangerous!. On 2" tires would run 75mph. British Racing Green tank.

Did my 1st distance work on it too - 800 mile round trip in South Africa - Pretoria to Durban and back.