Discuss: What was your first experience on a motorcycle or S

[totalmotorcycle]

What was your first experience on a motorcycle or scooter?

[ceemes]

damn, I thought the s was for sex. Sex on a motorcycle....doable, but requires a lot of coordination and balance.....but I digress....my first experience on a motorcycle was around the age of 13 when I tried to ride my buddies dirt bike in the field, I promptly did a donut and dropped it.

[totalmotorcycle]

Mine would be when I saw a motorcycle (I think it was one of the very first gold wings) in the late 70s as a kid (it was parked), jumped on it and was hooked. Of course it wasn't running and I didn't get a ride, but what an experience.

After that I promptly put hockey cards in the spokes of my banana seat bike





Mike

[MSmith4542]

A friends Honda Spree back when I was 13 or 14. Thing was an absolute blast to ride and I saved up money to buy my own. By the time I had a nice chunk of change though I was on the verge of getting my license and put it towards a car instead. My thinking back then was that the pretty girls would prefer to be picked up in a 1991 Chevy Cavalier than on a scooter, but in retrospect I still want that damn Spree!

[dr_bar]

I mentioned this in my blog, but here's the Coles Notes version.

Before I was born, my Godfather raced motorcycles with his best friend on Daytona Beach. In the late 50's and early 60's when Summer came around, that best friend gave him a loaner bike for the summer. When he went to pick it up, I was always with him and rode in front with my arms holding the gas tank, very tightly I would think. Norm "Willie" Telford was his name and Indian Motorcycles sponsored him, His friend Trevor was sponsored by his family's business, Fred Deeley Cars & Motorcycles, now called Trev Deeley Motorcycles. The Deeley family owns the Harley Davidson franchise for Canada, a chunk of change from every Harley sold in Canada, goes into the company coffers... Needless to say, I was hooked very young...

[blues2cruise]

I was about 14 and was with my Mom visiting relatives in Victoria. My cousin gave me a ride on his motorcycle from one end of the driveway to the other. I was thrilled.

Later on when I was 16 the boyfriend at the time who later became my husband....had a motorcycle. It was a BSA. He took me riding all over the place.

It wasn't until later in life....much, much, much later....that I finally got a license and learned to ride.

[Thumper]

When I was 8-9 years old, my sister's boyfriend had a purple Norton Commando; I loved that thing and it made me want to ride more than anything. It wasn't until I was 20 that I got a little Honda Express, and I rode that thing everywhere, even in winter (in Utah, with snow; in hindsight that was a very stupid thing to do.)

Still...I was in my 40s when I got my first "real" bike. Before then the want was there, but the money wasn't.

[pchast]

When I was 15 or 16 the neighbors invited me to use their dirt bike
in the back field a few times.

A long time between rides... It wasn't until my late 50's that I actually
got a license and started riding regularly.

[Grey Thumper]

When I was 16 or 17, I was able to ride a friend's Dad's Honda Rebel on the streets around their house. I thought it was noisy, smelly, dangerous, and massive (all 234ccs of it ). I was hooked. I bought tons of motorcycle magazines over the years, and when the interwebz came along, went to the websites, downloaded videos. I was 36 though when I finally took real classes and actually bought a bike.

[BRUMBEAR]

I was about 7/8 I saw Evel jump on TV that was it it was a rap and I aint never looked back!!!!!!!!

[Grey Thumper]

Brumbear, I must've been the same age or slightly younger when my folks gave me one of these. Best toy ever!

[BRUMBEAR]

OH I HAD one as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TourGAL2012]

My first experience was purchasing a Yamaha 80 cc. My brother, also, had a 80 cc. Together we traveled the back roads and dirt roads. It was so much fun, especially going over the mountain from Stamford to Bennington, Vt. and back by way of Williamstown, Ms. The early 60's did not seem to be as dangerous as today on the highways and byways. Rides are more powerful, as well. It seems that once you've experienced riding you never lose that desire.

[Jarlaxle]

Rode some sort of mini-dirtbike when I was about eleven. I managed a couple hundred yards and it died.

Rode my friend's little scoot (Chinese Jonway "Islander 50") a few times...then did the MOST class on a 250 Nighthawk.

[Jamers!]

my very first time on two motorized wheels was when i was 15. A family friend was having his bachelor party in the desert. The plan was for a bunch of us to all go out there with 2 RVs, camp, blow "poo poo" up and ride dirt bikes.

After about 10 mins of what levers and what pedals do what i was sent off. I already knew how to drive a manual car (well as well as a 15 year old can!) so the gears werent too hard!

Flying around the big open dunes and up and down little rollers at high speed was just amazingly fun. I tried to get a lil air once, ended poorly, with the bike caught reved up and my wondering how to approach a spinning bike!

even with that slight mishap, i knew i was hooked. I loved the wind in my face, the control you feel when your body is part of your movements and the machine reacts to you.


It would be 3 years till i would ride again, but I had not forgotten and now, even 11 years later i remember how big my smile was on that day and how much fun i was having. It is those memories that have brought me to riding full time.

[jaskc78]

My first experience was riding behind my dad on an old Kawasaki cruiser -- I think it was a 250 -- that my oldest brother had bought. At the time, my brother didn't have a motorcycle endorsement on his license so my dad would take it out from time to time and run it a bit.

We rode out to visit some friends of the family and I can remember hanging on around my dad's waist and being terrified every time I could feel him shift his weight and lean the bike under us. I think I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time.

[GS_in_CO]

In the early 1960's US Naval Aviators brought back flocks of Japanese motorcycles on the hangar decks of aircraft carriers when they returned from deployment to the Pacific.

My Dad brought home a Honda Cub 50cc fire-breathing motorcycle. Some of his buddies had Trail 70s and maybe a 90.

There was an enclosed kind of flattish box behind the rider's seat with a hand grab rail. So I rode behind him sitting on the steel box holding onto the chrome grab bar.

We went lots of places in San Diego. But since I was about 7 or 8 years old I only have vague ideas of where we really went.

We worked me up to starting it and doing circles in the street. Then, because he had another deployment coming up and I wouldn't be adequately supervised and knew enough to get into trouble - he sold it. I understand that bike did many, many years more service with the teenage son of his friend.

[HalfBreed]

I was 12 and a friend had a Honda 65, I was "dog" riding one day and he offered to let me drive and I sure as crap wasn't going to refuse, and he stopped in the middle of ths city street with little to no traffic. He steps off lets me slide up. So I'm sitting there with a "poo poo" eating grin twisting the throttle & all of the sudden the bike jumps straight in the air dumping me on my back & my buddy laughing so hard he couldn't stand up. Seems he omited one little fact about his beloved little bike. Seems that it had a habit of slipping into gear on it's own so kinda exscpeted that maybe somethingmight happed & of course it did. I wiil never forget that day and that moment as long as I'm alive. I never looked back and have been riding ever since.I'm 58 about to turn 59.

HalfBreed

[blues2cruise]

Good story Ed.