Your very first ride? Tell us your story.

[AlexG]

Your very first ride? Tell us your story. And show the bike you did it on.

Mine was in 1976 on a parking lot behind Moscow’s car factory. Friend of mine briefly explained to me how the clutch works on his Jawa 350 and off I went only to stall it right away. It took me several tries but eventually I managed to get the bike rolling and even shift it to second gear. The sensation of riding a motorcycle was so powerful that after few circles around the parking lot I was forever hooked! 

Here is the culprit - the most sophisticated motorcycle available in USSR at that time:

[Outback_Jon]

My first ride (in the yard) was on my grandfather's Yamaha DS7.  I was probably 3 and sitting on the tank.    He bought it the year I was born, and upgraded to a Honda CB400F in 1976.

It was also my first bike.  18 years later.  In 1990, I cleaned it up, got it running, and put it on the road after years of it sitting in the back yard.  (My dad had "inherited" it in 1976 and rode it for some years afterwards.)  My first ride on it at that point would have been up and down the gravel driveway in front of my house. 

And here's the best part of the story.  I still have it.  It's sitting in the weeds outside my garage awaiting a complete restoration.  (Although I'm going to need a complete donor bike to do it...)  It's 40 years old, and I hope my son (or one of my daughters) will ride it someday.  A 4th generation experiencing such a classic will be awesome.

The 1976 Honda CB400F is also still in the family.  My sister has possession of it at the moment, though it isn't being used.  If I ever get the DS7 done, I hope to talk her out of the 400F.   

[Pfloydgad]

1971
My neighbor came home from Vietnam with this BMW R60/5. He shipped it home in boxes.
He knocked on our door on a Sat. morning in June of 71, aksed if I was doing anything. I said no and he asked me to come over to the garage, he had something I  might be interested in. There on 4 different tables and a couple of boxes was this "bike in a box".
He knew that I had been running dirt bikes at the farm I was working, but nothing on the street yet. We put it togehter over that weekend, he kicked started it after dinner Sunday evening.
That as they say, is how it all started.
Ride safe all,
Greg

[George R. Young]

Purchased a '65 CB160 in 1967 for the princely sum of $425 (Cdn), thought it was the greatest bike available. It was delivered in a truck from the car dealer where I bought it, and unfortunately it was a misty, rainy day. I was keen enough then to ride anyway, so I had it out on the slippery street learning, and of course it slid out on me, busting up the clutch lever if I remember rightly.

That's how I found out what Honda parts supply is like.

It became my first tourer and it's still the bike of my longest day ride (585 mi.) and my longest tour (8500 mi around North America). I've learned since then that distance is not an end in itself.

It did have a few shortcomings, pistons that go up and down together to maximize vibration, only 4 speeds, the famous centrifugal oil filter. At the time I was happy with it.

[Bob Young]

 
Learned to ride in Riverside, Ca. where the local Harley-Triumph dealer had a slogan, "make your second car a motorcycle". One Saturday morning I went there and asked if they taught folks how to ride, they said sure; grabbed a Honda 150 from the showroom, rode double to a vacant high school lot, where I was shown the controls, told to do a few circles, stop and start a few times. When I returned the instructor said" from the smile on your face, you'll buy a motorcycle. I don't know when, But you'll buy a motorcycle." The instructor I was told was Skip Fordyce, owner of the dealership. After buying a Honda 250 Scrambler (not from them) and riding it for a couple of years, I bought a '67 Triumph TR-6R and had them do the servicing. After all the years since learning to ride (maybe three or four), when I took the Triumph in for servicing, Skip Fordyce himself, remembered me and introduced me to most of his shop mechanics as "the kid I taught to ride in the high school parking lot". Now that's service you don't find today!

[timsatx]

Mine would have been probably 1976. It was the year I went in to the Navy, but before that a friend of mine had a Honda CB360T. It was at some park close by I think, I don't even remember. I just remember riding that thing. The next time was shortly after that on a dirt/trail bike (not sure which) on some land near my house that had not been developed. That set the stage for me to get my first bike while I was stationed in Hawaii. That was a Honda Hawk 400 twin. The pic attached is not that bike but it looked exactly the same. Mine was I think a 1975 model.

The interesting thing is that as a kid I had always wanted to ride one of the neighbors mini-bike but my grandma wouldn't let me. As a teenager I finally got to ride the CB360 and I thought it was so cool. That is what encouraged me to go further with riding. Not that it was some crazy passion that I had to ride, but it did keep it in the back of my mind and as time wore on it would pop up now and then. A slow progression of bike purchases in my time include, in order, Honda Hawk, 1978 Yamaha XS-Eleven, 1992 Honda Nighthawk 750 and now the 2002 Concours.

[DonB]

This was my first bike

[smg id=104]

I was 15 and living in Missouri. at that time you could get a motorcycle permit. I had worked in the hay fields and saved my money to get it. My dad said I could not have it but my mom said he worked for the money and it is his money so I do not think we can say no. so after a long family discussion.  dad said you MUST buy insurance. I will not pay one dime for something that is going to kill you. no gas, no oil, no tires, no nothing. well here I go and get my first motorcycle. so the first day I was riding on a 2 lane road and a car comes around a curve and is over the line, I get nervous and am not sure what to do so I take the ditch. I get a little bunged up and the bike has a few problems. I get it back home and my dad says he will look at it and see what he can do. (after an I told you so) anyway the throttle cable was messed up and he was trying to see what he could do. we had a white picket fence in the yard with a walk gate. as he started through the gate the throttle went wide open and he hit the handle bar while going through the gate. well the bike went down and was going round and round in a circle. it ripped half of his Levi's off, ripped his shirt, broke a finger and 3 ribs. so on the first day a 125 Honda damn near wiped out over half of the family.
ha ha
as I think back on it, it was pretty funny but on that day there was no one laughing

[lt1]

QSTM  My first street bike ride was also a Honda CB125 when I was about 15, but it was in northern Arkansas instead of Missouri.  A cute girl down the street loaned me her bike, and I went up and down the dirt road in front of our house.  A car came from the other direction, and I. too, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and headed for the ditch.  Fortunately, I kept the bike upright.  I gave the the bike back, and didn't ride again for about 6 years.  Thanks for the memories.

[mcclaskeyj]

My first ride was an '81 Honda C70 Passport. It's the red one in my bike fleet all the way on the left side.


I was in college at the time and badly needed some better transportation than my bicycle. I found this bike looking terrible with rags, rust, and wires hanging out of it at a person's house we were visiting with. I asked her about it and she said $150 and it's yours. I came back with tools and a gas tank and sure enough it cranked right up! I got all the wires sorted out and connected and took it down the road for the very first time. I wiped out right under her truck in the driveway cause I didn't know how to take it out of gear. 

I bought it and soon many other bikes followed. I just haven't been able to get over the desire to ride. I guess I'll have to die first.

[connie1]

My memory is a little sketchy but it was around 1976 and Dad bought me a Suzuki (?) 100 street bike which was sorta funny growing up on a farm.  I wanted a dirtbike but I think he was worried I go off into the hills and get into trouble and he wouldn't be able to find me.
So I learned to ride this street bike on the gravel roads around home and as the days and months drew past my daily rides extended further and further afield.  I saw places and met people I never would have if I didn't have that bike.
The only crashes of any importance I ever had ripped a few signal lights off and once I low sided it riding on wet grass in the pasture and when I finally got it off me I had a third degree burn on my calf the size of an orange.  Seemed like a big deal to my mom but it healed and hardly even a scar 25 years later.
When my son became interested in a dirt bike I didn't really have to think about it, I just told him to find a used one for the right price and we went a bought it,  cr250f ...I think he appreciates the ability to look over the next horizon as much as I did.  I'm glad I could pass that on to him.
My oldest daughter now owns her own bike (GS 500) and is already looking for her next one.  My other two daughters are also ready to get started into bikes by riding the 230 as my son has graduated to a Yamaha YZ250.
I also have two brothers and their kids that ride.
If my Dad only knew what he started with that little Suzuki!

[Pfloydgad]

Is it my imagination, or am I seeing a trend going on here ?
Now I'm not going to answer this for you, lets just see if anyone else picked up on this.
One hint, like you need it,
Time.
Ride safe all,
Greg

[timsatx]

Are you talking about the accidents? Either that or all the first Hondas and then going to Kawasaki.

[soeboot44]

My first 'ride' was a Honda QA50 back in 1974.  My dad sold motorcycles at the Honda dealership in Flagstaff, AZ.  Was not too much into farkles back then!  Do remember the blue open face helmet with 'sparkles' in it!  Good times...!  Rode it for a couple of years and then came a long list of various dirt bikes and broken bones. 

 

[AlexG]

Is it my imagination, or am I seeing a trend going on here ?

I think I saw "1976" few times... hmmmm.... 

[Pfloydgad]

Keep guessing.

[KawiG]

Born in 1971, got my first ride at age 3 so i guess it was 1974. Knocked out my two front teeth at age 3.5 and didn't get them back until the 4th grade...what a @#$%. Here is the culprit. Been riding every since!

[tjpgi]

My classmate was the only kid allowed to drive his "motorcycle" to school, Clearwater Central Catholic High School. It was 1965 and he drove a Honda ( I believe a Honda but definitely a Moped) 50cc Moped. One day after school  I talked him into letting me drive it. I could not seem to get the feel of the clutch and kept stalling it. He decided to get on the back, reach around me and get us started in first gear and then hand the controls over to me. Once we got started, I was having so much fun in first gear that I did not realize that he shifted into second and let go of the handle bars. I realized after the crash that hitting the asphalt hurts real bad. I thought that I had broken my arm and I thought Gene got castrated( slid off the back and across the license plate. I was 15 at the time and the next time that I hit the asphalt was on my 57th birthday ( no kidding right on my birthday, crashed my 1991 Springer Softtail). Not bad I guess. If my record holds up, my next crash will be at age 99! No more Mopeds or Harleys just my Concours and her little cousin my GSXR 1000.

[martin_14]

I was 17 and the boyfriend of my cousin had a Honda 1980 CB400N. It was love at first sight, but never got to ride it, not even as a pillion. Two years later, working in a fast food restaurant, I was taking the trash out and saw one parked outside, that turned up to be from a new guy of the staff. He took me for a 20 seconds ride in the parking lot and that was it, the motorcycle-bug stung me and there was nothing in my mind but the need to own and ride a motorcycle. I eventually settled for a 11 years old 1981 Kawasaki 440Ltd which I destroyed a week after buying it, and spend more than half what I paid for it to rebuild it. If it wasn't for a friend's insistence on me using the helmet (it wasn't compulsory back then in Argentina) I wouldn't be here today.

[Conrad]

My very first ride? That's going WAY back. I've always been crazy about riding and driving. My mom used to let me back the old Rambler up and down the driveway when I was 7 or 8. She was a bit overly indulgent with me.   

My very first ride would have been on a minibike and I was 6 years old. Our neighbor's kids had a minibike and they set up a trail in the field across the street. They let me take a ride and I was hooked! As I got a little older we graduated from minibikes to go-carts to small dirt bikes. We had time trials to see who could run the coarse the fastest. I can't even begin to remember what kinds of bikes we rode, that wasn't important to me at the time, I just wanted to ride. 

When I was in highschool I worked two jobs so that I could buy my first bike. A 1974 Yamaha DT 125 Enduro. I loved that bike and rode it everywhere, we lived in Naples Florida so weather wasn't an issue. After that I lusted after a Suzuki GT 380 but I never was able to get the cash for it.

Not my old bike but it looked like this.



Here's the GT 380 that I wanted SO badly. I even took a test ride and I had a poster of it up in my room. What a dork eh?

[jim_de_hunter]

1977 - My Dad had this beauty that I rode back and forth to driver's ed.  On the first day I was late because I forgot to turn on the petcock.