What was your 1st experience riding like?

[Oldschool]

You know the 1st, 2nd, of 3rd experience riding was the best you ever had. I remember the 1st three, but it's my 3rd one I will never forget.    All different bikes. So lets hear it, details please.

I'll post back for I'm in the garage buttoning up my clutch. Just thought of it and figure I post up before I forget. Now back at the Honda I go...

[lowriderghost]

Well, my very first time ON a motorcycle was when my older Brother Mike showed up in Santa Barbara CA in the late 60's on a Harley ~ what I now believe to of been a 1965/66 FLH Panhead Electra-glide ~ Last year of the Panhead but First year for Electric Starting. He had showed up there either before or after on a Honda 305 maybe (he always says 350 Honda but THAT didn't come out until 1969, yes??)??!! Anyways as to the Harley HE don't even remember that bike that well BUT I do... shoot I was only (?) 10-11 at the time BUT I remember the Center Console ~ with the huge Speedo between the Fatbobs... and it DID have an electric start ~ he does remember it being "old and beat up" he said... SOoooooo???!! Maybe an even older Pan with the Electric Starter retrofitted?? BUT it had the Hydra-Glide front end so.... hmm.  Anyways he took me up and down the block on it.... I was thrilled.   Why I got to have a Pan someday.... GOT to.


The first bike I myself ever rode (2nd bike I was on) was at 15 ~ a VERY beat up 1967 Honda CB160SS... I had never ridden a bike in my life... guy that sold it to me said "here's the clutch, here's the brakes, here's the throttle.... good luck".    I had driven Go-Karts at the commercial tracks and driven my father's then GIANT Olds Vista Cruiser around the parking lots for years SO.....    Hardest thing for me was NOT slipping the clutch and stalling BUT learning NOT to grab the brakes!!!!   This on a kind of heavy clumsy Street Bike with a BALD rear tire out in the Dirt field next to the house (where ALL the SB Dirt Bikers used to ride... )! That's where a LOT of my aches and pains NOW 40 years later have come from I have no doubt!


Finally Bike #3 was a 1972 Honda XL250 Enduro ~ still kind of a big deal at the time as it was considered more of a serious effort from Honda but of course was just a big ol' play bike. NOW these days I'm really wishing I had THAT particular bike back.... with it's shorter suspension and the like ~ the way I ride dirt and all (SLOW) it would be perfect for me. ;-) Anyways by then I had my License that said I could ride the Highways SO...... I was eager to get OUT on the road!!  My first actual 'Tour' in MY mind anyways was taking this up CA Highway 1 to Frisco and then return... it took me MORE then a day to do this ~ seemed like the biggest adventure ever!! Of course years later I was making that same ride within a day's time... it never matched that first time's magic though. 

[kschilk]

  Kinda' hard to remember that far back but my first ride was on a Tote-Gote....so were the next few hundred. My first "motorcycle" ride was on a friend's dad's, '60-something Honda Super 90. Weirdest bike I ever rode...it had knobby tires, 'coz he used it like a dual-sport but it also had rubber-mounted, ape-hanger handlebars. It handled like a dishrag but it was still fun to ride....definitely a challenge for an 11 year old!

My most memorable ride, was on Sunday, July 24th, 1983. They say everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame but I managed to milk mine out, for a good 55 minutes (+ 2 laps). All modesty aside, Hondzilla and I truly rode "the perfect race".... ...every true racer's dream.

[lowriderghost]

Heh ~ I think that sounds like the 'Honda TRAIL 90' and though I never had one myself, just about anyone I ever chatted with in Campgrounds who had Campers and/or Motorhomes in the 70's HAD to have a Honda Trail 90 mounted (riding on) the Bumper on they're rigs!!  I'm wondering now how many of them folks actually RODE the thing, or just had it ON the bumper as it was part of the 'must have' back then??!!   LOL

Kinda' hard to remember that far back but my first ride was on a Tote-Gote....so were the next few hundred. My first "motorcycle" ride was on a friend's dad's, '60-something Honda Super 90. Weirdest bike I ever rode...it had knobby tires, 'coz he used it like a dual-sport but it also had rubber-mounted, ape-hanger handlebars. It handled like a dishrag but it was still fun to ride....definitely a challenge for an 11 year old!

[Oldschool]

Well my 1st ride was on a Triumph 650 (later mine). A friend of mine walk me through the procedures. Then I gave it gas and dump the clutch. Damn, not enough gas. Kick it over and did the same thing. Well 3rd times a charm. Got it rolling and started following up the gears up the street. Started down shifting when I started to slow down as I was approaching him. Then I roll it on pass him and this went on for the next 30 mins. Finally stop and my buddy asked me was I sure I never rode a bike. Told I rode a moped once.  He looks at me and said chewy your a natural rider. It was one of the greatest times in my 17 year old life. Never will forget the rush it gave me to just hop on and ride it like I stole it. I have a picture but can't fine it.

2nd ride was on my Custom Yamaha 650.



I bought this in a basket case not knowing how to put it back together. This was my 1st intro to the mechanical repair of a motorcycle. If I recall  the only thing I had was the frame, engine (that was apart), and allot of parts that needed to be clean up. Rebuilt the engine, all exterior parts on the engine that was aluminum was polish and metal chrome.  I had the frame side cover, but pick up a mustang tank and fender. Painted it red. Fork were extended 6 or 8 inches. Pipes were Drag Specialty. Before I get to off the subject I build the bike on a 2 story apartment. When me and my bro was done we looked at each and just laugh. Now we got to get it down the apartment. We thought tying the bike to a rope and lowering it do. We finally decide to kick the neighbor out of bed so he could open his door to snake the bike to the top deck. Once clear I rode that puppy down the steps..  Ok I was young and a partier at the time and nothing really matter. Once downstairs I rode that puppy the whole time I had it. Me and that bike went everywhere together. It was a fun and happy time specially when you put a basket case together and ride it. This was the fruit of my labor being enjoyed.


3rd was the day I bought the shovel.



It was not intended to be bought. I was wanting to pick up a softtail for $10000. I was over my friends house and he was trying to tell me (I wasn't hearing him) that this bike is like no other. He wanted me to take a ride on it and if I did not like it I would just hand him back the keys. So I firgure what do I have to lose. I fired it up and felt the vibration. I took off. I remember the feeling I had like no other. The power of the motor went through my body. I was in heaven for the 1st time. Took a ride to the beach and cruize the cliff. Never felt like this on anything else. Needless to say I brought my bike back and told him sold. That was 31 years ago.

4th was my Honda VF700F.



Bought it brand spanking new. Was the 1st of it's kind. I rode it more than any other bikes I owe in my life time. Rode it in the rain, dirt, fog, whatever weather there was. I even stunt it. it was fun right up until the accident that almost killed me and took my leg. But that is another story. Once I was able and still in crutches I rebuilt the bike better with race equipments. When I has done I had a explosively race bike. It handle so, so, wonderful. The bike was so fined tuned, all you had to do was think about what your next move was and the bike just did it. Of course, it was replace with just the #1 products of the times.


This bike I will always remember. 

[CustomDave]

I don't remember what bike I went for my first ride on. I guess it would have been one of Dad's old HD's or the old Kaw 750 that he always kept around. (He would never admit it but I think he loved the Kaw more than the many HD's that came and went.) The first ride I remember was when we first moved back from Hawaii after Dad was stationed there. He left the bikes at my grandparents house when we moved so he hadn't been on a bike in many years at that point. He sold the HD he had there for a down payment on a house for us and kept the Kaw. We hauled it home in the back of his beat to hell old chevy truck. (he really loved that old truck too, it was a 67-72 model, don't remember the specific year). On the way back we stopped by the local Kawasaki dealer to get a few parts for a tune up. He told me to go pick myself out a helmet so I could ride with him. I was more than excited at that point. I picked out one that was blue and sparkled like a bass boat. We went home that afternoon and unloaded the bike. Dad showed me how to change plus and a few other things. The next day he got it fired up and told me to wait while he took it for a quick ride. I waited in the driveway for what seemed like forever. Finally he came back to get me. My mom was doing her motherly duties of telling him just back roads in the country when I was on and all that type of stuff. He didn't listen. We went straight on the highway, down to the local lake, up through the main drag in town, and eventually back home. I had never felt so cool in my life.

I know I rode before that, Mom says dad used to set me on his gas tank and go around the block when I was pretty little, and I have vague memories of that. But this is the ride that I remember getting me hooked.

[firebos7]

At a riding course on some lil super sherpa 250 or something. Was nothing terribly complicated/exciting.

Was still awesome.

[kschilk]

I've been fortunate, there were literally hundreds of "firsts" for me. While racing, each class (displacement) change was a big difference from the one before. The power and handling were noticeably different, for better or worse and my opponents were constantly changing. Even a small move, like from 100 to 125cc or 175 to 250cc, was like learning to ride all over again. Every first time at a different track, was both exciting and frightening at the same time. It kinda' freaks you out to hit a jump wide open, when you're not really sure what's on the other side. With different tracks, different weather and track conditions, plus an ever changing field of competitors....every ride was an almost totally new experience. Switching from mx to supercross, cross-country or flat track...each time meant getting back the "feel" of both the bike and the track or course. The bike setups were different, the riding style was different and the track/terrain was so totally different that again, each time was like the first time.

Probably one of my most memorable first experiences, was when I got one of the very first CR125 Elsinores. The Elsinores were a revolution in mx technology, incredibly faster and more powerful than anything before them. My first ride on the "Elsie" pretty much scared the livin' crap outa' me, it was like getting out of a station wagon and climbing into a top fuel dragster! That literally meant learning to ride all over again. My first ride on a Husqvarna is another I will always remember fondly. Back then, the Euro bikes were the benchmark and Husky was the ultimate. They were rare and expensive so owning one was very prestigious. The Euro power and handling was different than the Jap bikes so it was a whole new world for me.... ...one that I didn't seem to fit into very well. As much as I loved riding the Husky, Jap bikes were obviously better suited to my style of riding.

[The Tourist]

Honestly, quite frightening considering how my life turned out.

There were no formal classes at that time.   Everyone was still in awe that 'fire' had just been invented. . .

The 'instruction' at that time consisted of an older guy stating, "This is a Harley-Davidson, that is the clutch, try not to hit anything expensive. "

I was too young, too stupid, on a bike too big for me, and one of my first rides was on the Interstate in a stiff wind.

I look back fondly now, but in truth, it's a wonder I'm still alive.

[LowRidinMexican]

Let's see...

My First Bike:


My first words:
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