Your First One

[Revalden]

Holy Crap Batman, You are a bunch of older than dirt geezers. My first bike was a 1973 Yamaha 250 Enduro 2 stroke. No matter how long I let it sit it would always start on the third kick.

[Eredding]

Mine was a Yamaha 1977 DT100. I still a have it original condition.

[bigbadbrucie]

Did it look anything like this?

Yeah, kind of....no shark fin on front fender, bike was all black. Even though it was a single cylinder it had pipes on both sides with megaphone ends. Of course it was kick start, had spark advance lever, and had a mind of its own. I was the original 98 lb. weakling, and the jocks at school always wanted to show me how to start the bike. I’d inadvertently flip the spark advance, and they would always walk away limping. I’d then adjust the spark, kick it over and happily ride away. Ahh, all the fond memories.

[bigbadbrucie]

Holy Crap Batman, You are a bunch of older than dirt geezers. My first bike was a 1973 Yamaha 250 Enduro 2 stroke. No matter how long I let it sit it would always start on the third kick.

Damn straight. Dirt was still healthy back then!

[ozarkryder]

First 2 wheel motorized vehicle was a Sears and Roebuck Allstate mini bike, followed by an Allstate moped - heavy, stamped frame and slower than the mini bike if not pedaled but town street legal for a kid not quite old enough for a driver licence, and my first real motorcycle, as Grandpa worked for Sears and Roebuck, a 1969 Sears SR250 Twingle.
twingle.jpg

[johnsimion]

I learned to ride a "real motorcycle" on my friend's Puch 50, that's right, a 50 cc real motorcycle with a five-speed manual. If you can start that bike moving uphill from a traffic light, you can ride any manual. Many years later I got a Ninja 500, but my wife enjoyed riding too much but wasn't comfortable (what a surprise) so I went to a Suzuki Boulevard C50 cruiser. After she got scared of motorcycles, she made me sell it and I went several years with no motorcycle at all. Finally I decided I wanted a BMW F700 to ride around town. Guess what, same thing, the wife insisted on going along but wasn't comfortable and always in fear that we'd tip over. "Why don't you try a Spyder?" she said. So we did and now we have a "motorcycle" that she's comfortable on and doesn't scare her so much.

[gg194]

1969 Yamaha AT-1 in '69.

[imfleck]

1973 Honda 250XL

honda-xl250-square jpg.jpg

[AVBIZ]

0F55A0DD-52EF-481F-928A-40A9E4344D8B.jpg

My 1st Motorcycle. 350 Kawasaki Avenger A7 SS. 40hp. Nobody could touch it in those days.

0606A1F6-93F2-4B48-B260-5C577BE3C7DB.jpg

Liking the scrambler look- hope to add a Ryker or F3 stablemate for the 73’ CL350 this fall......

[ARtraveler]

Some very nice bikes being shown. They all bring back memories of those good ol days.

By the late 60's/early 70's I was into Honda 305 Dream. My first new Honda was a 350 Scrambler. (72). And...then the fun started.

[BikerBeast]

It is said that we revert to our childhood as we get old. I did not own this but it was my first ride on a motorcycle. My Uncle would take me with him to pickup 50 lb ice block for the icebox at the family cycle shop. After that were several different motorcycles and now the Spyder.
Photo from a web search:

[CrashDavis]

My first bike that wasn't a "mini-bike" was a 1970ish Honda 350. My dad brought it home direct from Japan when he was out traveling with the GA Air National Guard. You could do things like that back then as long as there was space available and you weren't displacing official cargo.

I got my first road rash on it. I was on the exit ramp getting off the expressway when I must have hit an oil slick because the wheels cam out from under me faster than I could think. I had visions of an 18-wheeler following me so I've never moved any faster since then getting off the road. Luckily, nothing was there. No real damage to the bike other than a bent brake pedal that kept me form riding but not from pushing. My damage was a scraped arm under the elbow. My dad came and got me. The worse part of the whole incident was my dad cleaning all the grit out of my arm.

Honda350.jpg

[troop]

Honda CT70H .. 50 years and 24 motorcycles later, I have my first (and only) 3 wheeler

[Myron Ah]

We had a Honda 360 for a very short time. Bad buy really. Our first real ride was a 1981 Honda CB900. Great ride with HI/LOW range so it was a 10 speed. we had fun. Sadly, no pictures. Just fond memories.

[safecracker]

I went looking for a pic. Here it is.

[Motorcycledave]

Mine was a used 1950 WIZZER motor bike, next was a SEARS branded (Cushman)

[missouriboy]

It is said that we revert to our childhood as we get old. I did not own this but it was my first ride on a motorcycle. My Uncle would take me with him to pickup 50 lb ice block for the icebox at the family cycle shop. After that were several different motorcycles and now the Spyder.
Photo from a web search:

HEY! Friend-o-mine had one of those, but it had a steering wheel instead of a handlebar. I drove it a number of times (AND rode in the box while he drove)... the steering wheel had a steering knob on it, because it was bought new in 1950 for a 12-yo boy who lost one arm to cancer. When he died at age 13, the Cushman stayed around town with various owners, one of them being my friend.

[missouriboy]

My first was a 1948 Cushman Pacemaker scooter, bought it in 1954, about a year later, a Whizzer Sportsman. Wouldn't mind having either one of them again.

john

Your story is close to mine!

I had a 1947 James (English) with a Villiers (French) 5hp 2-cycle engine, that I also got around 1954 (or '55, I can't remember). My friend with the 3-wheel Cushman (above) also got one very similar, and we rode together a lot. I was around 14 or 15, no license!

[Bfromla]

I can relate to this sorry no pics of my first powered set of two wheels. My dad was in to RC planes at the time bout ‘86 or so & rigged one of his plane motors to mine & lil sister's scooter (yes with prop) & he had to start it, but we could zoom up & down the block her being quite faster as she was younger/smaller & was always at FULL throttle thankfully the block was a levee access street with not much traffic. It did always seem run out of gas on me . Fond memories after that the first street legal was a used Honda twin star 200 got from a coworker that couldn’t deal with its small oil leak. It wasn’t much ,still good first bike riding experience & 2nd degree burn on calf from tail pipes

[Elwood58]

My first was a 1968 Honda Z50
Honda Z50 1968.jpg

My 2nd was a 1976 Honda CB360
1976_CB_360.jpg

[DoubleA]

2002 HD Sportster 883

[grumpyoldretiredcop]

My first "real" motorcycle was a 1964 Yamaha 125, probably a YA-5 as it didn't have oil injection. It came in a box, I dragged it home and listened to my Dad tell me I'd never get it put together... then he handed me a copy of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycling" and made helpful suggestions when I got bogged down. I got it put together, rode it in the dirt and later on the street, learned about improper oil mixture and spark plug heat range when I burned a hole through the top of the piston as I was going down the road. My Dad (an aerospace machinist) helped me make a new piston as by then, parts were hard to come by.

I searched long and hard for a photo of the correct model - this one is a 1961 but they hadn't changed much by 1964.

1961_YA-5.jpg

[davev1pa]

1965 Honda 150 Dream . Got the entire bike in 2 boxes and a frame with engine attached. I was 15. Rolled it downstairs in my bedroom in the fall. Pushed it upstairs in the spring complete and road worthy. Had the engine rebuilt that winter for $116 at local shop. Painted it purple /glitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QipPMOVg2nw

[Gwolf]

Keep them coming. Nice to look back at the old bikes we had 50 or 60 years ago.

[carbonation]

First MC, 16 in high school, Honda CB125.
That opened the door to a lot of bikes.
Yamaha DT175, Suzuki 550L, Yamaha 750 Seca, Suzuki Katana 600, Katana 1100, BMW R1100RT, Suzuki SV650, Honda ST1300, 2012 Spyder RT-L,
2019 Spyder RT-L.
There was a KX125 full on MX bike in there somewhere around 1997.
Aprilia Scarabeo 100 and Yamaha Yamahopper for the campground duties currently.
Reaching back into when troglodytes roamed, there was a 2.5HP Briggs and Stratton rigid frame mini bike, then a 3HP Tecumseh powered, then a QA50, then a H-D X90 before the Honda 125.
I've got an almost complete Honda ST90 I'm going to start playing with soon. It will probably turn into a full on resto and windup doing campground grunt work.
Some folks want to be buried in their cars. I'm going to be cremated, and have the ashes put in a box.
Cut a corner open, strap me on the luggage rack and let me ride one more time.