I was just thinking about my old '87 Yamaha TT350, wishing I hadn't sold it and it got me curious about others 1st bikes. I bought it about 5 years ago and it wasn't the 1st bike I'd ridden, just 1st one I actually owned. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fast, but I loved riding it!



I used to borrow friends street bikes on occasion back in high school and college years; only because I was never 'allowed' to own one. The itch was strong, but unfortunately went unscratched far to long. I know a lot folks on this board have been riding for many years and I only wish I could say the same.

My boys have their dirt bikes and hopefully will love and enjoy riding, as much as I do, for years to come. I am a bit fearful of them getting street bikes though, but I will cross the bridge when/if it happens.

Anyone else interested in sharing?

I have to laugh at this...Yermo and Duncan will understand.

Ok, since Yermo didn't elaborate for me... Look to the left, that is my first and only motorcycle because no one wants to count the Can Am Spyder I had previously.

Ok, how about this...the list of bikes I've ever ridden:

Honda Trail 70 (two different ones)
Yamaha Virago
Honda Nighthawk 750
Honda V65 Magna
Yamaha Vmax
My neighbor's Kawasaki cruiser (I'll have to ask him)
BMW K100
BMW R1100S
BMW K1300S

I don't remember my first bike all that vividly. It was a 1971 or '72 Harley X-90 two-smoke, produced for Harley by some Italian company, and had street tires and turn signals. The thing could do a little over 65mph according to the speedo. It was alot of bike for a 7 year old IMHO. (Yea, I learned to ride 35 years ago.)

I don't have any photos of it but looking through google, this is akin to what it looked like.



I owned it until I was 12 and put a few hundred miles on it. It never ran all that well and was a constant source of bad feelings. When I was 12, I bought a new street legal 1980 (I think) Kawasaki KE125 which I kept until I was 17 or 18. Somewhere I think I might have a photo of that bike. I did end up riding that bike on the road quite a bit and did a crazy amount of trail riding. It was another bike that seemed to always have problems.

The old man bought me a Honda CB450 Nighthawk, I forget what year. '84 maybe? That was my first street bike. I kept that for a few years and liked it. It was very popular with the women, strangely enough.

At one point my old man unilaterally decided it was too small, took it away and picked up two 1985 Honda VF1100 Sabres. Too powerful. Too tall. I kept that bike for years and rode it cross country in 1991. I never liked the Sabre all that much.

In a momentary lapse of reason, foolishly trying to establish some kind of connection with the old man who had picked up a Harley that he loved some time earlier, I got rid of the Sabre and picked up a 1991 Harley Low Rider. I kept that for all of may 60 days realizing it just wouldn't work for me and traded it in on my '92 BMW K100RS, which as everyone knows I still have.

I did at some point around the same time pick up a Honda XL350 which I eventually sold to Matt. That bike was alot of fun, but unfortunately it had a Supertrapp exhaust on it so it was too loud to be any fun to ride. Those were the days before I did any serious wrenching so I didn't think to replace the exhaust.

The only other bike I can remember having is the guest bike, a 1999 BMW R1100S that you saw down at the Gap.

Actually, I did at one point have a Honda CB200 that I was going to use as a trainer but decided that it was too old to safely use as a trainer.

Unlike many people, I do not have especially fond memories of my first bike. It was much better than NOT having a bike, but it is certainly not something that I would want to own again. It was a 1980 Kawasaki KZ250 LTD, bought in March 1986 when I was 16 and a half. I went to Clinton Cycles (in Clinton, MD) and it was probably the cheapest bike there. It was just like the one in this picture, but without the sissy bar and luggage rack:



I knew that my father wouldn't approve, so I got my mother to bring her truck with me to the shop to pick it up. My dad was so pissed, and so sure that I would kill myself, that he threatened to take a sledge hammer to it. Thereafter, the bike was kept in hiding.

I rode it to high school sometimes, and to work on the weekend, but it was weak and wouldn't do more than about 60mph. However, it was so light and manageable that I used to ride it around the grassy fields and farms near my house. It also got about 75 mpg.

I've owned some other interesting bikes. I'll see if I can find a picture of me with my brand new Izh Planeta 5 in Moscow in 1991. If you've seen Long Way Round, then you'd recognize it as Claudio's "Red Devil" that they picked up in Mongolia. Except mine had a sidecar!

I learned to ride on a friend's mini-enduro in the spring of 1971. He had gotten it for the previous Christmas. I used to watch him ride after school every day, and one day he asked me if I wanted to learn how to ride. The rest is history.

By about 1972/3, I had bought a Fox "citibike" minibike, with a Clinton A490 2 stroke kart motor that got replaced with a 3 HP Briggs and Stratton. Single speed, centrifigal clutch (sorry, no photo).

In 1974, I had saved up enough to by my first bike from a kid on my little league team, a 1970 Yamaha L5TA Trailmaster 100, for $100(!).

First street bike was a 1969 Honda CD175K3 Dream, which I put on the road in 1978 when I got my motorcycle license. That cost me a whopping $150(!).

Fantastic stories!! What a variety of bikes and some really unique ones.

Technically, my 1st bike was 1970/71 Penton 125. My uncle sold it to me for 5 cents. I was maybe 8 years old, so needless to say, I didn't get to ride it. My Dad did a few times and thought it was too powerful for a kid and sold it. Oh how I would love to own it now.
Not the actual bike, but similar...mine was not nearly as nice....



I've only owned 2 street bikes, the current Triumph and before it, a 1996 Triumph Sprint. The 885cc triple sure made great music!

The first bike I ever rode (taken loosely) was one of those briggs and stratton powered mini-bikes. No brakes, and I remember vividly driving it straight down the driveway into the path of an oncoming van. He missed. The first bike I ever really rode was Yermo's KE125, and we put some very hard miles on that bike. The first 2 wheel motorized vehicle I owned was a trouble prone 1974 Vespa, but some would have difficulties calling it a real motorc ycle. I traded that to my brother for a 1972 Yamaha R5C, my first "real" motorcycle. And I still own it.