Gotta be Texas

Ever notice the photographs at the top of the home page? It seems that every photograph of a little kid riding his (or her!) dirt bike is wearing cowboy boots. Gotta love it! Every kid should be issued a bike at the age of about 6.

Racing home from school I'd halfway do my homework to try and get some bike time before dark. Chasing the ring dings up and down the alleys of south Fort Worth on my heavy Honda, I'd often wear cowboy boots and an over sized Coors tee shirt for a jersey.

What's your favorite childhood riding memory?

No cowboy boots here; I had lace up work type boots from K-Mart. My first bike was a Yamaha JT1 mini enduro that was one year older than me. It had so much blow by that if you ran it wide open very long it would blow the crank seal out. My dad geared it taller so I could not wind it out in top gear as a short term fix. Then we got a honda xl80 all my friends had xr's or cr's so my bike wasn't cool until it got dark. Once dark set in I had the only headlight, I remember riding three up after dark many times. I still have a little bit of a scar on my knee from washing out the front on gravel while three up; the front just wouldn't stay planted.

I started at age 10 finally getting on my dad's Yamaha 250 dirt bike and dropped it going up a hill. I got an XR 75 then and rode the fire of it! Blew the piston out of the head racing a 250, I had it wound up full tilt. My street experience started a few months later with a 175 Yamaha off/on road and I've done it ever since. I miss the days of work boots, tshirt, and motocross helmet sometimes. Simple times riding around a small Mississippi town.

"Every kid should be issued a bike at the age of about 6..." I love this idea BTW, so would my son!

Started on a Sears 5hp Briggs & Stratton pull-start street-legal mini-bike (you read that right.) on dirt trails at Lake Lewisville and later on the street. It had a headlight, brake light, running lights and a horn. Broke my left wrist on a trail at the lake, but didn't figure out it was broke until 3 days later after trying to water-ski and almost passing out from the pain.

No cowboy boots here either being in SE Ohio. Was backpacking with the Boy Scouts by age 9 so always had hiking boots and was required to wear those and a helmet or bike didn't leave the shed.

Not my favorite memory as too many of those but my most memorable was:

Riding my Suzuki RV90 and my best friend on his Yamaha Mini Enduro. We were probably 12 years old and both worked numerous odd jobs to afford our motorcycling passion (yardwork, newspaper delivery, snow shoveling, corn sales, etc.) Our main riding area was miles of riverbank and woods along the Little Miami River. One day out riding we passed a group of 17-19 yr old kids from the "other" neighborhood. They wanted to ride our bikes but we both said no and took off. After riding for an hour or so they were still there and more insistent on riding. We held firm until they offered to let us drink as much of their beer as we could while they were riding. So that day I had my first beer ever and then about 3 or 4 more, Hudepohl Gold I believe it was. Puked out my guts for an eternity and then probably committed my first ever DUI when my battered bike returned. Rode back to my friends house where we hide out while sobering up for dinner.

_

I never wore cowboy boots in my life. And I started dirt riding on my uncle's property close to Bowie, when I was about 20. I was usually riding a borrowed early 70s Yamaha 175 or Suzuki 185 enduro. While I was getting the hang of things, I have fond memories of letting the clutch get away from me on a sloppy start, thus leaving me hanging halfway off the seat, thus hanging on for dear life with my right hand, thus inadvertently twisting the throttle, thus ---- well, an inescapable conclusion. Fortunately, running into ditches and mesquite trees is far less painful than running into a truck on the highway.

When I finally got on the street at age 25, I didn't have much street sense, but at least I had the basic skills down.

My mom quit buying me cowboy boots because the rocks kept knocking the heels off!

Same story as others, Sears Briggs and Stratton minibike(learn to ride gravel on one of those and you will forever be a master of it ), upgraded to an XR75 which was like a magic carpet ride compared to the minibike.

My parents wouldn't let me ride. I had to sneak of to a friend's ranch to get seat time on a CT70. Never got caught

Well like Gary and Goat I started on, and destroyed racing the bigger bikes, an actual little motorcycle, a Honda SL100. My dad and grandfather were dead set against anything with small wheels that could get caught in a rut and cause a crash. Of course as soon as I got a bike, my younger brother and sister got a mini bike to keep them quiet, so there you go, sibling rivalry at its best.

Meriden said:

Well like Gary and Goat I started on, and destroyed racing the bigger bikes, an actual little motorcycle, a Honda SL100. My dad and grandfather were dead set against anything with small wheels that could get caught in a rut and cause a crash. Of course as soon as I got a bike, my younger brother and sister got a mini bike to keep them quiet, so there you go, sibling rivalry at its best.

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funny, my step up from the mini-bike was a '68 Honda CL90. Street bike, but we rode it like a dirt bike. That poor bike was so abused. I think it had a bout 2" of travel. We got rid of it when my younger brother got hot on the throttle and rode it through a barbed wire fence at my Grandad's place where we kept it. I'd never seen my Dad drive that fast from Quinlan to Presby Dallas on Walnut Hill. I think we made it in just over 35 minutes.
We had cowboy boots when younger, but in our teens, it was lace-up work boots from K-mart.

My kids started in cowboy boots because that is what they had and I wasn't gonna shell out for full on dirt boots until I knew they were going to ride. They now all have their own dirt riding boots.

The way it should be. You gotta earn your gear.

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