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Who gets credit for getting you into motorcycles?

Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Messages
18,504
Reaction score
678
Location
Lampasas
First Name
Drew
Last Name
Wright
Don't know if this has ever been brought up before here. My addiction was started by my father many moons ago. My first motorcycle was a 1976 brown Kawasaki KE100. Tell us who started you riding motorcycles?:rider: Drew
 
Interesting subject topic. I'd considered motorcycles but never seriously. There was a girl who'd been a friend, then a girlfriend, and then we'd decided we were better as friends, but became roommates. Odd and strange I know, but such as it is.

She'd talked about motorcycles and I did some research and decided that good beginner bikes would be Katana 600's as they were inexpensive and not as like to kill us outright. She pushed me and we went shopping. I came across a deal in Cycle Trader for new ones for $4999 but the deal had expired. Everyone else wanted $500-$1000 more for them even though they were 97's in 1998. We'd agreed that if we could find that kind of deal we'd jump on it.

Perusing the yellow pages at our apartment in Melbourne, there was an ad in there for a dealer in Daytona that said "Worth the drive from anywhere!" I figured I wasn't about to drive but I'd make a phone call. I called the dealer and asked if he had any Katana 600's and he had three. I asked him the price and he replied "$4999." I told him "Great, I'll take two!" There was a fantastic moment of silence.

We drove up and put our deposit the next day. A week later of securing loans and insurance and we picked up our first bikes. Eight months later my job moved me to Texas and she moved to live with some friends in Wisconsin.

Sadly, after about a year I totaled my Katana, but she still has hers. She doesn't ride so much anymore and her bike has about as many miles on it as mine did when I wrecked it.
 
As a 3rd generation rider it was a given - I was just issued one. And so was my little brother and sister. I felt the biggest rip-off came after I grew tall enough for a real bike and would come home from school to find my grandfather out on my bike! In retrospect it was not that bad. The old guy taught me how to ride without getting killed and he didn't take it too often.

m
 
I was not allowed to buy a motorcycle when I was a teenager. So later, someone gave me a 1986 250 Honda Rebel. Then I got a Suzuki GS500. and now I have Kawasaki Versys. I want my next bike to be VMAX, but probably way too big for me.
 
The seed was planted back in the late 60s when a friend of mine in KY had Honda Trail 50s for him, his brother, and friends to ride on his (dad's) farm.

I even think about motorcycles until we took a vacation to the Algarve in the south of Portugal back in 2001, where there just happened to be a large motorcycle rally. I think the seed germinated while we were driving back north through Portugal with all manner of bikes passing us. I got my first motorcycle back in Sept. '01; I don't think 9/11 had anything to do with it...

I wish I'd stuck with dirt biking for a few years back when I first had the chance, but my folk's circumstances and finances didn't allow for that. :shrug:
 
Too funny.... I think it started with a KE100 (lime green) for me as well. About 17 years of age a new friend of mine from the PRK used to race Elisnor's. He liked to tinker with mechanical things as did I and we came across a deal for a KE100 in parts for $100. We bought it and put it back together and rode it. Well, he rode it much more then me, but the seed was planted. A year or so later I bought my first motorcycle.
 
Kid I knew in El Paso, whose name I've long since forgotten, who taught me to ride dirt bikes.
 
Dad bought my first Sears minibike at around 9 years of age then a Cushman Eagle about 2 years later. But really my friends and neighborhood buddies got me into bikes as a teen. I remember riding an old 72 Honda CB 350 thinking it was fast, LOL.:lol2:
 
My dad started it. He bought my younger brother a HD Aeromacchi 65 cc 2-stroke because he felt bad for him that Texas raised the driver's license age to 16. I received my license at 14.
 
I suppose that would be my grandfather. He bought me a 50cc Suzuki four wheeler for my second birthday. I move to two wheels as soon as I was old enough to balance. If he hadn't started me off, my dad would have.
 
My cousin back in 1967, he had a Honda 305 Scrambler, I was hooked. I couldn't afford that much money for a bike like that back then, but I did buy a new Kawasaki 175 Enduro. I've been riding Enduro's/Dual Sport bikes every since.

John
 
My Dad got me a Yamaha Tri-Zinger before my 3rd birthday. This is me taking Grandma for a ride on it.

BillyJ-5.jpg
 
My buddy Brandon, who inherited his dad's 96 Heritage Softtail. He was a blues singer and harmonica man, and a very good friend of mine, and when he passed away unexpectedly, I promised myself I'd learn to ride as I'd always wanted to. Took the MSF later that year and in five years I've put almost 70,000 miles on two different VTXes.

It didn't hurt that I had three good friends into riding and spent my early teens wearing Harley shirts and a chain wallet and hanging out at Cajun Cycles in Lafayette, LA, begging the sales guys to let me sit on the bikes.
 
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One of my few brushes with the famous.
Mike Kidd the AMA Championship dirt tracker got me into it. Mike and I went to the same school and he used to give me rides home on a press-frame Honda 65.
God, I loved the smell of that bike.
I also worked on a truck farm in Southlake back then picking vegetables. The farm owner's 2 sons were also into dirt tracking. They all convinced me to get a Hodaka 100 dirt tracker and try my luck. Tried one whole summer out at Ross Downs but I wasn't any good and quit. Spent the rest of that bike's life on the 360 Trails near Arlington/Mosier Valley. (and the DQ trails near Hurst if anyone remembers them)

.
 
My dad got me started at age 4, gave me the money as a birthday present
and I went to Bob Lunsfords Downtown Honda and paid cash for my first
motorcycle

I was their youngest customer on record
 
Had a couple of friends with mini bikes, our paperboy had a motorcycle. That did it. I needed one. At 14 yrs old, I got a paper route and Dad let me buy my first bike. It was a red Bridgestone 60. Man, was I stepping high!
 
My dad. He rode a lot as a kid and as a guy fresh out of basic training stationed in Fort Benning. He got out of riding after I was born from my understanding. When I was in late grade school/early junior high he got into it again with on a Yammie SECA 650. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still think the SECAs are awesome bikes :)

When I was 14 we started looking for shortcuts to get my motorcycle license from claiming residency in Alabama where 14 to 16 year olds could operate 250cc bikes to trying to get a hardship license. None of those panned out and I wound up on a Bandit1200 of all things when I turned 16 haha. I managed to survive that trip.
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Lots of our family have also been riders. My grandfathers on both sides and my great grandfathers. I never met my dad's dad. He died of cancer (welder) when my dad was 9 but he was a rider also.
 
It would have to be my brother's best friend. I was 8, they were 11. Vic's dad had brought back a Motocompo from Japan. We blasted all over the neighborhood on that thing for the next few years. I was hooked.
 
My dad got me into motorcycles. When I was 15 he asked me if I would rather have a motorcycle now, or a car later. I - of course - said motorcycle! The next weekend, when he got back from out of town, he said come on - I've got something I want to show you. He drove me to the local Suzuki dealer and told me to pick my favorite color. Went home that day with an Orange Suzuki TC90 and got my MC license a few weeks later.
 
I have very vague memories of a red Honda my dad had back when I was 5 or 6. He didn't keep it very long following a minor low-side. I remember having a tiny helmet and going for a ride or two sitting on the tank. That was the seed I guess because I always noticed them from then on. I wanted that ninja from Top Gun just like every other 8 year old kid who watched it. After begging and scheming, I finally got a XR80 that my uncle had rebuilt. I eventually detonated the piston from pouring too much alcohol in with the gas. Fun times on that little bike!
 
My old man had em when I was real young, so I guess that planted the seed but I guess I finally got the bug at age 40 when I saw some old dudes ripping around Big Bend ranch a few years ago. I didn't even meet those guys but a light bulb flashed on in my head as soon as I saw them and I knew what to do. I started shopping bikes as soon as I returned from there and bought my first one about a month after. I am on my second bike and still trying to determine what my third prescription will be. Aint love grand?
 
My brother was 3 years older than me. (May has well been 10. I was his little punk brother and kept my distance to stay alive) So I'm about 8 years old and mom had just married our new "step-dad". He was an ok guy by me, but didn't have a chance with the barely teenage stepson. Desparate to make an impression, he surprised my brother with a Brand new Yamaha 50 step through scooter for Christmas. It was stunning! We lived in a rather poor neighborhood and kids didn't get motorbikes. Certainly not brand new shiny ones.

I remember quite a crowd of 12 and 13 year old tough guys assembled in the back yard goggling over my brother riding within the boundries of the 6' cedar fence. He would make a few laps and then come to a stop and soak up some more gang envy.

Then he caught a glimpse of me from a distance as I sat on a stump behind some brush. He waved me over. Me? Come over there? You gonna kick my ***** for snooping around?

I approached with skepticism. But the bullies even parted to allow me to reach the center of the circle. My brother was still smiling at me when he asked "you want to ride?"

I stepped up on the floorboard and sat on the seat. I think I remember him going over the basics while I was totally frozen with anticipation. I knew everything I need to know. You twist your right wrist to make it go. Right? Didn't think I needed to know anything else. I suddenly realized he was starting to get agitated with me and I finally discerned what he was saying; "are you gonna GO or not"?

I heard the GO. I twist the throttle. My first throttle ever.

It lasted maybe 4-5 seconds? However long it took to SHOOT straight across the back yard directly into the fence. I didn't turn. I didn't let off. I didn't even make an attempt to stear. I just know they were the most exciting seconds of my entire life. It was indescribable.

The crash itself wasn't life threatening. But receiving my brothers response was.

I never got to touch that scooter again. But the mould was cast. For a lifetime. And although that stepfather didn't last long enough to get his other stepson a bike, the next one was destined to. A Suzuki TS 50. It would hit an indicated 52 mph.

I love my big brother. He changed my world that day.
 
When I was in college in El Paso (1969-73), I would come to Ft Worth to visit relatives. My uncle had started riding dirt bikes, and then became a partner in some great land close to Bowie. Every time I came to town, we ended up at the ranch, me usually on a borrowed Honda 125 or Yamaha 175.

Couple o' years later, I was in the Army in Germany and looking for cheap transportation. A friend was selling a street legal Yamaha RT1 360 enduro. I couldn't resist. Having never before ridden on pavement, I took my license test on a borrowed AMF Harley 350, passed by some miracle, and was off on the Yamaha to see the German countryside.

Thanks, Uncle Lewis, for letting me ride your 175. And for not letting me drown after you tricked me into flying into that cow tank. :eek2:
 
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