What got you started?

Got the bug watching the old man race mot-x in NZ when we were growing up early seventies. I remember watching Gaston Rahier run laps around nearly everyone at a local race and knew one day I would ride. Got a jr 50(suzuki) to start and then cr80 (1980) next it was an xr200 that I got my liscense on and first road bike was a Honda MVX250F triple two stroke. I had some of my fondet memories on this bike, scratching through the hills every day and touring weekends. Next was a TT600 yammie then an RD250LC. Then cars took over until 2000 whn I bought a brand new SV650S, kept for 2years then another hiatus whilst I chased my bicycle oriented goals. Then March this year I got the current 83 VF750F and am loving bikes again, thanks to my Fiance who loves riding with me. The VF's for sale and next I would like a VFR750 94-97.:thumbsup:

 

1978 - I was 14 and had been working my first summer job as a janitor making a very minimal wage.

After about a month I'd saved $500 for a big stereo I wanted but then a friend told me his older brother who had a KH400 (3 cylinder 2-stroke) Kawi for sale and that $ 500 might just take it.

Saw it the next day, complete with dropped bars and rear-sets - although it was probably hot, I bought it on site complete with a crappy, hand painted open face helmet, no visor.

Rode it home, told my parents that I had a new toy (unlicenced of course), they freaked but let me store it indoors all winter, then rode the next spring & summer to school, again, without license, insurance or any of the, at the time, bureaucratic BS.

If any of my friends asked to borrow it...sure, no problem, I just asked 'em to keep her gassed up.

Several bikes since, and after a break of 10 years riding because of the time needed to raise our 4 kids, the VFR is my current squeeze.

Best overall bike I've ever owned, legally

 

I was always riding my bicycle and just assumed I'd ride a motorcycle when I was older (that was in the 60's). When I was 14 a good friend's older brother bought a Honda and was taking us for rides around his backyard. On his 16th birthday he was killed on the bike and that was it for my parents.

When I turned 16 I tried in the hardest to get one but they wouldn't budge. During one argument they said that when I turned 21 I could (as if they would have any say then).

Fast forward to 21 and my new girfriend lived over 100mi. away in Minnesota. I just turned 21 so I cleaned out my bank account and bought a Honda 450. I have never been the same since. I've owned 13 more and am hopelessly hooked and tell my wife that it's my parents fault for not letting me get it out of my system when I was young.

I mostly remember the movies 'The Great Escape', 'Easy Rider' and 'On Any Sunday' as stoking my interest as I grew up.

 

I loved riding the Super 90s but never had one, skipped from 70 to 175. captb

 

When I was a kid, somewhere around 1960-65, when my family went up to visit my aunt/uncle/cousins in NJ... in a undeveloped area which is now called Cherry Hill.... There was nothing but dirt riding, and a few blocks of houses. My cousins had 3 dirt bikes, and that was how I learned to ride. The interest level was before that, with movies like The Hells Angles, and of course war movies with mc's 2/3 wheelers. 1965 was "MY" 1st bike which was a 250 Ducati. Been riding ever since....

 

Had not really thought about them..at the time they were kinda sucked out little jap toys or broke down british bikes or dead harleys and i was into drag racing..so no real interest..one day A guy wanted to trade his 1 yr old 76 cb400f on my car, so i took it to resell..kinda liked it,got my license..rode it a bit... he wrecked the car and traded it back a yr later on the bike...kinda missed the air in the face.... picked up a few more over the year..then I rode once in the mtns and found what i was missing..

 

1976. I was 5. My best friend got a little Honda 50. I sat on it, revved the throttle, it took off and I fell off but forgot to let go of the throttle. It damn near killed me. Been in love ever since.
2007. I was 36. I bought my first motorcycle cuz my mom wasn't the boss of me any more :rofl:

 

old history

[I was five and my brother take to kinder garden on a Islo-Honda 90cc.,he let me drive the handle bars, few months later he had an accidentne month in hospital with broken legs, ribs and a head contusion...my dad sold the bike.
When was in high school a friend had a Vespa scooter, we rode saturdays, were three kids on the thing, later his dad bought a Honda with four gears and tried to learn to drive it.
At 18 another friend teach me for a Police Motorcycle test,he had a Suzuki GS400, just one day practicing and drive test the next day,...aproved¡¡¡
One year as a Police Motorcyclist (on a JAWA350)and return to college.
My mother helped me to buy a 76 Kawasaki KZ650 (nice but too heavy), later I bought it to buy a 72 Honda CB500F and the rommance beggins...Have been riding since then, started at 19.
Now I'm 38, married, three kids, I've had like twenty bikes and I'm the proud owner of a 2007 Honda CBR600RR and a gorgeous yellow 2000VFR, and I will keep it as much as I can,

 

No single event, I just always wanted a motorcycle since I first knew what one was.

As a kid I rode some of those minibike things (tube frame, 5hp lawn mower engine, no suspention). My buddy bought a Sears 260 (made by Benelli) that I rode a lot, then he sold it and bought a Kawasaki H2 750 triple - WOW!

I bought some basket cases and turned them into running bikes, then bought a Yamaha RD two-stroke twin. Rode that a while then bought a Kawasaki S3 triple. Then I moved into the 4-stroke area with a Honda 550-4, smoothest thing I had ridden up to that time.

Sold that and bought a '82 Honda Nighthawk (the cruiser one, not the sporty standard), rode that for a year and decided that I really didn't like the cruiser ergonomics. Sold that and bought a '83 VF750 - what a revelation! Then in '86 the VFR 750 came out so I sold the VF and got the VFR - best bike I ever owned. Even a friend of mine that was a dedicated Harley guy rode it and said "THAT is what a motorcycle is supposed to be!"

Rode the VFR for a while, but after an all-day ride, decided that my aging old-guy frame needed a more comfortable ride. Bought a Kawasaki Concours new in 1990 and still have it. Nice all-around bike, but too heavy for me (5' 9", 140lbs). What I really wanted was a comfortable VFR with bags.

Now I have a 2007 25th anniversary Interceptor on order (should be here any day now), and I think it will be just the bike I always wanted. Fast, comfortable, and 150lbs lighter than my Connie. Rather ironic that it's the 25th anniversary model of a bike I had 25 years ago! And so the circle closes....

 

OMG ok I admit my 1st moto craze started in LA.I bought a stolen Moped (at that time it did not even occurred to me it was stolen) in poor gang invested neighborhood.
Rode the crap out of it but always needed more speed and power.
Fast forward 15yrs later in Boston got married and 1st son and decided 1 day out of blue I needed a sportbike and bought a used 1988 FZR600.Great bike but horrible posture-my hands and neck were screaming in pain after only 2hr of riding.
Sold it and one day I saw a SV650 in leader Jacket shop.All is history I fell in love with SV frame naked beauty and told my wife I must have her....
I kept SV for 8 yrs and never this bike let me down.Wonderful great bike but needed a change hence VFR1998 now.
If I could afford 2 motorcycles I would buy 1st gen SV again.I loved that bike too much....:biggrin:

I am in general love naked bikes.My next bike most likely will be a moto Guzzi

 

Always had wheels under me as a kid... dad loved dirtbikes, ATV's, all that stuff... He went street with a Ninja for a while, sold it after witnessing a buddy crash.

My real start came years later, when my stepfather moved down from WA... he had an old Harley *ugh*... I loved the feeling of wind on my face though... ended up sellin' it, couple years later mom got him a Goldwing for valentine's Day... we all rode with him at one point or another, mom got tired of ridin' bitch... She bought herself a V-Star classic 650... me and my bro pitched fits cuz she always told us "no bikes," so she bought us both lil starter bikes off Craigslist. My first bike was a 1982 KZ550 GPZ... leaked oil like a sieve... And now I'm on my VFR, lovin' every second of the life

 

I was six years old and when my Mom wasn't paying attention I watched Mad Max on HBO (anyone rememebr the box with the big switch? Put the TV on channel 3 and turn the switch and its movie time LOL!)

I fell in love with the nomad bikers 'bikes'. I didn't like the bikers LOL! But man the Goose's and the gangs bikes just had me enthralled. If it took a supercharged car to catch them; they were riding some fast bikes!

The seed was planted...

BZ

 

started on an old Honda Trail50, until one day I had been riding it around a LOT and the little plastic fuel tube cracked and started leaking gas all over. Well, the engine was hot enough that it combusted. Burned the bike pretty good. Bought a 2 stroke 90, but it was too much bike for me being only 10 or 11. Dad made me park it, few years later tried to drag it out but there was too much wrong. Traded that off on a Suzuki TS125. Had plates, I had my L class licence (150cc or smaller) and insurance. Got married, sold it to help pay bills. About 4 years later, got a divorce and a used in 95 - 95 CBR 600 F3 (I think I won out there). Almost had it paid off in 2 years, upgraded to a 95 900RR. Traded that in on my first new bike of the 06 VFR.

 

i raced bmx at a young age then raced mx at age 14 on a kawi 85 by 18 i was racing a cr125 and had a wreck in witch i hyperextended my left knee and lost my sponsers and picked up dune riding and atv sand drag then hurricane katrina moved me to new orlean la (im from utah) then the gas crunch hit and i bought my first street bike a used 02 yzfr6 sold it a year later went with out a street bike for 2 years and my dad owed me some money so he gave me an 85 vf1000r witch i still ride and i just recently bought a 08 cbr1000rr

 

+1 :thumbsup:

 

When I was about 6 or 7 riding my best mates new Honda Monkey bike, I rode off grinning and kept lapping the local dirt track until chased down by his yelling father. :biggrin:

 

my dad rode. top gun was a badass movie. and a guy was selling a honda nighthawk cheep.every since then i have been hooked

 

1987 was the start for me. I was 8 and we had just moved into the country. All my friends' parents were buying their kids nice little dirt bikes/atvs, and I was always the one left out. So, I found an old like 81 model Kawasaki 80cc dirtbike that was basically a pile of junk. The shifter rod was broken in the block and the bike was stuck in 3rd gear, but $30 of allowance later, it was mine. Had to push it to start it, but eventually I put so many dirt road miles on it that it was retired to the scrap yard. Ended up buying a Suzuki ts100 enduro and road the hell out of it, too. Traded that when I was 13 for an 83ish kawasaki 250ltd. My dad ended up tagging it in his name for me, and at the age of 14 I started riding it to school...boy was I the cool kid! Then over the next 13 years I traded bikes almost monthly because I could never really find one that I liked. A long search on Ebay and I found 2 1987 Kawasaki ZX10Rs that were retired almost 20 years ago from track racing and had never seen a highway mile...got them for $500 and a long drive to McAlester, OK. Got home that day and started work. One was semi complete and the other was completely torn apart and in about 6 boxes. Well, I took all the parts that I could from the 2 and got the 1 complete. Then searched for street plastics on Ebay, put it all together, repainted it, and rode away. That was the first sport bike I had ever owned, and after that I was hooked! Bought my first honda, an 85 VF500F. Man I loved that bike! Then it was stolen off my front porch... I searched for another Viffer for quite some time, but to no avail. Then got an 06 ZX6R and it was fun, just not the same. Sold it, bought a pair of jet skis and my 89 Suzuki GSX750F Katana. Well, as much as I love the suzuki, it too was not the same...Sooo, stumbled upon my 86 VFR700F on Craigslist, and traded my pair of jet skis for it...And here I am! Happy as can be and full of pride everytime I walk out into the garage and see the VFR sitting there with my Katana.

 

When I was about 14, one of the 'cool guys' in my neighborhood took me for a ride on some honda 750 something-or-other. Scare the pookie out of me!! I guess after that, I was hooked! As they say, the rest is history!!