For me it was getting fed up of the daily grind (and cost) of London's transport system. I was somewhat anti-motorbike due to parental 'teachings' but decided to give it a go.... I got myself a stolen/recovered Suzuki Katana 50cc moped and after a somewhat nightmarish process of getting it back to 100% and talking (defying) mother round I was on the road...!!! And LOVED IT!!!! No more hussle & bussle of the tube but the freedom of Central London's roads in the early 2000's. From there I moved onto 125cc got my full license then 400/180/600cc and got my eye on some nice shiny models for the near future....
Me it was my Dad. He used to give us all the bikes he didn't want to sell. But the one thing that stuck in the memory was he and I went to look at a 650 AJS. It needed bump starting. Now I was somewhere between 10 and 12 at the time. Dad said Joe if I bump you on this bike can you take it home and straight home don't stop or reroute. The elderly gent remonstrated with Dad claiming you can't get that youngster to ride that machine he's not capable of it. Dad said watch and bumped the bike me on board and of I flew on it straight home about five miles. The old gent talked about it till he died some years later. Every one knew I was a biker. And really at the time I was a real rebel looking for a cause. Not many people would have liked me back then never picked on anyone but never walked away either. Even at school I would support the weaker pupils against the bullies. Not because i liked them just because I hated bullies and I knew I could beat them or go down fighting but they never came back and gave me a wide birth. You wouldn't know it now i am a push over and a big softie. Regards Joe.
Helped a friend rebuild a BSA Gold Star when we were in the 6th form. When I started work needed transport for the 20 miles to work, so a Kawa Z200 was aquired. Had bikes on (and off) ever since. Even persuaded SWMBO to tour round France on a Z750. Currently have a very nice Sprint GT.
My dad had a big gold coloured Honda Dream. When I was five, my wee sister went missing and my dad chucked me on the back of the bike to go looking for her (found safe and sound). Two of my brothers and I had a C90 'jump-through' in the fields a few years later. Fisrt time out - up the lane, turned round, back down the lane until it split round a bush - I went straight over and landed in a heap! On top of a brother! My first road bike was built from two CB100s over a few weeks, but got stolen & burnt 3 days after it went on the road officially!
Well, it all started with a Rupp minibike, then a Harley M65, then a Sachs 50cc, then a Suzuki 125, then a Montessa 250, then a borrowed Honda Elsinore 125, then a borrowed Yamaha 1100 street bike, then a short date with a Honda CB350...many years later, back into the fray with a Moto Guzzi V7 III Special and now my Triumph.
This is a jolly good theme for nostalgia ! ... and made me think just what led me to get a bike at 16 when no one else in the family had any interest at all ... then I remembered that my brother at 4 years older had friends... one of whom used to turn up on a shiny black Velocette Venom dressed head to toe in Belstaff waxed cotton ... I still remember that thump thump thump from the big single .. made the whole bike shake... he took me for a ride at god knows what speed .. no helmet, just jeans and tee shirt and figured that a bike was the way to go ! .. my brother then got an MGB roadster so it was competition time to go faster than him... after learning on a Tiger Cub I got a BSA Road Rocket (cost £ 57) and that was that !
