What First Got You Into Motorcycling?

At 16 riding a Honda C100 (the original ohv 49cc step through) sure beat the hell out of riding a push bike. That was 1964 and I've only been without at least one bike for a few years when I first got married.

 

I think mine must be in my blood both my dad and his brother used to test and race bikes at Brooklands and then at the tender age of 9 my uncle took me out on the back of his Thunderbird which frightened the shit out of me but obviously left an impression.
Then just before i left school i saw what must have been the first choppers in the UK ride past and that was it ...had a few breaks through the years but have always returned to bikes even if by fate.

 

It’s always the ones you’d never suspect.

 

I've liked motorcycles for as long as I can remember. I used to have a few die cast model motorbikes as a young kid, but my parents were adamant that I couldn't have a real one. So I had to wait until I'd left home and was earning money before I could even learn to ride.



It was the GPZ900R that was my final motivation for taking my test, but then I pussied out on having a large bike as my first proper bike, so I brought a brand new GPZ500S and picked it up the day after passing my test.

I still think the 900R is a gorgeous bike and I would love to get one some day. There was speculation in the press that Kawazaki would produce a new GPZ900R for this year, after they released this video:

 

From my elder brother. He had an old bike. She was the village bike and everybody used to ride her. BUT you say, what's the connection with the thread topic? Well, with no dentures, when she screwed up her face it looked like a leather saddle bag I had seen on a Brough Superior once. Couldn't afford one of those so got an ex post office Bantam (without a saddle) for cruising about in the fields. Haven't looked forward since.

 

In about 1988 I think, one of the bike magazines had reviews of both the GPZ900R and the FZR600, with the GPZ in black on the front cover (or the main picture may have been the FZR600 with a small inset picture of the GPZ ). If any one has any idea which magazine it was, I'd be grateful if you let me know, as I would like to find a copy.

 

I suppose my Dad is to blame for my motorcycle obsession. When I was young he never had a car, only bikes. He’s turning 83 next month and that’s still the case.

 

In the mid1960's in Southern California you could rent bikes by the hour. A friend rented a little 50cc one day and shared it. I loved it from the start. I rode a lot of borrowed bikes for a number of years. I bought the first bike I owned myself in 1974 or 75. ...J.D.

 

My interest in bikes is founded on web browsing. I found this here Forum by chance and thought what a cool bunch of guys and girls. I wanna be like them and ride Triumphs, whatever they are. The rest is history...

 

When I was about seven dad bought an old Royal Enfield 2 stroke from a guy in the village,we didn’t have a car.
I used to sit on the bike when it was parked in the shed,the smell,the noise,in fact the whole shape of the bike and I can still see it now in my minds eye,I loved it.
As we lived a good mile from the village school and if ever I came home at dinner time when dad was at home I would mess about and dad would end up taking me back to school with me sitting on the rear carrier as the bike only had a single seat.
That was it I was hooked at that young age and have been ever since.

 

Beautiful bikes, I had three of them over the years.

 

It was my mates that got me into it, I had never been into bikes as no one in my family had ever had one and a couple of local lads had died on them, so I was almost anti bikes. Then my mates bought a couple of 50cc trail bikes to thrash round the local hills and as soon as i had a go myself that was it, no looking back. It was the smell of the two stroke oil, the sunny days, the dusty forestry tracks and the smell of gorse, I always smile when I think back to those days and the way it started my love affair with bikes.

 

Watching Street Hawk as a little boy in the 80's!



Being a kid of the 80's, I knew I wanted a bike right then! Then as I got older and whilst at Uni, watching Isle of Man TT and MotoGP, the likes of John McGuinness, Carl Fogarty, Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi were an inspiration, even till now.

 

Getting those Spotter books in the late 70's, early 80's for sitting in the back of the car for long journeys. Dreaming of Dunstall Suzukis, GSX1100's , ER185's, XT500's, Pantahs, LeMans and more weird, rare and wonderful bikes. Still have them somewhere.

Just always been obssessed with bikes, cant put an age on it. Never encouraged, despite the old boy being an ex-biker.

Riding a mates MT50 100 yards then into a fence sealed the deal.

 

All my mates bigger brothers and some sisters in the village I grew up in had bikes. So we all followed suit. I had an AP50 but there was at least one example of all the different mopeds available.
And after a few little breaks due to kids etc, I'm back in the saddle on bike number 30

 

My Dad had bikes as a young man and was a dispatch rider in the Royal Corp of Signals in WW2. My elder brother had a bike in the 60's and took me on the pillion one day, racing through a field, we hit a hidden telegraph pole lying in the grass and we both went flying. My first accident. Not my last either. At the age of about fourteen I had a couple of mates who were twins and their dad bought an old C50, we used to take turns riding it up and down the lanes in the village where we lived. From there it was just a natural progression to want a bike when I was sixteen. My Dad wouldn't let me have one at first but after a few months he gave in. If my Mum had still been alive I might not have got one. My first bike was a Yam 125 twin in cherry red. I currently own a 700 Tracer twin in cherry red so things have kinda gone full circle.
Didn't get a car till I was 21. I was driving home after a night shift, it was cold, I saw a chap driving in the opposite direction in his nice warm car picking his nose, I looked at my heavy gloves and thought "if I get a car I can pick my nose when I want", so that was that !.