Depends what you mean by large capacity. My first bike was a CBR600. When I did my CBT I didn't even know how to change gear on a motorbike! However, the training centre I used would get you passed your CBT then they loaned you CG125 for a week to put some miles in before starting the full course which was started on the CG125 before moving on to a 500 to complete the course. It was pretty intensive training but I passed first time and got the CBR, (mainly because it looked great!). Maybe due to the fact that I was a late starter, I was 33 at the time, I never found the 600 to be too much even though it had pretty amazing acceleration. I owned it for a couple of years before selling it to fund a Honda VFR400 NC30. Now, that bike I rode like a fucking nutter! On twisty roads I would take on anything, it was bloody amazing!
Well I first took to the road on a borrowed GSXR750 and a borrowed GSX750F as I had some very dodgy mates who didn't mind lending a bike and some advice/tuition to a big young lad with no licence (not even a provisional) or common sense. It was a huge shock to buy my beaten up old Honda CM125 and discover that, with my bulk (I was about 18 stone and six foot three and an arf) I could barely get up to 60mph with my head in the clocks going downhill. After the CM died, which wasn't long, I rented a Yamaha SR125 from a local training centre to get my full licence. On the first time out the instructor kept shouting on the comms during the 60mph stretches for me to get up to speed or I would be failed in the test. I couldn't answer back as the comms were only one way so, by the time we stopped I was raging and the instructor got both barrels about how 50mph or so was all the crappy little Yamaha would do with me on it and even less into a headwind! I couldn't stand being that hamstrung on my daily eighty mile round trip to work so I had to buy the CB250RS and take my chances with the law until I became legit.
Glad&Marty. Both good stories. Looking back it seems amazing the things we could do when we were young.
BSA C15 was my first bike as the pic with the external distributor, coming home late one night I noticed the downpipe glowing red, the distributor pinch bolt had sheared allowing the dizzy to rotate, a jubilee clip placed round the base and tightened got me home, good old days
Had one of these for about 7 weeks to get me through my test, a YB 100. It went all around our little gang and I think 5 of us used it to get a licence. Sold it to my then girlfriend and got a Moto Guzzi V50. Loved that bike. Threw a rod through the right piston on the M4 after numerous electrical faults. Still loved it though DS
Nice bikes. And I'm enjoying the stories about your experience and adventures on those early machines. Would love to hear more. I have nothing to compare to your great stories. Although I did manage to drop a 50c.c. scooter while attempting my first u-turn.
Don't worry dropping scooters is the best thing to do with them, usually off the pier at Brighton [uk joke]
My first was also an XR75. Mint little things, thrashed it Mercilessly, never missed a beat. Proper Honda build quality back then. (Not the actual one in the pic).
Not my bike but I had this color and with the Jeff Ward race kit, high pipe and some head mods. Think it made like 11HP. Quickly out grew and moved up to a YZ-100, real suspension and 25HP. Next step was YZ-125
My first bike was like the one shown. It was a 1969 Sears 124cc. I rebuilt the top end on it once and was surprised to find it was actually a pushrod 4 stroke. It's peak power was rated at 12 h.p. @ 9200 RPM. It also had a right side shifter with a reversed pattern. [5 speed] … I sold it in 1978 [along.with almost everything else I could spare] to raise the down payment on our first home which the full price was $29,000 …J.D.
Great photos. J.D. Sears actually made a motorcycle? Sears the department store folks or was it another company with the same name?
You could buy them right out of the Sears & Roebuck Catalog. I remember seeing them in the Sears Catalog Warehouse when I worked there in the summer of 1967. This one was made by Gilira [I think that is spelled right]. They sold some models made by Puch and maybe others, but they were branded as Sears. Pre-internet era …J.D.
I must have had that a few years because I remember the law changing here in California in 1975. Before that there was no motorcycle license. You could ride anything, any size if you at least had a learners permit. I had been riding anything I could borrow for some time, but I passed my test on that little Sears. I did not have to take another actual test until about two years ago. They called me in, I think mostly because of my age and made me take the written for both the bike and autos and pass an eye test. They had not seen me in years, and I have 3 bikes registered in the state. Don't know if I'll ever have to take another. I'll be 75 this fall. ...J.D.
First bike back in 1973 was a candy gold Yamaha FS1-E........was still at school and used it rather than the bus for the last few months before leaving. Dad paid £149 for it from Sondel Sport Yamaha in N.London, I understand they can command £5K now if in mint condition. Had a Yamaha 125 and 200 after that and then the XS250. Originally planned to get a 250 tiger Cub at 16, but the sixteener law scuppered that. Taken all these years to get my Triumph. My wife to be on the 125 in about 1977 and me with the XS250 on the Isle of Wight in about 1979. She still trusts me on the pillion with the Bonneville! That Griffin Clubman helmet I'm holding was terrible, cost me a fortune at the time and weighed a ton.
Great pictures. Many of the bikes seen in this thread would be collectable today. Including both of those. I'm a little curious about the top box in the first image.
