What's the first bike you ever owned? Do you still own it?

A Derbi Terra Adventure bought last year as an early mid-life crisis present and I blame XT Girl for me doing so.

First i ever rode was a ratty Honda CG? which was a housemate's and she let me borrow it if I insured it.

__________________

1984 Model 2004 Piaggio Vespa PX125cc in white with black mudguard and headset. Dropped handlebars. Front rack and backrest, later removed to make it look more cafe. 8 litre tank with top up two strole oil hole. Glove box with three staples that held the sealent in place. Crashed three times; into side of freelander, hit by a lorry and into the back of a car (cause the brakes were broken as id been hit by a lorry...). Rebuilt over a LONG weekend. Joined a mod club but got kicked out when I got a motorcycle. Oh and it had a picture of Jimi Hnedrix on the front rather than an L plate.

1979 Honda CB100N. Some PO clown had drilled the crank case so it used a sump full of oil every 500 miles. It was flat out at 40 mph, had a 6V electric system that was only any use for blowing bulbs and parts were stupidly expensive and took weeks to get hold of. No idea how that POS got me into bikes.

Actually, no, I do know. I swapped it for an MZ

Andy

Royal Enfield 350 (see avatar). Have thought about selling it many times but probably never will. It's too much fun blasting down country lanes in the summer sun.

Thing is, will never sell my XT either (too many memories, too good a bike).

Will probably end up at the age of seventy with ten bikes!

Matt

__________________
http://adventure-writing.blogspot.com

http://scotlandnepal.blogspot.com/

*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

Isn't bike ownership a metaphorical love affair?!
I still comment when I see bikes of yesteryear, 'I had one of those....', and sigh.
My first legal bike was at 16, a Yam DT50M but I had a Suzuki TS185ER for the fields and couldn't better it, well a DT175MX was a close second.
Times have changed, I'd love another but prices have rocketed. Gone are the days where a TS could be bought for £50 and a train set. I blame ebay.
I went through the sportbike phase with my mates and owned 350LC's, GSXR750's and GPZ900's but always kept a dirtbike in the garage.
I lost too many of my mates on the road and my roadbike days were soon over but you'd still find me 'On any Sunday' at the tracks, fields and hills of England and Wales.
I still have the GPZ languishing at the back of my garage, one day I might get her out again....
Hendrix instead of L plate sounds good to me, no self respecting copper could argue that!

My first bike was before I was legally old enough to ride was a Bianchi moped, legally, my first was a Honda PC50 moped then a Honda CB175 upon which I passed my test, then I had to settle for a Triumph 500 as I could not get insured for the Bonneville I had saved so hard for.

__________________
'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Suzuki TS50X which suffered a premature end when It launched me through the windscreen of a car (who was on the wrong side of the road coming round a bend) resulting in multiple breaks to right arm and hand.

Ironically the same model bike nearly caused another near fatal crash two months ago when I saw one whilst riding in the Andalucian hills, entered a period of wistful recollection and nearly falling off the side of a mountain in the process.

cheers

38

A 1966 Raleigh Runabout, followed by a 1968 Whisp. And its all their fault!!!!

A 1959 German Zundapp Bella Scooter, in 1965.
I learned a lot about my dad with that bike, he himself was a committed biker. He found it for me, being advertised for sale by the local vicar, and took me there, on the back of his bike, to collect it. But within his living memory he had been badly shot up in the war and his injuries were, at that time, close to stopping him riding bikes altogether. He didn't worry that it was a German bike, at a time when British bikes were ubiquitous, so I learnt forgiveness I suppose.
I wish I still had it.
I got the idea of doing scooter sprinting with it. So took it apart, sawed everything off it that wasn't needed, polished the bits of engine you're supposed to polish, and lost interest.
So it went in the skip and I moved to proper motorbikes and raced them instead.
I still have the logbook for it though.

An enduring memory is going to Giffs, somewhere on the North Circular Road in London, to buy spares. The journey took me past the Ace Cafe which was a rockers-oriented transport cafe in those days. On one occasion I stopped outside. There were lots of motorbikes parked, and I became aware of lots of eyes aimed in my direction. This was the era of the Mods-Rockers thing, so I promptly continued my journey. On reflection, those eyes were probably just curious. This Zundapp Bella was a pretty rare bike, I never saw another except around Giffs. It was built like a German tank, had solid quickly-detachable wheels, electric start and no kickstarter. It was completely uknown in those days to see someone on a scooter, engine dead, rider motionless, and then hear the engine start up as though by magic!
Magic!

__________________
TTR250 - London to Cape Town

1954 Dot Scrambler. By no means as tidy as this one [PDU 989 was the number plate].
Paid 20 quid for it ,it made a lot of noise and could eat BSA Bantams for breakfast ! [ which was very important to me in those days ].

__________________
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Buried back in the mists of time (before I owned a camera to take a picture of it, so thanks to whoever put this one on Google), this is what I started my biking career on:


Complete with Parka (me, not the scooter), extra lights, army surplus tank aerial and eventually 200cc conversion, wal phillips fuel injector and a toolbox full of sparkplugs it would get me all of, maybe, half a mile before breaking down.

It did, once, make it to Southend ( about 20 miles away), and eventually, back again. I still remember that journey as being of expedition difficulty with two engine siezures and a problem with the flywheel falling off

Eventually I sold it to someone who played in a string quartet!

I would never ever have bought a British bike so it was lucky for my biking career that the Japs were just about starting their two wheeled invasion at the time. A secondhand Honda CB77 showed me that with good design even the most abused wreck could still be more or less reliable and it eventually got me to Athens and back.

First bike I've ever owned was a little kawasaki KV75 in green. Fold up handlebars, tiny wheels, 3-speed automatic, headlight and tail light and even a speedo that went to 50mph! (Which i would peg on a dirt road downhill by our house...



Then came the others... a bit of an obsession I think as I look back... afterall, I'm 46 years old and have owned at least one motorcycle everyday since I was 13...(before that, it was snowmobiles!)

'75 Kawasaki KV75 (3 speed auto with fold up bars)(green)
'73 Honda CL175 (neighbor gave it to me...basket case...the bike, not the neighbor)(maroon)
'77 Kawasaki KE90 (red)
'69 Honda CB350 (Rust-o-leum Green)
'76 Kawasaki KZ400 (metallic brown)
'82 Yamaha Vision (XV550J) (Red) Sweeeeeet Bike. First brand new motorcycle!
'84 Kawasaki GPz750 (Arrest-Me-Red) Really SWEEEEEEET bike....
'86 Yamaha SRX6 (red) wish I never got rid of it now...
'87 Kawasaki EX500 (white) first year for the 500! Wheelie machine...
'89 Honda TransAlp (white) Yes, I'm the ONE who bought one new...
'82 Honda XR200 (red) raced SuperVintage class scrambles
'83 Husqvarna WR250 (white) cool bike (was a package deal with the XR)
'85 Kawasaki KD80 (green) bike for the boys...
'91 KTM 125 EXC (white and red) rode enduros for a few years
'83 Honda XL250R (red) (the bike that started DixieDualSport!)
'78 Suzuki TS175 (white) why I bought this one I'll never know...
'90 Suzuki JR50 yellow, for my daughter
'96 KTM 620 RXC (LC4)(bike launched the KTM buying frenzy)
'74 Honda CB200 (orange) first delving into old bikes..
'81 Suzuki PE175 (yellow) first resoration project...
'94 Yamaha XT225 (White) Mrs wanted to ride...
00' Kawasaki KLR650 (Heftybag Green)
'83 Kawasaki GPz550 (Arrest-me-red) (first ebay bike purchase)
'74 DT250 (green) picked up at Bike week...
'76 PE250 (yellow) had a 400 motor in it...rat bike
'93 Yamaha XT225 (white/green) Mrs wanted to ride...
'76 KTM MC5 400 (orange) stock, whatta deal...sold it...whatta dumbass...
'72 Penton 175 Jackpiner (blue) barnfresh...no time to restore...sold it... whatta dumbass...
**'03 Triumph Speed Triple(green) A Christmas gift
'98 Suzuki DR350 (white) Mrs wanted to ride...
'04 Suzuki DR650 (yellow) loved it! (the almost perfect motorcycle)
**'05 KTM 450MXC (orange) this baby flies
'06 Kawasaki KLR650 (red/silver)
'01 Yamaha XT225(white)
'94 Suzuki DR350
'96 XT225...Mrs wants to ride...again...
**'07 Kawasaki KLX250S for the Mrs once again...
**'07 KTM 950 Super Enduro


** bikes currently in the stable...

Before Washington Heights became the Olympic Village for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, we lived there. My parents were committed anti-bikers, and for good reason, I was not yet then a teenager, and motocross events for kids was still a dream.

I was allowed off base only if I was going to a nearby stamp dealer that traded and sold postage stamps. Dad had given me his childhood stamp collection which I wheeled and dealt into the very collectable collection I have today.

I had 2 or 3 US stamps the shop owner really wanted but I was unwilling to sell or trade them until he rolled out a "mo-ped," this was a motorized bicycle of sorts, with pedals and a tiny motor. I have long since forgotten the make and model, but I think it was 50cc, and of course it was made in Japan.

That wise old Japanese stamp dealer faithfully stored the mo-ped for me until I arrived, whenever I was allowed, and rode it, mostly to the gin bars with their beautiful Japanese hostesses that the airmen frequented. I loved that bike as it represented freedom and delivered me into a new, exciting and very different world.

The way it was in Tokyo then, was if you had a mo-ped you could ride it on the streets, if you had the money you could buy a drink or cigarettes. And beyond the gin bars, in retrospect, Japan was where I learned a sincere and very deep appreciation for other cultures.

Today, in Buenos Aires, I park motorcycles for others. I might even trade a stamp or two, or a story.

My next bike was one of the aforementioned BSA Bantams, bought from an airman after his tour in England. .... What memories, thanks

xfiltrate

__________________
Motorcycle Parking Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.xfiltrate.com
Discover how to legally Buy, Tour and Sell a motorcycle in Argentina

My First bike .. 1100GS


in cleaner times...

__________________
'99 R1100GS - In a suitable shade of black

It's not that life is so short, It's just that we're dead for so long....
"The world is a book, those who do not travel read only one page." ~ Saint Augustin