My best buddy next door got an brand new XR75 for his birthday right after they came out. We were out in the woods on my Steen and stopped back at his house and in the garage sat this new bike. Man was he happy, nobody was home so he went to start it and it wouldn't start. We checked it out and his dad had taken the spark plug cap so he couldn't ride till he got home. Well we might have been young but we were not stupid, took the plug cap off the QA 50 that was sitting beside it an off we went. Got it back home and cleaned up before his dad got home. Those were good times.
1972 Honda SL 100 (Just like this one) I had a really big sprocket on the back and tried really hard to make it into a Trails machine.
My Sisters' Suzuki 50 stepthu' scooter, about a '65 or so model, in'69 when I turned 15. Rode around town impressing the heck outa myself. You could find me by tracking the cloud of blue smoke. First real bike after that was a new Silver SL125, "turtle chaser" as Super Hunky ex Dirt Bike Mag way back reckoned they were. I'd strip off the lights etc for hare scrambles and trail rides, IT went really well, you could forget about buttoning off, all that awesome horsepower was probably 20feet behind once a decent speed was attained, and would catch up in the corners when downchanging...pure rocketship out of the corners..yeah, right. Still, plenty off fun, and taught me heaps about both off-road and on-road riding skills.
A 50cc Puch Maxi, even had pedals to help with any slight incline!! Not the best off road machine but at 11 years old I loved it!
Yep, I had one of the first 5 to hit US soil. Didn't take long before it was striped down and ended up with Preston Petty fenders, Basani exhaust, Powrol 125 kit, girling shocks, ET magneto and Yoshimiro cam. I also cut a 1/4" out of the back bone of the frame and welded it back together to get a little more trail angle and since my next door neighbor worked at a chrome shop I had him crome the frame. It was definelty one of the more custom SL 100s out there.
My first bike. A 1997 BMW F650ST. I'm way behind all you guys/girls out there haha. I have owned some 70s bikes since I started riding tho. Man I loved that bike! I put like 16k miles on it in less than a year.
Great stories guys. Heres mine. My dad raced a husky 360 automatic in the Baja with guys like Casey Folks. Well my dad decided that motorcycles were too dangerous. So i started on my honda 70 three wheeler, which was much safer right???? Well at 13 i suckered my stepdad into buying me a 1989 yz125. I then taught myself how to ride. Needless to say my dad was a little miffed, but not much he could do. So one day he fired up his 650, and told me to follow him through southern Utah. He started to really get on it, and I kept up. After about 3 hours we got to a lodge for some lunch in Panguitch, Utah. I stopped looked down, and realized I lost my kick starter. My dad looked at me, and shook his head, and said to me, "I was hoping to scare the sh.t out of you, and all ive managed to do is teach you how to ride the sh.t out of that thing. After that I rode a cagiva 250, then a wr450f, a ktm690, and now my txc449.
1971 Rupp Roadster, 1972 Suzuki Gaucho 50, and then at the ripe old age of 13, I broke open my piggy bank and bought a brand new left over model year 1975 Suzuki RL250 trials bike. A great bike to hone the skills and take those first few diggers on...... that build character. I was hooked......
First bikes: 66 Yamaha Y20 100, taught me how to go over the bars 69 Honda CT70 72 Yamaha 125 MX, enduro with no lights 76 Maico 400 Children break 83 Honda CR480 rode up to 1997 Friend had a bad wreck in the desert then..... Crazy midlife crisis impulse buy: MY2013 TE449 In the early 70's I had a neighbor who was a Husky factory rider. Always wanted a Husky
what year was the gold yamaha jt60 enduro big rear sprocket a real knobby & a hooker down spout pipe woowoothat was my 1st ride [what MY where the red&white ones] that was the 2nd