What did you learn to ride on?

All these different first bikes - proof that we all have impeccable taste and indeed all roads lead to the ST1300 :thumb:
 
Art Franz said:
1966 350 Ducati. Single cyl, the single overhead camshaft was shaft driven, really cool design there. Wish I had taken pics of it, (Igofar has some pics of one that he showed me when he hijacked my bike a few years ago). It leaked oil into the ign points, was never able to stop that which made it unreliable and hard to start. Constantly taking the points out, cleaning and reinstalling, gapping them etc
I was in grade 10 (1972) when I got it, and in Gr12 shops class I made some fork extensions for it cuz the chopper craze was on at that time, painted some flames on the tank, put a bigger carb on it. I don’t even remember what happened to it, I think i abandoned it at my parents’ farm when I moved out, likely cuz I was tired of constantly fixing on it and he sold it cuz they both hated me riding it. Then I bought a Suxuki 250cc Mx bike, had big fun on that. Ah, memories….
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I used to road race a Ducati 250 single.
 
My first answer, is I learned to ride on my bicycle. I had two not-so-great experiences on motorcycles between my bicycle and a "motorcycle".

My first was when a group of guys at the used car dealership I worked at wanted me to get on a motorcycle. Note, this was my first time, and I had no idea what I was doing. I got on it, let the clutch out. Bike went forward very very fast to me...I reached for the brake and managed to twist the throttle, which didn't help matters any. And I hit the side of the building. I don't think my feet ever got on the pegs. They didn't offer to give me a second try.

Then a few years later, my boss at the service station I worked at had a party. He let me take his bike...probably some Honda scrambler 70 or 90 cc version out on some trails. Just as I was getting confident, I hit a bump. I immediately grabbed the front brake and smashed my family plan against the gas tank hard. Shut the bike off, and just stood there shaking...and hurting...for quite some time. I got the bike back in his driveway and decided this was not for me.

Why in the world I looked to a motorcycle with that experience later, I don't know. But I did. We bought a 1980 Buick Skylark in England. This was the year GM brought out the X-Body cars. The first X-Body car in England was the Chevy. My Buick Skylark was the second in the UK. The only GM dealership in all of the United Kingdom was on the west side of London, about 3.5 hours away, so we figured that if we needed any servicing/warranty work done by the dealership, we'd drop it off on the weekend, and pick it up the following weekend. That meant I needed transportation for that week to work. Another car seemed ridiculous, so I convinced my wife that a Suzuki 90 2-stroke was the answer.

This Suzuki 90 of undetermined history and model was almost more bicycle than "motorcycle". But!!!...it got me into the world of motorcycling. I paid $450 cash for it, and then asked the owner how to ride it. He told me which lever was the clutch, which was the brake and what the shift pattern was. Getting it home was one of the scariest moments of my life.

I have to share what a technical marvel this bike was. The bike was a two-stroke 90cc engine. I think it got up to 47 mph. You could do better with a flashlight held in your teeth than rely on the headlight. Forget about a horn. If the rpms weren't high enough, nothing happened. You'd do better to shout at the other driver. Brakes???....I chuckle even now. You'd do well to drag your feet to slow the bike down.

But...it got me started. I was hooked. I bought a Honda CB125 after that. A "high performance" version. When I started it the first time, I almost used the kick starter a second time. It was so smooth, the only reason I knew it was running, was the tach. It had a real disk brake in front and the horn and headlight worked. It would get up to a true 70 mph even.

Then my assignment at RAF Mildenhall ended and I was transferred to Griffiss AFB and Upstate New York where it snowed 12 feet in town each winter. The Honda stayed in England and I didn't think about a motorcycle for years after that.

Chris
 
phantom said:
Lambretta scooter...late sixties:cool:

P.S. Also not long after the Lambretta, i started riding a Russian Ural COSSACK 650. A friend bought the bike brand new in the crate, around 1970/71 we both assembled it ,the hand book was in Russian. He worked away a lot, so i took over the reins for a while.
Cost was $650 for 650cc. Had a 6v electrics, which we changed over to 12v some months later. It had separate saddle seats, the passenger seat was higher than the front and had a looped grab
rail on front of the seat and they were comfortable.
Also had a heal/toe gearshift, not sure if it was 4 or 5 gears. Below and behind my leg calf was a small gearshift lever, and i think that was meant to be used if a sidecar was fitted.
I am pretty sure it had an advance/retard lever on the handlebar, to kick the bike over. It also had massive mudguards, which did a great job of keeping the water off.
Easy to work on, had points ignition, able to alter timing to suit ,valve clearance adjustments were a piece of cake. A lot easier bike with the spanners than some of todays rockets.

I ended up getting a Yamy 650 XS1 ( drum brakes). Some months later we took of travelling around the lower half of Aust. Both bikes performed well.
phantom :bk13:
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And the best set of tools supplied in a heavy duty pouch!!
 
My first motorcycle was a 1980 YZ100 two stroke, I lived on the far south edge of town with a couple nearly as hay wire room-mates, we used to take it out in the sun or snow didn't matter. Illegal, no signals, [was there even a headlight?] no license, no helmut, no brains [not too much changes, but I put a helmut over it now] flying off the top of dirt piles reaching heights of what I like to remember were eighty [maybe three] feet, get it back into our storage room before the police car started driving by.
At some point I replaced the fork seals, honed the cylinder and almost got what I paid for it.
 
Started small...

50cc, 2stroke Puch Ranger 4TL scrambler...
(Puch was an Austrian company, the Ranger was build under license in Avello Spain)

ranger-84.jpg

The gained off-road experience is priceless till present day...

A similar model (the Ranger TT) had no tach or turn-signals, also came to use in the Austrian Armed Forces... quite robust little thing...
 
nicksacco said:
Great topic!
I forget the year - maybe 1977 - Honda CB360 AKA the vibrating machine!
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Wow, did that comment bring back a memory. First time my dad and I took a bike trip together, Sudbury, Ontario to Manitoulan Island, about two hours. By the time I got there, I couldn't feel my ass, my hands or my feet. Dad was on a 500 Silverwing. Was wondering what my problem was! :rolleyes:
 
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Learned to ride on a 1975 Kawasaki Enduro and a 1960 Cushman Tote Goat! My first bike was a 1973 CB350 Four. Great memories of all these machines.
 
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