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When did you first realize that you wanted to ride?

4K views 31 replies 21 participants last post by  Shadow Shack 
#1 ·
When I got my motorcycle, my co-workers were surprised. I'd talked about it before, but they thought I was just talking because I don't seem like the type to ride motorcycles. And they're right, I'm not the type to ride motorcycles.

I am very much an internet nerd. I could wax on for hours about how fanfiction is legitimate literature, and lament the fact that the U.S. doesn't get any animated shows aimed at an adult audience because Disney has fostered the image that it's a kids-only thing. I'm passive, slow to speak, and always stumble over my words. I have not an ounce of mechanical talent, needing the manual just to make sure I'm checking my oil correctly and detailed, step by step instructions to change my brake fluid. I don't think I'd ever be comfortable riding in a group, because I'd feel completely out of place.

I didn't like motorcycles as a kid, never even thought about them really. It didn't come to me until I was twenty. I was in Spotsylvania County, Virginia at the time, and in love with the area. Coming from Utah, I'm used to open space. The wide open spaces in and around the city are ugly. The wide open spaces in the desert are pretty but you've got to be dedicated and willing to put up with some very uncomfortable weather to appreciate it. We have our forests in the mountains, but they're nothing like what I saw in Virginia. It more green there in the middle of winter than I ever saw in the spring or summer here. I wanted to be out in it.

I swear there were more sport bikes than flies, and every time I stopped next to one at an intersection, I felt like I was still inside. I looked over at them and could already feel what it was like to be on a bike. I could feel what it was like to take off ahead of the cars, what it was like to lean into a deep corner and open up the throttle, and what it was like to cruise through a tunnel of trees in the middle of nowhere. I wanted that feeling.

That's actually most of the reason I've only ever considered sport bikes. I don't have a burning need to go super fast, but I love the way they look and feel. I feel more exposed on one of them, more active and part of my surroundings, and that's worth putting up with a less comfortable riding position and no storage space.

Someday, when I can buy a new bike that I trust to make the journey, and when I've built up my riding endurance, I'm going to take it to Virginia and ride the back roads. I just hope the construction hasn't advanced far enough to overtake everything by the time I make it.
 
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#2 ·
How long has it been since you have been in VA? You may have to go further west and south.

Watched "Wild One" on TV and knew I wanted a bike. In 64 I bought a Honda CB160 (not really Wild One material). I was on my way
 
#3 ·
It's been seven or eight years. At the time, the top half of the county was being assimilated into the DC metro area, the middle was mostly country and old property that would be expensive if the family that had owned it since the Civil War ever decided to sell, and the bottom was rich estates.
 
#8 ·
I can see why. Driving anywhere in north VA was a nightmare. They were crowded and filled with people who all learned to drive in different states and different countries and had different driving cultures. It was nearly impossible to predict what any particular driver was going to do. And I knew people who had a three hour commute into DC.
 
#5 ·
There was something deep inside my psyche that drew me towards a life of riding. First real motorcycle was a 1958 PUCH, 125cc, 2 stroke, 3 speed, right foot shift, old hunk of junk that my Dad bought me to ride under the power lines nearby where we lived. First legal streetbike was a brand new Honda 50cc, C110 "Meet the nicest people on a honda," like the Beach Boys sang about. My folks bought it for me when I got my learners permit to drive the car and a bike, when I was 15 1/2 in 1962. Fast forward, 78 bikes later and here I am, still hooked and loving it.

I spent maybe 2 hours, riding a 1962 Honda CUB, 50cc bike in a school parking lot when I was about 14 and it was then and there that I caught the incurable Motorcycle Virus.

I don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew and don't go with the girl's that do, so what else can I do for fun?????:biggrin:
 
#6 ·
I've told the story before, but 2 years ago I took the BRC because it's free, and I had quite a bit of time off my primary job for vacation. It wasn't until I was riding down a country road on a wonderful day to a part time job that I realized "it would be nice if I was on a motorcycle right now". That's when I started saving up for the bike.
 
#10 ·
:biggrin:CDRW, I had a brand new 1986 VF500 myself and what a nice little bike!

I'm also a hopelessly involved computer person myself and I own this business: www. carthageelectronics.com

Sam
Huh, that was my first bike. Same model, same year. :71baldboy:

Your website looks professional and reliable, so I'm forced to assume that your business is as well. :icon_cool:
 
#9 ·
Back when I was about 10 years old I would ride my bicycle around pretending to be on a motorcycle. As soon as I had met the required age to drive I started to put together the needed money to buy a bike and at 18 I owned one outright. When I was around 23 years old California came out with motorcycle license endorsements so when I renewed my license I did it by driving my bike to the DMV and taking the test. I have been a licensed rider since then and am now 67 going on 68.
 
#11 ·
Actually it was economics that put me on a bike. Back in 74-75 time frame, California started the first manufactured gas shortage. That lack of being able to find fuel did it for me.

But it didn't take much to push me over the edge as I had always had this desire to try being a bad boy as it were. Anyway I got a bike just to get back and forth for work. Wasn't that far. Maybe 5 miles.

But when you have a gas hog car, Cadillac, getting 50 miles to the gallon sounded good. The rest is history.
 
#12 ·
Grew up on a farm with a cow/calf herd and thus riding horses. Some of my neighbors and cousins had Cushman scooters for running farm errands and it made me drool for something to ride that didn't require oats and hay. In my early teens I became friends with the sons of the owner of the motorcycle shop about a mile away. We could ride any used bike they had anytime we wanted and I was hooked. They were also the first import motorcycle dealer in Nebraska so I was able to try out the metric bikes when they began to appear. The first motorcycle I ever rode was an old Triumph T3.
 
#13 ·
I could already feel what it was like to cruise through a tunnel of trees
Don't forget the incredible fragrance of the magnolia blossoms....

When you're ready, head down to Mississippi. Cherokee Mississippi. Start at Natchez Trace H.D.

Jump on the beautiful, Natchez Trace, sans trucks and signs for scenic 50 miles, then jump off to Hwy's 4 and 5 through Booneville, Holly Springs Ridley, Senatobia, ...

You can ride almost all day long in an ever unfolding shaded tunnel of trees, along twisty two lanes, a pickup truck here and there. Eat BBQ.

End up at the casino at Tunica, 75 miles south of Memphis.

Growing up some of the "other kids" in the hood got to ride minibikes. One or two upgraded to a Trail 50 or Trail 70. I was banned from even SITTING on motorbikes, under threat of NOT being allowed to obtain my driver's license.

I recall standing in the high school parking lot thinking how "cool" the motorcycles parked there were, how lucky the kids were who were allowed to ride them, and of the freedom they gave their owners while the rest of us waited another year to obtain a learner's permit.

And walked.
 
#14 ·
In 1978, California had another so called gas shortage and rationing. At the time I had a brand new Chevy Silverado, Heavy half, factory 454 special! What a big block but it got about 7 mpg in town and maybe 12 on the highway. I worked 36 miles away so the mileage and rationing wouldn't work for me----so my Wife that worked just a few miles away, drove my truck and I bought a brand new Yamaha RD400 and rode it to work. I siphoned a tank full every day when I got home, from my gas Hog Chevy. The older guy that owned the Chevron station just loved my wife, so whenever she needed gas, he'd just do it for her!

To this day, I still hate the taste of Gas!

Sam:biggrin:
 
#15 ·
Guess I caught the bug at about 3 years old,used to climb up on my brothers BSA and pretend I was getting it.Rode friends mini bike at about 6 years old a lot,moved up to another friends dirt bikes at about 12 or so and finally got my own Yamaha 175 enduro at about 14,ended up chopping it into a dirt bike.Then got my first street bike at 15 and here I am 35 years later,what a ride!!
 
#16 · (Edited)
It all started when I was a wee little lad (as opposed to the wee little adult I now am) of the age of 12. This was the year of greatness. This was the year that Yamaha introduced it's new Uber-Mega Death Machine on two wheels; the 1200cc, 140hp V-Max.

It was on a warm, late spring day when my Mum and I were walking up the street to a small Mom&Pop store to pick out some movies to watch. Little did we know that someone in the town had gone and bought one of those Death Dealing menaces to society, motherhood, sanity, and old men with pacemakers. (BTW, it was, and still is, made out of 120% F##K YEAH!) This was the machine that inspired the movies Mad Max and Star Wars, Ronald Reagan to run for President, resurrected Lazarus, and caused Hiroshima to explode in a fit of awesome! (Yes, I know, all that happened beforehand, but IT HAPPENED cause timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly, Time Lords, and s##t.)

It was parked outside the store.


We approached this demonic deity of destruction and multiple speeding tickets, and all I could hear was trumpets and a chorus of angels. (OK, it was actually a Randy Rhodes guitar solo, but that is beside the point) My mum looked casually at the bike just a bit, then looked at me. There was this starry-eyed glint in my eyes.


My mum looked back to the menacing icon of fatality inducing fun.


She looked back at me.


My mum did what any sensable mum would do. She started praying.


I just made plans to sacrifice my brother to the Motorcycle Gods that I might have one. I still do not know where Mum hid that chef's knife.
 
#22 ·
I see your Honda, and I raise you a Yamaha.



Very funny BD:biggrin:

That made me remember when I bought my new 1989 V-max and how it felt to pull out of that dealer's driveway, with a huge smile on my face! What a bike: The way it looked and especially the way it sounded at idle, something like a small block chevy with a hot cam. Although I'd had some very fast bikes before that, nothing compared to when the engine hit 6,000 rpm's and fed every cylinder with 2 carbs and that thing lunged ahead like a rocket ship! I just wished that it had a larger gas tank and a comfortable seat, then I probably would have kept it longer.

I don't think that anything will accelerate to say 90 mph as quick as the V-max but passed that point, I've had at least 2 Supersport bikes that absolutely would outrun it in a heartbeat and especially on the top end.

Oh memories!

Sam:biggrin:
And when the oil light, a.k.a. FUN light came on... Yeah. Hard not to grab a ton of throttle with one of them machines
 
#18 ·
Very funny BD:biggrin:

That made me remember when I bought my new 1989 V-max and how it felt to pull out of that dealer's driveway, with a huge smile on my face! What a bike: The way it looked and especially the way it sounded at idle, something like a small block chevy with a hot cam. Although I'd had some very fast bikes before that, nothing compared to when the engine hit 6,000 rpm's and fed every cylinder with 2 carbs and that thing lunged ahead like a rocket ship! I just wished that it had a larger gas tank and a comfortable seat, then I probably would have kept it longer.

I don't think that anything will accelerate to say 90 mph as quick as the V-max but passed that point, I've had at least 2 Supersport bikes that absolutely would outrun it in a heartbeat and especially on the top end.

Oh memories!

Sam:biggrin:
 
#23 ·
My Dad had a motorcycle magazine when l was 8 or 9, l saw a Kawasaki KDX80 in it and l wanted one right then and there.

When l was about 13, my Dad brought home a motorcycle magazine, and on the cover was a 1984 Yamaha FJ600. The caption read, "Less Weight, Less Wait". Suddenly the idea of a street bike inserted itself as well. I got my first bike a couple years later, and have either had a bike or had plans for my next bike for the last 30 years.

Funny thing is, the two bikes that gave me such a woody were a Kawasaki and a Yamaha, and l have never actually owned either. All of my bikes have been Hondas and Suzukis. Go figure ;)
 
#25 ·
I posted this last week on another thread..:biggrin:
:) I've never owned a Harley. But I do blame them, (and Evel Knievel of all people) for giving me the riding bug. :eek:
When we were small in the early 70s, our parents took us to see Knievel jump some cars. I don't remember the jump very well. But I do remember the HD motorcycle display in the lobby. Especially the Aermacchi-built HD X-90's. For months afterwards, I tried to find a local HD dealer that had an X-90 in stock, to no avail. Where HD lit the fire, but failed in the delivery, my local Honda dealer secured a loyal customer for life by selling me a used Honda CT70 at a discounted price. And so my love affair with Honda and riding began at an early age. And the rest is history. Interestingly, I'm probably the only person on the planet that looks back fondly at the Harley Davidson/AMF years. :biggrin:
<-- My CT70 that I still have today.
 
#27 ·
Just passed the BRC yesterday, no bike yet and will be some time before I can afford one, but I've been wanting to ride since I was a kid. Rode dirt bikes behind my moms back and have had the bug ever since and finally took the initiative to take the class and now have the bug even worse.
I live near the Blue Ridge Parkway and plan to ride that as soon as I feel ready. I look forward to riding through the curves on back roads more than anything.
 
#28 ·
When I got my motorcycle, my co-workers were surprised. I'd talked about it before, but they thought I was just talking because I don't seem like the type to ride motorcycles. And they're right, I'm not the type to ride motorcycles.
Wow, very much the same experience. Even to this day people will say they didn't think I was the type to ride after walking into the office with my helmet. My response is now, "would it help if I grew a goatee, got inked up and started acting like a bada$$?"

When I was 14 all my friends were getting Solex's; black bicycles with a 49cc motor. I guess the theory was to use the motor to power up hills, but nobody who had one ever pedaled. Anyway, my parents refused to let me get one even though I had the cash to purchase. That denial stuck with me for life, and although it took 30+ years to happen, finally had the time, money and motivation to buy the real thing and start riding. My parents are now in their 80's, and incredibly, giving me shlt for getting the bike. I just tell them if they'd allowed me to buy the Solex the Suzuki never would've happened.
 
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