How Did It All Start For You ..Pics??

[uptwolait]

This certainly isn't a DRZ-only topic, but I'm personally interested in what all you DRZ riders that I've come to know & love have to say.

After blowing past the 40 mark, watching my kids enjoy the same fun & freedom on a dirt bike that I can remember like it was just yesterday...I begin waxing nostalgic.

I'm interested in how you all first got the "bike bug", and better yet if you have some pics of you and/or your ride(s) back then. For some of you, "way back then" might only be a few years ago!

Here's my start, I'm on the right. That '70 Honda QA-50 took me everywhere till I was almost 13. Dad's '71 Honda 350 took us both on many amazing street rides. I still have a scar on the bottom of my foot from trying to climb up on it for a ride, barefoot, and stepping on the muffler..? Good times.

...let the posts begin! ?

[William1]

I still have a scar on the bottom of my foot from trying to climb up on it for a ride, barefoot, and stepping on the muffler.. Good times.

Ah.... the classic burn from the first ride. Saw that happen many times in my youth.

Unfortuanetly, no pictures of me and bikes from then. My start was on a mini bike, I was maybe 8. My parents bought it for my two older brothers. They rode it for a few weeks, egging me on to try it. I was too scared. Finally I rode it. In short order, I had 'Claimed it' as my own. My parents regereted ever getting then as I became obsessed. Within a few months, I had a 63 Benelli 125, a year later a Vincent 750 (Black Shadow too, wish I still had it...), fortunately, I was still to small to ride it or even start it. From there on, it was a blur, still is on a good day.

[dblj]

i was 4 years old when my dad brought home my first motorcycle.it was a suzuki jr 50,it was january and we had 2' of snow on the ground and i couldn't ride it ,so my dad would wait for my mother to leave for work and my father would let me ride it in the house,our living,dining,bedrooms and study where all connected with door ways so my father would open them and the windows up and let me go for it.i have been hooked ever since.

[Sundog]

Riding on the back of my father's '72 Honda 125 4-stroke (don't know the model) on the tank trails in Guantonamo Bay, Cuba circa '73-'74

Later on in high school when my father was out on cruise (Navy ship for 9 months) and I would sneek out his '76 Honda Goldwing. First motorcycle I ever rode (solo) and I taught myself on it.

Will add a pic later if I can find one.

[DRZDUal]

Your dads 71 honda brings back memories: I currently own and have for many many years a 72 honda CB450.....

Of course its not running because i cant figure out the F**in points ignition......

[Neil Claydon]

i cant figure out the F**in points ignition......

Oh dear, it don't get any simpler.

What can't you figure out?

I started at about 10 riding a selection of twist and go mopeds in the local woods.

Followed by a 500cc Matchless trials bike, an ex works one at that.

It was given to me as box of bits for my 12th birthday, took me a year to get it together and running.

I rode it in the same woods for a while, then (illegally) on the road, until I was 16, when I sold it to buy a moped so I could be legal? god knows why, it remains the biggest pile of crap I have ever owned.

At 17 I went to a 250-cc BSA C15, then fitted a B25 engine, then a BSA 650-cc Engine. Then to a selection of tuned, camm'd, big carb'd, big bored Honda CB 250's.

Kept blowing them up on a regular basis, so moved up to a Suzuki GT750 water cooled triple.

from 17 to 20 I worked in a bike shop so also got to "Borrow" stock bikes.

I also kept a Honda C50 step through, and a 1963 Honda C72 250 cc Super Dream (Elvis had one as well) as my reliable sane transport.

I was also silly enough in 1976 to ride the C50 round the coast of the British Isles?

Including my visit to the Isle of Man TT that year :usa:

Finished with bikes in 1980 when they took my license away, for various offences, mainly concerning speed and a lack of "legal paperwork"

When I got my licence back in 1983, I took my car test again, but not my bike test, rode a 125 to and from work for a bit, but got back into bikes again just over 4 years ago after finally taking my test again.

Since then I have had a Honda FX650 (a single) got bored after 2 months, then a Honda CB600F Hornet, then the DRZ, and now the BMW.

Unfortunately no pics of the early years, I only wish there were, but I never had a camera, and my parents hated motorcycles

Actually my Mum still does

Neil. ?

PS: The woods I rode in were not legal either, don't tell anybody, I still visit them, or whats left of them

[DRZDUal]

Neil ill hit you with a PM with the syptoms.....as Ive stumped most all locals with the issues......Maybe i should post them here.....

[RPM06]

i was 4 years old when my dad brought home my first motorcycle.it was a suzuki jr 50,it was january and we had 2' of snow on the ground and i couldn't ride it ,so my dad would wait for my mother to leave for work and my father would let me ride it in the house,our living,dining,bedrooms and study where all connected with door ways so my father would open them and the windows up and let me go for it.i have been hooked ever since.

? ...What a great father

[Neil Claydon]

Neil ill hit you with a PM with the syptoms.....as Ive stumped most all locals with the issues......Maybe i should post them here.....

No problem, or skype me etc.

Neil. ?

[eighty6gt]

Dad always had late 70's Kawasaki enduro 2 strokes around, the latest being a KE175 that we only recently parted with I crashed that thing a lot. My brother had a few bikes over the years as well, a Yamaha XS400 which he still has, one other parallel twin streetbike (yammie 500 I think?), and finally a brand new speed triple >?.

The DR-Z appealed to me b/c of its bulletproof nature, tall stature (I'm 6'3) and how cool it is to terrorize the streets of large and small towns on a dirt bike, and then hit the backroads and trails and just get lost.

[Bear on a bicycle]

My dad brought home a yellow Sears & Roebuck mini-bike with a 5hp pull start Briggs & Stratton motor for my brother & me when I was probably 6 or so. We rode that thing until the wheels rotted off. Of course, next came the 80cc dirtbikes, go-carts, 4-wheelers, a Jeep CJ-5.... well you get the idea!

[ghetto rider]

For me, a 1967? Honda Mini Trail that was my Dad's. I had soooo much fun riding dirt roads from age 9 to 16. And getting chased by security gaurds on bike paths and across fields by my house, was some of the most fun I ever had!!!!!!!!!!

[000ShaDoW000]

Well i will tell you all how it started for me and my twin brother and sister.

we were poor i mean really poor mum and dad were young and doing it hard trying to feed a family of 5 and keep a roof over our heads but my dad is pretty switched on and had a good shed with lots of tools

so he brought a couple of old lawn mowers and took the motors out and then welded up a frame and made the whole bike outta parts from the dump and stuff he come find here and there

long story short after about 3 months we had our frist motorcycle (not rad leagal of course but in those days we were living on or near farms most the time as my dad was then a sheep shearer for a livin.

picture this a motorbike with wheelbarrow tyres a lawnmower engine and athe rest home made from this and that throttle was a bike brake lever

it was as heavy as all hell but we loved it (remeber this was like 76-77 when we were like 6 (sister was 5) good old two stroke fuel we could ride all day for like 4 bucks (and we did most weekends)

i can still remeber hammering that thing flatout over jumps we made (getting the old girl all of 10 inch off the ground) having a blast and lovin every minutee of it

got the bug then and have been riding one thing or another ever since good times for sure.

so i cant ay i had a standard intro into bikin but i was riding and having a ball so i guess it counts.

[redhotz28]

My dad was totally against me getting a bike, although he road dirt bikes pretty hard all the time he was a kid. His much older brother owned a motorcycle dealership, so his parents always made sure he had a bike. The last bike he had was a KX420. I only saw it run once, because he didn't use it much around the farm, and time got tight with us damned kids. I tried to get it running, but I had no idea what I was doing and he sure didn't help me much. I rode the 4 wheelers til I left for college. When I graduated, my graduation present was a helmet, jacket, and pants. Shortly thereafter I bought my first bike, a 99 YZF600R, and I wish I had gotten that TTR225 I looked at. My dad convinced me to get a car instead. I dropped the YZF lots of times because I had no idea what I was doing, and finally a car pulled out from a stop sign and ran over me, totalled the bike. I got enough money from the insurance (progessive rocks!) to pick up my CBR929RR. I took that thing on several trips with my father in law (who really taught me about bikes and proper maintanance) from Silverton to yellowstone. Also was an awesome track bike! Scraped my first knee on it. Got to where I was leaving black streaks coming out of corners passing "Pro AMA racers" on work gsxr1000s. Got into plenty of trouble on it too, so I decided to sell it and buy the 07 DRZ SM. Still making plenty of trouble, but have yet to get caught for it!

[gketell]

From the time I was 7 I was on the back of my older brother's bikes. The most memorable was a Yamaha 90 that had burlap seat (hand stiched), bailing wire holding the muffler on, and a brass rod as a main swing-arm bolt.

My first bike of my own was on my 9th birthday and was a Kawasaki Coyote 5HP pull start. I rode that for 2 years before I built my kawaha from junkyard parts. It was a Kawasaki 125 with a yamaha front fork.

I've been building/riding trash bikes ever since. The DRZ is my first new bike in my 40+ years and I love it!!!!!

GK

[sticky400sm]

i was 4 years old when my dad brought home my first motorcycle.it was a suzuki jr 50,it was january and we had 2' of snow on the ground and i couldn't ride it ,so my dad would wait for my mother to leave for work and my father would let me ride it in the house,our living,dining,bedrooms and study where all connected with door ways so my father would open them and the windows up and let me go for it.i have been hooked ever since.

LOL...classic.

[soncho]

the memories are a little fuzzy(hell I can barley remember my 20's) but around 1963 and age 4 it was a briggs and stratton mini bike then there were a couple of step though trail 90's one had the under seat gas tank replaced with a lawn mower gas tank mounted on the frame to lower the seat height.I can remember me and my bro getting busted for riding too fast on Daytona Beach on a family vacation we took down there in 1968. then there was 125 yamaha enduro , a penton 125 and so on. So here I sit with a broken wrist and ribs from the last crash 44 years later and would'nt trade a second of it for anything. RIDE TO LIVE-LIVE TO RIDE

[sticky400sm]

Well...I'm new to this (not sure if the pic will come out okay but I've included links...you may have to cut and paste the url though:excuseme:) .

I've been in bikes (bicycles) since I can remember. Raced mountain bikes for about 4 years before a knee injury . As part of my "rehab" I rode a buddy's KX125 around the neighborhood on a regular basis (fortunately neighbors were either cool or deaf). I spent about a year off the bicycle but had the motorcycle to get my "fix" but, when all was healed, I stopped riding the motorcycle and got back on the MTN bike. I raced for another 2 years but the sport had changed for me and I didn't enjoy it. For the past 9 or so years I've just been riding for the enjoyment.

On 2/12 I picked up my first motorcycle, a 2007 DRZ SM.

http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/115128/dsc01046small.jpg

It still feels like I'm breaking the law when I ride the thing? but then I remember that it is legal this time?.

Here are some pics of the other bikes:

Santa Cruz Superlight; light, agile, full suspension fun (caught a stick in the front wheel two days after my wedding that resulted in 13 stitches to the face and a postponed Honeymoon...no telling what the result would have been had I not been wearing my helmet)

http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/115128/superlight_small.jpg

Surly Crosscheck; cyclecross bike that sees more dirt than street (I get a similar feeling on the SM...it's just wrong)

http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/115128/surly_small.jpg

I also have an old (60's) Schwinn Cruiser that I "roll" around town on occasionally...not pics though.

[MrsSlicer]

I don't have much of a story to share. My mom rode a honda dual sport 100 until I was about 9. When we moved she sold it and never bought another one for herself. My Dad has had the same bike sence a year before I was born. He has an '81 Honda CB650. I always begged them for a bike. But we were not well off, and they tried a few times, but something else always came up. We moved frequently, and that is always expensive. After I married, I told hubby i wanted to learn to ride. He went and Bought HIMSELF a 250ex Ninja. He learned on it, then tought me. Then I finally got my own. (this was just 1 1/2 years ago) I picked out a DR200. I learned to ride it in the dirt first. Then took it to the street. After about 6 months on the street the lack of power got to me. I asked Hubby to let me ride his DRZ, and I was in love. So as of last October, I am an offical DRZ ridder. Both of my parents are very proud (especialy my mom she loves the Dual sport consept).

On the 200

Today!!! (literally)

[irich]

No pics but:

15 years old:

Saved up my saturday job money, bought a wreck of a Suzuki TS 125 for about 40 pounds ($60). Total nightmare and taught me a lot about crap jap 2 strokes. Sold it to a mate eventually.

19 years old:

Thought I would have learnt my lesson but no, I bought a Kawasaki KH250 triple second hand. Again a total wreck. plastic alloy, cheap everthing, punctured float led to the middle carb flooding, there was a battery & rectifier problem that meant that the bike would die after a certain milage and the coils would arc all over whenever it got wet. Handled like a jelly bike and once stranded me on top of the Pennines in freezing fog with borderline hypothermia.

Long gap then at 34 I bought Moto Morini 3 1/2 Strada with only 30K on the clock. Completely original, one owner for 16 years. promptly ruined it by stripping it down totally and getting a mate to respray the tank and side panels yellow and black. Sold it in bits eventually.

Then MuZ Scorpion Sport for commuting to London, stage 2 dynojet, sticky tyres, renegade exhaust, singles racing, actually a great bike and much underrated I think. Carried me up to London without a problem for a year with the big single/race pipe setting car alarms off all the way. Only problem was the fans packing in and the battery failing in winter. Would be hard to start if left for a few days also.

Then a gap and today I'm over to the Riyadh bike shop in a couple of hours to pay for the DRZ 400 SM... Things have come a long way since the TS125!!