What, Where, Why, When... your first streetbike

1981,20 yrs old,H-1 500 Kawi 2-stroke.Drum front brake that barely worked.It was 11yrs old,clappped out. Turned a 13.5e.t. with it,beating a KZ 750 in the process.A good day!

 

Young guy here
Didnt get a chance to ride many "classics"
The first bike i actually owned was an 05 sv650

Before that i rode my dads 84 gpz750 quite a bit. "all new monoshock" Red with silver stripes, annoyingly loud Kerker pipe. I always thought it was cool as hell for an older bike.

 

Here's everything I ever had on the street gathered together in the summer of 1987. I had consecutive license plates and inspection stickers on them.



left to right: 1987 Yamaha YSR50, 1983 Suzuki GS750ES, 1971 BMW R60/5, 1974 Yamaha RD350.
There's my first Honda in the background, a 1986 Civic Wagon.

 

That section of River Road is about 15 miles from my driveway...

 

Late 1998, bought my my first "car". 1997 YZF600 "Thundercat", picked it up from Billy Eisenacher, pretty sure he thought I was gonna kill myself.

It was his old racebike with street clothes put on after the '97/98? WERA season. It was a really clean bike for what it was and pretty fast for a 600. Rode it everywhere, I thought I was hot shit and all.

Crashed it multiple times {squid!} before giving up on the whole motorcycle thing for couple of years, mainly because I was too busy chasing pussy. It knocked some respect into me for sure.

 

1983. A 1982 Yamaha 650 Maxim, shaft driven.

 

1984. 83 750 Interceptor. 3k miles on it at the time. Wife surprised me with it.

 

1984... bought a GS550E off a friend. Still had a few years before I was legal to ride it...but that didnt stop me!
I did whip around North Jersey on an AR80 & MB5 for a couple years prior as mopeds.

 

Brand new, shiny '99 Ducati 748S. Had never ridden a motorcycle and wouldn't recommend it as your first bike. Taught myself on the backroads of North Carolina. Still got the bike and still running around the mountains of southern California.

 

02 F4i
I was 15 and wanted to buy a motorcycle. To keep me from doing that, my parents bought me an 01 Jeep Wrangler and figured I'd forget about wanting a bike. Eventually, maybe 6 months later, I bought the F4i anyway. They didn't love it but they didn't put up too much of a fight. When I started doing trackdays, my dad came with me to most of them to help out (I didn't play any sports in HS so this was his "tailgating" I guess). My mom came to a few trackdays and some of my race weekends when I went racing in 07. She even caught my first crash on video lol

Anyway, loved that F4i, wish I still had it

 

I was 25 and bought a 1981 xv920rh due to my sucubus using the car. As soon as she was gone I bought an 01 f4i (still have her) and hit the track. I'll be racing a 2007 gsxr 600 as soon as I pay off the ring i just bought for the new............

The F4i has been a dream ride since i bought her.

 

Right after boot camp I bought a brand new 92 Kawi EX 500 while I was home on leave for 10 days. It was all I could afford without having payments. Went to NC for my school then got deployed overseas for a year, the bike just sat in a garage for over a year.

 

I feel like part of getting to know the beeb is admitting my sins. Started with an '06 Katana a couple years ago.. got tired of driving that Cadillac around the track so it was sold:



Where's Kanatuna so I don't feel bad!!

 

BMW R65LS with hardbags.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Director
That's a CL 77.

A friend had one and I chased him (attempted to, really) on a way-underpowered 1968 Yamaha YL-2 with block treaded-tires. 1972??? Whipper snapper!! I was chasing my buddy up RIver Road from NewHope to where Rte 32 meets Rte 611 long before you threw a leg over a machine!

Funny. I know the area too!

 

Parents forbid me to have any sort of motorcycle. Neighbor across the street's older brother was always messing around with minibikes, from time to time I would make a case for why I should be able to get one, dad was never havin it. Wanted one every day since the first day I saw one.

Fast forward to 1997, fresh out of college, broke, but not living at home so I bought a non-running 76 KZ400 out of a co-worker's garage. I didn't even know how to change the oil, but somehow figured I could clean the carbs. I couldn't. Took it to a shop, $100 later and it was running. I rode that thing every second I could, no matter what. 20 degree Wisconsin winters, rain, everything. Only thing that stopped me was snow. No insurance, learners permit only, probably had the original tires. Spent my money on a used 2:1 megaphone. Damn squid. Sold it to a buddy and bought a 80 something CB550. Bought it at night from crazy neighborhood guy who told me to leave the windshield on it "because then you don't need a helmet." Rode it home at night, and noticed it slowed waay down the minute I pulled the clutch in. My dumbass figured something was wrong with the clutch so I took to the side streets. 3 corners later I crashed in some gravel because the front caliper was locked up. In shorts. Pride hurt more than anything. Fixed the brakes (starting to pick up a little mechanical aptitude). Took the fenders and tank off, had them painted silver and put drag bars on it.

Rode that for a couple years, sold it to another buddy and bought a 80 something GS650l. It had an unknown pipe on it that sounded great, I thought. Didn't do too much to that one except ride it for awhile, then sold that and bought a CB1100f that I ended up riding for a couple years untill I finally got a good job and decided I needed something newer. Sold it and bought a 1999 Bandit 1200s, had that for about a year before I sold it and bought a 2000 TL1000s brand new in late 2001. Put D@D slipons on it (loud as hell, but man did that bike sound cool). Still amazed I didn't kill myself on it. Around this time a buddy of mine and I bought xr50's to mess around on. Went mini racing on it and that hooked me into racing, and minis. I can't even begin to count all the KLX110's, Derbis, 2 stroke 85's and China minibikes I've owned since. Also in there were several dirtbikes and supermoto bikes, too many to remember or list.

Around that time I also decided I needed to see what all the Harley buzz was about. Bought a brand new Superglide, but kept the TL because I knew I didn't want to stop riding sportbikes. Being somewhat young and more than somewhat stupid, I now had 2 motorcycle payments that totaled more than my mortgage. The TL went down the road within months because I had an easier time selling it than the Harley. Knew within a month that I had screwed up. Managed to sell the Harley after a little bit and bought a 2001 GSXR750. Missed a twin, so I sold that and bought an SV1000. Didn't really care for it, it was so souless and vanilla compared to my TL. Still looking for another TL...

By this time I was riding less and less on the street and really wanted to get into big bike racing, so I sold the SV and bought a XL650 for the street and a CRF450 motard for motard class roadracing. Traded the CRF for a SV racebike before I ever even started the CRF. Realized the finances weren't there for big bike racing, so the XL and the SV went away for a KTM 625SMC. That lasted around a year before I had had it with it's quirkiness and KTM parts issues. Sold it and bought a DRZ400sm. Last streetbike I've owned. That lasted around a year before I sold it and bought a Hawk GT racebike and an RD350 and a RD250. The Hawk would become my trackday bike, the RD250 was basically just a flip. I put rearsets, clip ons, and a fiberglass tail on the 350 before I lost interest in 2 strokes and sold it for racebike money. Sold the hawk, bought a 900ss with a bad motor and a GS450. The GS is still here and has been my vintage racebike for several seasons. The 900ss went to a buddy. Now I'm doing a completely custom XS650 for the street, or just to sell as I've finally gotten to the point that working on, building motors, improving chassis and customising bikes is almost more fun to me than riding. Is that good or bad?

Still have the GS, still race it. Still have a completely custom KLX110 that I mini roadrace. Picked up a YZ125 for some indoor dirt stuff, but that got torn down for a crank-up rebuild before I ever even started it. Picking up an EX250 soon, gonna do the full WERA NC season with it in 2012.

Sorry for the novel, but writing this was very fun and it was great to go back and remember all those bikes.

 

in '86 i bought a brand new off the floor leftover '85 fj600 from a yammie dealer in VA. wanted to race it, but got stationed overseas (didn't really think that through, but i was 19). then my brother rode the piss out of it while i was gone. came back from being overseas, got rid of it and bought a brand new ysr then soon after a brand new fzr400 and raced them both! neither of them saw the street, only race track!

 

Used (dealer demo bike) 1979 Yamaha SR 500 (red) purchased in 1979 from (IIRC) Pacific Beach Yamaha, San Diego.

Single cylinder, kick start beast... the first vehicle I ever owned.

I think that I paid around $1,400 for it and I bought that particular bike because that's all the cash I had to spend.

Got a helmet out of the dealas well...

 

Kind of a funny story. Circa 2001

I raced Go-Karts in High School. I worked part time at a local Kart shop. I helped do minor repairs and such. The owner also worked on dirt bikes from time to time. He asked me to watch the shop for him one weekend while he went out of town. He said he had some side jobs for me to do while tending to customers etc. One of those jobs was working on a 97" cr250.
On the first day I got the carb all cleaned up and got the bike running. I had no idea how to operate a motorcycle at all... I locked the shop down and headed to the side road to ride it. I crashed the thing like 8 times. No helmet, no gloves...just jeans and a tee shirt. Each time I picked up the bike it was a little more rashed and bent and I was much much more bloody. I was so pumped about riding the thing that I didnt feel the pain.
A customer showed up for some tires and I was still a bloody mess. Seriously...from shoulders to my ankles...I was a fucking mess. Holes in my clothes, dirt and asphalt in my skin and covered in blood. The customer asked if I was beaten or mugged and I told him I had just learned how to ride a motorcycle. lmao The guy says "I hope you do better learning in school" Took his tires and left. lol
I spent the next day trying to repair that bike. I wound up paying about $400 in parts alone. lol The owner was completely cool with it. I told him everything.

Two weeks later I sold every kart racing thing that I had and bought a 69" Suzuki T350 from another guy at the shop. I never went back to karts. I have owned about 20 bikes since.

 

first streetbike i rode was a triumph bonneville, first streetbike i had was a RD400 that my dad gave me