What started you off....???

[anutz]

how did you get into motorcycling....????

i simply liked the way bikes looked, then i discovered they were even more fun to ride 

[bandit]

Got into the 1970's revamped mod (showing my age) scene riding a 1957 150cc Lambretta scooter up & down the alley was no where near old enough to have a licence, first bike I rode but I soon found motorbikes were better & safer. But if you ever get chance to ride this type of scooter with twist grip gear change go for it.

[clayt74]

Boobs.......... Girls liked Bikes n bad boys!!  Hence I like Boobs and bikes!!!
So become a bad boy......... To get boobs!!!

[darrsi]

My brother had a monkey bike to mess about with when he was a kid, and he was 7 years older than me.
Then on his 17th birthday passed his test but he'd already saved money and also got a loan so had a Honda CBX1000 waiting at home for him on the day.
The mind boggles even thinking about an adult riding that beast, let alone a 17 year old kid riding one!
Then he swapped it for a brand new Kawasaki Z1300 when he was 18 years old!
I was kinda hooked by then, so i had my first scooter when i was 17, and have been riding ever since. 

[stevie-g1968]

11 years old, bunch of kids with a stripped down chicken chaser and a muddy field... as a kid I would watch the older lads and grown men bang propper motorcross bikes around this swamp/ field too.

at 16 I got my first bike, a RD50mx in black with mars bar colours...still love  RD's to this day... life was then full of shit bikes and a few RD125lc's.

[andybesy]

C90s in fields, I think a lot of folks get started this way. After lots of field bikes next was a derbi 50 on the road, then an rg 125 gamma, then a 10 year break, then the fazer.

[odbguy]

When I was 12 my Dad got me a Honda CD175. I can remember the 1st time I took it  out my mum and dad was with me down the fields and I went over the handle bars at some speed. Dad made me do 3 laps of the field before he took me to hospital with blood all down me. Nothing serious tho.
Then I had a Kawasaki KE185 at 13 to 14 .. it was a right beast but I sold it and bought a guitar. Biggest regret ever. I had 4 lessons and give it up. Lol
I been into bikes ever since but couldn't afford my test til last year at 28 and got the Fazer.
Definitely won't be giving that up for a little craze!

[paulchucky]

14yrs old bought a purple FS!E for £8 non runner  pushed it home stripped it into a million bitz then rebuit it   had many spares so stripped it again and rebuilt it  still had a few spares so  stripped again  n again n again till no spares  still would`nt  start ?
next door neighbour said has it got a good earth ??  (my introduction to auto electric`s    ????? ) 
amazing what a bit of wire can do  b ding ding ding  it lives  my life changed
" i stopped reading ladybird books and  started on repair manuals "   

[Hedgetrimmer]

My oldest brother was my main influence. He'd take me up to High Beach on the back of first his Superdream, then his Z650. His mates all had bikes too. Another major influence was the August 1980 copy of Bike magazine, which featured road tests of the Laverda Montjuic, Ducati Pantah, Morini Maestro 500. It also had an article on the IOM TT, another on street racing - which talked about how to get away with going nuts on the roads  - and back then had good, engaging writers. Getting a job as a Saturday lad at a Ducati/Laverda/Moto Guzzi/Yamaha dealer sealed the deal; hooked 

[HarryHornby]

I've always quite liked bikes and over the years toyed with maybe one day getting one.  Then  when our eldest started school we knew my wife would need our car for the school run so we needed a second vehicle.


Work were talking about introducing car parking permits/ limiting parking based on distance from the University and we weren't in the financial position to buy a car only to find out I couldn't park at work.  I was focked if I was going to catch the train because it's blooming expensive and takes twice as long so I decided to get a bike, never looked back.

[Robbie8666]

at a young age but 70's went with dad to see his mate who worked for Rumbelows who sat me on his superdream 250 and kick started it!!
I was hooked! at 17 (1983) bought a Honda cub that was rats but did for me .. then I had a old rxs for a year and did bike & car test within a month of each other but never changed bike cuz of married family etc... did have a super dream in 94 then got a F650 in 96 till 2000 then was off bikes till I got divorced & got my Fazer!!
 had it 4 years now & love it!!
 

[Red Ceri]

Need transport at 16 to get to work and the public transport journey would have taken forever, so bought a Fizzy-DX (my first and only new bike) expecting to use it for a year then get a car, yeah right, got the bug and even a 4 month hospital stay at 18 didn't stop me,  seven years later finally got a car to stop the earache I'd suddenly developed, still didn't get rid of the bike, always had at least one even if they may have been a 'project'

[bigralphie]

A TV program call Kick Start
Joined a local trail riders club (trail riding was all the rage then) did quite well in races but never had the support/sponsorship to progress to the better classes  [size=78%] [/size]
[/size]

[slappy]

Guy that lived next door, when I stilled lived with my parents, built choppers out of Triumphs and BSAs and I started running errands for him to local bike shop. They offered me an job as an apprentice mechanic when I left school, did it for six months then got an engineering apprenticeship. Took the engineering job because that was £10 a week and bike shop was only paying me £8 and I had to work all day Saturday.

[risticuss]

My dad had bikes before have us three kids, but sold his last when my sister (2 1/2 years older than me) was born. He didn't get a bike again until my parents got divorced when he was given a CX500 with a bent frame. We spent that summer stripping it down and swapping it over into a new frame from a basket case he bought.  He then swapped all his accumulated bits and the bike for a complete, working, nice looking example and then started taking me out on it.


I've always loved bikes but my mum never let me get one, and I was always skint, so after finishing uni and getting a job at 24 I bought a Hyosung GV125. Passed my direct access two years later and got a CBR600 '99 of a mate. Had that for a year then sold it and bought my Fazer of my brother who'd just got banned for 109 mph (tut tut).


Always loved bikes and always wanted one, especially the Fazer. Just have to keep hold of it now that my daughters been born 


And still want to get a CX500 just for old times sake, but they're going for silly money these days "Cult classic them are"

[HJFazer]

No one in the family really had bikes. My old man had a Vespa in his 20's but apart from a few months when an Uncle had one I was never around them growing up. Quite simply, I've always thought they looked cool.


I got some money from my PPI claim and was initially thinking of a scooter. I live in London so a car made no sense and as I looked more into it I decided a bike would be better. Got a YBR 125 and loved it, but after riding it back to the midlands at Christmastime I realised I needed something bigger. Did my DAS 5 months after buying the 125 and having sat on a 600 once I could never enjoy the smaller one again.


Been riding the Fazer 2 years now and it's by far one of the best decisions I've made. My niece and nephews love the bike though so hopefully I'll be able to help inspire them to take it up 

[Dave48]

Learnt to "ride" at 15 on a 3-speed Victoria 50cc moped with clutch lever. Was off-roading around a garden & was introduced to the rhododendron bushes & roses a few times before I managed a circuit without hitting anything!
Mid 60s saw me as a poverty stricken youth with a succession of beat up Lambrettas & Vespas. We all rode each others bikes back then & have fond memories of the following: 500cc AJS, 100cc Yamaha twin two-stroke, various low-powered Villiers engined two-strokes.
Long break from early 20s-marriage, kids, bills etc.
Came back to "proper" bikes in 2002; couple of Hondas-Cx500 & NTV 650 then got the Yamaha bug & have had 6 ranging from YBR 125 (commuter) to FZS 1000.
Have only ever bought 3 new bikes-current is the MT-07!
Dad rode bikes prewar & also in the army before being sent to France in 1940-he tried to discourage me by saying "the roadsare a lot busier than in his day"(This was 1964!)

[mr wayneker]

at 8 went to go panny jumping down the local field and there were some big boys mucking around on a stolen DT175 all twisted up going up and down the field...when they had enough they just left it there so me and a couple mates took the chance to get on and have a bash ....didn't have a clue what we were doing took two of us to kick start this thing and get it going

and I remember we couldn't stop the thing so we were going as slow as we could...then we would change riders
one on one off ....didn't give a shit at that age it was a new toy...I will say it was f#'king fast

we all came off a few times... didn't matter I was always the next to go on even though id just come off and finished my go
of and on from then any one that went down the local quarry on there RM80s or CR125 I was there messing with the big boys
until I was 16 got my first 50cc it was a rd50 then 17 had an A reg RD125LC then a brand new 89 model TZR125 three spoke wheels
mark two....and that was the start

[stevierst]

Rode a tzr 125 of my mates when I was 17 and scared myself senseless. I got off it and said "never again!!!"

It wasn't until I was  about 29, in the army and working down south. Wife and kids were in Blackpool, and I was commuting 500 miles every weekend to see them. I always got stuck on the M5/M6 junction for at least an hour. I used to see bikes filtering through, and thought 'I should be doing that!'

By the time I was 30, I was riding a boxeye on the same journey every week to see the wife and kids. Roughly 30,000 miles/annum.

12 years later and I've not looked back. I still do 12-15k/year, and every moment in the saddle is a moment well spent!

[Derpdiherp]

My mum and dad both rode bikes, my dad a little 125, my mum a zephyr. I ridden pillion on the zephyr a bit as a kid - but I was never really bitten by the bug.

A fair few years ago though I needed a cheap way to get to my work since it moved to a place that was a pain in the arse to commute to. I started car driving lessons but soon found out how expensive insurance was.
So I thought "Why not get a little 125 for a while?". I got a little cbf125 - first day riding it that was it - utterly helplessly hooked.

Been through offs, many many british winters and had a kid since, but none of that has preturbed me in the slightest - bike's are a part of my life now.

[7omly]

At the tender age of sixteen I was car mad but like most teenagers I was impatient. I wasn't going to wait two years to get behind the wheel of a car. A mates Dad had Vespa PX200E for sale so I bought it with money lent off a family member. I couldn't ride it until seventeen (longest wait of my life). Once I had experienced two wheels I couldn't give a stuff about cars. I've had all sorts over the years and I'd do it all over again. I'm a true petrolhead and like cars but these days I get no joy from driving the car. The bike however I always enjoy. 

[hotmetal]

I was a mod when I was a teenager so I got a Vespa 50 cos it was cooler (and slower) than a honda C50 and faster than a bicycle. Cost me £300. Then got a Vespa 150 Super "it's a 125 officer" at 17. That got me round London and to all the seaside rallies. Watford to Yarmouth in 4.5 hours in the rain you'd have thought that would put me off! By this stage there was always going to be a bike in my life but I didn't take the full test until I needed something bigger to get to college. Me & a mate rented out a couple of shady dirt bikes in Spain and went ripping up the side of the mountains  (the shop wouldn't hire us lids cos 'only a 50' this was the Spain of old). Got a gpz500 after that which was crap so when the boys were off to tour Europe I pxed it for my trusty FZR foxeye which I put about 60,000 miles on until a twunt in a Saab wrote it off for me. That's when I got my first gen 1. Piled on the miles on that one as well so I bought my current one 'to last forever'. I've put another 25,000 on it but it doesn't get the use it once did.

[pilgo]

Joined Royal mail in 1981 as a 16 year old, delivering telegrams on a puch 50cc moped
kick start, 3 gears on a hand change shifter and knee cappers !!  ( why did I refuse to ever take a photo of me on it ?  To embarrased I guess )
bought a suzuki TS 125 to get around on, then a brand new Suzuki DR125. Then a fella joined work who rode a 500 cc bike and it was being left behind on post work rides by him that gee'd me up to pass my test.
best decision I ever made

[esetest]

For my first job , as an apprentice electrician about 20 miles away from where we lived as public transport was a no go . A Honda MB50 , looked better than it went . Next bike a Honda CM200 , looked better than it went , then a Kawasaki Z200  , went better than it looked ,got a car at 19 so I had somewhere to shag my girlfriend , then at 23 got a Kawasaki GT550, great bike , then at 25 my first daughter was born , so had a break while they were growing up . Then in 2007 decided to get back into biking and got a Suzuki GS500F , had it for 3 1/2 years , then bought the FZS1000 and I have just got the Moto Guzzi V7 Racer as a second bike , both bikes look and go fantastic .

[hotmetal]

got a car at 19 so I had somewhere to shag my girlfriend , then at 23 got a Kawasaki GT550, great bike , then at 25 my first daughter was born ,

Was she conceived in the top box LOL!