what inspired you to first start riding?

[Christopher]

I was a kid during Evel Knievel’s fame and spent my time jumping my banana-seat pedal bike over ramps and wearing out my Evel Kneivel Stunt Cycle toy. I couldn’t wait to have a bike of my own one day!

 

Then came the first televised Paris-Dakar, and the hook was set for life! 

[Cruizin]

44 minutes ago, Christopher said:

I was a kid during Evel Knievel’s fame and spent my time jumping my banana-seat pedal bike over ramps and wearing out my Evel Kneivel Stunt Cycle toy. I couldn’t wait to have a bike of my own one day!

 

Then came the first televised Paris-Dakar, and the hook was set for life! 

Almost the same story, and I had exactly the same toy as above. Wish I still had it, probably worth a lot of money by now. 

 

I have been riding since I was seven years old, on a little Honda CT 70 I started my journey. 

[TavisB]

My father. 

[Fabros]

Likewise, TavisB. 

 

My father has always been a motorcycle enthusiast, and I was put on the back of the bike at age 4. No-one has got me of a bike ever since.  

 

Fabros

[shaneygrog]

I knew someone who had a KV175 and a mutual friend suggested I buy it off them, so I did, for $40. It never had a seat, had no oil in the gear box and motor oil in the premix. I never did get a proper seat for it but I sorted the oil and had many fun hours on it just riding around the paddock near my house.

[Prathap]

always loved two wheels, I was not privileged to a bicycle until I was 15 years old, I used to rent bicycles for an hour or two for a penny or less and ride cross legged and enjoy every bit of it when I was younger.

my parents bought me a street type bicycle which was my ride for my college, I used to peddle my way to home for lunch everyday and time it every time, so I knew I loved fast!

my parents bought me my first motorcycle when I was 20! yes 20 years old! because I didn't know how to earn money yet! it was a 150cc street motorcycle, I was hooked to explore more radius around my town day by day.

ended up buying my first motorcycle after I started working, a 350cc cruiser and explored whole of India for about 10 years before moving to USA. slowly exploring places around here on my Ninja 650 for about 3 years now.

Godspeed friends

[Ten7]

Dad used to put me on the petrol tank of a Jawa 2 stroke road bike and take me for a short rides I was about 6 years old at the time I blame dad for my bike addiction been hooked ever since     

[Superfist]

I always loved exploring on a bicycle as a kid and teenager.  At 15, visiting my grandparents and exploring bits of the property as bored teenagers do, I found a 1972 Yamaha U7E sitting in a shed.  It was Yamaha's 75cc version of the Honda Supercub and my Grandfather decided to make a gift of it right before we traveled back home.

 

That 3 speed clutchless transmission was easy to learn on and the little motorcycle carried me everywhere during my high school days.  With a top speed of about 50mph, I was able to explore all of the rural roads in my area.  I effectively had my motorcycle license before my drivers license at 15 years old and have been riding ever since.

[Noel McCutcheon]

Ok, here goes. When I turned 14 a 29 year old (hero) neighbour traded in his old Triumph 750 for a marvel of engineering a Z1(B) 900 Kawasaki and that was it; the love of engines, bikes engineering erupted with in me. I washed that gorgeous 900 double overhead cam engineering beast and i got to start it up. My dad had passed away earlier that year and some neighbours were (subtlety) very kind. I was kind of an out of control teen as I’d take (/borrow) his C50 Honda 2nd bike for rides after school and leave it back and he knew i guess. I was not out of control mad just a kind of a non-parented free spirit that grew up quick as mom had gone in to hospital deeply depressed at her and our loss. I got and did a few paper rounds and some other jobs and I gathered up one third of the cost of an old C50 club and I borrowed the other £14 that i need to buy it of a friends brother. My Big brother then took it off me as he said he owned a majority 66% of it. 1st gear in it was totally wrecked and I only got out on it to ride it when it rained heavy. I skidded bicycles so much as a kid to their frames bend and did wheelies the length of the street for hero etc so motorbikes were a natural evolution. I got taken pillion on the Z1 900 for washing it. I kick started it for fun and before school I’d warm it up. I am amazed now that I actually went to school as there were no social workers involved and me and 17 year old brother had the run of the house with mom being ill. The C50 became a FS1-E, then a KH125 and then a RD350 then a XT500 and etc.; I never got my £7 investment back, lol. All I only ever got (was to borrow ) them when he came home because it was raining cats and dogs; friends say i ride in the wet like it is dry, lol. At 16 my only just got mop-head 50cc license was taken / lost for me wheeling the RD350. I got me an engineering apprenticeship job and I went over to cars at 18 so it was at 25 then that bro agreed it was ok for me to buy a VF500FII Honda as those bikes did not wheelie (easily) . It is truly amazing that i did not die as a teenager or get involved in with the real scary men of the area. There were paramilitary groups everywhere though the seemed to leave me and bro alone as we tried to look after poor depressed mom as best that we could turns about. My out look on life you could say was / is adventurous, and live it and motor bikes and my neighbours I truly think saved my life. (This is hard to write) I was motived to take work serious and work hard to pay bills and get some money for any 2 wheels or 4 wheels things with engines. it all came good. My starting to ride off-road Enduros at 36 to 44 was a fantastic time and real character building and amazing. I finished well a 2 day British Championship Enduro in Wales on an exmulti champions ancient and knackered YZ250, and he told me in his enduro school that I could ride a bike; I nearly feel off and also nearly choked as it was really something special to hear from him, i was motived. That’s me guys now slow as... until anyone tries to pass me, lol, but now read on as that 1st hero friend still rides his ZXR1200R ninja real well at 70. Wow  just keep on going

Edited November 8, 2019 by X Plane
Fixed it up a bit

[ADVUSA]

My friends family down the street owned bikes. The start of the story.

[Phaedrus]

As a kid, my father would tell me stories about him roaming around the country on an Vespa 150 in the 50's. He loved cars, bikes or anything with an engine. I used to help him out fix things in the family car, which in the 60's was fairly common and easy to do. So, it came naturally.

Eventually one neighbor got a Honda Trail 50. We used to go around all day long. I was 12 at the time and the rest is history as they say.

[shaneygrog]

2 hours ago, Phaedrus said:

....He loved cars, bikes or anything with an engine.......

I can relate to that! Hell, i'd have my own diesel-electric locomotive and track to run it on if it wasn't so bloody impractical and a such a stupid idea!

[CReamflourish]

My dad.... although ‘inspired’ probably isn’t the right word. He plonked me on a Puch Magnum 50 when I was 4 and made me ride it even though I was crying my eyes out at the time!
 

Ricky Johnson ‘inspired’ me to carry on with it!
 

I’ve been forever thankful to my Dad since.

Edited January 28, 2020 by CReamflourish

[Totti]

When I was about nine or ten years old my dad and I were in our car waiting to pass a road work area. It was summer and the line of cars was getting quite long. Then came some Africa Twins lane splitting the whole long line of cars. Saw them from the back seat. That was it. When I was fifteen I asked to get a moped. Didn't get one. That day I made a promise that one day I would had my own bike. Always wanted an adventure bike, choppers and street bikes have never interested me. I think they all look alike. Another fifteen years passed before that dream came true. I have got new good friends with this hobby and had some amazing trips and experiences. Learned a lot of new things. Motorcycles played a role when I met my wife. Now she's an adventure biker also. Truly an amazing hobby!

[Noel McCutcheon]

3 hours ago, Totti said:

..... Truly an amazing hobby!

“..amazing hobby!”   Well said!

[Motoadventure]

Rode in fathers Arial Square Four side car before and after my birth in 1962. My uncles all talked about bikes and adventures, so I saved up and bought a new Yamaha TY50-M at 16 years age in 1979 and cannot stop riding.  Barry Sheen was also an influence as a watched him at the GP's and Trans Atlantic at Oulton Park, Silverstone etc .  I have ridden for 41 years on the road and still not got the hang of it. So I keep trying. 

 

Cheers keep riding Mick  

Edited January 30, 2020 by Motoadventure

[GPSAT]

My uncle would take me for rides on his dual sport motorcycle when I was 5 or 6. We still ride together today 47yrs later!

[dmottv]

A kid in the neighborhood had a Honda 50, a trail out the back yard and down the hill a few hundred yards. He was very popular! The first time I rode it, I was hooked.
 

My parents wouldn’t let me have a bike, a friend’s parents wouldn’t let him have one either. They didn’t socialize, so he bought a trail 90 and kept it at my place where we had fields, woods and a gravel pit nearby. 
 

I bought my first bike as soon as I was out and on my own after high school: a mid-late sixties Honda 175 scrambler and rode that everywhere. Next came a Yamaha DT1-250. I’ve had a bike, or two, or four, since!

 

Here’s a pic of the Honda 175 Scrambler, taken 1972, Eliot, ME:

 

Edited February 1, 2020 by dmottv
Added pic

[tenerecanada]

We had an old Mexican made Carabella sitting in a pile of dust at the back of the shed my whole childhood. One teenage summer I convinced my father to see if we could get it running. Fast forward a couple decades and now we share a shed full of Honda dirtbikes, and are up north every weekend checking out the trail systems and mapping out new routes. Looking forward to sharing some of these routes with the local contingency of riders, as central Ontario is fairly accessible to the majority of the province. And to be honest I would snag up one of these to fix up for nostalgia sake if I saw one locally.

 

[slawmir]

I found this old video on YT today. It's a good movie about an inspiration for adventure riding.

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by slawmir

[Chopper]

 ☆ Early 70's in our school  library  l found some Motorcyclist magazines & learned  all about the 500 MX GP's & American Brad Lackey , the race stories drew me in they were so well written & in my mind it was something l could do so many odd jobs & saving $$$ later , l bought myself a one year old 77 RM125B , in 78 l turned 16 & got my drivers license,  AMA card & District 11 card & got to racing , dream come true . Now l still race enduro's & harescrambles & still love it .

[duibhceK]

First started riding for the purely practical reason of getting to work efficiently. Public transport took me 1.5h+, standing in traffic with the car took 1h+ and filtering through the traffic jams on my Yammie Diversion (I believe it was called the SECA in the US) got me to the office in about 35m.

 

Quickly found out that riding was also quite enjoyable, so started going out on weekend rides in the Ardennes. Then went further afield to the Alps and Pyrenees for week-long holidays. Discovered the beauty of Eastern Europe on 2-3 week tours and finally decided to take a 6 month sabbatical to explore some of the Middle East and the former USSR.

 

Ended up with too many bikes to fit in a single garage so now have them spread over opposite ends of Europe.

[Colddog]

 

Growing up on the farm, my kawi ke100 was my first set of powered wheels, and was immediately put into service on the farm when it came time for equipment moving and people shuffling.  Now my kids and I use bikes to get away from other people during this Covid crapola!

[ClutchXT]

My father had bought a Suzuki DS80 for my mother to use to bring the milk cows in from pasture, he had an 81 XT500 he would use arround the ranch so I hopped on the DS and learned to ride on that.

It worked well for my family when it came to trailing cattle most of my family would ride horses, so I would take the bike and cover the far corners of the pastures and have the cattle gathered for the horse riders when they would get to the pasture.

From that little 80 I moved to a TTR125, a WR250F, SV650, R1, Super Tenere and currently in my garage sits the XT 500 that was my father's and my T7. I don't live on the ranch anymore but I do ride up to help my folks and my sister fairly regularly, so something that can handle the gravel county roads up there is a plus.

[maddog123]

its a good question... I guess it started with my father being in a motorcycle club back then as a young kid I would look at his old pictures and despite all the accident/funerals pictures I though it was really cool, then some of my friend had bikes, despite wiping out pretty good with their bikes I never seem to get scared of them. Then the motocross races came to town then I was hooked from there and wanted one.