Remember your first ride?

[rocketman]

Over the past several weeks due to OT at work and then fighting the flu I hadn’t ridden in almost 10 days. Whenever I can’t be riding I’ve found the best therapy to be either planning the next ride or thinking and writing about past rides.

We probably all remember our first ride, be it as passenger or driver so I thought maybe that would make an interesting thread. Since working on moving my stuff over to my new web/domain and while home sick I wrote this up about my first motorcycle experience, well motor scooter actually, but it did have two wheels and motor, so I recon it still counts.

So here’s the story behind my first ride. Kinda long so I just put a link to it rather post it all here.

http://www.roadrunes.com/my_first_ride.htm

What’s yours?:brow

RM

[magwa]

I can't remember.

I'd like to, butt it was in the (early) sixties.

Had it been in the *late* sixties, I probably wouldn't be able to remember that I *still* ride.

I do remember this (remember that song?):

Much after my first bike and scooter experiences in Marin County towns, I lived in Fairfax. It's a small berg much as many of the places I have visited across the country. Old, small two story downtowns with brick and wood storefronts. Apartments, or "flats" make up many of the upstairs space along the main street.

I lived above Tony's Corner Bar at Center and Bolinas Roads and had a clear view from my livingroom down to what they called the "Parkade".

One difference between Fairfax and some of the similar downtowns I've seen on the east coast (Bucks County, PA comes to mind, butt they are everywhere) is the fact that during the sixties, most of the inhabitants in Fairfax were self-professed musicians, artists, intellectuals, etc. It made for fine viewing out of my "reverse T.V." That is, the window over the main street.

Spring found the son of the bakery owner rounding up his band for a rooftop music session broadcast over the town ala the Beatle finale. When the cops came, the crowd of 500 or so shouted them down and they went away...after finding out that the a big hairy man watching his son owned the bakery and the building.

Van Morrison had a record shop (bought for his folks) down the street New Caledonia Music, I think it was called. Many real musicians hung there, countering the hundreds that only wished they could make their living in the business.

In my direct line of sight over the top of the Parkade was a Shell gas station. My new Triumph lived it's life parked in open-air of the parkade without any worry from me. Peace and Love, you know.

One day, my roommate and I were going to ride our bikes to the Russian River. We'd be following a couple of girls in a VW convertible. They went to get gas in the Shell after we all had smoked our lunch. John and I went to get our bikes.

As we were entering the newly asphalted (is that a word?) fill-up bay, I slid on the still gooey surface and dropped the Bonneville with sufficient force to sling me toward, and unto, the back seat of VW, face on the floor and feet kicking the air.

Laughs all around on me. We made the River after I straightened out the brake and shifter and threw away a broken mirror.

I was pretty happy that the top was down on the bug.

[lorazepam]

"I meant to do that."

~Pee Wee Herman

[lorazepam]

My first "motorcycle" ride was on a motorized (by 3 of us, and a neighbor who was a welder, and motorcyclist) balloon tire bike. It had a 5 horse engine, mounted on a reinforced bracket where the pedals used to be. It also had rebar and friction tape footpegs. It was a piece of art when you are 11 years old. Riding with the welder on the street, we figured it would go about 50, if you had the nerve. The single pull brakes were not adequate for the weight or the speed, but it was a hoot to ride.

[rocketman]

Originally posted by magwa
I can't remember.

I'd like to, butt it was in the (early) sixties.

Had it been in the *late* sixties, I probably wouldn't be able to remember that I *still* ride.



Ha Ha, good one! them days were a bit fer back, and "smoking" your lunch prob. didn't help the memory cell much either! Ha Ha!

'course being a child of the late sixties I wouldn't know about that...


RM

[jdcoffman]

My first ride was on the back of a Honda 50 the one where you meet the nicest people..Those who can go back to the early 60's never having the minds clouded by smoking their lunch...Ha! My cousin was given this machine for a Christmas present and sometime in the spring when we visited him and his parents in Elkins WVa. He gave me my first ride I was bout 8-9 (even my memory taint that good) I was most delighted with that experience, (well most of it anyway) that for the next 8-9 years I pleady with my mom that I should also have a motorcycle. One part I didn't like about the Experience, after the ride was over, I was admiring the little Honda, "how shiney", when my cousin suggested how cool it ran, and said I could touch that shiney exhaust pipe.....ouch!! That is probably why I remember this episode. Nicest people HUH!:clap

[The_Veg]

First ride as a passenger was on the back of the nice new Honda CB650??? or something like that that one of my mother's coworkers had just bought the summer I was 13 or so. Shortly after I learned to pilot the neighbour kid's Honda QA50 minibike. I was already way too big for it but I didn't care. My knees were higher than the handlebar but I was having the time of my life. No rear suspension, balloon tires, two gears and a centrifugal clutch. Gas tank held on by rider's legs. It had been dropped, flipped, crahsed and abused more ways and more times than anybody knew, yet it kept on ticking! Great little bike and I am grateful that the neighbour kid shared it so graciously. I wonder what ever became of him and it?

[Cliffy777]

and if I recall I had shorts on and dropped over to one side and got a little burn on my leg. First lesson in dressing for the ride, eh?

My brother used to give me a ride on his Kaw 350. As I remember I used to ride in front of him as there were no rear pegs. (No wonder I never reproduced.....)

[kbasa]

My very first motorcycle ride was at the controls of a Honda Mini Trail 50, dark blue. It was probably 1971 or so and I was camping with a friend of mine and his parents in a campground in Southern California. I rode the Honda all over the little campground we were in. I was completely hooked. A couple years later, when I was 14 or 15, my dad brought home a 1969 Honda SL90, which I proceeded to ride the daylights out of. From there, I graduated to the R75/7 my dad had. Tina and I dated on that bike and it formed the basis for one of the activities we hold dear today: riding together, going places and doing things.

And all of it came from that little MiniTrail. I'd love to have one of those things.

[oldcarkook]

I was on minibikes as a kid, but the first street bike ride was in 1970 when I swapped "Quaalude Louie" my van for his Triumph Bonneville because he had a hot date. :evil I had a hot date too, but somehow the bike seemed the like a better idea to me as the novelty of the van was wearing off. It was raining on "swap night" and Louie got the better end of that deal. But I still was nonetheless smitten.

Louie got pulled over by the cops but I rode without incident. Given his nickname, I'm sure you can imagine why he was stopped.
Ahhh....the sixties and seventies...:rocker

[donkey doctor]

Hello; The first ride I can remember was on my 8th birthday, we were in western Germany. my dad came home with a messerschmidt. My mom was in Italy so I got lots of rides, to Holland, and Koln. It had a tip-over canopy, and two front wheels, the passenger sat in the back in his own seat. It was great fun. Then I got a ride on the back of a Vespa in Paris.

The first ride I had with myself at the wheel was on a friends dad's Harley servi-car. I went all over Calgary on that thing and it opened a world up to me, making me a hopeless addict to the freedom of motorcycles. That would be 59 or 60.

[AltheBiker]

My first memorable ride was on the first motorcycle I bought. A 1976XS360C Yamaha. The sales lady pushed it into the parking lot and said, "Well, there you go!". I told her..."Uh, just one thing, I've never riden a motorcycle before." She had quite the look of fear on her face. She raced off and got her husband (shop owner) and he showed me how to start it, where the brake, clutch etc, were all located. And....off I went. I had chosen a cloudy face shield and was quite glad as over the next two weeks...I killed the bike at many stop lights...since I didn't have that hand-foot coordination down yet. But...I will always remember that little bike fondly. I rode it from Idaho where I went to college to Minnesota twice a year (home for the summers). What fun!

[YB in IN]

My first ride involved me in the back parking lot of our house. I hit the gas, and went inside the open garage door, and damn near ran into the wall. Somehow I got the throttle stuck open. Dad had to run over to bail me out. I kept it upright though! ...well barely...

[Braddog]

I think it was about 1965, I was 6. My cousin had just gotten a brand new Bridgestone 7. He came over to show our family, and gave all of us a ride. I couldn't believe how much fun that was.

Years later, I was 12 or 13 I think, there was a family gathering at my cousin's house. He was now out of college, and everybody at this gathering was either older or younger than me, so I was kind of bored. My cousin says, "Hey, you want something to do? Let's see if my old motorcycle will run."

Bear in mind that this was in a very small town in central North Dakota, so no issues with either policemen or traffic. The little bike fired right up, and I spent almost that entire afternoon zipping around town on that little Bridgestone. 3 speed, I believe. Needless to say, I was hooked. I'll never forget the fun I had that day, or that I've had in the years since.

[oldcarkook]

Originally posted by YB in IN I hit the gas, and went inside the open garage door, and damn near ran into the wall. Somehow I got the throttle stuck open. Dad had to run over to bail me out.
I ride a lot of dirt and have taught MANY kids to ride. I will say that pinning the throttle on first start is about the most common first day gaff in my experience. Innocently, they grab the grips and then as the bike first jumps forward from the inexperienced clutch hand, the natural reaction is to put on the death grip and that actually causes more throttle and the bike to lurch forward throwing the rider back and rolling on even more until the throttle hand wrist is now parallel to the ground along with the rider.
http://204.193.156.25/forum/smiles/flip.gif I watched my then 5 yr old son on his first bike, a Honda XR70, roll on and then get jerked back on the seat and he instinctively put his feet down which then caused them to be swept out from under him and he was lying on the seat with bike now rocketing in a beeline toward my '51 GMC woodie which I had JUST finished restoring. The hand of God came down and he narrowly missed the truck and continued into the row of shrubs where he experienced his first ride and first crash all within four seconds.

The moral of the story: I now start EVERYONE in a large soft grass field aiming into open space and I am very careful to set their wrist position awkwardly low so that when the bike lurches forward, their wrist straightens out and they don't roll on more throttle. Pretty funny stuff but after I saw this happen three times to three first time riders, I realized that the pattern was typical.

At the end of day one, they are all just flying over the whoops http://204.193.156.25/forum/smiles/whoop.gif with beaming smiles! http://204.193.156.25/forum/smiles/rdr.gif

As a footnote, my son holds the record (in Mass) as the youngest rider to complete MSF street training. He got his MSF certificate at 7 on the same XR70. He took the course with me and they were happy to let him participate. He's now on dirtbike #3 at 14. The MSF did not have a dirt school at the time so street training was the only option.

I'll be putting him in a cage until age 21 so dirt's his only option until then!:bliss