Sorry this is so long:
It first started for me when I was 10 - we rented a farm house on tons of acreage and my mom's fiancé, Frank, had lots of fun toys. Four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and an old rusty mini bike. I loved the four-wheeler and rode it all the time for about a year. I even talked my grandma in getting on the back of it and giving her a ride one day. That was funny! But after about a year of four-wheeler fun, my mom and Frank went their own ways and no more motorized vehicles for me. I put a four-wheeler on my Christmas list every year for several years, but it was just a dream.
So... seven years later, I was dating a guy who bought an old YZ80 to fix up and ride. I quickly started to HATE dirtbikes because he spent so much damn time fixing the thing just to ride it for an hour, have it blow up, then spend another month fixing it. I was ANTI-dirtbike! Stupid dirtbikes!
Then, about a year later, he sold the YZ80 and got a '89 YZ125 that actually ran. So in late fall he taught me to ride on the YZ125 and my first two times out were disasterous. Ride #1 - instructions = go down between these corn fields, turn around, come back. So I went down, attempted to turn, and ran right into the corn (when it was like 4-5 feet tall), and fell over. Ride #2 - I twist the throttle, dump the clutch, and loop out big. Oops - sorry about the broken rear fender. :moon:
So as soon as Feb. '98 rolled around, we bought a Bargain Finder local paper and started calling on all the 80cc dirtbikes for sale. I found a '93 YZ80 for $1,400 and talked them down to $1,000 so I was really happy. When we went to pick it up, I had someone else ride it because I was scared and still didn't really know how. So I bought the little 80 and started my adventure into where I am now.
Also, little did I know that in a 6 month period of owning the YZ80, that it would munch up 4 cylinders, along with several other parts, costing me tons of money. So in Sept. '98, I traded the YZ80 on a brand new '99 KX80 which was the prefect transition bike to get me on a '98 RM125 a few months later. But having all the problems with the YZ80 helped me learn a lot on working on bikes.
That's my story. :thumb: