skipro3

Mod Ban
Dec 14, 2002
902
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I have a 12 year old neice who started digging around her dad's barn and she came across an old hodaka dirt squirt I had stored over there. She got the thing to fire up and started riding it around the yard after being parked for over 25 years!
Anyway, it got me thinking about girls and dirtbikes; what was the motivating factor in starting to have an interest in riding dirt. I always figured that it was because the girl was interested in some guy who was into dirtbikes, but I see I was clearly wrong, at least in my niece's case.
So, if you don't mind my asking, what got the women here at DRN to get involved in dirt bike riding?
 

squeaky

Roosta's Princess
Damn Yankees
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Mar 28, 2003
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Your theory about being interested in a guy who rode dirt is correct in my case. I started riding dirt when my stepfather (Papakeith) put together an '86 XR200 for my mom, who he wanted to get into the sport. I decided to tag along with him and boyfriend at the time to the local pit. I figured if they were going to be out there playing in the dirt every weekend I wanted to have an opportunity to spend some time with them. So, I got on that XR and was determined to learn. I spent the first couple of months putting around in 1st gear doing nothing but riding around in circles. I finally started to get the hang of it and got a little more daring, trying different gears, and even venturing into the real short woods loop that was at the local pit. Well, fast forward to today, I've been riding ever since and I am so glad I started. Not only is a great sport, but I've met more great people that have changed my life since I started.
 

GETMETOCA

Can't Wait For Tuesdays
Mar 17, 2002
4,768
0
In my case, the initial desire to ride a dirtbike took hold at the age of 13 or so. I used to attend a lot of MX events in the Nor Cal areas to watch my sister's boyfriend race. This was back in the late 70's. There was always this ONE girl racing, and I did not see ANY other girls racing. There was supposed to be a "Powder Puff" class, but there were no other girls, so she raced with the men and I thought that was SO COOL!! So I wanted in too. It just took a while, lol.
 

firecracker22

Sponsoring Member
Oct 23, 2000
3,217
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I have always wanted one since I was a kid. My brother and I had Honda trail 70s that we messed around in the back yard on, but my parents (even though my dad was an ex-racer :( ) never wanted to take the time, trouble and money to get us bikes and teach us to ride. By the time I was old enough to have a job, I had gotten side tracked into muscle cars. Finally when I was 21 I used my tax return to buy an beat up XR 200 and ever since it's been an obsession. :)
 

blackhawk468

President of Bling
N. Texas SP
Nov 3, 2000
698
0
I saw a mx race on TV one day (around 12 years old) and thought it'd be cool to ride, mom said, "over my dead body" and I let it rest.

Fast Forward a few years... I was at a friends house and their neighbors raced mx, and I would watch them putt around in their yard and mini track. I watched them ride, and told myself I had to try it. So my friend and I went over there and they let me ride this POS xr200. I busted a huge wheelie and looped out the first 20 minutes. I was hooked. So I went and got a job, worked for a few months, and bought a bike (I was 18ish, I think). I now race in the Women's class and 125 Novice. I do fairly well in the women's class. It's fun. I hope to improve each year and do the WML series at least one year.
 

zero_it

~SPONSOR~
May 20, 2000
287
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When I was a kid my dad did a lot of racing and riding. We spent most weekends either at the MX track, at enduros or camping with the motorcycle club. I was really into it and could not wait to ride myself. By age 5 I was regularly bugging my dad for a motorcycle. At one point he finally said I could have one as soon as I could ride my bicycle wihtout training wheels. 'Nuff said! I unbolted the training wheels and figured out how to ride that shiny red pedal bike. Shortly thereafter Dad came home with a 50 cc Indian minibike for my sister and I. Here I am 30 years later still riding every chance I get.

I didnt' get into riding because of boys, but I made it very clear in my early teens that I would not date any guys who didn't ride bikes. Much to my dad's surprise, I kept true to that statement and eventually married a wonderful dirt biker dude!
 

skipro3

Mod Ban
Dec 14, 2002
902
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Now that is an obsession, zero_it!!
That reminds me of an ad in the classifieds for dates: Wanted, good woman. Must be able to clean, cook, sew, rig decoys, and clean guns. Must have trained hunting dog. Please send photo of dog.
 

pyrofreak

Member
Apr 9, 2003
819
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For me it started about 2 years ago, i wanted a go-kart. My uncle owns a race track where the alcohol go-karts race. I really wanted a go-kart and ended up with a 2.5hp POS that still dont run. I wanted soemthing better and started looking into ATVs. They're cool, but they just arent a motorcycle. I wanted one soooo bad. I would watch my friend donald ride throught the corn fields when i was in school (he had graduated) on his CR125 (actaully he bores it out everytime he blows it up so its prolly a 160 by now) . My freind John had a old Suzuki 370 enduro and his little brother had a YZ80. They rode alot and i really wanted to. It look alot more fun than just sitting on a stupid ATV. So I watched the races on TV all the time and stayed on top of the Unadilla MX happenings. I got a job, worked everyday, all summer, then got my YZ80.
 

dirty~d~

Resident nudist
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Apr 17, 2002
1,975
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I can't pin down exactly what pursuaded me to buy a bike, but I can tell you it was not a member of the male species. I guess it was mostly due to the fact that I really didn't want to spend $7,000 on a street bike, but I still wanted to ride two wheels.
 

Megan McCune

Member
Aug 11, 2003
14
0
What got me started was my Mom and Dad were always telling me that I could do any thing I wanted to [I'm 11] so one day I said I want to ride dirt bike so we looked around then when we found one I said I wanted to race so they started to [and still are] teaching me to be racing material and I really enjoy it.


Megan McCune
[ Kmccune daughter ]
 
C

CaNaDiAn,Eh?

I had wanted a dirtbike since I was like 5 years old, lots of people in my family ride street bikes and I wanted to ride to. So eventually when I was in junior high I finally got my first dirtbike, and I have loved it ever since.
 

bratt

Pain in da butt
Mar 22, 2002
214
0
My brother came home one day when I was 11 with a dirtbike. I piled on behind him and we tore out of the yard. I got to ride his dirtbike I think a total of 5 times before my mom found out and put a stop to that. I didn't get back on a dirt bike again until I turned 28 and was able to buy my own. My boyfriend at the time was killed in a dirtbike accident and his sisters and I made a pact shortly thereafter to race at least once within a year in his memory. So here we are. We figured out we kinda liked racing and we still hit up the local series every once in a while.
 

4EverOrange

~SPONSOR~
Mar 9, 2003
291
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When I was growing up a regular Saturday outing for my Dad and I, was to go to the local Honda shop and drool over the bikes. He would sit me on them and say that I was jsut the right height, and someday I would get one. Well I waited and waited, and it never happened.

At 19 I met my, now ex-husband, who not only rode, but like my Dad rode a KTM.(which in 1995 was still pretty rare.) We were both pretty surprised that each other had heard of them. After we got married we got me my first bike, a KDX 220, I was 21 at the time.

I rode the 220, but not like I ride my KTM. Since I got my KTM riding has become more of MY hobby than anything.
 

dirtbabe

Member
Dec 6, 2000
24
0
I can pretty much give the credit to my older brother. It started when I was around 11 or 12, my brother had an old kx? I wanted sooo bad to ride that thing :cool: but didn't now how and he wouldn't teach me. :clue: So one day after school I went and got on the thing and got it started and after several tries figured out that I had to shift down to go, I was offout across the road and down the tracktor path flyin :yeehaw: '. I don't think he found out. Did the same thing with his street bike a couple of years later ( only ON the road). Then about 5 yrs. ago the same brother got my husband out riding and I got the bug again! So I basicly taught myself how to ride, now I didn't say how well but I can keep it on two wheels for the most part, that is when my hubby (Dennis Meyers) isn't trying to put me in the biggest nastyest mud puddles he can find :laugh: !
 

nikki

Moto Junkie
Apr 21, 2000
5,802
1
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:
 

bbbom

~SPONSOR~
Aug 13, 1999
2,094
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pffft Nicki, that ain't long!!! :laugh: Right Michelle?! :thumb:

My family (extended family actually, parents, bro, grand parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins......) had all been into riding and racing since before my time but mom & I rode horses in the summer and snowmobiled with the family in the winter. I rode my bro's and cousins bikes a few times but never felt confident on them, especially since they were all pretty awesome riders.

I could kick their butts on bicycle rides to the Mica store & back to grandma's but I was 4 - 6 years older than them!

I moved to Phoenix for college & stayed there for 15 years (not in school the whole time, just like half of it).

I finally found work back in the NW and moved back to my property in 1998. I still didn't have a bike but every weekend, my bro and his buddies would come riding through my place while I was working on some project. My son was about 4 and my daughter was 2. My bro kept hassling me "When are you getting a bike?" yeah, yeah.

We went to an Easter Picnic at one of my cousin's who has a mini-flattrack and my dad brought my nephew's (who was then like 15) old 74MR50 up for my son, then 4 1/2 to try out (he'd been riding his bicycle without training wheels for over a year). We showed the kid how to use the controls and he was off, around the track with my cousin running behind to steady him. He had the hang of it by the end of the day so the pressure was REALLY on for mom to get a bike.

I made it through the summer of 99 without a bike, but in late fall, I had decided I needed to get one so I could keep track of the kid. My now ex-boyfriend and my bro helped me somewhat but I stumbled upon DRN and the now defunct XDB and found lots of good info and suggestions. I picked up a KLX300 in late November. The kid brought it out to my bros house and I took it for a spin up to my parents house. My bro said he figured I'd dump it for sure - that was it, I was buying it!

After that, it was all over with. The ex-boyfriend was gone shortly after that, I met Karl at the shop I frequented and he showed up to ride on Mother's Day 2000 at the invite of my bro. Soon after that, I tried out Karl's CR500 and had to get one of my own and I've been trying to follow him ever since.
 

chicrider1

Member
Feb 11, 2004
1
0
The rest is history

skipro3 said:
what got the women here at DRN to get involved in dirt bike riding?
Well, my brother was given a Trail 70 when he was 12 and I was 5. That is when I started begging for a bike. My parents said "motorcycles are for BOYS!" :p So one day, when I was 7, my brother finally gave in and taught me how to ride while our parents were out. It was soon ok for me to ride, so I did. EVERYDAY. When I turned 12, I broke the frame jumping and was without a bike for several years. That was 18 motorcycles ago. :yeehaw:
 

phirechick

Sponsoring Member
Jul 3, 2001
87
0
When I was 12 all the boys had dirtbikes, so to be with the boys I just had to have one. Darn boys anyway!!! That's what got me my own and into racing, but it seems the family always had a bike around. Or maybe it was the cops hauling me home from my dads street bike when I was four, you can't ride on the front it's illegal!
 

MXGirl230

Stupid tires and trees
~SPONSOR~
Mi. Trail Riders
Dec 19, 2002
2,358
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My mom and dad had motorcycles growing up. They actually met riding bikes. They had me and when I was 11 months old, my dad sat me on his Kawasaki LTD 1100. When I was 2 or 3 they got me my own helmet, and my dad sat me on the bike right in front of him. He told me to hang on to the gas tank so that I wouldn't fall. So I did, he used to take me for rides all the time. I remember waiting for him to get home from work so that I could go on another ride. I've been hooked ever since. When I was 3 they got me a Honda 3 Wheeler powerwheel, I rode it until the wheels broke off. I didn't buy my first bike until I was 18. We have always lived in the city and in subdivisions...kind of hard to learn to ride when you have neighbors 20ft. away! Everyone in my family rides, and I met my fiance' while at a race a couple of years ago. Phil loves being able to go to the races and be one of the only guys racing, who has a g/f that also races.
 

TwistNShout

Member
Nov 19, 2003
281
0
My dad bought us dirtbikes so that we would have a clean weekend hobby. Little did he know how much we would enjoy them.

God rest his soul, 1/3/31 to 2/26/03
 

altagirl

~SPONSOR~
Mar 17, 2003
169
0
I actually didn't know a single person who had a bike, but decided it would be a fun way to cross train for DH mountain biking. My husband and I had talked about it once or twice, and he had a bike at some point way before we met, but after a knee injury that cut my ski season short last year, I did some research and went and bought a bike. So then my husband went and got one, then our friends... I'm such a bad influence when it comes to saving money. ;)

I don't know what it was really - other than suddenly having down time becuase of my knee, I felt like I had to have a new project, I think, and dirt bikes just looked like fun. I ended up riding 3 times before my surgery and started again 4 weeks later. There's really no logic to thinking dirt biking would be a good hobby since my knee was injured... but it's been fun, anyway! (And when my OS released me to ride at 4.5 weeks I may not have mentioned that I was just learning to ride... but it all worked out okay.) Anyway, I think I'm just the type that loves to try new things. After 20 years of alpine skiing, I decided I needed to try telemarking this winter - looked fun so I had to try it.

So I guess I'm the odd one that dragged my husband back into riding, then our male friends, then their wives, kids, etc. My local shop had better appreciate me... ;)
 
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