What sparked your interest in motorcycles?

VintageDirt said:

Awesome story there 2strokerfun. Awesome.

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x2! That made my day.

Great story!

A new kid enrolled in my Catholic grammar school when I was in 8th grade (1968). He got a Bridgestone 100cc and I immediately became his best friend so I could ride it. He moved on to Bultaco's while I started out on a Dit one Yamaha250. Through high school we raced MX and short track on TM Suzuki's, Elsinore's, Husky's, CZ's, many Bultaco's. Then I went to college. Took my Elsinore and Pursangs with me and rigged up a shop in the basement of my fraternity. Raced MX in Central Illinois until I had to get serious and study more to graduate. I quit racing at that point. Got married, had kids, raised them, sent em to college. I kept my last Bultaco Frontera in a shed for 16 years. Last year I pulled it out and restored it. I'm a better mechanic now than when I was younger. (thanks internet!). Last year I set a goal to compete in a Vintage Hare Scramble series and Vintage MX series. I reached my goal and took 2nd in my HS class for the season. I ran only about half of the MX races on the schedule but finished 4th in my class for the year. I went to my 'home' track that I ran in high school for a vintage MX race. And after 35 years since my last high school MX race at that track...I won the second moto and took the overall win. That was my coolest moment of 2010. In the last year I have purchased a '97 KDX 220, a 78 Pursang, and a '82 YZ250. My friend that started it all back in 8th grade on his Bridgestone died in a plane crash 20 years ago. I inherited and have recently restored his last Bultaco Astro that he was short tracking until he died. I'm going short track racing at least once this year. 2011 is going to be great!

IndyMX...I loved your story. Keep on trackin' !!

1987- I was 13ish- Friend of the family took us riding around a dirt lot near the 710 on his CR500. I got to putt around in first gear after starting off on a rock. Scared the crap out of me. It took a few years to get my own but I was hooked.

The Great Escape, Steve Mcqueen riding in that field then jumping the fence!

I guess my first memory is being about three years old and my dad giving me a ride around the block on some old honda 350 he had. I knew then that I would ride bikes someday.

My cousins had a few dirtbikes, but I was only about 8 and too small for the bikes they had when they were still riding. I did find a rupp chassis in one of the barns at their place one day. I rolled it to the top of the hill, and let her fly. It had no brakes, so I would just crash it into the piles of woodchips that the city used to dump at the end of their road. I remember my mom coming out of the house when she saw me get on the thing and absolutely lose it.


Being as poor as we were, I didn't get a bike until I was about 12. It was a briggs powered minibike, I rode the wheels off of it for a couple years. I hated it. I had figured out that a couple kids I went to junior high with had 80's and such and would go hang with them and bum rides once I broke the mini for the day.

One day I was helping a older gentleman in the neighborhood do some odd jobs. I was hauling trash out from under his deck when I stumbled upon a 1973ish CT90 that looked like it had been under the deck since about 1975. I think I was 14 or 15 at the time. I remember pushing that thing home on flat tires, and the wheels were so siezed it probably would have been easier to carry it. Once I got it home I hosed it down with WD40. The next day the steering head and wheels spun freely. I aired up the tires and dragged my dad out there to help me make it work. He showed me how to clean the points and he tinkered with the carb. Hooked the jumper cables to it and it started. I couldn't believe I finally had some sort of a gear changing motorcycle. I remember rigging up a bmx brake lever and cable for a throttle when the original cable gave up. I kept that thing running for zero dollars for three or four years.

The guy that gave me that bike changed me for good. I've gone through more bikes than I care to think about. Now it's just silly. There are two yz250f's in the garage. Most of the parts to build another one. A TTR125. A 75 Honda CB400Four SS. A ch80 scooter. Living in Northern Illinois these days allows for a ton of riding. I'm racing ice this weekend. In the summer there's mx, harescrambles, enduro, supermoto, dualsport all within reach. There's even a GP series in the district this year.

Last week I drove 16 hours straight. I drove from my place to eastern Kentucky and back to pick up a 66 CT90 that I won on some auction site for $100. The thing looks worse than the one I dragged out from under that deck. :rotfl:

It came with a free Motobecane moped. It's locked up solid. I bet I won't be able to just throw it away.

Yeah, somethings wrong with me. Seriously. All the riding I do, and I still get passed by a nine year old girl. (last sunday, evidenced here)

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0T700057000362&po=362&pc=498


Heh. I love it and I'll never quit. No matter how much of a spode I am.

Another great post in one of the best threads ever!

Grew up in a rather "rough" area of Los Angeles. My choices seemed to be limited to either:

1- take up surfing
2- join a gang
3- bmx

I chose bmx. Then there was On Any Sunday pulling on me, MX tracks everywhere back then, an interest in things mechanical, and a step-dad who shared my interest. Moved from MX to woods about 20 years ago and there's nothing out there that says "let's get away from it all" like hooking up with a few friends for miles and miles of single-trak.

Been hooked ever since... you can see it in my limp.

I didn't catch the "fever" at a young age. Between the ages of 7 and 21 my interests bounced between motorcycles, cars and girls. In college my roommate, Dave, and I both had street bikes and rode them frequently until he started dating this girl who's dad had been killed in a street bike accident.

When he came back from summer break Dave borrowed my pickup, went down to the Honda dealer and traded his Interceptor for an CR500. Evidently dirt bikes were less dangerous. We rode it a few times in the hayfield behind our apartment until a deputy sheriff came out and told us to knock it off. Turned out he rode as well and suggested my roommate enter and upcoming race. Since I had a pickup, I was obliged to haul him, his bike and his girl to the race, which turned out to be a hare scramble.

At this point I had zero interest in getting a dirt bike, but walking through the pits, hearing the sounds and smelling the smells was totally cool. Watching the massive start with dirt flying, engines screaming and bikes flying WFO on the edge, or sometimes out, of control was all it took. At that moment I wanted a dirt bike more than anything else.

Two days later I was the proud owner of a slightly used IT250 that I owned for 10 years.

RM_guy said:

I'm not going to ask you to explain that one :nener:

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Coming from the guy who considers Deliverance to be a love story...

Remember that time you were pinned between your bike and a tree on that hill at Paragon? :rotfl: :laugh: :rotfl:

WoodsRider said:

Dave borrowed my pickup, went down to the Honda dealer and traded his Interceptor for an CR500. Evidently dirt bikes were less dangerous.

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:think: :rotfl:

I was probably 6 years old when my dad brought me home my first bike it was a PW50. It was sweet except for traning wheels on it. I remember one day when the neightbor kids came over to ride it (this was a coulple years later) we were all haveing fun and then this girl she was 12, hopes on it and just hits the gas she goes down the hill and crashes my bike into the ditch. Oh boy i remember I was mad at her for crashing my bike.

JWW said:

1987- I was 13ish- Friend of the family took us riding around a dirt lot near the 710 on his CR500. I got to putt around in first gear after starting off on a rock. Scared the crap out of me. It took a few years to get my own but I was hooked.

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Your first ride...on a CR500? That's just nuts.

I didn't realize the Yamaha Mini-Enduro was somewhat popular back then...just saw a picture of one on another forum recently. The Honda CTs were definitely more common, though.