and your first Motorcycle?

[PineRidge]

First bike was a Honda Super 50
then Honda Super 90
Then Honda 160
Then I decided to do the dirt bike thing so I went with a Honda 305 Scrambler
Then there were several very nimble Pentons
Once I got the dirt bike riding out of my system my last bike that I ended up with I completely tricked out. It was a 57 Harley Pan Head. It was a real head turner.
In my younger years I really enjoyed the freedom of a motorcycle. As I got a little older I saw many of my friends hurt or killed on bikes and that was the turn off for me.

 

[OkeeDon]

The first I owned probably doesn't qualify -- it was a Cushman Eagle scooter styled to look like a tiny Harley (pic 1). I had it in college to get around the campus, but actually rode it back and forth to home (about 60 miles one way) a couple of times. It had no rear suspension and vibrated quite a bit; for some reason the girls liked to ride on the back.

My first (and only) "real" motorcycle was a Suzuki 185 dirt bike (pic 2). The 185 had a larger engine on a 125 frame; it was fairly quick and light. I used it as a supervisor for a land developer, riding around to check on road building. I rode it up to 8 hours/day. I fell off it twice; the second time hurt myself a little bit, got rid of it and haven't been tempted since.

But, the real fun was not in ownership. In 1956, when I was just turning 16 years old, I lived in a mixed commercial/residential neighborhood near Pittsburgh. A motorcycle dealer moved into the building next door to our house. He was one of the first BMW dealers in the country. He took in a lot of exotic machines in trade. I did a little cleanup work for him, and he let me ride the trade-ins. In the "sink or swim" philosophy, the first bike he had me ride was an Ariel Square Four (pic 3), which was a big! bike. I also got to ride Triumphs, BSAs, Indians and, of course, the BMW (pic 4).

 

[JerryG]

I don't remember the model year, but my first one was a Harley 125, 2 stroke. All that I can say is that H-D should have left the 2 strokes alone and stayed with just the 4 strokes. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif It didn't take them long to see the error of their ways.
BTW that was in 1974 when I was 14.

 

[jinman]

I think I posted this in the photos section once before, but my first motorcycle was a Hummer... Harley Davidson Hummer that is (see attachment).

I bought it for $50 and kept it for about a year. Like many would-be collectors, I wish I had kept that little "beast."

Like Jerry pointed out, HD was never too good at the 2-stroke engines. The Japanese models ran circles around them. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[California]

And first motorcycle: '53 BSA 650, in 1963-64.

Like the attached 1951 BSA photo but mine had the full-length double seat and by '53 the lower end was all roller bearings.

These early large displacement British machines could pull a sidecar if you wanted and so had torque from a standstill that was like a rototiller. That made it a great low speed Trials bike, and I got pretty good at boulder crawling and quarry climbing. Also it was a great highway bike, mine was faster in the quarter mile than that spec sheet says and I've had it up to their claimed maximum on an empty 8 lane freeway.

After a year and a half of relatively safe driving I blew out two tires in the same week. First a front which was spooky in traffic but I got it stopped ok. Then a rear, while I was following some fool who had a racing number plate through a downhill decreasing radius curve on the skyline boulevard above Oakland. (Like Mulholland Drive, if you've ever seen that in movies of Southern California.) I got stopped and still upright in the shoulder a full car width beyond the edge of the pavement and nearly at the berm at the top of the dropoff, and decided no more motorcycles. But I really enjoyed it while I owned it.

 

[BB_TX]

1958 Cushman Eagle. Sort of a hybrid scooter/motorcycle. Shaped like a motorcycle, but small wheels like a scooter.

 

[OkeeDon]

Bill, here's the picture of the Cushman Eagle I found to show what mine looked like -- mine was white.

 

[MossRoad]

Mid 70s Yamaha DT250B Enduro. Nice, fun bike to learn on. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[BillyP]

My first bike was a 2 stroke Harley. I don't remember the size and there wasn't much to it. Just enough to get it up and down the road.

After that, I had several others.
Suzuki 90
Honda 150
Honda 350
Kawasaki 350
Harley 160 (might have been a 180). I remember everything was backwards on it.
Yamaha 250
Honda 750.

Then I got married and sold the 750. I haven't owned one since.

 

[Inspector507]

1982 Kawasaki 305 LTD