How did you get into riding?

[Electrical_Tech]

Was gonna rep you for that post but the system still tells me I have to give it to someone else first .. sheesh.

[Little Girl]

Originally Posted by Rhetorik

My parents had a motorcycle many many years ago, then went without until about 9 or 10 years ago. I alraedy loved the idea of bikes - what kid doesn't? So when my father got his 1977 Suzuki GS500 Titan out of the shed it had been in for 12 years, I was all over helping him restore it - I did alot of the grunt work such as polishing all the surface rust out of all the metal and other detail jobs like that, but also learned all the fundamentals about how to use a bike and more importantly how to work on one - intensive carberutor work and all that jazz. I then helped him restore a 1981 Yamaha Seca 550 we got our hands on, becoming more involved in the mechanical side of the restore.

Then, 3 years ago, a used Kawi 500 was on sale for a good price locally (rare in my neck of the woods). I had some money, and my folks lent me the rest so that I could get in the saddle - they were as keen to see me on two wheels of my own as I was. My father was especially - we have spent a lot of time since then on trips (both long and short) together and it has been a great experience both on the road and at home, working on our bikes together. I love motorcycles because they allow my father and I to share a passion together.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It is awesome to be able to share your passion with your father. My dad and I were very close it's just too bad he is married to my mother. She keeps us apart. I was always a daddy's girl. I miss him.

[Electrical_Tech]

Originally Posted by Little Girl

It is awesome to be able to share your passion with your father. My dad and I were very close it's just too bad he is married to my mother. She keeps us apart. I was always a daddy's girl. I miss him.

[Rhetorik]

Originally Posted by Little Girl

It is awesome to be able to share your passion with your father. My dad and I were very close it's just too bad he is married to my mother. She keeps us apart. I was always a daddy's girl. I miss him.

Me mum comes on trips with us some of the time - we generally make an annual trip now to Ogdensburg etc so that she can shop most days while my father and I hit up some Vermont gap roads, and she joins us for a ride some of the time as well. She has her own bike - a Burgman 400 - but is actually now looking at those 3-wheel MP3 scooters because she is not very steady at low speeds and has dropped her scoot a few times as a result.

Also, booooooo regarding your situation. My folks have always been very supportive of pretty much any and everything I put my mind towards, and I wish everyone else grew up in the same environment.

[GreyWolf]

Well, you know, as a cub scout at a den meeting one of the kids had a go cart. Fired it up and he ran directly into the house. I thought, wow, way cool! Later, another friend had a CT70 which we all thought was bad ass, but handled really weird. My father had a Honda Trail 90 that he let me ride ONCE and that set the hook. But it wasn't until I moved out onto my own that I got my first bike- a Yamaha DT-250 Enduro. Loved it! Didn't matter that the top end sucked, just that it was a dual purpose. Rode it everywhere. Then the next was a Yamaha SR-500 thumper. Now that was a fantastic curvy twisty road bike where I literally ground a 45 degree angle on me boots. Unfortunately, someone else liked it better than I did 'cause I came back to my apartment after a weekend gone and someone had cracked the head lock and stole it. Next up was a Yamaha XS-850 (the one with the shaft drive, remember?) and I ate up those Dunlop tires like they were butter. Took a hiatus for awhile 'cause we kept moving around, then went looking for a commuter bike aka BMW or something of the like. Went to a BMW store and one of the mechanics had a Red/Silver Triumph TT600 sitting out front for sale. Hmmm. Sort of a commuter bike. Gets good gas mileage, right? Well, there went my pocketbook. Full leathers, helmet, gloves, back protector, bike stand, gas, tires, track days, 350 mile weekend tear-em-up road trips, a couple of slow speed laydowns, new plastic, re-worked chain/sprocket ratio, water pump, etc.......
.......and still lovin' life!! Next bike I think is going to be a sport tourer (I really gotta slow down......).

[scarredpelt]

You can slow down when yer dead goose. Life is for living brother!

[Süsser Tod]

My parents hated the idea of me riding a street bike, so much that my mother wouldn't talk to me for 6 months after I got my bike.

[Electrical_Tech]

Ouch, that sucks.

[Süsser Tod]

Originally Posted by Electrical_Tech

Ouch, that sucks.

Not as much as having nightmares...

And I call them nightmares because I would dream of riding, just to wake up realize that I didn't have a motorcycle. This went on for months before I got my bike.

[scarredpelt]

Originally Posted by scarredpelt

I couldn't tell you, I've been riding bikes since before I could read. They are a part of me.

Since I've been thinking on it, my grandfather, uncle and father all rode motorcycles prior and after my birth. Pa set me on the tank of his 'Trump' (as I called it) when I was 2 months old and fired it up and rode me around the property. I guess I was hooked because I 'stole' the lawn tractor at 3 and drove it into a tree.

Started my motorcycling on some little tiny thing and promptly wrecked it. Several times. My first 'real' bike was a K175. It was what one would call a dual purpose bike now. It had semi knobby tube tires on spoked rims and would run all week on a tank of gas. That poor bike has been in the lake, stuck in top of a tree and ended life in the door of a 57 chevy.

There were several others that I don't recall what they were but all of them ended up broken in some form or another. Only had 5 bikes my entire life that survived me and that was only because I either sold them when I used them up or traded them in. Heck one of my Honda CB750 had almost 250000 miles on it when I traded it.

Damn, I've ruined a lot of bikes.