What was Your First Machine?

OK… It’s time for a little reminiscing. When I was 10 years old (1960), I owned a bike like this one. The one in the picture is a 1965, but they looked for most part, the same. Yes I was a wild, carefree spirit, riding the streets on this huge 5 HP Quarterhorse mini bike, until the LA police caught me riding on the street. They gave me my first ticket. My only ticket to this day. Yes, 50 years of riding and only one ticket…Been very, very, lucky….Well, any ways, this is my first machine.

Yes... I was born to be wild!!!!

Hey Dennis, that looks almost like darkside tires... you little rascal you. Also, that muffler might cause sterilization on a long trip.

Where was your GPS mount on this?

What is that on the down tube just in front of the engine??

That was my question also Bill. Looks like a spool of fishing line but probably some sort of air filter.

Here is my entry: 1975 Honda PC50, rode the he** out of it while working a farm in NH in 1976. (not the actual machine).

A 1962 Sears Punch Sabel,2stroke,paid $200.00 cash at 7years old.

A 1966 Honda 50 Cub.
I won it in a contest.
No picture needed, because if you don't know what the original Honda 50 looked like, you have no business being old.

bigbird wrote:

A 1966 Honda 50 Cub.
I won it in a contest.
No picture needed, because if you don't know what the original Honda 50 looked like, you have no business being old.

Two Honda 55 trail (step thru with serious knobby tires), one red one yellow

http://www.motorera.com/honda/h0055/trail105/trail105.htm#1963

:flower:

When I was 14 years old, I had a 50cc Yamaha Towny that I used to visit friends, rent movies, go to the town's market, etc...

It was fun trying to catch as much speed possible (about 55km/h) before hitting a hill as it's small engine and 2 speed automatic transmission was a poor match for the terrain in my native Colombia.

Like this one but without the cargo box.

https://media.photobucket.com/image/yamaha%20towny/p0cking_2010/Bike/136_3629.jpg

My first bike was a Suzuki B100P It was my very first ride, no license , and riding on the footpath with Mr Plod coming up behind me..I just kept on riding down on to the road via a driveway and rode as though I knew what was what and got away with it.





I had 3 of these in different formats.


PS Dennis, would I be right by guessing that the motor on yours was a Tecumseh?
Side valve, about 125cc ?

Sears Allstate Moped. 2 speed, hours of fun, not much air.

Kurt, If my memory serves me???? A Briggs Stratton 5 horse and that's the air filter and carb, coming out the front of this B&S power plant.

1987, I drove it off the dealer lot like I knew what I was doing.

My Ma was dead against my having a motorbike and said she'd help me buy a car so my first machine was an Austin FX3 ex-London taxi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_FX3

My first and only was the black '05 SWing I have now had since June of '08. No touching stories about it other than we both once went for a swim in a flooded brome grass field and managed to keep going despite it.
Dependable little devil.

A 1968 CB350 Honda. I think I paid $500 for it used. I didn't sit still long enough for pictures. I learned to ride in the apartment parking lot with little kids laughing at my mastering the clutch. I got a beginner's license by passing a written test and then rode to the DMV for the riding test. The officer looked at me and said "How will you get home if you don't pass?" Failure was not an option. I remember being scared to death of railroad crossings, What if the tire (tyre for the English) got hung up? No MSF courses back then and I knew it all anyway. Amazing how much dumber I"ve become the more I've learned.

My first bike was a 1973 CB350G (disc brake model) that I bought brand-new exactly 38 years ago today. Paid $835 for it. Took a lot of crap from everyone who thought I was starting out too big. What a great bike -- wish I could find one now for that money.

A 1950 something "James". Froze the motor up solid not long after I got it.

Just like this one but in black, bought used and rode it for quite a few years. Don't know what happenened to it.

Dale, that was my first bike as well

A fantastic Honda C90 Cub - a 1980/81 reg if memory serves me well. All I can remember is it was a 'W Reg' and the dammed fuel tank wouldn't hold a gallon unless it was bone dry It shows just how little I knew about bikes at the time, but the parking light actually had a better beam than the head light! I had absolutely no inclinkling that the headlight could be adjusted.

The keys lived on top of my locker and the whole platoon used it by and by, occasionally this sort of irked me when I wanted it, but it never, ever seemed to run out of fuel, was always clean and just kept on plodding along. After a year I sold it to another squaddie who was equally mechanically inept and it slowly disintigrated on the side of the parade square until the RSM told him to take it home............

A few months later my Dad got a letter from Northamptonshire Police saying that it had been recovered, burnt out, after being reported stolen - the new owner had never even bothered to register it in his name!!!! I have no idea what happend to it then - the scrap yard probably

I learned to ride on a Honda CB150(I think) twin and an old NSU mo-ped, both belonging to a friend of mine. The first bike that I owned was a Honda CB175 twin.

Skippy,

Mine was actually an early 60's model and was a 50cc machine. Great little automatic transmission.

jdeereanton wrote:

Skippy,

Mine was actually an early 60's model and was a 50cc machine. Great little automatic transmission.

Dale, wasn't yours a semi-auto?
My 50 Cub had a manual transmission with an automatic clutch. It had 3 gears, 1 down and 2 up IIRC.

Yes - a 3-speed. I would speed shift it sometimes without backing off the throttle.

jdeereanton wrote:

I would speed shift it sometimes without backing off the throttle.

That's what I call living on the edge.

Nah -- teenage desire to break the beast as quickly as possible

1947 Cushman. My Dad bought it used from Dewey's Cycle Shop in Seattle about 1957. I started riding it in 1962 after Dewey's shop rebuilt the engine.

My first machine was a Kawasaki ar 50 1986 in Kawasaki racing green top speed 35mph lol thought I was Barry sheen . I remember staying in first gear for about 5 miles because I didn't know how to change gears wondered why I kept getting overtaken

You lucky bugger Lesley! Thats exactly what I wanted for my 16th - knowing there was absolutely NO chance as my folks, or rather my mum was dead against bikes.... They got really concerned during my final year at school (15-16) when I SAVED all the money I got from my weekend job and declared I was going to by a bike. I think secretly my Dad was rather keen on the idea and impressed that I'd managed to save in the region of £400 - a veritable fortune back then in 1983!

He even took to pointing out forsale adds in the paper and took me out to look over a couple of bikes. However, I knew what I wanted; either a Lime Green & White Kwak AR50 or a Suzuki TS50ER! For some strange reason I could find neither in my price range or rather I could find bugger all in my price range

Come my birthday, Mum cornered me and suggested that 'given the surprising amount cash you've accumulated, why don't you buy a car'? 'You could do it up - your good with your hands - and when your 17 Dad and I will pay for your driving test.....' I should've listend really, instead I joined the Army a little while later and thats when I got the C90 lol. With hindshight I should've done what Mum suggested but hey at that age you know it all anyway

Skippy wrote:

With hindshight I should've done what Mum suggested but hey at that age you know it all anyway

As one of my old bosses used to say,"Hire a teenager while they still know it all!" Mind you, I suspect most of us at that age thought we did!

My first bike was a blue Suzuki GT185 two-stroke bought new at the end of 1974. I picked it up about half an hour before the dealer closed their doors on a cold dark Saturday evening in December and I was still outside farting about trying to figure everything out when they locked up and went home. I was on L (learner) plates, and really didn't have much of a clue about riding, as I had received no tuition or training beforehand.

After much stalling and lurching forward as I tried to master the clutch and gears, I managed to ride the 12 miles home without crashing in about a hour and a half. Taking off my brand new unlined gloves, I found my hands stained bright blue with the dye from them. So at least my hands and bike were colour matched!

Much the same as Dale. My first bike was a 1949 Cushman which I bought in 1957. I rode that thing all over Edwards AFB and on the Mojave Desert. In 1959 I sold it and got a 1950 Triumph 650.