What did you learn on ?

[Viper79]

Honda QA50 riding around the local quarry in Greensborough and then moved onto and raced a Gemini 50 in the early 70's at the Diamond valley mini bike club.  My first new bike was a YZ80C it cost me $435.00, lots of collecting trolleys and filling shelves at Coles to pay that one back. I then got into the XR75 scene and built up a hottie which scored me a few trophies in the late 70's.
I still have the XR and I'm currently restoring back to its race condition with the addition of a DG swing arm.   


Viper 79

[T250K]

Mine was a very bare 350 Enfield Bullet that someone gave me when I was about 13.  It had a handy extra lever on the gearbox which was a ' one kick ' thing to find neutral.  Did a lot of donuts around the old Man's vege patch, and hundreds of miles on ball bearing gravel roads, that old Enfield.  Graduated from there to three BSA 500 Empire Stars at different times, the best one cost 14 Quid.  Thought I was shit hot on that until a kid down the road bought one of the first Bonnevilles.        Cheers,  T250.

[Oldrodder]

A Honda 90 step threw (probably spelt that wrong) which I then proceeded to put through the old man's fence when I couln't work out how to stop it.
From there I had a number of bikes including a PE 250, XT 500 and even a registered TT500 before they stopped them getting rego.
I even had the pleasure of putting a hole in the piston of a Bultaco 360 Pursang when I leaned it out too much, but shit didn't it go well if only for a short period.

[gen]

'46 ? C10 beesa, no tube in front tyre (not needed, as the tyre was old and rock hard). water pipe leak clamp on front down tube , where they ALL break, bought for $5,(I was 12), sold for $6 a week later, after discovering if the gear lever was manually centered,,I could get into 3rd gear !
Bike No2 was a '38 empire star ($16) , ex Bill Hepburn speedway solo, couldnt kick the damn thing over, and it had to be bump started in 3rd, then it'd fire, but couldn't clutch it fast enough to keep it going,,untill I discovered DIRT !
This bike ended up with an ex TQ 500 trumpy engine in it, running Av gas, and did a mean tank slapper @ 100 mph (according to my mates CB350 speedo) when slipping it into 4th and passing him , it's amazing Iv'e made it to 55,,lol
Tiny

[gen]

More empire star memories,,
After trying for 1/2 hr to start it, my mate and myself were finally listening to its whoom-bahhhh in the street where we lived,,when a paddy wagon came rattling down the street, on the wrong side of the road, as it turned out, a greeves owning neighbor didn't appreciate 2 12 y/o lads enjoying themselves, so phoned the cops !
Well, we couldnt stop it ,,,and it was dragging both of us down the street @ 500 rpm in 1st,,until running into the paddy wagon's front bumper.
Dad was NOT impressed when he was requred to front up with me in court, where I was hit with a $16 fine for riding unlicenced, uninsured and unregistered.
It didnt end there,,my mate wanted a ride,,so (we had discovered how to pull it back off compression by now) I pushed him down his mums driveway in 2nd,,the clutch was dumped, throttle opened when it fired, only to lift the front wheel, list over into a hedge and rip a few weatherboards from the side of the house.
only stopping when the timber got caught up in the open primary chain.
I snuck off home real quickly   
Tiny

[mx250]

I learnt mostly sitting on my arse watching my bike slide to a stop .

First went off roading on a YDS5 at Menai  .

First trail bike was an electric start AT1, gold tank . First MX was electric start AT1, gold tank. First DT was electric start AT1, gold tank. First enduro, Cessnock 4 day, was electric start AT1, gold tank. - and I finished .   

First MX'er was an MX250. First race win was an MX250 .

[DR]

First solo unassisted ride was on a '71 Suzuki MT50R (equiv of Z50)
First unassisted crash followed about 30 seconds after my first unassisted ride.
First bike I ever purchased with my own money was my RM80B in '77 which I still have. Mowed a zillion lawns for 2 bucks a go to save the $499 required for purchase.

[Motoman]

I lived in Las Vegas as a teenager and from our back yard we were in desert with around a 20 mile ride to the base of the mountains. Most of us had mini bikes and rode around everywhere in them Taco 22 and 44 were the best at that time. I raced 2 stroke go karts so always had a spare engine to throw into a mini bike once in a while for a scare! First real bike was a 1962 Yamaha Santa Barbara. It was 125cc pressed metal frame and had a massive rear sprocket on it so first gear was next to useless. I traded an engineless mini bike for it. It had a terrible habit of the throttle sticking wide open. I never fixed it, just rode it that way and hit the kill switch if it happened. I was glad to get rid of it, forgot what I swapped for it. My brother had a 1971 CT70 then a Yamaha Enduro 90. I had a 1970 Kawasaki 100 Trail boss which had dual range gear box. Low was too low for anything other than mountain goats and high was too high for desert riding. I used to do a paper route in the desert communites just out of town. The exhaust ended in the bag holding the papers so someone would always get a burnt or oil smelling paper! I was a crap paperboy! I used to look forward to finishing the route as from then I had no papers in the bags and could hit the fire trail roads full on on the way home!

[bigk]

1974 CR125M. Worked all the school holidays, saved my $350.00, and walked 8klms to where it was and pushed it the 8klms down the road to get it home. Was a baptism of fire for sure. That was 1976.
Cheers,
K

[caps 999]

1982 z50  un killable

[crash n bern]

1970 and a friends uncle invited us to come and have a ride on his electric blue Honda Dax.  Spent the next two years watching the two brothers from around the corner riding their Z50 Honda round in circles on the vacant block.   Until....

My uncle bought his kids a Yamaha jt1-60 (my dream bike at the time) and a mx60 and invited dad and I to go ride at the quarry in Greensborough  Dad got that exited he raced out the next week and bought me an egg yolk yellow Honda sl70. I was 12. I used to ride at an abandoned apple orchard we called the  Lewis road  track in Wantirna Vic.  Also rode at an old quarry in Upwey I think it was. And the Koomba rd mini bike track after it closed.

I've had bike fever ever since.  Some nights as I Iie in bed my missus will ask me what I'm thinking about. She then answers the question herself  "Motorbikes?"

[mx250]

and walked 8klms to where it was and pushed it the 8klms down the road to get it home.

Ah come on Mick, pull the other one . You don't expect us to believe a 16yo, or whatever, pushed his bike 8 kms with a tank of fuel .

Its 30 years mate, I think the statuary period has expired, no one gunna book ya .

[firko]

Vespa scooter and Bridgestone 90 circa late 60s

[Motoman]

I remember Bridgestone having a line of Off road bikes and off the shelf road racers. Someone in the forum was looking for a Kawasaki 238 green streak, (mean streak?) and looking at the Hodaka on E bay, (should have bought one and hid it and made 1000% profit) brings me back to my youth! In school we used to do drawings of Vespas as special issue dog catching, street cleaning and sundry other wacky vehicles. I should have bought stock in Vespas then too but I was only 12 of course!

[lukeb1961]

Deckson-> RM80B->RM125S->RM125C  the fear and the pain are still vivid !!