So which lady was THE First one for you.....

[PosterFZ6]

In some brake hose related thread FrozenBiker wanted to see my restored '78 Honda CB400T2. I figured instead of just posting pics, I can perhaps start an interesting topic as well.

I would like to start a topic where we can share pics and stories of our first bike/s.

This is the bike that popped my cherry. lol.

I was scared of motorcycles like hell. My brother, Daniel, was the first one to get the bug to start ridding.

In fact this was supposed to be his first bike.

He went upstate NY to a guy to pick this bike for $450. It was his bike as a college kid. He got it as a left over in '82. All these years he kept it in his garage.

It ran pretty good, though as an older brother who thought motorcycles weren't safe, much less a motorcycle from '78. I started persuading my brother to start tearing it apart and checking everything on it for any damage. And so he did. I was right there with him cracking open the carbs, the engine etc and cleaning every last bolt of this bike.

We ended up changing all the gaskets, rebuilding carbs, forks, refurbishing the tank from the few millimeters of rust layering it had inside etc.

We put in tons of hours into it and we literally managed to strip the bike to the bare frame only, lol. We learned some mechanical skills in the process too and it was pretty fun too.

Long story short, the bike had some electrical problem that we just could not figure out. We ended taking it into a motorcycle shop that my brother worked at. They figured it out and the bike was tip top. Engine had compression like the engine wasn't broken in.

In the meantime as I worked on the bike with my brother, I got infected with the bug as well and I ended up loving this bike and I asked my brother to sell it to me at cost only so I got it for $2000 from him.

In the mean time as we were working on restoring this bike he got himself a Honda Rebel.

All in all he put maybe 300 miles on it.

I put on it over 3,000 miles on it.

I passed my motorcycle test on it.

I didn't really outgrow it. It was a really perfect motorcycle for city driving. It had as much power as maybe a middle of the road bigger scooter, but it looked much nicer than a lame ass scooter.

But I was broke and I wanted to get a cruiser.

I ended up selling it with a loss ( not a great, though) to some yuppie guy who just moved from LA to NYC. He loved how vintage it was, so at least it went into good, albeit not very mechanical, hands.

Here are some pics.

I think the first pic is with the new custom seat cover I got, the later pics still show the old ripped up one.

I wasn't sure if I was going to sell it or not. But if I wouldn't be able to sell it before December ( I sold it in mid-November) I was going to get the whole engine cosmetically restored with some combination of tasteful chrome and silver matching powder coating.

this is the only video I have of it.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0jCrfyZP5s]Honda CB400 T2 1978 - YouTube[/ame]

Aayway, so this was my first bike. I still miss it sometimes and I have an itch of picking up some CB750 and either restoring it or making a kick ass cafe bike out of it. ( and no putting a set of club handlebars don't make it a cafe, I would totally go to town with it)

I have a great fondness for Honda bikes. Great quality machines. Chrome for the most part was like brand new, same as the paint. you can never go wrong with a Honda.



So what was your first bike, the story behind it etc....

Please post pics if you have them.

PS- I am hoping that somebody admits and posts their pics of his/her hopefully not crashed Haybusa etc

 

[SweaterDude]

In some brake hose related thread FrozenBiker wanted to see my restored '78 Honda CB400T2. I figured instead of just posting pics, I can perhaps start an interesting topic as well.

I would like to start a topic where we can share pics and stories of our first bike/s.

PS- I am hoping that somebody admits and posts their pics of his/her hopefully not crashed Haybusa etc

Doubt this is the right forum for that... too bad though.

My first street bike was one'a them Yeah'ma'haws.
but my bike cherry was popped by a 2002 Honda XR-100r dirtbike, sorry no pics.

 

[Ohendo]

My first was an '83 Yamaha Maxim XS400. Bought her for $800 at a shop in Columbia, SC in 1990 (25K miles) to use at college. I had no car, so she was my only means of transportation all through school.

Starter crapped out early on during my ownership, and I didn't care to fix it or couldn't afford it, can't remember which. Get a running start, pop the clutch, and off I went. I can't remember how many miles I put on her, ~40K perhaps, but I can remember how lucky I am to have survived that machine. I layed her down about five times, all but one at lower speeds. Never learned from my mistakes, as I felt I was invincible in my twenties. Luckily no lasting injuries from any of the incidents.

I sold her to a friend in '94 for $1. Wasn't worth much more after the beating I gave her. He then sold her a year later and she's probably been scrapped by now. I'm sure she would have lasted longer with proper maintenance and TLC, which I gave neither to her.

Ahhh, memories.

(Pic above was copied from a google image search... I don't have any pics of mine)

 

[carbonar1]

The first bike I rode at the tender age of 7 was a Yamaha 175AG.

It was HUUUUUGE...I had to take off and stop from a milk crate or a tree. It belonged to my best friends Dad, and my friend and I shared it until we were 16 or so...

When I got my first road bike for $200..a 1972 Kawasaki Z200, in 1987...

A bit like this one but 100 time more sh!t

 

[motojoe122]

Here is the sweetheart that showed me a whole new world, a '97 YZ250. This pic was taken the day I finished her frame up update. Painted the frame the 2001 blue, all new plastic and graphics, new pipe, after market seat, and silencer.......Boy, did the heads turn when I sold her to the dealership They thought it was a factory bike at first!

 

[JimStl]

'92 Katana.

I was in the Marines living in Yuma Arizona. I would drive from Yuma to San Diego just about every weekend to be with my girlfriend. About a 100 miles into that trip you leave the Sedona desert and ride up into the Laguna Mountains. Weather conditions and temperatures can change radically as you head up the mountains.

It would go from 85+ degrees to the mid 40's in 10 to 20 minutes time, riding though rain and clouds with about 8 foot visibility is a little stressful, along with some intense winds that would come and go like they were on an on/off switch. I remember being blown from my right lane all the way over to the far side of the left lane in about a seconds time. It was often a crazy trip, but young men will do crazy things for a woman.

The bike was awesome though, never let me down. It was a very comfortable ride. The windscreen just worked, the mirrors were placed exactly where the should have been, the seat was fine, etc. I had no complaints about that bike once I changed out the dual pipe for a single yoshimura. One funny thing is that I did not have rain gear at the time. I would wear a surfing wet suit under my clothing and would stay pretty dry while I got poured on in the mountains. I remember leaving San Diego and watching cars beside me hydroplane off the road as I motored along up Highway 8 into the black storm and hills.

I had to let her go (both the bike and the girlfriend) because I got orders to go to Japan and could not take either one with me. Last I had heard she was stored in a backyard under a tarp for months because her new owner was scared to ride her, some time in 1994.