My first memorable experience of motorcycles was when I was around 14 & watching a field getting torn to shreds by an impressive bunch of nutters grass track racing. From here on in I subscribed to 'Superbike' magazine, the centre spreads added to the allure, and read anything else I could read about them. But my first actual ride on a motorcycle was razzing a Garelli Tiger cross around the top two decks of a multi-storey car park. And wow! the feeling of a direct physical connection to the bike and how it moved was just well... thrilling, exciting & even spiritual. It felt like it was just me who was accelerating, braking & cornering. And that feeling has never left which is why I still ride them to this day.
I'd say I got into bikes, aged about 14, because the class bad girl was (presumably her boyfriend with the Suzuki Kettle would get banged up today!). Thus I inadvertently discovered in myself an unsuspected strain of lunacy. And it's the lunacy that keeps me riding to this day. Except that I haven't ridden since the 900 conked out, on account of endless health issues. Haven't even been to look at it, though I think I'm just about ready to now.
Looking at a Benelli sei in a library book at school. I was hooked right there! 1st year so I was about 11 years old.
My mum, taking me to school on the pillion of her motorcycle when I was 9. To plagiarise (and slightly modify) Steve McQueen’s famous quote, “motorcycling is life, anything before or after is waiting”. Andy
My dad with his enthusiastic stories of his BSA M20 and Triumph something or another and building my first moped out of two cellar finds at 15 years old At the time all the lads in the area were into bikes so the scene was set. Been riding 44 years, give or take a couple of outages for the onset of raising children
P1ssing about as kids on (probably stolen) bike over the fields and old chalk pits. Mum wouldn't let me have one. Neither would my first wife, but I hankered to do it. I bought a 350 single Harley (1934 engine in a '32 frame) and had it restored (I did help, kind of!) and needed to do my full test to ride it. That was fairly easy to get past my (2nd) wife as I convinced her it was a low powered and thus slower machine (it was too! - 12hp) I then found out (during lessons) how much easier to ride (and start!) a more modern machine is so I sold it and bought something more up to date. Many reasons keep me doing it: Convenience for some trips I have to make (and thus not get stuck in jams) The thrill of speed The buzz of getting a bend done well and constantly learning to ride better I have quite a few friends who ride so it's an excuse to see them To name a few...... The single best thing I've done for myself (wife and kids excluded obvs).
Parents Peugeot 504 breaking down when I was a kid (9 years old)... They were forced to send a friend pick me up after school. He showed up on a Yamaha 1200 V-Max, with an extra helmet for me. Most memorable ride in my life! Fast forward 20 years and that’s my ex brother in law starting his 916 in his living room to “show me”… Addicted to Ducati right there…
Getting a Suzuki Ap50 on finance when i started my apprenticeship at sixteen, as a way of getting to work 10 miles away, my dad signed all the paperwork and i had to pay him back weekly. Riding that and then ogling a Laverda Jota in a dealers showroom in Lincoln, way out of my league at the time on wages of £18 pw...but it deffo sowed a seed, and it only took me about 45 years from then to actually own one! Apart from that its the sense of freedom and escapism, and not much comes close to riding a bike through rolling countryside in the sunshine on good roads like we have here in Lincolnshire.
Aged about 10 (in the mid 70's) my mate next door same age, his older brother had a Japanese two stroke, probably a 250, he took both of us for a ride up and down the street, 3 up, me hanging on for dear life at the back, no helmets, flat out, we were screaming and laughing, legs like jelly when we got off the bike, I knew at that moment that one day I had to have one. Years later (mid 80's) I'm spectating at a midweek bike practice day at Donnington when I heard a big 2 stroke start up and then a really loud rattling noise that I've never heard before "What the hell is that!" it was an RG500 race bike & the first time in my life that I heard a dry clutch - I knew that one day I would have a bike with a dry clutch - M900, s4r
I was 15 months old and went to my first TT on my mother's knee in a double adult sidecar attached to my dad's Aerial. Went every year after that until I was 9 I spent my summers riding a C11 BSA around fields near my home. Was dropped off at school from the back of my dad's Matchless G3LS until I got my own Yamaha YAS1 and then never looked back
A pillion ride on a RD400 did it for me initially and the thump of a big 1200cc L-twin with 160bhp keeps me happy today.
My Dad had bikes all his life so naturally it filtered down. why I still ride? It’s my escape and mental health booster plus the slight lunacy of zapping about on loud, lairy and fast things is a rush… even after 40 years, first bike at 16 was a FS1E, current stable is the Monster 1200R and the 990 Super Duke, enough lunacy to keep me sane!!
My dad always had bikes and raced sidecar Motorcross in the 70's and 80's when I was a nipper. It was inevitable that I would have and ride bikes. He's 77 now and still has a few bikes and rides several times a week if he has chance . A couple of my mates with bikes are always asking what he's up to and love it when he comes on a ride out. After my mum passed away six years ago ,bikes really have helped keep my dad sane . The Italian bike thing probably comes from riding pillion with him when he had a Hailwood replica when I was at school .
My grandad got me into them. Shortly after this photo was taken we crashed on the grass. I was hooked. He was a hero.
My older brothers RD250 in the late 70s early 80s (when you could ride a 250 on L plates) I also lived by some Hells Angels (outlaws) I remember them being a great bunch of blokes and were (virtually) no trouble, they used to chop their own bikes. I bet none were road legal.
My dad was a biker and it just seemed natural to follow on. What's keeps me riding is the sense of freedom, there's just nothing like it. I started with an Honda xl125 that i bought for 150 quid from my cousin, I learnt to ride on the old railway nearby. Me and dad tidied it up and i put it on the road on my 17th birthday. Great memories, i ran that little xl on a shoestring and loved every second. Life was simple back then
A pillion ride on a work mates FZR1000 in ‘89 and then this photo kind of sums up while I still ride.
Just mucking around with mates got me started I guess. I always thought I would keep riding them but nowadays I just get nothing out of riding them to the point it’s sat in the garage unused for near 5 years I would say. It’s like the bubble burst .
