What or who got you into riding?

[r_ciao]

r_ciao, you remind me of my own story!  Wife never agreed to let me get a bike for the first 5 years of marriage.  One day we had a big fight (not because of the bike thing...), almost both signed the divorce papers, then decided to talk, maybe there still hope kinda talk, and that's when I decided to slip in my desire to own a bike with the list of things she would need to get over    A few months after that, we're still married, I have finished my license course, and last weekend I ordered my first bike (M796 Diamond Black Silk).  I've wanted to have a bike since I was a kid, but I only recently became financially (and matrimonially ) able to own one 

jvax,  good for you  .  sounds like we both have happy endings.  happy for you, your marriage and that gorgeous bike.  and good for me b/c my divorce is almost done.  ciao!

[pitbull]

I've wanted a motorcycle for as long as I could remember. When I was 13 my next door neighbour's dad bought him a yamaha mx80 and he let me ride it on the trails around our neighbourhood out in the country. I rode it quite a bit for the next 2 years until we moved. My parents could never really afford to by one for me and didn't like the idea of motorcycles anyhow.

At age 18 a highschool friend of mine moved in with us after his home life became unbearable. He had a honda cb400 and even though I didn't have a licence, he let me ride it whenever I wanted to. He worked a day job during the summer and I worked a night job as a line cook at a local roadhouse. He let me ride it every night to work and back.

I would have bought a bike at this point, but was saving every cent for university, although many times I almost spent my savings on a bike and change my mind at the last minute.

Fast forward to age 30........student loans are paid off, mortgage is getting paid down.......... there's finally a little spare change for a bike. I spend a couple months reading every motorcycle magazine I can find and learning about every style and brand of bike. I decide a sport-standard would suit me nicely and the only bike that interests me is the monster.

[Mike_D]

     My Dad when he bought a brand new 1970 Hodaka 100 trail bike.  I was 12 at the time and I would bug him constantly to teach me how to ride it.  Eventually I inherited it when he  upgraded a couple years later.  Every weekend during the summer, we would go camping in the mountains of Montana and go on trail rides into the back country.  That bike was geared so low the top speed was about 25 MPH, but you could practically climb a tree with it.  After that I was hooked and remember lusting after my friend's 125 Honda Elsinore until I saved enough money to buy a 1974 Yamaha 125 motocross bike.  Those were the days. . . .  
    

[speedknot]

I always the simplistic aspect of the machines. But my parents viewed motorcycles with the same regard that most women view serial rapists, so having a bike was out of the question.
I did the only thing I could in the situation, saved up and bought a bike behind their back that I kept at a buddy's place. A busted up POS YZ250 that I almost killed myself on many, many times. Street riding was the logical progression of things.

Ditto on that, only my dad always had either a Harley or Triumph and it was my mother looked at those two wheel death machines with scorn.  I used to keep my dirtbikes either in the woods or at a friends house.  My dad wouldnt have cared if I had them but mom would have kicked us both out and my dad would have taken the blame for getting me into it.  So I spared him the hassle. 

I guess it was my dad who really got me into it.  Growing up around motorcycles and my father pushing me to tinker and be creative helped me strap my first Tecumseh engine to my bicycle.  The rest was history.

Currently, my wife doesn't care what I do.  I just showed up home one day with an old Honda project bike and the collection grew from there. It's funny how people on my wifes side of the family and her friends all pass comments about her letting me have a motorcycle.

[fastwin]

This thread is a good read. I like all the different stories that lead us all to the same thing. Pretty cool. Good idea Artful.

[Duck-Stew]

For me, it was simple:  Dad said no, I was 18....  I bought the bike. 

[Travman]

I had just installed a mildly hopped up 400 in my 68 Firebird. I had broken it in and it felt strong.  I was going to visit a friend on a Sunday morning and the roads were empty.  Two Harley riders pulled up on their Evo Softails. They nodded their appreciation of my car and I knew we were going to race.  There was a straight road ahead.  I didn't know much about bikes so I really didn't have clue of what I was up against. Anyways it was a fun race.  They pulled away, but it wasn't by more than a couple of car lengths.  They gave a thumbs up and a friendly wave as they turned off.  I really dug the way their bikes accelerated, sounded, and squatted each time they shifted gears. Looking back I'm sure those bikes weren't stock and I could have launched a lot harder, but the impromptu drag race didn't matter. After that I was very interested in motorcycles. I couldn't find out enough about them.  It didn't take long until I was riding.  

[nicrosato]

No motorcycles in my family, but a neighbor took for me for a ride on a ratty old Harley when was about 15, probably 1960. Cut to the late 60's and I'm married and a friend was into bikes. (He eventually owned the first Duc I ever saw, a yellow, single-cylinder 350). Anyway, he had an old Bridgestone 125 and I just got on it and started to ride. Immediately hooked. My younger brother was in the Marines at the time; he came home on leave and bought a 441 BSA single. He rode that bike to Woodstock. I was starting to realize I really wanted a bike. Eventually bought a Honda 160.

Got married and went out and bought a new Honda CL350 ("Scrambler"). Eventually, times got tough and I sold that bike in the mid-70's. Didn't have a bike again until the late 80's when I bought an old Yamaha just so I could take my license test. Then I bought a 650 Nighthawk. It's been a series of Ducs since then, with the odd Honda and a Harley I'm currently trying to sell.

I can't put my finger on anything specific that attracted me to motorcycles. I simply always liked riding.

[fastwin]

You have to be at least as old as me! Maybe older with the late 60's marriage. Love the 441 "victim" reference!! God bless old make the beast with two backsers! And those hard to start BSA singles! Most folks today wouldn't know what an Amal carb tickler was, or a choke lever, or a fuel tank reserve or right hand shift... what the hell is a kickstarter? Great stuff!!!

[DarkDucati]

Two things got me interested.  About 8 years ago I saw some show about some people doing actual custom bike building, pre-Discovery channel hype, and thought all the metal working and Engineering was way cool.  The second thing sealed the deal.  I was working in San Francisco and one day at lunch I stepped outside the building to cross the street and this motorcycle roared by that had this amazing sound like I'd never heard before. My friend, who rode a Bonneville, said "oh that's a Ducati".  I was hooked.  I drooled and plotted ways to save up or do extra work, and then the wife surprised me on my 40th and bought me a Monster.  I may be late to the game, but I'm in it for life now. And now I have an 848 too. Life is goooood. 

[sbrguy]

had a mini bike when i was younger around 16 but didn't ride it much and didn't get me into motorcycles, been riding bicycles racing one through my 20s and still no motorcycle interest.

get a job 5 years ago and a bunch of people on my floor i become friends with all ride motorcycles, one guy has 3 ducati's at first i didn't like the monster or the ducati sound that much.  over the course of a year basically learning about them from my friends that have motorcycles at the office.  sign up for the msf course and such and get a beginner bike, and also know that i want to now get a ducati because well the sound and looks fo the monster grew on me a lot.

bought the bike and now still riding it. funny thing is that i sort of now like it becuase its like cycling but i don't have to pedal the thing to move.  love it. still havent' told my mother my father laughs everytime when i speak to him becaue he knows.

[MendoDave]

I don't remember when I tasted my first Pizza, but Ive been hooked on them for as long as I remember. I used to like the thick Chicago style ones best and those are good but the thin cru...Wait wrong thread.

[twistdchick]

I guess it helped to have brothers who had Rupp minibikes, and I was a tomboy and loved riding bikes too! I remember plowing into the sticker bushes in the backyard on a mini-bike!!  They had more mini bikes, which led to 100's, which led to racing moto, (and that's when I stopped riding THEIR bikes). 
 Skip through high school and college years, and the 3 wheeled ATC's come out, and I now have a husband who grew up riding, and together we get ATC's.  Rode like mad and loved it!
Skip through to having 2 boys who also love anything with wheels (especially 2 wheels!)  Expensive downhill mountain bikes led to fun little pit bikes (Honda 50's).  My oldest and my husband got woods bikes, and I still didn't feel the need to include myself in the endless injuries they came home with!!
Finally when I turned 40 I was sick of them going away and having all the fun, so I got myself a Yamaha TTR 125 (really a play bike, but not a toy to ME!)  I was instantly insanely HOOKED on riding!!!  Wanted to learn EVERYTHING!  I just loved the challenges of woods riding - having to make split-second decisions, and riding up, down, and over stuff I just couldn't believe I could!!  I hit trees, flew off into mud puddles, you name it, and never had so much fun in my life!   We all rode the woods including the Hatfield McCoy trails in VW,  and local moto tracks. 
STILL no interest in a road bike yet. 
We quit going to the moto races, because everyone was getting way too hurt - friends included. Didn't have much $ to drive the big trailer to places to ride in the woods, so we started just looking at road bikes, and the KTM supermoto bike seemed a good transitional bike to get for us to share since we didn't have the $ for more than one bike.  Its stand-over height was WAY too high for me, so I just watched and listened to my husband and sons as to what they liked and disliked about the bike, riding on the road, etc.
Saw a picture of a Buell Blast and knew that was what I was looking for - a sport bike that I could easily touch the ground on!  My husband was making up his mind on what HE wanted - a Buell or a Ducati.  I told him... "Why get a Corvette when you can get a Ferrari?" and so our love for Ducati's began!!
Friends of mine (husband and wife) had Ducati's and once I got comfy on Buellie it was time for ME to move up and get a beautiful, snarling beast- Monster!!
I got the S2R 800 and love the s...t out of it - grabbed a Sharpie marker to make it my own, and the rest is history writing itself!!!  I put almost 9000 miles on my monster in one season of riding!  The lawn might need mowing, but I'll tell my husband... "screw it... I wanna ride", and off we go!
I'm doing my first track time in October - want to learn as much as possible to ride as much as possible!
Yeah, maybe I'm crazy, but so be it!  I guess I've always like weird challenging stuff - raced short track speedskating a large portion of my life, and I think that riding on the track has many technical similarities to skating on a track, so wish me luck, and we should all be so lucky to do things that plant a huge smile on our faces, and surround ourselves with wonderful people who help us to follow our dreams and passions!!
Sorry for the long story, but it's 53 years-worth!!

[Bigbore4]

My buddies dad had an old Beezer, '68 Lightning I believe.  Gave me my first ride when I was in Jr High a very long time ago.  That set the hook.  Then assorted short hops on buddies machines, My uncle had a 175 Kaw etc. 

Mom and Dad were not keen, My first bike was a brand new 1977 Yamaha XS650 I bought in April of 1977.  I was finally old enough to sign both the title and the loan papers!

[Artful]

This thread is a good read. I like all the different stories that lead us all to the same thing. Pretty cool. Good idea Artful.

Thanks, people's stories always interested the hell out of me. This thread has turned into exactly what I hoped it would be. Reminiscing, funny stories, and a better understanding of the folks that hang around here