Triumphrat

Olderyoungster · 03-14-2007

There was a day, an event, perhaps an occasion when you decided that a street bike would someday be a part of your life. Some of you grew up where dirt bikes were an accepted form of entertainment. Some of you could sneak a ride on a neighbor's mini-bike. Others like myself, were prohibited to so much as UTTER the word "motorcycle" within a block of home.

What's your story..... where did it all begin..... what was your first street bike and how/when did you decide that 'now' was the time?

Thrux-ton-up · 03-14-2007

Calhoun GA - summer of 2002, I'm making a clean double jump on the super cross track on the CR125 Honda. Suddenly on both sides of me I'm looking UP at two 10 year olds on KX80's doing triples, I decided then that I'm too old for this $#!t and decide to go to the street. Bought a 58 Triumph Thunderbird, 2 years later saw the Thrux and traded the bird. Started the whole process at age 10 in '69. :-D It's been a blast.

OhioTT · 03-14-2007

Ok, I'm 15 years old(1965) working at the greenhouse just down the road from our house. Another kid rides a Honda 50 Sport to work one day. Do you want to ride it? HELL yes! With my younger brother on the back I rev the sucker up, drop the clutch, front end points directly to the sky and my brother's laying in the driveway. Of course my hand slips off the clutch lever and and I'm chasing this Honda down the driveway, front end still up in the air. Did manage to get it stopped without any damage. Except brother who's scared of bikes to this day. I guess I've never been the same, either. Don't wheelie too much any more, but have fond memories of a 1977 Yamama RD 400. Sky-scrapin' SOB!

road_dog · 03-14-2007

I grew up in typical small town Texas. As a kid, some of my best memories are of my friends and I riding our 3.5 hp Briggs & Stratton mini-bikes thru the fields behind our houses. However, when we wanted to go to town, baseball practice or the like, we had to ride our bicycles (on the streets).

When I was about to turn 15, early Summer of '74, I bought my first street-legal motor vehicle. A Honda XL100, to ride back and forth to my Summer job. When that summer was over, I had earned enough to trade up to a Honda CB360. I rode that one thru High School and even took a few dates to the movies on it. That is until I also got my first car around my Junior year of High School.

Boy did that car come in handy back then... if you know what I mean. :wink:

OldSkoolFool · 03-14-2007

I had some interest in dirt bikes and street bikes throughout the years (limited experiences riding them) but performance and sports cars was my passion so that occupied my time and money. Was pretty close to getting a SV650 when I was 18 (24 now). I had always wanted a Datsun 240Z and got a beautiful one from Texas in 2005. Spent much time, money, and work on it, and greaty enjoyed but towards the last months of owning it I never could see myself being completely satisfied. In the back of my mind I thought of maybe getting a bike so I could cruise along side my dad. Being a college student, having both was not an option. In fall of 2006 I got interested in the older Triumphs and begun to do some research, just poking my nose around. I came across some pics of the Thruxton and I was hooked! At the time I couldn't believe I was even contemplating selling my dream car which I figured I'd own for the rest of my life, but I did it, sold the car quickly and bought myself a Thruxton that was listed on Craigslist. I must say that motorcycles are much more fun than sports cars!

So the Thruxton is my first bike. The only other street bike I road was a gixxer 600 when I was 18, was like a 10min ride.

[ This message was edited by: OldSkoolFool on 2007-03-14 12:20 ]

ohiorider · 03-14-2007

I was hooked on street riding once a neighbor took me for a long ride on a Harley Davidson Hummer, which evolved from a WW2 era German DKW design. War reparations, I think. It was a little two stroker, but it had a real chain drive and three (I think three) speed transmission. I was probably 10-11 at the time.

Next, to 1957-58. A buddy had just purchased a used Whizzer motorbike, with straight pipe. These things had no transmission, just a primary belt that tightened up when you released the clutch lever. That was my first time in the operator's seat, and I loved it.

Later, the same buddy acquired (a) Motobecane moped, (b) Allstate, which was actually a Vespa scooter, and (c) a Mustang Scooter with rear suspension, wire wheels, and a 4 speed transmission .... a motorcycle with small wheels. I got to spend lots of time riding these machines.

Those are the events and the machines that started it for me. My first street bike was a 1964 BSA Spitfire Scrambler, purchased in October, 1965.

Been hooked ever since.

Bob

[ This message was edited by: ohiorider on 2007-03-18 07:32 ]

sweatmachine · 03-14-2007

My dad has a picture framed on his wall, I'm sitting on the seat of his 1980 KZ1000 complete with the Windjammer fairing. I'm about 10 months old in the picture. That's when it started for me.

Then when I was a little older, around 10, I got a honda Z 50, rode that a while, then got a POS Honda CT90 (the trail 90, banana seat looking thing), then an XR 100, then a KLR 250, then a Nighthawk 750, then the Bonnie.

My dad had an Electra Glide when I was about 13-17 and he used to let me ride it around the neighborhood, even at 13! I sure felt like The Man cruising by the girlies houses on that big Hog.

I think the exact moment I became addicted to speed was at my dad's riding buddy's house (RIP) around age 13, he opened the garage and he had a chevy 5 window coupe with a 502 in it, and also a highly modified Vmax. He fired the Vmax up in the garage and I STILL have hairs standing up on my neck.

[ This message was edited by: sweatmachine on 2007-03-14 12:41 ]

wenzel850 · 03-14-2007

Mine started in 1968 when my best friend taught me to ride on his 67 Bonnie. Do we see a connection here. Well my first bike was 65 BSA Lightning. After almost getting killed on the street I started to ride in the woods on a 1971 DT1 for a bunch of years and different bikes. Along comes marriage and the arab oil embargo and I bought a used Yamaha DT360 to commute to work on and save gas. Well forward space 20+ years and the 2005 T100 comes into my life and now I've come full circle back to a Triumph.

Life has been real good to me. Thanks to my wife.

xardoz · 03-14-2007

I don't know the exact year, but it must have been in the mid '70s, and I was maybe 8 or 10 years old. My super-cool hooligan uncle (now a doctor - go figure) "borrowed" a friend's 750 Kwaka and took me for a ride around the block. I was hopelessly hooked, but being that young and dirt poor, there was little I could do.

Fast forward to the early '80s, maybe 1982, when my brother traded a go cart for a Sachs 125 scrambler of some sort. I have no doubts today that it had been stolen at some point, but we didn't care too much. We rode that thing around our back yard in endless circles until my brother blew the engine some months later, and my Dad had the carcass hauled off for skrap. (yeah, spelling, I know, blame the "naughty word" filter.")

Fast forward again to college in the early '90s. I was working as a cashier at a hardware store, and this tatooed guy comes riding up on a sky blue 1968 Bonneville, looking for all the world like he'd just rolled in out of "The Wild One" or a Mike Ness video. We got to chatting about bikes, and pretty soon he'd sold me a '67 BSA Lightning basket case that I worked on in his garage in the evenings.
Pretty soon it became obvious that I wasn't going to be able to rebuild it on my budget, so I scraped together a few more bucks and bought his (and by then mine as well) buddy's chopper - a '72 A-65 Firebird scrambler motor in a hard tail frame. It had a Kawasaki dual disk front end held on by a giant chunk of threaded rod, and a Yamaha rear wheel with a non-functioning rear brake.

An absolute death trap that I was lucky to walk away alive from, but I loved it and would buy it back in an instant.

A few different bikes later, and I settled on a Suzuki vx800 two years ago, when what I really wanted was a Bonnie.

And now, in just a few hours, I'm going to pick my new baby up from the dealer.

Sheepdog · 03-14-2007

I had messed around with minibikes before, but my day came in the summer of 1969. I was 13 and a friend let me ride his sky blue Motobecane moped. I had been reading everything I could get my hands on about motorbikes and repeatedly tried to get in to see Easy Rider. It all came down to that ride on that Motobecane. I lied about my age, got a union book as a laborer, and saved up enough for a 1968 Honda CL-70 by Christmas. I've seldom been without a streetbike ever since...