Picture of My First Motorcycle

[Dangerous_Dan]

 



This pic was taken around 1978.
I got the frame and wheels in the trash on junk day.
The engine I bought at a garage sale for $10. My father helped me get it running. It needed a valve job, carb cleaned and the points polished up. Fenders are homemade. Bought a couple parts from JC Whitney, clutch, throttle, some cables.
Went to the local bearing shop to get a chain. When the old guy found out it was for a minibike, he just gave it to me for free. 
I ended up selling it for $125 after I got a Rupp minibike frame with suspension. I got an engine and fixed the Rupp. I later sold it to buy an RM80. This fixing, riding & selling is still going on today. I love to get a bike with the engine all taken apart in a box.  ;D

If you have pics of your first bike, please post them!

DD

[Captain]

Nice pic DD.  Brings back memories.

Captain

[easymoney]

 i never had a picture of my first motor bike. but it was a regular bicycle with a briggs engine added to the luggage carrier. it was a direct drive with a big pully attatched to the spokes of the rear wheel so you had to push or pedal until you got enough speed for the motor to pull it. it was not good on hills but you could travel on level ground without pedaling.

[shinnlinger]

Ill have to dig around for pics, I had virtually the exact same bike (black even) that my dad brought home from the dump and we put a rotor tiller engine in it.  My helmet was not as cool though.....

[Norm]

Great picture DD, I had one very similar to that I bought new in 1969. A local hardware store had it and I talked him into selling it to me on payments. My dad told him if I missed one payment he'd bring it back in....never missed one!

[northwoods1]

I had one of those little Honda 50s' with the fold up handle bars :D that was a fun time! Then it was a honda 75, then a 125, then a 750, and finally a HD bagger for a short time. Never did get the beemer I wanted 

[Jeff]

I don't have a picture of mine, but it was pretty fancy.  it was an 80cc  SST  actually a mini-motorcycle. I remember it was $300 brand new I think about 1973. How I rated getting that I can't remember,  but I remember drooling over it in the Kawasaki shop and finally getting dad to buy it.   I got to where I could really ride wheelies with it.  My dad went over the handle bars on it the first time he rode it.

  It had a couple weak points that were always having to be fixed.  The first came from when dad went over the handle bars.  They bent.   They were fold down and independent from each other. You turned a big knob on the base of the bar and it would swivel down for storage.  Once bent, he tried to straighten them, and they cracked. In the time I had that bike it had the bars welded multiple times.  Th other week part was in the oil injection cable. It had one cable that went from the throttle, down to a small plastic cartridge where it was converted to two cables. one to the fuel, one to the oil.  That was always messing up.

[metalspinner]

DD,
We are the same age and when I was a little boy about that age, my buddy Jo-Jo was riding his first motor bike around his yard.  He came around the corner of his house and drove over a rake that had been left in the yard. The bike skiddeed out from under him and he managed to lopp off the toes of one of his feet.  He wasn't wearing boots like you were - he was bare foot. :

It was quite a while before he could come back to school, but the first day back during recess, he stripped of his walking cast to show off his stubs.  All the little girls went running away screaming for the teachers while all of us boys were encouraging him along :D  The image that sticks in my mind the most was that of several nuns running across the playground screaming at the tops of their voices at Jo-Jo to put his cast back on. :D :D :D

[sprucebunny]

Boys are so lucky to get to do that stuff 

I still have the first motorcycle I bought in 1972 ( when I was about 20 years old ) It's a 1970 Triumph Trophy 500. It was the beginning of my love hate relationship with motors, electrics etc. I still have it because it's real hard to sell stuff that doesn't run  :-\

[Tom]

Sprucebunny!   That sounds like a mighty fine project to get started.  That's a good bike.

Somehow, I think you would look mighty fine astride of a Triumph.

[sprucebunny]

Thanks, Tom ..... I'm having enough problems finding parts for American made engines from the '80s ....
I'm waiting for those American Pickers to find me  :D

[Tim L]

Don't give up ! Great winter resto project.

[Tim L]

My Dad never let me have the cool stuff,but my buddy down the road had an Indian mini bike and a Montgomery Ward snowmobile,I thought he had it all,he was livin large.

[KellyH]

A neighbor kid had a mini baike like that one and we rode it until the engine quit.  Then we would push each other until we were exhausted!  lol! :D

This was what my dream machine looked like.  When my dad bought one for me I was walking on a cloud!  Like you Jeff I don't remember what I did "Right" to deserve the bike but I didn't complain either. ;D  All of a sudden I had wheels and the girls in my 6th grade class thought I was the coolest guy around!  8)

[Raider Bill]

Mine was a hodaka with the shifter on the left handlebar. Still got scars but what a blast!

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Mine was a Montgomery Wards Riverside 125 2 stroke. Man that was fun to ride but it was pretty worn out by the time I got it. If you did a wheele the forks would extend out past where the fork boots used to be and lock that way. Suddenly you were riding a rigid front end bike. Great fun.

This was my cousin's little honda 50 with me playing around on it.

[weimedog]

First...Suzuki TS125

[Piston]

Nice pics guys, i love the old bikes, my first was a honda trail 50, it was actually my sisters and I wasn't allowed to ride it.  I always begged my dad to let me but he claimed it needed a 'valve job' which of course I had no idea what that meant.  Well one day when no one was home I went out to the shed and tried starting it, sure enough it started right up without much of a problem and I was off and running!  Dad wasn't too happy when he got home to see me riding the mini around  :D 
then I got into ATV's and had to sell when I went to college.  After I got my first job I bought my HD Heritage, then needed something different so bought a KTM, so now I wanna sell the HD and buy something else. 
Keep the pics coming.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Hey piston, what year is that heritage?
I'm looking for an 80's softail.

Jon

[Piston]

Hey Jon,
It's an '02. 

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Oh my, that bike is way too pretty for what I am looking for.
I am looking for a rode hard put away wet softail from the 1980s to take apart and build a bobber out of.

Are you really going to part with that beauty? I have had sellers remorse for every bike I ever sold.

Jon

[Raider Bill]

You must be single?

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Happily single.  8)

[Raider Bill]

HAHA I meant Piston with that solo seat.

[weimedog]

HAHA I meant Piston with that solo seat.

Certainly a way to STAY single if motorcycles are a big part of life! Sometimes compromise is required...