How Old ? - your first motor bike adventure

[Happy Valley]

My sister was dating a guy who had an old Harley, suicide clutch and stick shift on the gas tank. He used to take me for rides and I loved it and was hooked.

Couldn't afford anything like that so the first bike was a 65cc Honda and my buddy got an 80cc Yamaha.

We rode those things all over. One week in the summer we went "camping"....least that's what we told the folks. From southern New England we headed out and just kept going. Decided we were going to the 1967 World's Fair that was being staged in Montreal. We made it, had a ball at the Expo, slept wherever we could find.

Heh, put a thousand miles on a 65cc with nothing but a sleeping bag, pocket full of change and the cheap toolkit that came with the bike.
People thought we were nuts.

Hadn't thought of that in years, thanks for the memories.

 

[graucho]

wow all good ones! Lots of chukkles.

I found a complete minibike frame at the dump (no engine) At age 11.
A friend that was with me said his dad had a motor we could use. So when
we pushed it a mile and arrived at his house I found out it was a old huge
electric motor with two pullys and a belt. (out of? who knows)

We had little mechanical ability so we used about 10 rolls of tape and strapped
thay baby onto the frame. We had his brother mount the 2nd pully to the axle. (I remember it wobbled)

By now we gathered a crowd of about 5 or 6 and we all scattered looking for any
extension cords we could find. I swear we came up with 300 feet. With one kid
on the bike, another one would plug it in and we were off and motoring at one speed. A whopping 6 mph.
We had a stick in the ground so you knew when to turn around before we ran out of cord. We soon we graduated
to a light switch to turn it on/off.

Our dads were so impressed of our invension, they made sure there was
always a mini bike running on the block. Walla! my love of mini choppers.

 

[knucklepanshovel]

My sister was dating a guy who had an old Harley, suicide clutch and stick shift on the gas tank. He used to take me for rides and I loved it and was hooked.

Couldn't afford anything like that so the first bike was a 65cc Honda and my buddy got an 80cc Yamaha.

We rode those things all over. One week in the summer we went "camping"....least that's what we told the folks. From southern New England we headed out and just kept going. Decided we were going to the 1967 World's Fair that was being staged in Montreal. We made it, had a ball at the Expo, slept wherever we could find.

Heh, put a thousand miles on a 65cc with nothing but a sleeping bag, pocket full of change and the cheap toolkit that came with the bike.
People thought we were nuts.

Hadn't thought of that in years, thanks for the memories.

I have one of those mid 60's honda 65cc bikes with the enclosed chain guard but dont have the correct engine I had 50cc 70cc 90cc & a couple 110cc engines I had forgot all about that one.. no telling how many more I think I have the frames for a rupp black widow & a bonanza ace in field behind parents house I had both of those mini bikes at a very early age & both had jack shafts.. I can remember a couple people actually using the rupp mini bikes for traveling. thats how I got mine after the original engine blew & they didnt want to do a make shift for the electrics they sold it to me cheap but I didnt get the title I didnt care back then, I was to young to drive & was just getting it to ride off road. but it had been on several 500+ mile trips before I got it..

as for unusual bikes I also have a Chapparal motorcycle & a couple spare engines I rode back in the 1970's its in basement of parents house...

Randy

 

[POPS]

ha... I think I was about 12, (1969) I'd been bugging my Dad for a minibike....NO luck, what so ever!
Then one day, I asked him to quit his job. When he asked why, I told him...."The neighbors don't work & their kids have minibikes!!"

The next day, Dad bought a 1965 Honda 50 for me. Within the year, we upgraded to a Honda SL100.
At 14, I traded the Honda for a Brand NEW 10 speed. I could travel with the bicycle, as I wasn't street legal with the Honda.
I've owned a few Motorcycles since, but it's always back to bicycles for me.

Unreal MM
You shure know how to stir peoples minds...Good on ya!
When I was 10(1967) I saved and scrimped every nickel and dime till I had 45 bucks to buy a 1965 Honda Cub, push start because the kick start lever was broken off. I would run like mad with the bike in neutral than jump on and slam it into first gear and away I would go. I rode that bike every in summer on the farm for 2 years than sold it to someones dad and bought a 1966 Suziki 80 sport . Now where going some where. Davo...Yours wasn't a push start by chance was it ?...POPS

 

[srdavo]

Now where going some where. Davo...Yours wasn't a push start by chance was it ?...POPS

My kickstarter worked.... I just didn't have rear brakes!!
Describe your Cub, please. My 50 was NOT a step-thru..... gas tank in front of the seat.... wish I still had it.
there are some pics of us.... at my Dad's house. I'll have to check 'em out.

 

[Mountainman]

2-wheel things with motors

Describe your Cub, please. My 50 was NOT a step-thru..... gas tank in front of the seat.... wish I still had it.
there are some pics of us.... at my Dad's house. I'll have to check 'em out.

would enjoy seeing those pictures if you find them

I owned two of those Honda 50's
they also were not the step through
gas tank was in the usual place -- thought they were called -- Sport Model ?
if I remember correctly -- came in Blue, Red, Black and Yellow colors
three speed trans
could buy used in very good condition all we wanted back then for 100 to 200 dollars

don't know why -- but -- 110 dollars seemed to be the magic number for me
I bought a few small bikes back in the old days for exactly 110 bucks

man oh man -- talk about some trouble free miles !!!

we love to ride those 2-wheel things with motors !!!

 

[augidog]

hehe, except for a B & S-powered Rupp (i still remember that squealing torque-converter) some childhood friends owned & shared, my MB adventures started a mere 3 years ago...so my whole story is here.

my family was about gearheading and racing, but i was never exposed to much 2-wheel activity.

BUT...my love of bicycles does go way back, scrounging parts, mixing and matching, my brother & i had a basement full. i think my most memorable bicycle phase was during the mid 70's when my dad raced figure-8...

we'd telescope 4 or 5 sets of forks, then put the biggest front wheel we had on it...we marked out a fig-8 course in the field, and proceded to run each other over all summer!

it's prolly a good THING we din't have motors.

fun thread

 

[SimpleSimon]

My first motor wasn't a bike, it was an upright scooter my Dad modified with an old horizontal shaft engine and a caster wheel running against the rear tire simply by weight. At that time I had "Forrest Gump" braces on both legs and couldn't ride a bike. That little scooter and I went a lot of places. The first motorbike I ever rode belonged to Tom Willbroad, an old farmer who lived down the road and kind of adopted us kids as his grandkids. He had one of the little Honda 50 step through types, and would putt down to our house and let us take turns riding it - I was about 10 then.

Since then I've owned various motorized gadgets - mostly three-wheelers. Having no left hand, the state of Oregon declined to give me a motorcycle license, but I could license a three-wheeler as long as the clutch/brakes were foot pedal operated - the endorsement on my license said "restricted to 3 wheeled motorcycles with foot pedal clutch only" - had a bunch of cops tell me they'd never seen such an endorsement.

When larger bikes with automatic transmissions came around, I did eventually get a motorcycle endorsement for them, but I've always preferred three-wheelers. Built several street legal ones over the years.

 

[...ladies]

Well me and my buddies ARE 14 so the adventures continue lol. We road our bikes for tens of miles everyday in the past summers. Well we always got really sick of the hills. I come up with many crazy ideas and rarely follow through. When i told them i was putting a motor on all of our bikes they ofcourse thought it was a sweet idea but we wouldn't end up doing it. Did a little research and found the nifty 2 stroke kits. Now i'v got two of my own and made my three friends each one we're like a biker gang... haha. But ya the adventures continue. People think we're crazy when we ride 20 miles to their house to say hi. We just like to ride.. lol.

 

[CowNoseThe50PoundCat]

My neighbor growing up as a kid collected motorcycles, he had over 100 of them. (He didn't store them all at his house tho).

Some of the motorcycles where those really old ones the kind that look more like bicycles then motorcycles. He let me ride those around, the ones from the WWI and I think WWII era.

It was so much fun, going around to all my friends and showing them "my" motorcycle.

So I can say, I've really rode some classics! I know I've been on a bike from like the 1920's for sure. I think that was one of his oldest.