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When I was 10 I saved enough money to buy a little mini bike with a Briggs & Stratton. The throttle cable was busted so I tied a string to the throttle arm on the carb and grounded it on my wrist. In the ensuing ergonomic catastrophe I rode right into a tree. I was hooked. Next, I got an 'Indian' 50cc. I think Italjet bought the Indian name in the seventies. Anyway, it was a crap Italian dirt bike with a hole in the piston, soon. Next was a Honda XR-75. Bulletproof. Then an RM-125 Suzuki. And RM-250. Then roadbikes! Two-stroke Yammies and a leaky Harley, BSA, Triumph and on to my beloved 919 Honda, the finest motorcycle ever imagined by the minds and hands of human beings.

First rode a bike at about 12, then bummed as many rides as I could till I got my first dual at 18. Got into observed trials at the same time. Moved to SA in "84", kept up the trials and only got back on the tar at age 37. Am now 44 and only have 1 more year before I start counting backwards.

Rode someone’s dirt bike Honda (don't remember what size or year) when I was about 14 or so. We lived in the country and we didn't have any extra money for big toys like motorcycles (Dad & Mom were too busy taking care of me and my 8 siblings).
I always loved the idea of riding, I think because we had home movies of when my Mom and Dad were in the first years of their marriage. Dad had a '56 Harley. And he had that bike until he was giving mom a ride in the park one day and it slipped out from under him on a corner and sent mom skidding down the road (she had the scar on her ankle all the rest of her life).
Funny thing about that, he was tearing up the local dirt track with the big hog and jumped it and lost it and it crushed his ankle, everyone still remembers about Dad riding that Bike with his leg in a cast and the crutch tucked between the saddlebag and the bike, but he didn't get rid of it until he hurt Mom.
Years later when I was old enough to talk with Dad man to man I asked Dad why he didn't get another bike and he responded "I got to many responsibilites to play with toys like that".
Anyway my first bike was when I joined the Air Force I went to a Harley Dealer south of Denver w/my Grandmother and was going to get a Sporty. But the dealer was a real Jerk (it was a Saturday and he was giving us the brush off). So I told Granny that I'd look elsewhere.
Well the next week me and a partner went to the Kawasaki dealership in Denver and we test road a '76 KZ900. Well my buddy had ridden off/on all of his life so we took the bike out tandem. And since I hadn't ridden except for once, briefly, we found a secluded spot and he let me ride alone.
Welllll, I started off ok and I came back and he told me to go again. I didn't realize I was in a small sand spot and I revved it a bit and started to let out on the clutch when the clutch slipped the bike jumped my throttle hand twisted back......
When I picked up the bike I had scratched the case, broke a signal light and split my pants from the front to the back (no underwear on by the way, had to tie my shirt around my waist (had to ride the city bus all the way across town like that). My friend couldn't stop laughing. We got back to the dealership and I bought the bike on the spot (anything that could jerk me back that quick I had to have) and yes, they replaced the scratched case cover and signal light. I put 33,000 miles on that bike in less than a year.
Anyway 29 years later and several bikes later I'm still in Love with Bikes. I had a brief hiatus for about 6 yrs. when circumstances\stupidity wouldn't allow me to have one. But this year I got "back in the saddle" and kicked my self in the butt for not getting another sooner. I can't believe it was almost the same bike that I had for my first one (Life is a strange and wonderful place sometimes).
It's the best stress reliever that exists.
My Bike and I become one with the World.

Don't sweat the small stuff, EVERYTHING IS SMALL STUFF!

That's where the Bike/Ride puts me.
It reminds me that the majority of life’s "problems" are small stuff. And if there are major "life changing" issues then "The Ride" puts everyting in perspective.

(Thanks for listening, I meant to keep it short but it brought up lots of memories)

Eric

I lived in a house where the rule was "Absolutely, positively no motorcycling allowed". Dad was a doc and had seen too many emergency room cases.

I sneaked occasional rides on friends' minibikes and Honda trail 70s and 90s while growing up, but no serious riding.

At 18 I decided I had to get out of the house and live on my own. All my friends had motorcycles and it seemed the cheap way to go at the time. Just before moving out, I bought a well used Kaw KZ400. When my mom saw it in the garage, she said, "Either the bike goes, or you go". I (and the KZ) went.

I haven't stopped riding since. Before getting into flying, I used to make marathon road trips from AZ, up the Rockies (Western Slope) and into Canada every summer. Haven't done it in awhile, but am hoping to get some time to do it again soon.

At age 15 on a mini bike. Moved to San Antonio Tx in 84 sold bike quit riding until 2004 after I moved back to rural Tx. Most of the time I ride my 750 93 Vulcan more, than the hard tail Bullet, it's hard on a 51 yr old.

Just started riding now at the age of 26 (just took the MSF course). Ive thought about getting into it for a number of years but circumstances always got in the way. Before the MSF course my only experience on a bike was a little bit of dirt riding on a friends old Yamaha 175 when I was 18, and a couple of short trips as a passenger.

What get the bug to bite me finally was when my wife's cousin invited us to go bike shopping with her back in may (she was getting back into it after a 20 year hiatus).

Even my wife wants to learn to ride, she is planning on taking the MSF course in the spring.

I have of course had my fair share of people tell me im crazy for riding a motorcycle, but I've always been one of those people who frankly doesn't give a rats "O Ring" what other people think (the exception being my wife of course).

11 on a YZ80

I was 11 and started on a BSA Bantom 125. That was 49 years ago and I now am riding bikes 40 and 41.

5th grade so what's that 10 or 11?
1980 XR 80. Then I thought I was fast and needed a KX80. Man I hate 2 strokes.

I've been thumpin ever since.

I started at 9 or 10 on a minibike. It was one of those crappy Harley Mini bikes. The throttle stuck open and sent the bike into the side of my dad's pickup and me into the side of the garage. I didn't touch them again till I was 16 or so. which is 12 years and....10 or 12 bikes. which I still own seven of them, to the annoyance of my significant other.