Let's hear how you got started riding.

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I don't know if there have ever been threads like this in the past but i figured I'd start this in hopes of seeing how and what you guys got started on.

I personally got started because a friend of the family had an ATC 70 that he couldn't get started. My dad got it dirt cheap and figured he'd mess with it and try to get it going for me. I believe he only had to buy a new plug and clean the carb and it fired up. I ended up trading that 70 for a go kart. I realized that was a stupid move pretty fast, but the kart was cool and enticing at the time. It sat low and i couldn't ride it on the trails. When it was on flat ground or pavement it scooted but otherwise it sucked.

Then I happened across a 1981 Odyssey that had a broken axle and i paid nearly nothing for it because the owner lost interest in it. We had to tinker with the engine to get it dialed in and running good. The pull starter was broke so I just wrapped a rope around the fly wheel to start it. I still remember how much it hurt pulling that thing to start it. Especially since it took several good heaves to start it.

I only had a paper route at that time so, I ended up selling the Odyssey because a buddy had a 200X for sale and I wanted it. So I ended up with a 200X. I rode that thing to death. I took care of it but I wasn't easy on it. I ended up blowing the engine and I fabricated an 81 Suzuki RM 250 on to the 200X with some minor help from my dad and older cousin. That's another story for a different time, though.

After riding my air fooler RM 250/200X I got the fever for 2 stroke bikes. I ended up trading the RM 250/200X for a KX 80. I couldn't believe how fast that bugger was. It was unreal for me at the time. I was only like, 13 years old. This is where i became a massive Kawie fan. This bike beat everyone I rode with that didn't have a 125 or 250 dirt bike. And that includes a guy in the neighborhood's 250R quad and a buddy who had a YZ 80. That KX smoked that YZ.

I started detasseling corn so I was able to make some money and finally got hooked up with a Tecate 3. I had to sell the KX 80 though.:( The rest is basically history and many bikes and trikes have come and gone but that is basically how I got started out.

What about you guys?

[dcreel]

In 84 at the age of 13, I went with my parents in their motorhome to Glamis to camp with some friends of theirs. I had my first 2 wheeler ride on an atc 90. I was hooked. 6 months later, after raising my grades my parents bought me a new 1985 250sx. I rode it for a couple of years, then decided I wanted a dirt bike. I sold the 250sx and bought a 1985 kx125. Rode it for a year, and did as we all do.. Went back to 3 wheelers. I bought a 1984 Tecate. I haven't looked back since. I still have my 1984 Tecate.

[code200k]

my dad or uncle always had something to ride at my old house (banshee or 2 or couple hondas atvs or dirtbikes kawies or blaster etc) anywho we moved to a smaller house in a devoplment so no we had nuffing.one day i whent over to a diff uncles and his buddy had a big red that was the first trike i rode.....then over the next 2 or 3 years me and my dad and bro got diff lil bikes or go karts though trasde and such....then one day ( i was bout 12) asked me if i wanted this illegal:lol: atv thingy that he found up at his grandapas old house i said sure why not he brought it to me like a week later its a 83 yamaha 200k his dad thought the motor was siezed.. me and my dad put a new plug oil and gas in her and she ran fine...later that week my lil bro messed up the 2nddary clutch somehow fixed and i rode it all the time tillmy dad took it out to his job cuz of my grades:cry: i then got it bAck last summer thats like 5 years and now she being rebuilt :) but over thoses 5 ish years i had other random atv and dirtbike to mess with or rode freinds

[killerklown]

My dad told my brother and I we were getting 3 wheelers one day. I had never even sat on one. I was 5 years old, and my brother was 8. We went to Doucas Motorsports in Fond du lac, WI, towing an empty trailer. Spent a few hours in there. I scored a ATC70, my brother got the atc125m, and my dad took a atc200m. All brand new 84 models. GREAT MEMORIES!!! I rode that 70 for years...

[JohnR.]

When I was about 10 or so, I convinced my dad to buy me a 1977'ish Yamaha GT 80 that a guy had on his front lawn for only $150. It was originally an enduro type bike but the signals were long gone by the time I got it. I rode that for a few years (mostly up and down the private dead end street we lived on) and then I came across a similar year Yamaha MX 100 for a good deal and rode that for a while. I ended up giving both of them away about 10 years ago but both of them took everything I could throw at them and never let me down. Its a wonder I don't own a Tri-Z instead of a 250r. :wondering

[The Goat]

well...I had a pedal powered big wheel around age 2...
a battery powered 3 wheeler around then too
when I was 3 or 4 I used to ride my paw paws 250 big red around the yard.... yes unsafe I know, but I never got out of second (as I couldn't reach the shifter) and I understood the concept of throttle and brakes. I wasn't allowed to ride his trx300 as it was "way too powerful and dangerous."

From there I went to an 85 atc 70...Rode that sucker until I was 8 or so.
yamaha badger 80 until 12
yamaha timberwolf for a few months when I was 10...it was essentially stolen.
yamaha beartracker 250 until 19

moved away from the land and didn't really have a use for a bike anymore...when I moved back, I started looking for something, cheap preferably as I was unemployed...found a big red for 500, and a 200x roller for 200...bought the X and the rest has been expensive history.

I'm forgetting go karts, and other bikes I know...but that's the gist of it. I've been riding for 20 years now...18 of which were on gas powered bikes.

I'm a speed junky though, always have been... when my beartracker wasn't sufficient, we used to take my grand am out on the pipe lines and trails...104 mph through terrain that would make most 4x4 drivers blanche.... hit it hard, hit it fast....and just stay the hell on it to you come out the other side.

[firehart]

I got my first bike, a 1969 Honda Z50 when I was 14. Worked all summer on a paper route for it. I had that for about a year and sold it when I got my driver's license. Then I got a SL70 when I was 17. That ended being hot and I had to give it back. Then I went bikeless till I was 50 and got the 200x.

[Gearheadtom]

It started for me when I was about 8. The whole family was getting together at my grand parents house. When we showed up, I saw something I had never seen before, a wheeler. It was a Honda 200m of my uncles. After him giving me and all the other kids there a ride around the yard, I wanted one for myself. It was just after I turned 16 (last summer) that my dream had finaly come true. I bought a Honda 200e for $250. That thing was always giving me trouble, so I sold it after about a month or 2 of ownership and bought the 200m I have now.

[codemanlyons]

Dad bought me my first dirtbike when i was 5 a little yamaha 50cc i rode it till i was way to big for it and we sold it. then i got a an 81 yamaha 100 enduro. rode it for a couple years and sold it. I was with out anything to ride for a year or two untill a friend of my dads had an 84 ytm 200 he wrecked it real bad and dident want anything to do with it after that. he just gave it to us. so i rode that from the time i was 12 all the way till this past year when i bought 2 big reds that were sittin in a barn not running i bought both of them for 180$ got them running within a week. That wasent enough for me so i went and bought my 350x. Then i sold both big reds..iam now 19 and still have the ytm and 350x and i just recently bought an 05 450r the first bike i ever owned that wasent older than me

[Mr.Atc]

i had an atc 70 at the age of five then moved up to a 110 at the age of 8 at 11 i had a 200x at 14 i had a 250r and i stll have can 85 250r right now and it is my pride and joy my dad was the person that got me hooked on trikes i did alot of riding with him and i still do

[cr480r]

mom bought me a trail 50 when I was 10.. after a couple months it broke and she gave it away... my best friend growing up had a TRX70, a '85 CR80, and a ATC200es.. we bashed on those hondas for years... later when I was 15 I went to live with my dad.. we had a LT160 and a TRX300 4x4 but used them mostly for ranching chores.. Dad told me I wasnt having a motorcycle or 3 wheeler as long as I lived under his roof... I think thats where my attraction for bikes and 3 wheelers came from.. because the first things I bought when I was able to was a Tecate 3, Lt250, and a CR480... The Tecate was my first 2-stroke and I have been hooked on them ever since...

[honda_atc200es]

i think i started when i was 13, i first rode a little 100cc suzuki quad, then my cousin started letting me ride his 110cc pitbikes around, at the time i had two bikes of my own (my trx200 and bigred) but neither of them ran, i sold the trike and bought the pitbike, rode that for a year, then got my quad going, i sold the pitbike, bought a klx110 and a ds80, ended up having one bike stolen and my brother used the other. i have done most of my riding on roads and flat fast trails, so i live for WOT, it makes me want a motorcycle more and more, but im not allowed =/ i have done some rougher trails and hill climbs, but i havent done any sort of mx which is what i would like to get into

[ridendirty]

My brother and I always had powersports growing up. Snowmobiles, trikes, quads, mopeds, wave-runners, boats, ect. My father restored VW's for a living so we never ran out of buses, kit cars, meyers manx's...

My brother had a little suzuki trike when he was 5 (got stolen) and then when he was about 18 he got a Yamaha Warrior (stolen too). After that he just stuck with boats. Mostly Baja's.

I, on the other hand, loved fast cars, big trucks, and the boy around the corner.... He had dirtbikes, quads, fat cats, ect. When I was 15 I would jog past his house and he used to follow me down the street on a Yamaha Blaster asking to take me for a ride. That little bike didnt last long with me and we upgraded soon after that. He came home in '05 with a Honda 450R.

Growing up the way I did, trikes almost seemed like an obvious choice.

For his 24th birthday I bought him the 350x and he gave me the 450R. Pretty soon I'd only go ride if HE rode the 450. Sold that, bought the 250R. My brother's little girl needed something to ride when she came down to visit (just like her Daddy) so we got her a ATC70.

Now we got a house with a bunch of land and he'll find any damn excuse for a Big Red!

[hublake]

Geez, my story is totally different. We (my wife & son) and another couple use to go fishing near Chapleau, Ontario every summer. We met a man up there who used his 82 Honda BR to haul our fishing stuff to a lake that you could not drive a vehicle to. This was in 84. I said the next year we would have our own. I got an 85 BR, which I still have, my wife got an 125m and my son got an TRX125. The other couple got a BR and an 125m. We used them up in that area for a number of years. By the way I was 45 when I got the BR. Now I have 2 85 BRss, 84 BR, and a 83 BR.