First bike memories

[trident sam]

Just been reading Ashley's account of picking up his new Commando, I guess we were all so excited when we got our first. In my case it was 12 month old Kawasaki KH250 in 1977, from Victor Horsman in Liverpool. They had Kawasaki Z1s and T160 Tridents in there at the time , it was such a great shop. I was 18 and it was the first major purchase I'd made since having a proper job . I put 12,000 miles on that bike and then bought a T150V Trident. There had been a new T160 parked up at work and I used to go and stare at it at dinnertime. After the Trident I bought a Norton 750 Combat Commando ( I got it for a song - £250 GB) Anyway at the risk of boring you all, since then I've had so many bikes in the last 49 years but still have a Commando (850 mk 111) couple of T160s , Kawasaki S3 and a few others . I do wonder how my life would have worked out if I'd bought a 750 Honda instead of the Trident --- probably still have some money in my pocket Ha. What's your story ?

 

[MikeG]

my first street legal bike was a 1966 Honda CB160 at age 17. A fast little ride for a kid that weighed 130 pounds but no match for my friends 67 Atlas. Rode the hell out of it till I moved on to bigger and better(?) bikes. I've looked at a few for sale the last few years and thought one might be fun again but that was 54 years and a lot less pounds ago. Why spoil those old memories with todays realality?

 

[marshg246]

my first street legal bike was a 1966 Honda CB160 at age 17. A fast little ride for a kid that weighed 130 pounds but no match for my friends 67 Atlas. Rode the hell out of it till I moved on to bigger and better(?) bikes. I've looked at a few for sale the last few years and thought one might be fun again but that was 54 years and a lot less pounds ago. Why spoil those old memories with todays realality?

I generally don't admit that the first street bike I owned wasn't British.

I don't remember the letters but it was a 160cc Honda with high-pipes. I owned if for less than 48 hours. The first time I got to speed, the tank slapper started, and I had no knowledge of what to do. Fortunately, in grabbing the brake I let off the throttle. So, I slowly rode to the motorcycle shop in town. They had a used 1966 Triumph 500 they took in trade, and they didn't deal in British motorcycles - that was early summer 1968. Gave them the Honda and whatever money I had on me and we made the trade. I spent every extra penny on that bike for about two years and then it was stolen.

My next bike was a 1967 Triumph T100C basket case that I built into a T100R in 1971 and I still have it.

 

[MichaelB]

my first street legal bike was a 1966 Honda CB160 at age 17. A fast little ride for a kid that weighed 130 pounds but no match for my friends 67 Atlas. Rode the hell out of it till I moved on to bigger and better(?) bikes. I've looked at a few for sale the last few years and thought one might be fun again but that was 54 years and a lot less pounds ago. Why spoil those old memories with todays realality?

I generally don't admit that the first street bike I owned wasn't British.

I don't remember the letters but it was a 160cc Honda with high-pipes. I owned if for less than 48 hours. The first time I got to speed, the tank slapper started, and I had no knowledge of what to do. Fortunately, in grabbing the brake I let off the throttle. So, I slowly rode to the motorcycle shop in town. They had a used 1966 Triumph 500 they took in trade, and they didn't deal in British motorcycles - that was early summer 1968. Gave them the Honda and whatever money I had on me and we made the trade. I spent every extra penny on that bike for about two years and then it was stolen.

My next bike was a 1967 Triumph T100C basket case that I built into a T100R in 1971 and I still have it.

Strange, first bike was CL 160, that's the High Pipe or 'Scrambler' version. Low pipe was CB160. My only transportation.
Why a CL160, barely freeway legal, but yet a scrambler. Yup, I drank that cool aid and would ride to the dirt spots and try to 'Scrambler' it. Usually didn't end well....

 

[baz]

First bike in 1976 was a fizzy,this represented freedom as where I lived at that time there was no bus service and miles from any towns
Next was a Suzuki ts100 which was a surprisingly good bike and great off road beating many larger bikes around our makeshift track
Then came my first Brit bike a BSA b25ss gold star
This taught me many many things about rebuilding engines etc all my mates had RDs and GTs etc and racing with them would usually end with my BSA needing more work
Then came a Yamaha yr5 that snapped it's layshaft at 90+ mph locking the back wheel solid
Then an oil in frame BSA a65 lightning that was actually pretty good between blowing out second gear and wearing out the timing side main
Then I moved onto Norton and triumph twins , and big Japanese 4s etc and now still with Norton twins and a couple of BSA/triumph triples
In the meantime I've had just about every model BSA unit single

 

[johnm]

September 1968. 15 years and 2 weeks old school boy. Passed my licence on my 1953 Matchless G3LS.

The bike cost me $140. I'd been saving for a bike since I was 12 years old. I would earn $2 a day digging carrots on a farm at the weekend.

And for the New Zealanders - yes it was Ohakune.

Kept it until second year uni when I sold it for food.

 

[marshg246]

Strange, first bike was CL 160, that's the High Pipe or 'Scrambler' version. Low pipe was CB160. My only transportation.
Why a CL160, barely freeway legal, but yet a scrambler. Yup, I drank that cool aid and would ride to the dirt spots and try to 'Scrambler' it. Usually didn't end well....

All about the $$$ - someone had junk to sell and I didn't know better. All I knew what I didn't like walking everywhere.

 

[concours]

First road bike at 16.
I'd been through four dirt bikes before.
Also, it was an adventure bike as well. Because keg parties were in the woods, or in the gravel pit.

 

[grandpaul]

Age 13 (1969), I got a 1957 Steyr-Daimeler-Puch 50cc Mo-Ped, with the 2-speed on the left twistgrip.

It had already been thrashed to hell by it's 250# owner, I took it to the 7th level of hell and pretty much threw it away.

I've owned 181 bikes since, Mostly Triumphs, but 21 Norton Commandos! (still have 2)

 

[Fast Eddie]

Assuming we’re talking road legal… my first was an epic Honda SS50. None of your girlie 2 stroke bollox for me.

The freedom that brought… amazing feeling!

At 17 I had a Tiger Cub which was way older than me. I’d built it out of bits myself. It made a proper noise, and felt like a rocket after the SS50. Another amazing feeling.

At 18 I had my first T140, it was less than a year old. I really was Billy Big Bollox now. I could go anywhere, fast, and I did. Another amazing feeling.

The rest, as they say, is history. But those ‘firsts’ were just amazing !

I REALLY think that kids today are missing out.

 

[lazyeye6]

1969 I was a 21 y/o college student and bought a 1966 Bonneville with TT pipes. It was very fast, very loud and I didn’t have a clue what
I was doing. In the 1st 3 weeks of owning it I received 3 speeding tickets. One cop who have me a ticket told me he could hear me accelerating
1/2 mile away. I sold it soon thereafter. After graduating I got a job and immediately went toa dealership and bought a new 1971 Yamaha RD350.
After 3 years I sold it to live in my VW van and travel the USA for a few months. Later I bought a used Kawasaki W1. I have owned or still own (3)
15 motorcycles in my life. My all around favorites are: 1974 Commando and 2020 Triumph Street Triple.

 

[ashman]

Well my Norton wasn't my first road going bike, in 1974 i left school at 15 and i was looking at a Honda ad in the morning paper for the Honda Elsinor range of dirt bikes , i just loved the shape of them, never rode a motorcycle in my life, i just got my first real job and a new Honda shop open in Sandgate my local shopping area,so in i went they had the full range of Elsinors on the floor from the MX to the road/dirt MTs, $300 for a new MT125 and i had enough money to buy it.
Steve the owner of the shop made a deal and a lesson to show me how to ride it and off we went, a 1hr lesson and i was off, i also got the bike rego although i was to young to ride on the road legal but that didn't stop me rode it to work everyday till i got caught lol, but it was ridden every week end in the bush land behind where i lived and could ger to the old WW2 rifle range where we rode our dirt bikes on the weekends.
Had a lot of fun but the 125 was a bit gutless and 1 year later i traded it up for a MT250 with a Pasco power pipe, now that was a lot better a bit more power, then 1 year later i traded it for a new Honda TL250 trials bike at 17 i got my bike licence on that bike, then my mate Don who had the 750 Commando/Featherbed came along who liked playing on my TL 250 we swapped bikes for the day and 2 weeks later i brought my new 74 850 Commando whict i still own but in the Featherbed frame.
To this day i still own a Honda dirt bike a CRF450X, man they have so much power than the old Elsenors, but looks like my dirt bike riding days are over, no more 5th gear wheel stands and huge power slides in the dirt for me, fu ck how one accident has changed things even at 67 years old and my bike riding days are a changing, time to play with my trains.

Ash

 

[trident sam]

View attachment 123226

First road bike at 16.
I'd been through four dirt bikes before.
Also, it was an adventure bike as well. Because keg parties were in the woods, or in the gravel pit.

Them 750 Yamahas have a dreadful reputation in the UK so are they as bad as all that or are they ok, I think I've only seen two or three in my life

 

[concours]

Them 750 Yamahas have a dreadful reputation in the UK so are they as bad as all that or are they ok, I think I've only seen two or three in my life

I owned two of them. The first one when I was 16, and the one pictured above, I bought at auction and restored it. They had serious mechanical design issues. After a while, they figured out the problems, but by the time they implemented the fixes in the field up to and including new engines in some,, the damage was done the reputation was horrible. the 1974 model year had all the fixes included, including the sump extension, but it was too late. People would not touch them.
Chassis was great handled very well, slim design. The front forks were the same as the TZ 750.

 

[ashman]

View attachment 123226

First road bike at 16.
I'd been through four dirt bikes before.
Also, it was an adventure bike as well. Because keg parties were in the woods, or in the gravel pit.

I got to confess a few weeks before buying my new Norton i brought one of these 750 Yammies for $500, what a bitch of a bike, the ES wouldn't engage, any moisture or rain took about 1/2 hour to kick it to life, was just a pig of a bike, had it for just over 2 weeks when a not so close mate took a liking to it and sold it to him for $700 and my dad garrentured me a loan of $1100 and the rest of my money i brought my new Commando, $1999 on the road, just about forgot about that Yammy, think it was a TX750 orange in colour.
Well i did make $200 extra money for the Norton, took me just on 11 months to pay off my first loan, wages them days wss about $60 a week.

Ash

 

[concours]

I got to confess a few weeks before buying my new Norton i brought one of these 750 Yammies for $500, what a bitch of a bike, the ES wouldn't engage, any moisture or rain took about 1/2 hour to kick it to life, was just a pig of a bike, had it for just over 2 weeks when a not so close mate took a liking to it and sold it to him for $700 and my dad garrentured me a loan of $1100 and the rest of my money i brought my new Commando, $1999 on the road, just about forgot about that Yammy, think it was a TX750 orange in colour.
Well i did make $200 extra money for the Norton, took me just on 11 months to pay off my first loan, wages them days wss about $60 a week.

Ash

Yup, the starter sprague was not robust enough to handle the two cylinder engine. They would slip and immediately score up the surfaces, and then the ship was lost as they would no longer grip the parts that the Sprague worked against were expensive so the answer was to just not use the electric starter. I never had any trouble kickstarting mine. Those twin Solex Mikuni CV carbs would start right up every time. the ignition points were mounted on the opposite end of a shaft that had the oil pump, that seal would leak and push oil onto the points so week spark with likely the problem you had.

 

[ashman]

Didn't have it long enough to worry about it, found a sucker to take it off my hands and made money on top of it.

 

[Britbike850]

My second bike…
First bike 74’ 850 …had it 1 week and a drunk woman with 2 children in her station wagon ran a stop sign…total loss and a hospital visit

A few years later…road her for about 6yrs… sold and found again years later

 

[ashman]

My second bike…
First bike 74’ 850 …had it 1 week and a drunk woman with 2 children in her station wagon ran a stop sign…total loss and a hospital visit

A few years later…road her for about 6yrs… sold and found again years later

So is that how you found it in the pic or was that your work.

 

[MikeG]

My CB160 as I said seemed pretty fast to me. My buddy had an Atlas Norton and could outrun me 8 times over, but I tried....Honda put the key switch on the left hand side of the steering neck and one day he cruised up next to me, reached over and shut my bike off and scooted off mith my key. No way was I winning that one.