How long you been riding?

[Gixxer]

Ha ZXR your crazy flat mate isn't supa dave is it?

been riding road since i was 15. GN 250, jawa, xr 250, zxr 250, cbr 600 and the trusty gixxer 750.

[Skunk]

I started riding about seven years ago when my girlfriend got me into it. She didn't like pillion who cramp her style.

First bike ZXR250, then a ZXR400, ZX6R and now ZRX1100 and DR250.

[Pickle]

Since I was about 12 years old on mates farm bikes which seems like a bloody long time ago.

[750Y]

Age 7 50's BSA Bantam, 70's kawasaki ?175 trailbike, 70's honda cb?90 stepthrough farmbike,80's suzuki TS125, 87 Honda VT250,98 kawasaki zx6r, 99 yamaha R6, 86 suzuki gsxr750,2000 gsxr750, 91 gsxr400. had 20 odd cars too. i don't care much about the whole cage vs bike thing, it's not that precious to me.

[Motu]

I started riding in 1970 on a BSA Bantam,which makes 33 years eh.Done just about everything on a bike - done the head down arse up,feet forward hands up,put on a 3rd wheel for extra fun,where the seal ends is my home.

Very early in the piece I started to set my road bikes up as dirt bikes - dirt bars,knobs etc,this was for gravel roads and going into places we weren't really supposed to go.I had a Rickman Metise as my road bike for many years,and these days my road bikes are an XLV 750 and an XT400.These days it's trendy and big money,but the back roads are where I prefer to ride.

[PZR]

Got my licience at 15 on my mates 350S2A and had no idea back then how quick they were for their day. Rode and owned various bikes for a few years and switched to V8's then 4WD then family cars, then got back into bikes (22 years later) two years ago so I'm a Born Again (Praise the Bike Lord and Pass Me My Helmet) Hellaluya!!!!!
Just love it and cannot get enough, so much that Im doing this at work in work time. Obsessed I hear you say. Damn Right and loving it. Gotta have some fun in life
Love being able to overtake the traffic at will but I will always have a 4 wheel machine of some sort as I enjoy them as well

[boris]

1st bike was a deltex rock hopper age of 8 year old,i have three older bros.then i had 1952 bsa bantam 125,1947 bsa b31 350, suziki pe175t ,kawa kdx250,yamaha rz250z,rd250 ,cbx550,gsx550,honda gb500,honda cb650 cop bike ,xr200r, sv650s.

the best bike was my Honda GB500,worst was the gsx550.   

I commuted 50+km to work each morning,then 60+km home each nite.starting  with the rz250z good piecock hill road bike,  

25 years if you count the deltex rock hopper.

[What?]

I started on a farm bike (Yam) at about 8 years old, which must have been about 1970. Started road riding a few years later and got my license a while after that. I'm nog good at maths, so you'll have to figure the numbers out.

[merv]

I've been riding for 34 years. Got my licence using my bro's Zundapp 50cc moped. Moved on into dirt bikes riding trials, Scott trials and scrambles (as it was known before MX) while still at school. Went to Uni and didn't do much competition then except for a few outings, but did a lot of trail riding in the South Island. Bought my first car 30 years ago and treated the bikes as toys from then on as they never met my needs for commuting having to wear the gear etc and really I saw that such riding was really wearing the bikes out unneccessarily knobbly tyres and all. I treated my cars a bit like my bikes and loved going bush in them. Ive since got a 4x4 and find most people think that you need a 4x4 to go places where we went in our cars back in the 70's. After I finished Uni I did enduro competition for a few years to give that a try (it didn't exist before I went to Uni) and then after the 84 season let my competition licence lapse. Have done non-competitve trail and adventure rides since and bought the road bike in 1994 to add that to my fun. I have kept riding all through the years but I only do it when I want to as I have too many other things to do including 4x4 stuff. My road and adventure ride photos are on my website http://bikemerv.topcities.com but after changing hosts I never got round to loading the trail and other stuff back up.

[Motoracer]

Been riding since I was 12 so thats 7 years total with some gap in the middle where I had my boy racer years.

[GPz]

started riding by 'borrowing the old man's commuter when i was 10. Then on to a CZ175 at 15, over 20 years ago. Then the following in chronological order

IT250H

YZ125K

2 x KH400 S3

XL250

another IT250H

GB400

and presently 1984 GPz1100-A2

and ZX12R-A1

 

although a think i might have forgotten a few in between.

 

[riffer]

I was born in 1967, which makes me nearly 37.

My brother and I built a minibike from an old ride on lawnmower engine back in 1979 when I was twelve. I hope that counts.

From then it was dad's Vespa's when I was 14, then a GP125 when I was 16.

A brief bout of craziness at 17 with an IT400 trail bike with a worn out clutch which did great wheelies.

Followed that at 18 with a Honda CB350 twin with the handlebars turned upside down so they looked like clip-ons (did anyone else do stupid things like that, or was it just me?)

That bike lasted me for two years and then it was a fully rebuilt KZ400 rescued from a shed with only 7,000kms on the clock. My dad's friend was a tutor of motorcycle mechanics at Hutt Polytechnic and as a project they completely restored the bike back to original nick including polishing the motor

I'm sorry to say that at 22 I met my ex who completely banned ownership of bikes. So I was limited to riding OP's - this went on for twelve years until the inevitable split (don't ask me to get into that!)

Anyway, I'mn now happily married, she loves motorbikes and encouraged me to get one when we bought the new place in Upper Hutt (all her family either ride bikes, drive v8's or both) and I've been the happy owner of my FZR750 for four whole weeks now!

So I guess thats nearly 25 years!

My two boys (3 & 4) are now bugging me for their first bikes!

[duckman]

Bin riding for ....er.....about 10 years

First bike was a VT250 (limited edition - Twin disks) very cool
bought a Honda CMX250 - Cruisy fun
Yamaha FZR250 - Nice but too quiet
Honda VFR400 - Ex courier bike (oh ma god)
Honda RS125 - Spot of GP racing

and my current pride and joy.......

2000 Ducati 750 SS ....oh the sound of happiness

[matthewt]

Been riding since I was 15 (with 4 years off while on my OE). Used to be a car freak until I rode a er100 (suzuki 2 stroke dirt bike) in the car park of the supermarket where I worked after school. Then my plans went from holden to honda

gt185
rg250
vfr400
fzr400sp
cbr900
mv agusta f4

[Lou Girardin]

Car licence at 15, bike licence at 16. 36years driving/riding. 1st bike was a '57 Triumph T/Bird. Then T250, T500, various MOT bikes, XJ750, GPZ750, KL250, KL650. Then a break till last year when I bought the RF.
Always been a faster car driver than bike rider, but who can drive fast around Auck these days? Bikes rule!
Lou