How did you get your first bike?

**DunerzNick** · 11th May 2009, 13:57

Picked up a very cheap vtr 250 at Honda Otago's liquidation sale last week (1st bike)

**FROSTY:Me** · 11th May 2009, 13:59

My very first bike I literally pulled out of a big thicket hedge out the back of the pub my mum and dad owned.
Legend has it that one of the local characters before we bought the pub used to turn up on it on payday. Then drink basicly all weekend. His way of deciding if he was er "lubed up" enough or too much was his ability or inability to kick the bike into life.
Clearly one night it all got too much for him and he launched the bike off the road and well deep into the hedge.
I hauled it out with it looking pretty sorry for itself. Then with some help from my dad stripped it down and got it going.
It was a green c50 honda -3 speed semi auto gearbox --I was 10 years old.

**Big Dave** · 11th May 2009, 14:02

Grandfather was Senior Engineer at Port Kembla NSW Steelworks.
Had the apprentices fabricate me a 2 stroke rigid mini bike in 1962.
All I remember is burning myself on the exhaust.
Been riding pretty much since.

Bought my first road bike with my own money. Worked weekends as a Copy Boy at the Sydney Morning Harold all through High School. I still jump when someone yells "'BOY!"

But I had an EH Holden and a CB450 in Sixth Form, bought and paid for. OK, my Old man helped a bit on the car.

**glice** · 11th May 2009, 14:57

Got a job and save up. Then bought a 74 cb200, 2 years ago.

**Blackshear** · 11th May 2009, 15:09

First road bike?
Saved for like a year, after a DH MTB, stereo, computer, iPod and better headphones etc. 4k, first bike I test rode. Still got it and only lowsided on a big twig in the middle of a roundabout so far.

First ever bike when I was about 7, PW50 before I even learned to ride a pushie.
Then an XR80... KDX200... CR250...

THEN BOBBIE

**sil3nt** · 11th May 2009, 15:20

Had the opportunity to head off to China with the Muay Thai club in February for a month so i also took the opportunity to get out of my crappy supermarket job and got paid out over 200 hours of annual leave which i spent 2/3 of it on my little ninja 250. Only problem now is i havent been able to find a job for the last 2 months

**cave weta** · 11th May 2009, 15:25

Originally Posted by DunerzNick

Picked up a very cheap vtr 250 at Honda Otago's liquidation sale last week (1st bike)

Hey!- well done and welcome to KB

**cave weta** · 11th May 2009, 15:29

Originally Posted by glice

Got a job and save up. Then bought a 74 cb200, 2 years ago.

OMG! I had one too! in the 70s when they gave cars glue on vinyl roofs- honda gay-ve the CB200 a vinyl strip down the petrol tank..... Styley eh!

**Edbear** · 11th May 2009, 15:35

Originally Posted by yod

I sold my 1974 Capri and bought a 1987 NS250R - fookin minta it was too, til i biffed it down the side of the road at Little River five days later

I was reading your sig. How can you be so sure..?

**cave weta** · 11th May 2009, 15:36

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Grandfather was Senior Engineer at Port Kembla NSW Steelworks.
Had the apprentices fabricate me a 2 stroke rigid mini bike in 1962.
All I remember is burning myself on the exhaust.
Been riding pretty much since.

Bought my first road bike with my own money. Worked weekends as a Copy Boy at the Sydney Morning Harold all through High School. I still jump when someone yells "'BOY!"

But I had an EH Holden and a CB450 in Sixth Form, bought and paid for. OK, my Old man helped a bit on the car.

1962!....EH Holden.... CBfourfifty!!!! (shudder) man you are so old!!!

I rode a four fifty- they were DOHC eh? - it had less power than my stolen Kawasaki 100.

The Kwaka, just to clarify... was stolen regularly from my elder brother while he was at work. Then returned carefully after riding it round and round the house! I havent stolen one since about 1976.

**SPman** · 11th May 2009, 15:58

Left school, got a job at the Burroughs decimal conversion plant in Khyber Pass Rd and 5 months later walked down to Whites Yamaha in Newmarket and bought a new Yamaha L1 100cc twin. Got my licence a couple of months later.......
(things were easier way back then.....)

**MarkH** · 11th May 2009, 16:01

Originally Posted by megageoff76

X7

My first bike was a Suzuki GT250X7 - I worked during the school holidays to earn the money. I think it was advertised in the paper. It was a pretty good bike after some work was done (needed new rings & pistons). Very light and good 2 stroke power, the acceleration was pretty darned good.

**slofox** · 11th May 2009, 16:05

Bought it. Out of the paper. for $100, in 1968. To get to and from lectures at U of Canterbunny. 'twas a 1953 Ariel 350cc "Red Hunter". Except that it was black (and rust actually now that I think about it...). The clutch cable broke 50 metres up the road after I picked it up. The primary case was filled with grease, not oil. If you even thought about using the back brake, the rear wheel locked up and slid all over the road.
But it all got fixed. Eventually. Travelled many miles on that great hefty heap of solid iron. It NEVER stopped running ever...and I learned all about what goes on inside one of them infernal combustyergution engine thingummies as well. Oh and what is inside a gearbox, too...the hard way in every case...eventually sold it for about what I paid for it.

**smoky** · 11th May 2009, 16:25

Back about 1979/80 I bought a 73/4 CB250 that had T boned a car, and had a stuffed motor, it was sitting in a shed on a farm, Cost me $25 - paid for by a paper run and part time job I had after school

Used the pipe from an old push bike frame from the dump, and the gas set from a friends dads shed to repair the frame and change the steering head angle to turn it into a chopper sort of frame.
Got a set of forks from a XL250 dirt bike (if I remember correctly, could've been a CR) - cost me 3 days hey making on the guys farm.
Took a while but I saved up $150 for a CB400 motor and re-powered it

I bought an old Honda Scambler 250 - about a 1960 something, cost $30, it was stuffed, but used the front wheel, guard, front light and speedo, the handle bars were higher and longer - I twisted the handle bars a bit in the vice to give it a nice angle.
Shortened the seat to a single saddle, a bit rough but nothing a staple gun couldn't fix.

It sounded neat - painted all black with out badges, I thought it was cool at the time
I think I spent about $400 all up - rode it everywhere for a couple of years, I don't think I ever registered it or WOF.
Never got pulled over either
Went pretty quick, didn't handle well