What was your first street bike?

Ninja 300, had 0 experience except the RTI course. First time I ever rode on the street was when I rode my 300 home.

Put about 7500 kms on it over the next few months then replaced it with a gixxer cause I wanted somethign faster.

The 300 is an ideal first bike, it has just the right amount of power for a newb in my opinion.
 
First I must say I did not buy this from new.
I bought this when I was just old enough to ride. 1953 Truimph 500 5T. Rode it at the, then old ACE Café. London.
Bought for 10 Pounds.
Completely stripped it down as it was really a piece of junk. 3 school friends of mine worked on it more as a project. Boy, where we ever green. Even got it to run. Rode it, learnt from it, then it caught fire with me and a friend sitting on it. Turned round to talk to him and he bailed. Dropped the bike, which then was completely on fire.
What an experience. My calves hurt forever from the kickstart backfiring on me.
What fun though.
 
Ninja 250. Wanted to start on a sv650 or ninja 650 but being >25 yrs old, the insurance prices made me choose the 250. It was either that or nothing. Don't regret one bit as it was an excellent bike to start on.
 
Inherited, for a small donation, my older brothers' POS Triumph Bonneville 650. It was a 1971 I believe. Rode it with the uninsured motor vehicle fee "insurance". Lots of cheap silliness.
 
2003 gsxr 600.

No previous experience.

Beat the hell out of it.
Great first bike. Wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

3271363.1435850395.jpg
 
cycling said:
First I must say I did not buy this from new.
I bought this when I was just old enough to ride. 1953 Truimph 500 5T. Rode it at the, then old ACE Café. London.
Bought for 10 Pounds.
Completely stripped it down as it was really a piece of junk. 3 school friends of mine worked on it more as a project. Boy, where we ever green. Even got it to run. Rode it, learnt from it, then it caught fire with me and a friend sitting on it. Turned round to talk to him and he bailed. Dropped the bike, which then was completely on fire.
What an experience. My calves hurt forever from the kickstart backfiring on me.
What fun though.
Click to expand...

Made me laugh!
 
First legal street bike. 1971 Honda CB350.
I had ridden motocross for 10 years before that.
Sold the 350 cause I bought a 1972 CB360.
Sold it because I bought a 1978 SR500

The list goes on.
 
My first street bike was a 1979 Honda XL250S.I rode in trials competitions for about 6 years before getting out and using the Honda to commute from Milton to Brampton yr round.Rode it for 2 yrs without an M license and then got pulled over for a 10 over and the cop told me to get my M.I was on my way to the Copetown MX and told him to drop by and i could get him in no charge.It worked.
I had the Honda for about 8 years and did everything on it.It is now on a farm near Binbrook,and still runs great i'm told.
Dual sports make great beginner bikes for a lot of reasons.
 
250R and still have it, as everyone knows, it's an awesome bike to start on.

I still love it too much to trade it for something faster.
But I know I'll eventually have to.
 
-2001 GSXR 1000 (not stock)
-no street experience at all, motocross for roughly 20 yrs
-Still riding it to date
-everyone's different with learning and adapting.....would not recommend it (for obvious reasons) , however I made it through the learning part with no issues (had a few sphinkter puckers that held me to the seat) lol. Whatever you choose as your first bike just respect it and be familiar with its and your limits and skill.....update with your choice and experiences. Enjoy ;)
 
1984 interceptor 500. Rode it for one god awful summer then went to a zx7r. Not a bad first bike but the power did nothing for me and I got bored quickly. Rode dirt bikes (80cc - 250cc) before that for 10 years

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
 
1999 GSX-R 600 SRAD...beauty!
Lots of MX, but no non-knobby tired riding experience.
Rode it for 2 years, then upgraded to a 2009 GSX-R 600....amazing how much changes over a decade! lol
Great first bike. Bit heavy, but great power, cheap to run, bulletproof motor. I actually miss the ol' girl...
 
1979 Honda Hawk 400. It was an OK starter bike for the time... except there was no electric start! Most times it would fire up on the first kick, but if it was rainy it would get finicky... What a pain in the a@# that was. But hey, it was cheap and it was all I could afford at the time. Went to a 1981 Honda CB750F a year later.

I rode a Yamaha YZ80 for the 2 years previous to that. What a ridiculous amount of fun dirt bikes are, still amazed I ever survived some of the amazingly stupid things I would do on that thing :p
 
Nice thread, brings back lots of memories. I bought my 1979 Yamaha XS 650 Special in the fall of 1982 and rode it to Key West Florida with only 2 weeks riding experience. Spent the winter and returned to Toronto where I met a pretty young blonde who now sits on the passenger seat of bike three. Great life! To those who don't ride - go for it! No excuses. I tell my kids to do whatever they want in life, even if I disagree, I'll get over it, as it is their life to enjoy. We recently came home from a trip to find my older son now has blue hair.
MybikeinFlorida1982wPalm_zpsf32bc8eb.jpg
meonbike2011_zps20be24cc.jpg
 
Last edited:
SeaBreez said:
Nice thread, brings back lots of memories. I bought my 1979 Yamaha XS 650 Special in the fall of 1983 and rode it to Key West Florida with only 2 weeks riding experience. Spent the winter and returned to Toronto where I met a pretty young blonde who now sits on the passenger seat of bike three. Great life! To those who don't ride - go for it! No excuses. I tell my kids to do whatever they want in life, even if I disagree, I'll get over it, as it is their life to enjoy. We recently came home from a trip to find my older son now has blue hair.
MybikeinFlorida1982wPalm_zpsf32bc8eb.jpg
meonbike2011_zps20be24cc.jpg
Click to expand...

This'd be super cool if that was the same spot as pic 1.
 
1980 Suzuki GS750E, which I rode for three years and put about 40,000 km on it.Took the MSF course in 2002, bought the GS shortly after that.

I had some dirt riding experience as a kid in the 70's.
 
What was your first street bike?
'89 XV535

How much riding experience did you have before acquiring that bike?
Some dirt

How long did you ride it for/why are you no longer riding it?
3 years (and many many many km's) kept grinding the pegs off and that was annoying

Do you feel it was a good first bike? Please explain.
yes. shaft drive. easy to ride. handled not bad. shorter range was annoying.
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