Re: What got you started

Posted by rich on
URL: http://vintage-and-classic-hondas.81.s1.nabble.com/What-got-you-started-tp3554007p3560639.html

My father was in the Air Force and we moved to Spain when I was 12. We lived there 5 years. I had several mopeds. Teens could ride anything 50CCs and under as long as it had pedals! (no registration, insurance or license). Here are a couple that I could find pictures of. These aren't mine but similar to ones I had:

This is a Derbi 50.


This was my favorite. A Puch mini-cross. It was a full size MX bike with a 50CC 2 stroke. It was a great bike. I had many a great ride on it.
 



Another kid brought over a Yamaha 80 and I bought it off him when he returned to the states. It was fast but actually smaller than the Puch. I tried to take the engine out and put it the Puch, but that didn't work out.



Since then, I've always had an affinity to small displacement two strokes and Yamahas.

I got a 175 enduro when we returned to the states in 1976. I traded it for a CB-350 about a year later.


I sold the Honda and bought my first car and that was the end of bikes for me for a couple of years. I joined the Coast Guard in 1979. In 1980 I was stationed in San Diego and started to get back into bikes. I picked up a lot of nice old bikes there.  As before, I started with small bore two strokes and worked my way back to a 4 strokes:

First, a 125 twin:


Then a 350:


My last Yamaha was a SR-500:


I traded the SR-500 in on a brand new Honda CX-500 in 1983 as a present to myself. I paid of the balance with my reenlistment bonus.


Things went downhill from here (bike wise). I got married not long after getting the CX-500. My spouse-to-be had two kids so I sold my bike and 4X4 pickup and bought a station-wagon and headed for recruiting duty in Salt Lake City.

I did manage to have a couple of bikes there, a Kawasaki 250 single and 1979 CB 750. I took the 750 with me when we got transferred Long Beach in 1987 but ended up selling it (needed money - LA was a heck of a lot more expensive than Salt Lake City, plus I added two more kids to feed). So I was bike-less for the next 20 years.  Unit I got - wait for it - another small bore two stroke!


It was off-road only and I wanted to ride the roads again. So I got this little enduro to get my license with and to take a MSF course with:


Last summer I got my 2nd 1979 CB750.