The bike that hooked me! What bike hooked you?

Really great pics and stories guys, like I said... everyone has a hook.. Keep them coming.

trianglelaguna wrote: yamaha xs 650 no tags..18 and summer time....yukon jack snake bites,,,,shitty acid...big doobies....cliff diving after crossing creeks and back roads to get way back country....going through 150 ft sections 12" deep in water and hearing the ohc 650 burbbling away cant dare crash on the slippery stones cause the matches would get wet...cliff dive for hours..back through all the creeks and caynons..one minute doing trials @ 3mph...next pegged eating flies doing 100 to catch the others..water flying everywhere...dirt roads..later....riding home on the xs 650 in hi tops and ocean pacific short,shorts ...no shirt... no socks ...no helmet....no gloves.....chasing a Z-1 on the old yami and watching summers last shadows stretch the bike across the fields.....freezing wet and tripping your ass off....never more alive

Funniest damn thing I have read in awhile. I don't know if its the tripping, or the fact that I can TOTALLY relate!! My first street bike was a XS400 and I test drove and learned to ride that thing in a cow pasture down a dirt road. "freezing wet and tripping your ass off" haha.. just damn funny!!

wish I had some pic's to share. this thread got me to thinkin I think it was around 1970 my uncle just got back from vietnam and pulled into the driveway on a BSA he was the coolest thing a 7 year old could imagine. When he hoisted me up and took me around the block I am pretty sure that was the original Hook.

The Picture that racer54 posted brought some memories back. That was the first Motorized Bike I rode. Back in the 60's there were to Girls living next door, they had a Westy VW and a red one of those 50's. they took me along once to ride that. What a blast!! pretty sure those Girls were more than Friends

Motor Head and Racer,
I had the same bike (or near it) 1970 Mini Trail. I was 6. After destroying that one, I got a 78 Z50 (it had rear suspension!!), and I still got it. Actually taught my wife to ride starting on it. Problem is she would make a trip around the yard once and had to make a pit stop for me to pump the tires back up

Not too long ago I looked up performance parts for the little guy... they have alot of stuff! You can get whole new head/cylinders to bump it to an 80cc or something, plus you can get new performance carbs and everything. A guy can spend alot of cash on these little things. built like a brick $hithouse though. If I dare did any of the things to my KZ or Shadow that had happen to my 50's when I was little I'd be shopping for a new bike!

Suzuki 50.. Biggest POS on the planet but it was mine and I rode the piss out of that little bike...

Nice helmet aye... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

mine was a 74 Honda ct70. my brother won it in a local radio station call in contest.
the rest is history. we rode that thing as hard as we could. what a blast. i would stay out late with my other biker pals riding in the fields.i can still hear my mom say"u smell like burnt rope" :evil: :whistle: :blink: .
Then i bought my firts bike in 76. a 74 cb750. had a lot of fun with that 1 too.

googled these pics

I never even rode the bike that hooked me. And I never did eventually buy one either.
It was just one I saw.
About 1965-66, me, my mom and my brother were driving the Vista Cruiser out to San Francisco from St Louis to pick up my dad from his first tour in Viet Nam.
We were on this really long stretch of highway out in some desert and I was in the back looking out the window at all the sand. I was really hot. I remember the hot wind blowing through the windows, the sun beating down through the top window, and axiously waiting for our next stop so we could get a cold soda. We were following behind a motorcycle for a while and my mom decided to go ahead and pass him. As we slowly rode past him I got a good look at the dude and his bike. Your quintesential Hells Angel type. Long scraggley beard and hair,tattoos on his arms, chain on his wallet, big black boots, noisy bike etc.
Well this dude looked right at me and gave me the old one finger salute. At the time, at my tender age and innocence, I'd never seen that sign before. For all I knew, it was just like my Cub Scout salute. SOOooo...I returned the sign right back to him.
My mom saw me send him that bird and she about shit her pants while she screamed at me, "STOP THAT!!! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED"??!???! I remember seeing her horrified eyes through the rear view mirror.
It was at that exact moment that I knew, hit me square in the face, someday I will ride a motorcycle. It scared my mom, and I thought, "Oh yeah...".
My last glimpse of that dude as we rapidly accelerated away was him laughing his ass off. :laugh:

The first bike I paid for is the first bike I loved. I got it sight unseen when I was in bootcamp in FL. My dad found it in a wrecking yard with a bent front end. I got it for 500 bucks in 1984.

I started on a 1972? CB125S, went through a few CB350s, but it's when I heard a Kawasaki Z1 at high school that I was hooked.




My buddeies Z1 sounded awesome.
It reminded me of an F1 race car, the sound of the engine going through the gears.
A year or so later, someone I'd known since kindergarden was selling his KZ650, which had a Yosh pipe and reminded me so much of the Z1.
Bought it, pushing her home and hooked ever since.

Early '80s:



Not long ago:

I started on a 250cc cruiser, and you could say that is what got me hooked, but what it did was got me wanting more.


Once the KZ showed up, the 250 went up for sale. I wanted something bigger, taller, with more cornering clearance, and the KZ650 gave me that. My KZ650 did have a wonderful impact on me, but alas, it was not the one that got me hooked for life either. I think it had more of an impact looking back then I thought at the time.



My 1984 VF700F was the one. It was possibly the perfect bike for me, and I'm still sad I sold it to my friend when I got a 1994 VFR750. I should have kept the 84, it had soul. It was comfortable, powerful, sounded amazing, and it managed what many later bikes have not: it had character. It was the first bike to get me stuck (fuel pump went out, and I got stuck in a ditch when I took it to the shoulder), it was my first carb cleaning experience, and it was also my first real motorcycle love. The only one I've been drawn to as much was my Ducati, but she was a sadist. I prefer the ergonomics of the VF.


Maybe one day I'll have another. Maybe a first gen VFR if I can find one.