Show us your biking history in pics

First topic message reminder :

Here's mine.

Started off with a 125 like this one (except mine was black) Slow and seriously uncool, but my first pair of wheels so it was cool to me.




Passed my test and moved on to a heady 33bhp in the form of this:-




2 years probation over and the sportsbike world was my oyster! So I chose this:-




Made the mistake of watching Long Way Round once to often, so this joined the stable for a while:-




Which was replaced with a newer version:-




But I didn't like the colour so it got converted to this:-




Still love the beemer, fantastic all round bike, but when this came up for sale I couldn't resist:-




Job permitting, intending to keep both for another summer of fun......!


What's your story?

hey dont diss the socks

From memory,first bike a suzuki gs750,then a superdream,then my minds a bit hazy. But ive had cb125 twin,cb125s,cb400-4,cb550f,2 cb750's,cb900,xl125 and probably more honda's ive forgotten about. Z250scorpion,z440,z550ltd,z650,z1000st,z1000j,z1000r,2 gpz11B1's,3 gpz750zx's,gt550 shaftie,xs250,fj1200,tzr50,zxr750,yamaha thundercat( ),3 gsx1100efe's,600 blandit......and im sure there was more...... Even at the moment ive about 10 bikes in my name on the V5's. Where will it all end!!

Started off with one of these:



Moved on to one these because I found myself to be too big for the RS125:



Now got one of these:



(Not a photo of my bike, though once I can be bothered to trek downstairs and get one, ill replace it.)

here are some of mine, theres at least one bike missing, but it wasnt strictly mine , it was one i used to steal off an old boyfriend....please dont laugh at all the mopeds


oh and just to clarify, i lived in spain where helmets werent compulsory.. wouldnt dream of riding without one now

my now 17 year old daughter and her friend... no wonder im getting hassled to buy her one

and again lol


theres one missing here , a 125
then a long gap....
thn

well i started of at the age of 6 riding a honda cub 90 on the salt lakes in cyprus, then at 16 i got a suzuki zillion 50cc moped which i had for 7 months until a taxi cut me up and put me into a traffic island bending my forks out of shape, i then traided that for an A reg HONDA CB 125cc superdream , nice little bike in purple, but some one decided to take a baseball bat to it :( , i was 17 then , got my full licence at 18 (18 bday pressi from my missis and parents ) but was skint so waited till i was 19 and brought a kawasaki gpz 500s

cost me £240 with a years tax and mot, it got stolen 11 months into my ownership

after 5 months of using busses , i saved enouth to buy my baby ( cat )


and thats my biking history

heres my bikes .
started off with lambrettas,li 150,sx200,sx150 and various lammys.
BSA Bantam 175,
once I hit 21 yrs I bought my 1st proper bike a Suzuki T350 rebel.
then this....

bought a Norton domi for a work bike.sold and bought cars there after..
15 years later
bought this to get me back into biking...


before...

after..


bought this after a couple of months lay off to decided whether to continue biking.heap of shyte couldn't pull a skin off a rice pudding..

bought this Vt500 kept it for 4 years took me every where and never let me down once..

then got offered this....
again kept this for 4.5 years..

and bought this ,my 1st brand new bike...

I've had several other scooters/bikes in between.
my last being an er6f and my cat

Wow, lots of long and varied bike histories! I didn't get into bikes until I was well into my twenties so mine isn't quite as long as others



My first bike was a little 125 Suzuki VanVan - and as daft as they look, I still maintain they're the best first bike ever. These things are amazing, and indestructible to boot. I did my CBT on one and fell in love with it, and bought mine the next weekend. I had it for ages, and we even took a bunch of them to France for a weekend. Not very far into France, obviously, but still a giggle and a half!



After about a year I decided to take my full test, and after a week of riding around Swindon on a learner-school ER5 I jumped straight into the deep end and bought a Triumph Sprint ST. Compared to the VanVan (and even in comparison to the Thundercat), the Sprint was a rocket launcher on wheels. The 955cc triple had a ri-god-damn-diculous amount of oomph, and it was ludicrously comfortable even at speed. The photo is of my sister and I during a fantastic day of riding around the Cotswolds on our two Triumphs, the Sprint and her Bonneville. Sadly I didn't have it all that long before it got embedded into the side of a Peugeot 206, and it was an insurance write-off.



And that brings me on to the Thundercat! I've had the old girl for about three and a half years now, and she's seen it all - from "spirited" rideouts, to fully loaded camping tours, to 400-mile-a-week all weather commuting. While the Sprint quick, it was an enormous beast of a bike which didn't really like threading through traffic but the 'Cat is the best of all worlds - agile enough to nip through the traffic jams, comfy enough to ride all day, sporty enough to enjoy a sunday afternoon thrash and yet practical enough to strap a 30kg tent and a week's clothes to the pillion seat and ride up to Snowdonia

As for what's next... I have no idea. When I bought it I figured I'd probably get bored of the 'Cat after a couple of years, but I'm genuinely still in love with it as much as when I first bought it. Maybe if I ever end up commuting again I'll buy a big tourer for the commute, but even then I think I might keep the 'Cat for sunday best...

http://www.bikepics.com/members/ian505050/

Just been watching top gear and the segment they do with a star in a crap car. When they were going on about the celebrity's car history it got me to thinking about my own bike history. I've had a couple of bikes now. Some good others not so much. Just thought I'd share and see what you guys have had in the past that's led up to your current bike.

So I started with an Aprilia rs50 in my teens. That was my first geared bike and was how I learned to ride. From there I took a monumental leap to an Rs250. That bike certainly showed me who was boss and if I'd known what it'd be worth today I would have never gotten rid haha
I then swapped that for a Honda vfr400. Another little pocket rocket but by this stage in my life I'd gotten into bodybuilding and at 6ft2 and around 16stone i started to look like gorilla riding a child's balance bike. So that had to go and I quit biking for a few years while I moved back to England and learnted to drive a cage.
Then around 3 years ago my brother got a Chinese enduro styled bike and after a few goes on that it sparked my interest again. I decided to do things all legal eagle this time and do my cbt and stick to a 125. I bought a Chinese lexmoto thing and to be honest it wasn't that bad. Did me well enough to pass my test and only lost a few hundred quid on it in the year I owned it.
Then a week after I passed my test I bought the cat. I'm sure it won't be my last bike but in my eyes it will always be my first proper 'big' bike

Honda CD175 was my first bike I started riding on my 17th Birthday in 78 passed test in 79 and got a Yamaha RD 250D realizing that a 2 stroke is not up to touring after 1 rebore 3 sets of new rings and about 6 sets of small end bearings in a year decided to upgrade to a Honda CX500 which not the best looking bike in the world was perfect for the amount of mileage 14,000 in ten months.
Then got married so all that slowed down and when kids came along couldn't afford both bike and car and kids plus MRS don't fit on bike so it had to go. 1986 got made redundant and couldn't afford car so for a short time got an old Honda CB200 for a short while until got a better job and along came another car.
That was it until a few years ago when my youngest son started to ride bikes starting with a Chinese copy of CG125 then Aprillia RS125 and Cagiva Mito all of which on was on the insurance of and got the bug again and got a Yamaha 1993 XJ600 Diversion had that for about a year sold that to a mate for transport while he rebuilds his Fireblade. Then along came the current Cat.

I've had quite a few oddballs since I was bitten by the biking bug.

My first bike was a 50cc Garelli Rekord, even though it was fashionable at that time to be riding a Gilera, preferably the enduro/trail version.



Remember the bicycle pedals that had to be fitted to comply with the law? I revved the nuts off the engine so many times that the crank eventually broke.

Traded the broken Garelli in for a Harley Davidson SXT 125.

Wrong choice, it was all show and no go and not really suited to off-road riding due to very little power low down in the rev' range. Should have taken my friends advice and bought a Yamaha DT 175MX.





After the Harley came a Beta 125 Enduro, Suzuki 250 X7, Bultaco Sherpa 175, Maico 440MX which I got registered for daytime road use (no lights), Honda 550 four with a nice loud Dunstall 4 into 1 exhaust fitted, Yamaha DT 250MX, Yamaha RD 400, Kawasaki ZX10 (the early one), Yamaha XS 1100 shaft drive, Honda CX 500 and a few others in between all of the above.

...another I nearly forgot, a Triumph Daytona 1000 which got stolen. I really liked that bike and it was a sad day when it was nicked.

Here's a pic of it when I visited the Hinckley factory, and one while having a rest break in the country.











The first three pic's at the beginning were taken from the 'net, but the rest are my own. Sadly I never bothered to keep a record of all my bikes using a camera.

Wow as if harley made a 125!! That's brilliant haha

Cheers Stevecat I never realised that topic existed or I would have added to that. Suppose I best get back to the pic at some point and sort some pics now haha

No problems, don't blame you - it was burried, might see if we can make it a sticky.
I've got to update my list, it currently 1 bike out of date but in a few weeks it'll be 2 bikes out of date

Ooo lucky for some. I promised the missus I'd have the cat at least 2 years before I bought another bike. Which is killing me as I've got the space for another and there's been some right bargains over the winter...... but gotta keep her indoors happy. You know how it is haha

A little update, doesn't include them all and not necessarily in the right order as I have had the fortune to own a few at once sometimes and don't have pics of them all.

My friend and I sometimes buy bikes to do up and sell or to split and ebay, I have missed out the GSX750F, ER6 (both little belters in their own rights) and the Triumph Sprint RS (currently have the Triumph).

Old Faithlessful, the bike that started it all, my first and I still have it in the form of a rotting jigsaw in the garage

The 2001 Cat



Then the 929 Blade (GORGEOUS BIKE)


Now the 1997 BlackBird (Or ICBM as some mates call it.. InterContinental Ballistic Missle. Still got this but needs tyres and I'm skint



CBR400




Ducati 748 Dark (the sexiest most uncomfortable hunk of crap I have ever sat on, I will NEVER have another one of these unless it is to hang on a wall and just look at, I rode it across a car park and back and sold it. I was so disappointed with this Horrible, HORRIBLE thing, took us 18 months to get around to finishing this and I was desperate to get on it, and when I did, my heart was filled with hate for the Italians)




And this FUGLY B'stard, we called it 'The TL650R1000'
SV650 curvy frame, R1 front and rear end and a TL1000 engine



I seem to be doing it the opposite way around to most people, started off on a 600cc and now I have a 125???
Sukida Pharoe SK125-5 beep beep, anyone order a pizza?

That TL650R1000 has a similar look and dare I say patina of a certain motorcycle that resides in the Shotts area of Scotland.

It always made me think of Hector from Saturn 3

http://www.explore-science-fiction-movies.com/hector-saturn-3.html#axzz3RM14Snys

My FS1E owned June 79 to May 1980.

Tuned Yamaha 350lc owned from 1988 to 1991. Other bikes in between but after September 1991 I quit for 21 years.

Colour co-ordinated with the Fizzy

SteveCat wrote:Colour co-ordinated with the Fizzy

.

Actually, the Fizzy has a gorgeous blue coloured tank but the pic has faded. Wish I had the bike now, and the hair

I see I did my list 6 years ago and a bit out of date, it stops at Stevecat1.

Had that bike just over 4 years, I estimate I did more than 100 000 kilometers on it - fantastic bike.

Then I bought Stevecat2, slightly less than 4 years ago.



A right prima donna, she certainly knew how to throw a strop and spend a blokes' money. This is how she looked last Friday, all resplendent and ready to woo everyone at Mr Yamaha. I hope she will behave herself with her new owner and makes them very happy, she just has to wait till the end of the month to get rid of me

This is what is taking its' place MT-09 Tracer ABS (gone for Red again) - stock photo for now

Nice one steve, I test drive a mt-09 tracer at motorcycle live last year and they are super smooth. I personally wasn't very keen on the seating position but that engine was amazing. so much more Refined than the cat I'm used to anyway haha

Also does this mean you'll no longer have a thundercat? :-o

Yeah, my Thundercat days are nearly over - they are very good bikes.

Stevecat2 never idled properly in spite of best attempts by 3 mechanics. It finally worn me down to the point I wasn't enjoying my rides anymore and frankly I lost trust in it. The workshop manager at Mr Yamaha seemed confidant he knew what the problem was, but I'm not being a desperate gambler anymore - plonk the money down, this is the one I'll hit the jackpot this time.

I've p/ex'd the 'Cat and I do hope they fix the problem and not just dump it into the trade. It is a cracking bike, goes like stink and is in fairly decent nick, brand new rear tyre and shock - It'll make someone very happy, just for me the flame has gone out and I'm not sure I'll get it back.