Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Awright all !

I just thought I would love to hear from people about their first rides on theirs / friends bikes ??

Not just what you were riding, but stuff like where you were, was the bike held together with wire, if it could actually could go up a hill, if it would actually start at all in the mornings, how you felt - That kind of stuff

My first bike was'nt really what you would call a bike, it was one of those moped thingys that had pedals , had fuel in the single tube frame !!

The seat looked bigger than my mum's lounge, with springs underneath that, I looked like a total dickhead I reckon, but did not give a toss, cos it was my first bike ( I was 15 !!)

It would give me a magic carpet, floaty kind of drifty ride over most shite surfaces, and I manage dot get it off the clock once or twice down mad steep hills

I remember thinking back then that this was sooo much better than arsing around in my old mini, I could smell everything, feel so much more, I thought I was friggin easy rider !! (Sad I know)

Still, the bike was made by Norton Triumph ( I shit you not!) - Was sweet until the day I fitted a new spark plug and went for a ride ......

Going down my favourite road, with Heeland Coos (Highland Cattle) on the side of the road, a filter blew up next to my leg, being a young loon I had no idea what happened, until I then started sliding around like a bastard, looked down again and there is OIL everywhere, down my leg on the bike.... SHITE !!!!

Then the engine sounded very sick, (like a hollow fart escaping from my arse after far too many beers and curry the night before)

Then... Nothing - Dead - Silence - Except for me wailing in pain (Not for me but the bike !)

Pushed it home, left in the garage until my old man decided to sell what was left to a guy down the street ....

I loved that Bike - RIP - But that little piece of crap started my lifelong obsession with internal combustion, especially on 2 wheels ......

That's my rant, hope you enjoyed it, if not then I hope the paper you printed it on to read while you were on the crapper give you something to wipe yourself with ....

Cmon, you guys must have some fond memories hay ??

this was my first bike, just a shame i didnt know enough about bikes to know it was running lean and i burned a hole in the left piston halfway up the M2.

was fun, and i guess i've alwys wanted another bike to get going again and polish up quite nicely, now i hope i continue where i left off. But yeah, sounds like you had a fun starting point , nasty bug bite though, leaves a rather permanent infection.

First ride on a bike was a friends Grasshopper down his driveway and straight into the back fence flat chat.
Nothings changed since just hte bikes have gotten bigger.
You would think I would have learned from the first time

I had a quick ride on a mates ZZR-250 around a carpark , played silly buggers with the throttle, slipped a little with the clutch and almost dropped it when it tried to launch

It took a few years for me to decide to get a bike after that but the bug has well and truly bitten now and I can't imagine life without bikes.

First ever bike I officially rode on was a Honda........ It was an offroad bike, and the neighbours kids let me have a go.... It was a Honda XR250R (actually, in hindsight, it might have been a CR).... A two stroker with an attitude... I got about halfway through second gear, with the throttle all the way open that the thing spit me off the back and continued on by itself..... the bike got caught in a fence about 50m down the paddock.... I was hooked.... after that I was relegated to the 125cc four stroke farm machine.... a yamaha from memory... Not quite the beast that the XR was, but it taught me a lot of tricks that I had to unlearn when I got to riding bikes on the road...

The first bike I rode was my brothers KL250 road/trail. He told me to twist the throttle and let go the clutch.

Upon doing this, the bike shot out from under me and mono'd itself into the side fence a few feet away.

Amazingly, it landed back on its wheels and stalled. We managed to grab it before it fell over, so no damage done!

Cheers,
Pete

yeah it would have been a CR Stereo...

first bike i rode was my mates XR250. around an oval, this thing was so noisy which was also good for a laugh.

After feeling confident on the grass, i took it thru the car park and that was cool.

Anyway later that day we went out again (he was riding a DR250) and we took it thru some parks, anyway my mate being the show off he was hoed into the throttle and took off past me only to discover a whopping great hole which he went diving into!!

We still joke about that today!

As far as the bikes go, that sort of converted me, so i sold the Turbo supra, and got myself a little ZX2R!

hmmm....
memories


I first rode a farm bike thingie..dirty covered in cowshit
held together with fencing wire..no seat etc (you get my drift)
the year the pound disappeared and the Oz dollar hit us
yep...1966 like 41 years ago
and
by 1969 was riding my (older) girlfriends traillie
(with no licence )
got my proper licence in 1972 on a TS 175...woohoo
and been riding on road since then
(not a big fan of dirt bikes despite the TS)

the ZX12R is the latest in a line of Kwaka sports bikes
whick started in the early 80s and followed the sporty
GPz2fiddy...Gpz550... GPz750... GPz750 Turbo.. GPX750 ZX7R line
until the 12R ( a de-restricted 2001 model)
can't beat the 12


cheers

Smitty

I bought my first bike, a GPX250, from a shop in parramatta around lunch time.
First time ever in traffic I got about 5 minutes down the road before it died at the lights.
Called back the shop cause I couldn't get it to start again - one guy came out and also couldn't start it. Second guy came out with the truck and it started first go! He rode it back - I drove the truck.

Bit of a service, fiddle with the carbs and it's going again.
By now it's mid-afternoon, second time in traffic I ride it from Parramatta back to work in North Sydney - haflway there it starts pissing down rain.
I get to work though still feeling like I'm on top of the world - I have my first bike.

6pm, work's over and I ride it home from North Sydney to North Gosford up the old road - dark, foggy, pissing down rain - all I needed was snow and hail and I'd've covered the full spectrum of weather conditions in my first day of owning a bike, as well as covering >100kms.

My suggestion to others though - don't be that stupid!.
ty

hey Smitty,
was the GPz750 Turbo, actually turbocharged ?

Saki wrote:hey Smitty,
was the GPz750 Turbo, actually turbocharged ?

unfortunately...yes

sometimes



the turbo just sat there and sucked horsepower
until 4000rpm ..and then it kicked in
woohoo
pity if you were leaned over in a corner

the GPz750 'normal' was a far better bike


cheers

Smitty

hmmm i am interested in turbo bikes, was it very fast? doesn't mean i will get one!! haha

where the motors very strong ? would have been interesting if u pulled the stock turbo off and bolted on a larger application and wind the boost up!
I was reading about alot of those old skool turbo bikes and they run about 2psi and the NA equiviliant is quicker!

I rode a 100 cc dirt bike, japanese but can't recall what it was, probably a suzuki, aged 17. It was blue. Rode it around on a farm for 3 days and a bit on the road as well. No helmet or other gear either. Didn't ride again until aged 28, on a 250 cc scooter in Turkey. Next ride was a CB250 at HART training course.

Good call for a thread.

It was 1969 or thereabouts and due to friends of mine having/getting bikes I had developed a bit of a passion for them.

I'd had a few rides on the back but then one day a guy I was working with offered me a go on his bike which was an ancient British single,this offer had me over the moon,here was a chance to actually ride a motorbike for the first time.

I think it was a 350 but maybe possibly a 500 and it looked and sounded like the beast from hell to me,I couldn't wait.

So away I went down a remote dead straight road, which was probably a good thing,and felt like the king of the world which I was at the time until I tried to turn it around and stalled it,having no idea of how to kick start a bike I was stranded until they came and helped me out.

I knew at that time that riding was in my blood and now 37 years later there's a 9 outside.