How long have you been riding?

I was bored last night and was thinking, it'd be nice to find out some "history" on the members of this site.. how long people have been riding.
I'll start off with myself, I bought my first motorcycle (my 93 zx600) last may.. i must say, i'm happy with my decision for my first bike.. its defenitly treated me well in the learning department. Anyways, I bought it with 13015 miles, and i'm happy to say that as of now i have just over 18,000 miles on it..

It's been an awesome 5,000 miles that I've put on it.. I've learned a lot in that time.. haven't had any close calls, or drops.. i feel like I'm doing well. I'm getting closer to putting a knee down in some corners (altho I'm not big on pushing it that hard on public streets), I'm starting to clutch the front tire up in first every now and than, however, i wish my second gear (stupid kawi problem) did not slip out, it would be nice to try in second. And I'd like to start practicing stoppies sometime soon.

I started researching motorcycles back in 2004, and learned a LOT about them, before i could even ride.. riding techniques, what not to do/what to do.. it was kind of nice knowing what to do when i first hopped on mine, without having any external instruction.

So thats a lil bit about my history.. how about yours?

LOL, my first dirtbike was a 1974 honda xr 75. I started riden at 7yrs. old and raced dirtbikes till i was 14. I had alot of different ones during that time. My first street bike was a 86 ninja 600 and since then almost every year i've had at least one rocket,sport touring, or supermoto bike sometimes 3 different ones in a summer. I bet im well over 30 different bikes in my lifetime so far and on my second different one this summer with the new hayabusa. So i guess in total with the dirtbike riden and street bikes i've been riden for about 35yrs. in that time i have been down only 3 times on the street all due to stupid stuff one wheelie gone bad due to oil on my shoe and missing the back break. on a klr 600 in 3rd gear. No injury's, once in jay cooke on my gsxr 1000 due to new oily road conditions"That was a bad one broke my back in 5 palces and badly brused kidneys. and also one random tank slapper on a straight section of road at about 80mph. damm honda rc 51! i pulled out of it but was heading for the ditch and rode it for a while in the grass but couldent keep it up so i took a header about 70. No injury's. Thats me in a Nutshell. Alot of good times for sure!!! OH i better KNOCK ON WOOD for no more accidents.

i have been riding since i was 5 or 6yrs old, started out on a Honda Z-50 then a moto bike so on and so fourth, about 3yrs ago i got into street bikes and i went out and bought a 05 sv650s great bike no bad habits hardy, so i started to do wheelies and endows, u know the drill. and now i have a 07GSX R 750, and the ladie now has my old sv....not to big on telling stories because i suck at it, but here it is better than nothing..

I've been riding on and off since 99. Bought my first bike new that year. Yamaha YZF 6R. Wasn't anything special but it wasn't the R6. Rode that for two summers and sold it. The next bike I picked up was an 04 R6. Rode that for two summers also and ended up selling that one to buy the bike I have now. I currently have 8500 miles on my 06. Otherwise it's been four-wheelers, dirt bikes and I'm old enough to say three-wheelers.

I've been riding for about 14yrs now, started on dirt bikes and moved on to the street on a 250 ninja that i got bored of in a heartbeat. After the ninja got myself an R6 and had it for three years before some spaced out lady pulled out in front of me and ruined my day. The R6 was totalled and moved on to an R1 for a few years which completely rocked but now i have the Buell because i wanted to try a twin out for a change. Anyways 14 years and loving it!

Ever since i can remember, i've been rippin around on 4-wheelers/dirtbikes. they are something that have always been in my family. when i was about 13 i started racing motocross on a 97'KX80. i tried that for a couple years, but soon realized that i was "Balanced Impaired" i took about a year off of racing the dirtbike, but after that i was introduced to the wonderful world of Quad Racing (aka. wheel chairs/couches) i bought an 87' TRX250R and began building it for the moto-x track. i basically built that quad twice over. i still own it and the last time i figured, the second time i built it i had about 20k invested into it. after i was finally done with the build i raced it on dirt and ice for a season, but due to a shoulder dislocation i was forced to hang it up. (specialist didnt feel that both tendons were torn bad enough to repair, eventho my damn arm would practically fall out of place by itself.) after a couple of years of off time and some P.T. for the shoulder i decided one day that i wanted to try something different. my bro had traded a dirtbike of his for an 01 GSXR600. he let me ride it off and on for the summer, and needless to say i ended up putting more miles on it than he did. after that summer i needed to have on of my own, so i did some searchin around and bought an 05' CBR 600RR with 1k miles on it. i ended up puttin 13k miles on it in 2 seasons. i traded the 05' in on a brand new 07' 600RR that i sold this last April with 7400 miles on it. the only reason why i sold it is because i found out that Honda was producing an 09' Repsol 1000RR which is my current ride. i bought that bike on 4-2-09 and as of today it has just shy of 4900 miles on it for the season and looking forward to putting many many more on it!!

Uh my story is not near as exciting as everyone elses. I have been riding for 5 years. My first bike was a 1997 Honda F3. I learned on that wrecked it twice and then bout my current 1990 Suzuki GSX 750 F. What can I say I dig older sports bikes.

I started riding April of last year (2008) on a 1978 BMW R60/7. Had fun on that, and this year finally decided to splurge on a Triumph Sprint RS, a half-faired "sport tourer". I don't regret it at all, although I'll likely be selling it for a new machine next year - I thoroughly enjoy trying new bikes and how different they are!

vertical, what kind of bike is that? I saw a Daytona 955i last week in almost the same color.

bentley wrote:

vertical, what kind of bike is that? I saw a Daytona 955i last week in almost the same color.

its a 93 kawasaki ZX600-E1

Hey Guys,
I got a late start; too many tickets in my 20's and we all know sport-bike insurance is prohibitive.
So I turned 30 and bought a brand new Yami FZR600. A couple years later I bought a brand new 01' Honda RC51. I rode it on the street for a while and started doing trackdays with her in 2002. I picked up my racing license and raced my 51 in the CRA in 04 and 05. I won the Novice Supertwins Championship in 05' and picked up enough Heavyweight and Supertwins points to earn my Expert plates. I bought a 2000 GSXR 750 in 05' to take over Heavyweight racing as an expert. It ran pretty well in 06 and 07 but I have had clutch and transmission problems with it, I didn't run a single race in 08 due to mechanicles.

The GSXR is back in one lump and ready to race later this month.
I finally put the street panels back on the RC51 and I am back on 2 wheels when the weather looks good.

I hope to get out and ride with you guys soon,
I don't hope to go to jail though...