YOUR most influential bikers....

[weeksy]

Who was it who inspired you to ride motorbikes ? Where, why and when.

Mine mostly was in about 2000, a mate Andy had this oldish retro, i don't even know what it was, may have been an 800, 900, I think it was a Honda at the time.. It had a full Harris system on it and we were bouncing it off the rev-limiter at 2am outside his house.... Just a little bit tipsy i must admit.

Anyway, that night it was decided i'd buy a motorbike the next day and ended up in Blacks Bikes. This was a proper old school place, half way between a dealer and a scrap-yard.

My choices on the day came down to a ZXR400 and a 535 Virago. In the end one of the fellas told me to get the ZXR400.

I learned to ride about an hour later

[Horse]

I only bought a bike because I needed transport for work and hadn't passed the car test.

However, it soon moved on from transport to far more. Pivotal moment was a few months later when an evening in the pub when carrying in two helmets started one of those "Oh, you've got a bike" conversations, which led to life-long friends.

Finally bought a car 31 years later.

Along the way I was inspired by several people. One was the late Dave Taylor, aka the Wheelie King. Lovely guy, looked like a nerd but rode like demon.

[KungFooBob]

My old man bought a BSA A65 to restore when I was in my early teens.

Then my mum bought a Honda Melody to go to work on.

So I wanted a bike too, it wasn't like they could say no

[Bustaspoke]

When I was 17 I got a Honda CB125T on HP, some lad in the local village who was much bigger than me had a Yamaha RD125 twin & skinny me on my Honda couldn't live with him on that Yamaha,so I guess that influenced me that two strokes were more fun,
I've never had a Honda since..

[Count Steer]

It was more a case of need rather than an individual. Aged 16 and wanted to get mobile as many boys of that age did at the time. Parents chipped in a bit to add to what I'd saved from various weekend jobs and £35 got me a scooter from the 'bargain bin' at the local scooter place. Joined the 100s of others blatting around with mirrors, chrome racks and backrests, whip aerials with a tiger's tail attached.

One mechanically minded school mate with a scooter + garage and his dad's tools helped me keep it working. Lots of years later we met up again for a blat down to Arundel. This time riding bikes with about 2000cc between them.

[Bustaspoke]

Anyway, that night it was decided i'd buy a motorbike the next day and ended up in Blacks Bikes. This was a proper old school place, half way between a dealer and a scrap-yard.

My choices on the day came down to a ZXR400 and a 535 Virago. In the end one of the fellas told me to get the ZXR400.

I learned to ride about an hour later

Was this Blacks Bike shop in West Lancs? They were notorious,dodgy as it gets!

[dern]

Best mate from school. He had an rd125 that he let me have a go on. Took me another six or seven years to buy one but was hooked.

[weeksy]

Anyway, that night it was decided i'd buy a motorbike the next day and ended up in Blacks Bikes. This was a proper old school place, half way between a dealer and a scrap-yard.

My choices on the day came down to a ZXR400 and a 535 Virago. In the end one of the fellas told me to get the ZXR400.

I learned to ride about an hour later

Was this Blacks Bike shop in West Lancs? They were notorious,dodgy as it gets!

Aye, same place. There certainly may have been some interesting dealings there over the years i'd bet.

[Bustaspoke]

Anyway, that night it was decided i'd buy a motorbike the next day and ended up in Blacks Bikes. This was a proper old school place, half way between a dealer and a scrap-yard.

My choices on the day came down to a ZXR400 and a 535 Virago. In the end one of the fellas told me to get the ZXR400.

I learned to ride about an hour later

Was this Blacks Bike shop in West Lancs? They were notorious,dodgy as it gets!

Aye, same place. There certainly may have been some interesting dealings there over the years i'd bet.

I can't even write on here some of the stuff that went on at that place

[Rockburner]

Who was it who inspired you to ride motorbikes ? Where, why and when.

My old man.

At home.

He rode bikes

The early-mid 80s



Bit more than that obvs: Dad was (very probably) the original 'Born Again Biker'. He'd ridden and raced bikes like mad in the late 40s, early 50s including a couple of attempts at the TT; before moving onwards and upwards to racing cars (club racing, Le Mans), then sailboats (mostly dinghys, including the World Champs in the early 70s I think) and hadn't had a bike for about 20 years when he found himself in 1982 with a home 40 miles away from his workplace, and a massive, never-ending train strike. So - having not even thought about bikes for 20 years, he went out an bought himself a 'nice little going to work bike' from the nearest Motorcycle City*: a Yamaha RD400.

That was the first bike I rode, aged about 8, round and round the house in first, learning clutch control and how not to fall off. The next Christmas there was a Puch Magnum X 'under the tree' and we've never looked back!

After that everyone involved in bikes was an influence: racers, journos, cartoon characters!



* This was before they gained their (deserved) shit reputation.

[Count Steer]

After that everyone involved in bikes was an influence: racers, journos, cartoon characters

LOL. Still got my Joe Bar Team keyring that I bought on a Flash Tour back in about 2005.

[MrLongbeard]

Who was it who inspired you to ride motorbikes ? Where, why and when.

My mother.
That'll learn her to forbid me to do something.

[Scotsrich]

It was just one of those things in the early 70’s that everyone I hung about with seemed to have a bike, from girlfriends dads, sisters boyfriend and a lot of mates.

So if you didn’t have a bike you were the odd one out, so not one particular person but a whole social thing.

[Yorick]

It was just one of those things in the early 70’s that everyone I hung about with seemed to have a bike, from girlfriends dads, sisters boyfriend and a lot of mates.

So if you didn’t have a bike you were the odd one out, so not one particular person but a whole social thing.

Ditto. It was just normal to get a moped at 16, then a decent bike at 17.

[wull]

My uncle got me into bikes, when I was growing up I’d always be hanging around his garage whilst he was tinkering on his bikes. He always had the latest bikes when they came out, I remember the original Fireblade , the R1 etc etc, he had them all.

He was like Toprak at pulling wheelies, he’d visit us and when he left he’d always pull a big wheelie until we couldn’t see him any more. The impression that left on me, I was always like “I’ll be a biker when I’m older”……….

[Taipan]

As kids we influenced ourselves. We all had bikes and would pretend they were motorbikes. As we got older some of us got field bikes and then mopeds when we were 16 and eventually bigger bikes. It was a kind of natural progression.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My Dad was a born again biker in the 90s, when I was about 12. He'd had bikes instead of cars when he was younger, he knocked it on the head when my brother and I were little then got back into it when we were a bit older. He had an XJ600, the first motorbike I even went on. After that I was hooked, so I got a bike as soon as I was legally able to.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I was 16, my mates had mopeds so I bought a TS50ER to fit in, it just clicked with me and I loved riding a bike.
My mother made a big mistake buying me the October 1983 copy of Motorcycle Mechanics with a test between a RD125LC and an AR125, motorcycle magazines were a bad influence on me, encouraging me to buy faster bikes and go places.

[lostboy]

Mum & Dad. Dad had always ridden. Mum did her test (on a GT185) at 30-something and then went onto a VFR750. Bikes were just always a thing - whether as a pillion as a nipper, scraping around on field bikes and then the MT5, MBX125 and the VFR.

[Skub]

I think I've nearly always been aware I wanted a motorbike. My favourite toys were bikes and I remember being with my Mum in Smithfield,Belfast,where my snotty little nose was either glued to Andrews bike shop in Gresham street,or the neighbouring pet shop. I think it's just in some folk.

A distant cousin of my Da was the only biker in the family and I often wondered where I caught the disease. A couple of years ago my sister told me my Mum had loved bikes and had ridden dispatchers when she was in the ATS. She died when I was 12,so I didn't find that out until 50 years later. So if anyone's to blame,it must be her.

It wasn't until I started work at 16,I had any money to buy a road bike and that was the first thing I did. One of my apprentice mates Towser raced in the 200cc series and he was selling a Suzuki 250 Hustler. This was my first bike.

I was utterly clueless and crashed my brains out every time I rode it. This was in the pre helmet era. How I got away with it,I'll never know. I'd been banned from riding before I'd even passed my test. Towser took pity on me and showed me things like 'lines around a corner',this helped a lot,since it allowed me to crash even faster.

Anyway,thanks Mum and Towser.