revtothelimit - motorbike forum

What was the first bike you bought after your test, i know many of you will have done the little crossers/field bikes... but first proper big boys bike ?

Where was it from and how did it come about ?

Mine was one like this, but not as tidy.


Me and a mate had been out in Liverpool and got home late, we were then bouncing his bike off the rev limiter at 3am as he'd got a new exhaust.

Next day we went up to Black Bikes outside Liverpool and i bought the ZXR400. It was a choice between the ZXR and the 535 Virago.... i know, how different could the world have been !!!
Got my mate to ride it home for me and we then had a 5 minute lesson on "this is the clutch, this is the brake" etc... away we went... memories began right there.

First bike was an old Yam XS 400. Bag of shit maybe but felt amazing after a 125.
Exactly the same as this except mine had a wodge of green fibreglass filler in the rear mudguard under the tail light cluster. Nice:
When it broke a valve guide I rebuilt the engine, then took a hacksaw to it. One thing led to another and this is how it finished up:

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Around the same time I added this, my first "proper" big un. A CB750 KZ. Complete with chocolate camchain tensioner:

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Hacksaw worked a treat...my brother had the 750 K7. Got nicked from a pub carpark and later found in Amsterdam.

The few pics I have are in an album at mums, will have to copy them one day.

My first bike post test was a.....TZR125! I had a KH100 pre test and a 125 was all I could afford straight after test.

Then I got a TZR250 about 6 months later. I'd say that was a proper bike although not exactly big in today's terms. I reckon 100mph TT lap capable is fast enough.

In terms of CC big it was a brand new Fazer 600 in 1999. Back when 600's were big ish bikes rather than learner bikes

In fact in today's weird world is my 918cc Fireblade even 'big'!

A 1987 TZR 250 followed by a 1990 FZR400rr both great bikes from what I remember and both probably worth a lot more now than they were then ,1995.

900 triumph trophy.
Which I bought straight after doing a CSM 5 day "learn to ride a motorcycle" test.

How it came about - well, I did my test to buy a sportster. Everyone was derogatory about them I went to Neil Young's in Northampton, saw a BRG Trophy and parted with 5,500 GBP ....

Then rode it down to the Bol d'or a few weeks later

First big 'un at 19

One of these.
Which then went on to be the first big bike for the wife, which then went on to be the first big bike for my BiL, and is still in the family stable;


That's not a bad return on my investment I reckon, 19 years of family ownership for not a lot of money

Fek knows, too many years, too many bikes and far too many arthritis drugs do not make for a very good memory

Used my brothers RXS100 to do the test and ended up with a Kawasaki Z400F2, like such

One of these bought used in 1975. I was 20 with way more balls than brains.

FJ1200, 1988 3CV model. Lovely beast of a bike with smooth power and just fabulous on the motorway. Heavy bike though, even with me being big chap and all that. Miss the low down torque. 5th gear 30mph roll on power to top speed.

First post Moped bike was a Norton Jubilee like this one but with a rickman seat unit and with megaphones. It was shit Other bikes in that pre-test period were a CB175 and an RD250C



First post test bike was a CB400N bought off my Dad for not alot - him subsidising my bikes was his excuse to swap his!

CBR400RR Tri-arm. Lovely little thing....

My first 'big bike' above 250 was a CX500, the plastic maggot.
I liked it a lot, but buying one 25 years later and it was awful.
It's not as if I had bought a bad one either.
It's more the case that modern bikes are better.
Still, first bike where I passed 100 mph on. Actually on the then recently opened M25 stretch from J25 to J23. The road surface was without pot holes. Imagine that if you will.

First bike I 'rode' after my test was my mum's 1984 Moto Guzzi V50,
A bit like this one :

Ours doesn't have the pipe-wrapping, or the single seat, and although I did put a Le Mans bikini fairing on it - it came off at a later date. It still has the Lanfranconi race pipes and K&N filter pods.

First bike I BOUGHT with my own money was a 10 year old 1985 Ducati TL600:

Yes - every sodding branch, but glorious to ride, especially once I'd put lower bars on it rear-sets. IIRC it was very comfy to ride for long distances and so stable I could scoot back and ride it along straight stretches of road from the pillion seat.
I crashed and totalled it about 6 months later at the Manx (trying to keep up with a CBR600.... like an idiot), and rebuilt it as a gloss-black cafe racer with shorter side panels and the Guzzi Le Mans bikini fairing and headlight. With Laverda-style adjustable bars it was a bit of an "Italian cafe-racer mash-up" but turned heads and was an excellent ride.
It ended up looking a bit like this:

Mine had a tri-spoke rear wheel from a Cagiva Alazzurra GT, which was much prettier than the Ducati wheel.
I sold it after I'd bought a 1 year old ZXR400, the Ducati had electrical issues which I couldn't fix, so a friend offered me £500, then promptly fixed it and sold it on for about a grands worth of profit.

First bike I bought after passing my test was a 4 year old RD250LC, that seized about a week later because one of the oil injection jets was blocked, the shop I bought it from rebuilt the top end 4 times before I found the problem, it was pretty obvious once you took the carbs off, one carb had a red residue from the two stroke oil, one didn't.

First bike over 250cc was a 350LC bought from the same shop.

First 4 stroke was a 1979 GSX750ET, ET for Extra Terrible, slow and heavy but did handle nicely for a big bike, sump plug fell out on the A14, I found out when the oil light came on, the sump plug was resting in the collector box of the Harris exhaust, put it back in, put some oil in and off I went, the bike later shat itself at Santa Pod.

First 4 stroke I owned that I thought was better than an LC was a 1985 GSXR750 - no stories of massive breakdowns with this, despite it getting thrashed for the 4 years I had it, including more trips to Santa Pod (tbh I can't remember drag racing it, but my wife can remember me racing it at Santa Pod)

hmmm….bit difficult that one, as for (too many) years there was 3 of us sharing the same license.

when i did final decide that legal was best, i went with a jawa 350 and sidecar to do my test on. after that i had unlimited legal use of a GSX1100 which was kinda fun.

the first decent capacity bike i bought myself (lot of years skint riding the stuff no-one else wanted) was a BMW R65. 79 model that i bit by bit got up to mid 80´s specs (leccy ignition, later carbs, `85 heads, etc, etc). great bike that actually taught me to ride properly.

Terrible kwak z550, I recall thinking it was awesome at the time, mind

this doesn't quite fit the brief as I hadn't actually done a test, but it was certainly a big scary bike - My first KTM, Circa 1990 300 2t.

It was a complete bitch to start and I never found out why, it was friggin mental and a complete handful off road.

The last time I rode this bike would have been in 1997, I got pulled over by the local traffic car, with video footage of me doing 60ish in a 30, bike not registered, me not licenced, insured or mot'd. my punishment was to push the bike home which started with going up a friggin steep hill (for those that have been to BPW, it was in the village that is directly below the drop off on the Aberdare side), a mile or so along a disused rail track and then up another hill to my parents house. The copper's last words were, if we see you riding or even hear that engine running today, we're coming straight round to your and giving you a ticket for speeding and a producer.

I got my test done after that and went all legal.