Reuniting with an Old Friend. What was your first motorized experience?

[2Wheels4Ever]

17 years ago I rode my first motorized vehicle; a 1986 Honda TRX 70. My next-door neighbor owned quads and was awesome about letting my family use them. Many camping trips later and enough memories to make any kid happy, the poor little TRX had seen better days. 12 years of sitting in a shop, unused, has been the life of the little Honda until I had the opportunity to purchase the quad from my neighbor. I have a boy on the way, and I hope he will have as much fun on this machine as I did growing up.

Now to get the thing running again....

What was your first motor?

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[Stinkerbelle]

1970 Honda Trail 70...red...just like this one....what a blast I had with that thing.....then on to a 1974 Yamaha DT 125, a 1975 Yamaha MX250b, a 1980 Honda CR250, a1998 KTM 300MXC and now a 2011KTM 530 EXC....

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

Man I want a pair of Trail 70s! I have path around my property, and those things would be a blast to rip around on.

 

[308]

1970 Honda Trail 70...red...just like this one....what a blast I had with that thing.....then on to a 1974 Yamaha DT 125, a 1975 Yamaha MX250b, a 1980 Honda CR250, a1998 KTM 300MXC and now a 2011KTM 530 EXC....

View attachment 366197

Mine was blue. Went riding every day befor school and after school. One of the best times of my life as a boy.

 

[Kruel J]

Yamaha Warrior Quad for off road. Honda Shadow 750 for street use.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I still have mine, 1972 Honda Mini Trail 50! I pulled the original motor and installed a Lifan 150 cc for almost triple the power! I also swapped the suspension parts over to HD stuff so I can ride it with out breaking parts. I kept all the original parts to change it back some day! What a fun little bike, and pretty spunky!

 

[Member 5605]

My first motorized experience was when I was 16 and it was in her Mustang.



Lol..

Edit:

1984 Honda 200 three wheeler.. parents bought them new and I was riding them when I had to reach down and grab the lever to shift up. Dad still has both of them and they run excellent.

 

[Meridian7750]

Honda SL 70. I was 9 years old
Loved that bike. Crashed it hard, totalled it, broke my leg bad.
Bought another one as soon as the cast was off.
Have had over 20 bikes since, both street and dirt.
KTM 500 XC-w now...plated, a real mean mambajamba in the dirt, and legal on the road.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Here is my Other Baby, 92 ATK 604 Rotax Thumper!!! Very Rare, hand made American Bike! Plated and fully legal!

And my project 76 Husquvarna WR 360 Factory Works Bike!

 

[notazombie]

SL70 here too.

 

[Papa]

I got the 50 when I was 5, and the 175 when i was 12 or so (not pictured but identical).. Thry are both long gone sadly.

 

[Stomper]

I had a '78 RM80 that looked just like this one. It was the schiznit of the neighborhood and could crush the XL/R 75's the other punks had until the CR80's with "power-band" came out... LOL!


Back in "the day", me and my buddy would ride our bikes eastward along the railroad tracks that used to run a few blocks away and parallel to Foster Blvd and "sneak" up on top of Powell Butte to go riding. One time I managed to break off and lose the shift lever, and happened to be in 3rd or 4th gear and had no way to shift into a lower gear. In my infinite "kid wisdom" I thought, "no worries, I'll just rev it up super high and slip the clutch to get going"... burned up the clutch in short order.... never did get it repaired, and was the last time I rode it. Burned up clutch plates smell HORRIBLE!

 

[Ura-Ki]

I had one of these as a older kid, funky little smoker with dual shifters, one for the regular 5 speeds, and one for high and low! It was pretty fun until one of my buddies would come along with an XR 220 or a bigger 250 and leave me eatin rocks! Wish I still had it, I guess these are worth BIG BUCKS these days!
Not mine

 

[orygun]

Either a Sears or Monkey Wards mini bike. Briggs and Stratton 3.5 horse and one scrub brake. Belonged to a family we were friends with that had three boys. Fortunately they were kind enough to let me into the rotation of taking turns when they got it out to ride.

Since then I owned a mini bike of my own, much better looking and faster than the one from my childhood, a Tote Goat, a 77 Honda Mini Trail 50 and more motorcycles (street and dirt) than I can count.

Reliving childhood dreams is never a bad thing.

 

[orygun]

SCHWINNNNGGGG!!! This vintage of MX bikes is about as cool as you can get on two wheels.

And the reason I can't bring myself to part with this one, even if I haven't ridden it for years. I'm the second owner of this bad azz SC500.

 

[Mark W.]

Lil' Indian Mini Bike. Much like this


but mine was Blue and the wheels simpler. I had it up to 45mph according to the county sheriff that ended up waiting for me to get home in dads driveway. Seams he didn't want to chase me through the bean and berry fields. I got it with my own money for $85.00 when I was in the 7th grade age 12 I could easily outrun anything smaller then a Honda Trail 70 but even the Trail 50 could climb hills better as they had a real clutch and the Indian was a centrifugal.

After the Mini Bike I drove a 46 Ford 2 axle farm truck loaded with Pole beans to the cannery at age 14. then on to the 48 Willys CJ-2A I am currently building.

 

[Mikej]

Tote Goat.

Something along the lines of this first was a 2-speed and you had to stop, and the shift lever was out the side under your right leg...Musta been 9-10 and Dad would let my buddy and me PUSH the thing down to the school and we'd ride around the play ground until it ran out of gas, and push it back home.


Dad had one that he bought and he and my uncle also hand made "Tote Goats"...Bent/welded frames, mounted a brigs motor etc, basically copied the tote Goat. They were popular in Utah for hunters. You can google Tote Goat and you'll see a number of them, and various parts, are in Utah for sale where they were manufacture.

Some time later Dad discovered the Honda 55....

Stock photo.


Dad rode that 55 for awhile and then bought a Honda 90, so I got the 55. I was probably 14 by that time. We'd load them in the Econoline and go up into the hill and ride trails all over. I rode that Honda 90 all over creation. Out of high school I rebuilt the motor in a small engine program at the trade tech and rode it 'till about 20 when I bought my XL 250 from the Honda shop I worked in. I was lucky to spend that time riding free. now I wouldn't go to the hassle, let alone the danger of being on the roads on two wheels!

 

[Stomper]

I've since "upgraded" to this a few years ago....



And the pillion config for when I bring along the wife...

 

[orygun]

Lil' Indian Mini Bike. Much like this
View attachment 366294

but mine was Blue and the wheels simpler. I had it up to 45mph according to the county sheriff that ended up waiting for me to get home in dads driveway. Seams he didn't want to chase me through the bean and berry fields. I got it with my own money for $85.00 when I was in the 7th grade age 12 I could easily outrun anything smaller then a Honda Trail 70 but even the Trail 50 could climb hills better as they had a real clutch and the Indian was a centrifugal.

After the Mini Bike I drove a 46 Ford 2 axle farm truck loaded with Pole beans to the cannery at age 14. then on to the 48 Willys CJ-2A I am currently building.

A friend of mine still has his "Little Indian" that he got way back when. He's since restored it and put in a 5 horse, but he won't ride it. It's a hall hanger. (Sure as hell wouldn't be a wall hanger at THIS house!) It's blue, too.

Mikej posted a pic of a Tote Goat That's nearly identical to the one I had, although mine didn't have as many "extras". But since the one from his childhood had a "Hi-Low" selector, I'm wondering if it was really a Trail King.


A friend of mine has a few. I've been trying to talk him out of one.

 

[The Heretic]

I don't remember exactly, but it was most likely an old Case tractor on the farm