How old was you when you started riding?

[Stu]

After seeing a recent thread about asking if the poster is too old to start riding I was surprised at some of the ages that some members started riding. 

 

Which has subsequently led to this thread  

 

How old was you when you started you biking journey? where did it start for you that meant it was inevitable you would get a bike? 

 

For me it was growing up as a kid all the family are bikers and I watched my uncles get bikes trash bikes fix bikes and listen to the stories of their riding. This led to me and my brother nagging for a bike as growing up surrounded by fields we had somewhere to ride 

 

From the age of around 6 - around 15 we have bikes that we just dossed around on and at 21 I did my test and already had a zxr 400 waiting for me from then on its been a pretty fun packed journey with its ups and downs. 

 

Over to you lot 

[Troy]

25 I think when I started. I’m now 33… (sometimes)

 

My Dad had bikes when I was still little and I used to go on the back just round the “little off-road square” we lived on. My “urge” to start riding came when I needed a second vehicle to commute to work in but didn’t want to get another car at the time. So bike lessons commenced. 
 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by Troy

[Bender]

Started, crete age 22, you know young and stupid, don't hire the bikes don't hire the bikes, what do you do then had a little break and got my licence age 51  

[manxie49]

My uncle bought me an old Honda SS50 when I was 14.  I was riding it around the fields on his farm,  I remember him telling me that if I can ride it around the fields without falling off, I’d be a better rider when it came to riding the roads.  Both my uncle and my dad rode bikes.  I started on the road when I was 16 and passed my test at 19.  I’ve never been without a bike since,  I’ve had some brilliant bikes and also some heaps, where getting them to start was a bit of a lottery.  I was also brought up with the TT,  which probably explains my passion in following road racing events.

 

[KiwiBob]

Started in my 20's with a BSA Bantam! ... But never took my test until I was well into my 60's

[Bianco2564]

My parents took us on a caravan holiday to a farm in the Forest of Dean,the site owners sons had a C50 field bike and let me have a go. This would have been around 1974 when I was 10. Mum and Dad then bought us a Norman Nippy moped which we rode at my Grans on a farm track next to their house.

Aside from a couple of years gap in the 90s after my GSXR was stolen, I've had a bike of my own since i was 14.

[DR1]

I bought a 150cc Bantam when I was 13 and rode it in fields with some mates. I passed my bike test when I was 17 soon after getting my car licence. I’ve ridden bikes ever since. 

[DJP]

Probably about 9 when the seeds were sown. I was a primary school kid in the 70s and every year our school had mini motorbikes at the school fair and I spent all my pocket money on them every year. A few of my rellies (inc my Dad) had always had bikes and I really fancied one after that. A few years later, we were on holiday in Greece and my Dad hired a 'ped. The age limit there was 14 for peds so I got to ride it and got hooked all over again. And the next year, and the next... Moving onto geared 'peds and then 125s. Then when I turned 16 I rescued a 'ped from a family friend's shed and rode legally in the UK for the first time. That was followed, aged 17, by a Honda CB100N and then after passing my test the same year a Yamaha RD350 YPVS. And then onto 600cc four strokes and upwards. I've now been riding pretty much daily in the UK since 1986... How time flies!

[husoi]

My very first time on a bike was a 1/2 mile ride on a 50cc that was so old that I have no idea what make or model was.

Then had 1 ride on my brother's 50cc suzuki, after his accident where he had his leg broken by some tw@t that said didn't saw him I was put off bikes for many years.

My more "permanent" period was back in 1991 when to avoid +2hr traffic to work I convince myself to get my first bike. Since then I only had a small break when I come to the UK in 2003 but got my second vfr800 4 years later.

Since then I never stopped. Well, except winter of course

[S-Westerly]

For a good reason (in my parents opinion) motor bikes in our family were the devil's tools. A mate of mine at college had a Norton Commando and let me go pillion with him. I bought a bike of my own the following week. Got my test then basically for various reasons which seem stupid now I went almost 35 years without a bike. Went back to it at 60 and had a rather steep learning curve! Most fun you can have sitting down.

[skyrider]

i got into bikes when i was about 15 and then i got my first one at 16 a 1976 fs1e and then i have had bikes ever since 

[billy sugger]

I was 17and had moved out of the family home so basically could do as I pleased. Within a year I had a mobylette 50cc moped, a Honda c50, c70, then the cb125s which I took my test on in 1978

[oldgrump]

Started riding at 16 around back garden on mate's Suzuki 50, brought my first bike at 17 on the 22 may 1971, Bantam d14/4, passed test in 1974 on Suzuki T200, never been without a bike since, currently have 4, but did have a large collection of around 14 2 strokes at one time + the odd 4 stroke.

And like @S-Westerly, my parents were dead set against bikes, after losing 2 cousins on bikes.

Went to work every day by bike, and only learnt to drive a car at 58, 3 years after I retired. Brought my first 4 wheeler at 65. 

Edited January 12, 2022 by oldgrump

[bonio]

Never really liked cars (still don't) and never even thought about bikes, but one day I decided my commute would be cheaper and more efficient on a moped than in car, so I sold the car, got a ped and starting riding it locally on L plates. I guess I liked it, so when I changed job a year later, and my commute changed to dual carriageways, I went ahead and got my licence. I was 48.

Sheesh, I was young back then. 

[fastbob]

About 20 I think but I had a lot of wilderness years until I finally passed my test and started my biking journey properly . I was quite happy on my Trophy 250 and CB 175 until they changed the law . 

[Gerontious]

I wanted a bike when I was 16, but my parents said NO. I could have a bike on my 18th birthday but I had to work for it, get a Saturday job and save for it. I did a weekend milkround, paid £5 a day. I saved for it and bought a Kawasaki KH250 and passed my test a little under 2 years later just before the two part test arrived.

my dad used to make a bit of beer money refinishing Triumphs, basically taking them apart and fixing them so they stopped dripping. His own bike was a 1937 speed twin. So that’s where it came from. Though it was always look but don’t touch and if I ever catch you in my workshop. Watch out!!

 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I always rode pedal bikes since I was knee high to a grass hopper. My teenage hooligan years were spent falling off them and larking about in boats. Motorcycles weren't in the budget.

 

In my early 20's we needed a car but I had no money. A mate gave me the remains of a MK1 Escort and I learned to weld getting it back on the road. 

 

A couple of years later the kids got into the school over the road so I sold the car. Two days later I got offered a job which meant needing transport as I had to get in and out of Liverpool city centre many times a day. So I bought a CG125, did my training at Speke Airport. It was a worn out ex-training bike which would just about do 55mph flat out with the wind behind you. 

 

I rode it in all weathers on roads soaked in diesel and amazingly never fell off it. 

[onesea]

As pillion 11 I was allowed on the back of a family friends bike a Kawasaki that had just been put down to second fastest production road bike.  I think it was with the instructions to scare me, I came back smiling…

My parent negotiated me into cars so, It took me another 30 years till I got a bike licence to reach those speeds again.

[Mr Fro]

My grandad had a couple of C50s in his garage which I used to sit on and then push round the garden once I was big enough.

 

It was a slippery slope from there really!

[Fleck]

I was 26 years old when I passed the test 28 years ago. 

[Fozzie]

When I was 9, a friends dad who was well known in the area for being the postman and a Mini cooper fanatic was also mad about bikes. He got his sons mini-motos and things like that, and I remember seeing them and thinking they were the coolest things ever. I had a go on one and I was completely terrified but hooked on it. But it was 12 when I first rode a (mostly) full size bike, it was only 50cc, but I'd borrow whatever pit bike, dirt bike or moped friends got their hands on until I was 15, when I bought an Aprilia RS50 that was on the edge of needing a rebuild. It blew up 3 months after I turned 16. 

 

32 this year

[Fish]

My first and brief try on a bike was back in secondary school, then once I started driving and having a heavy right foot I stepped away from wanting to get on a bike.

 

Covid popped it's head up and I was not going to be getting on public transport. So at the ripe ol age of 47 I completed th CBT and a year on a 125 before I could take my DAS. 

[V650]

Started when I was 22 on a Suzuki GSX250 

56 now and back as a Lerner after 34 years away

On a Kawasaki V650

Edited January 13, 2022 by V650

[JustinW]

About 12 years old round fields on Bsa Bantam. Then 55 years old passed the test last year and got a modern bike.

[Pie man]

Kick Start the TV programme hosted by Peter Purves. Started out riding Trials bikes before I could ride a road bike (TY250) then at 16 (1984) got my first Vespa Special, then after passing my test bought an SS 180 and then a Rally 200. I wish I still had them now. Went on a few scooter rallies, but soon realised I needed something a little quicker if I wanted to travel further and quick, so bought my first BMW R80 and the rest is history.