What bike got you into this?

[Stig / Major Tom]

I'd ridden a beat up one of these around SoCal (illegally - no license) in 1967.
Wife and I bought a new white one in 1968 as our only transportation in Massachusetts. Out the door price was @$260 (which is @$2,000 today)
She painted flowers all over it. We rode that thing all over N.E. and had a blast! (then Uncle Sam came calling with my draft notice)
Became a Honda Man from that day forward.
Stig

[john grinsel]

Travis bike motor. 1954-55, purchased used with bike for $12!

[Kansas kymco]

My first bike was a 1965 POS Harley Legaro 50cc  built in Italy .  It was gutless as they come.  My first real bike was a 1968 Yamaha 90cc twin that I bought from a son of one of Dad's coworkers. My first new bike was a Yamaha DT2 250 enduro bought for $750. and one of the few I wish I still had.

[Neil955i]

1967 model BSA Bantam 175cc in 1969.  Rode it without any maintenance (I knew no better) until the big end gave way about 10 months later.  The seed was germinated by then however.

[Iahawk]

not mine but the memory of it got me looking to buy a scooter. My girlfriend back in Junior High rode one like this and i always wanted one. 35 years later I bought my first scooter, my current People S200, although my quest to buy a scooter started out with me looking to find a nice 1980 blue Honda Express (NC50)

[Ex-KLR]

NSU Fox. I bought it to ride to school and ended up riding it for hundreds of miles around the state.

[big blue]

First bike was a 1959 Allstate (Puch) Moped which I got for $60. Two speeds and 2.2 BHP it allowed me to ride legally at 15 years old. First "real" bike was a Zundapp 250S nice bike!

[Lord Faversham]

Mine was a 1963 Lambretta Li125 Special in 1981. This was followed by eight or nine more various other Lambrettas ranging from a TV175 right up to a race-tuned Arthur Francis 240cc Lucas fuel injected monster.

I wish I’d kept the lot of them.


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[Kansas kymco]

Mine was a 1963 Lambretta Li125 Special in 1981. This was followed by eight or nine more various other Lambrettas ranging from a TV175 right up to a race-tuned Arthur Francis 240cc Lucas fuel injected monster.

I wish I’d kept the lot of them.


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I see where old Lambretta's and Vespas are now worth a lot of money, especially the rare models where few were maid. Hindsight is always 20/20.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Mine was a 1963 Lambretta Li125 Special in 1981. This was followed by eight or nine more various other Lambrettas ranging from a TV175 right up to a race-tuned Arthur Francis 240cc Lucas fuel injected monster.

I wish I’d kept the lot of them.


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Man, that photo takes me right back to Jr. High School near Orlando, FL. Our house was in a zone which put us in school with all wealthy kids. Most of the boys rode one of these to school - and used to act stupid in the parking lot after school, trashing and dropping them.
My Dad was in the Airforce so we weren't in the same social class with these kids.
But I remember the shape and color of those scooters, and the sound of them being revved up and dropped!
Stig

[CROSSBOLT]

Which time? First was a new 1960 Honda Hawk 250, 45 years later a Kymco Agility 50.
The motorcycles lasted to 1977 when I got a company car. The scooters were started while RVing around the country. The Kymcos have fascinated me from day one. The current DT300i would have been appreciated in 1960!

[randyo]

I'd ridden a beat up one of these around SoCal (illegally - no license) in 1967.
Wife and I bought a new white one in 1968 as our only transportation in Massachusetts. Out the door price was @$260 (which is @$2,000 today)
She painted flowers all over it. We rode that thing all over N.E. and had a blast! (then Uncle Sam came calling with my draft notice)
Became a Honda Man from that day forward.
Stig

I had the EXACT same bike, '67 Honda S90  mine was nowhere near as nice, mine was a turd, every kid in town owned it before me, I got 10 weeks of fun out of it, before it screamed at me feed me gasoline as I was going down a 15% grade at 75+, when it decided to eat a valve instead.  My second bike a few years later, was a '71 CB125S

[Lord Faversham]

Man, that photo takes me right back to Jr. High School near Orlando, FL. Our house was in a zone which put us in school with all wealthy kids. Most of the boys rode one of these to school - and used to act stupid in the parking lot after school, trashing and dropping them.
My Dad was in the Airforce so we weren't in the same social class with these kids.
But I remember the shape and color of those scooters, and the sound of them being revved up and dropped!
Stig

Being of a Modernist persuasion back in the late 70’s (and pretty much ever since), the Scooter Club I belonged to along with my chums at the time used to get up to high jinks on our scoots although it never reached deliberately trashing them - they were far too important to us.

Regular club meets at The Bull pub in Aston Clinton on a Sunday evening usually saw some of us popping wheelies (not easy but it is doable) on our Lambrettas before the obligatory race down the “mad mile” back to town.

40 years later and the location and company has changed and the high jinks a little less lofty, but the cameraderie of my current scooter group is just as staunch.

The spread of scoots is a little more eclectic now too with a smattering of classic Vespas and Lambrettas mixed in with Milanos/Modenas, Royal Alloys and my Xciting being the only Maxi in the  mix.

My argument is that if Kymcos were around back in the day, the Mods would have been riding them. The clue is after all, in the name....


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[Neil955i]

Aston Clinton in the 70's?  Bit too close to Jimmy Savile's old stamping ground for comfort IMO!

 

(A notorious UK paedophile for our US readers)