Saturday, June 13, 2009

IowaHarleyGirl wants to know...

When was the first time you heard the calling?


My very first memory of noticing motorcycles was when I was in junior high. There was a motorcycle run in CF/Waterloo that was going down University Avenue. I begged my Mom to pull into a parking lot so that we could watch them go by. I remember my feelings of wanting to go with them. Wishing that someone would let me hop on the back. Dreams really do come true! :)

Have a great weekend!
IHG xo

14 comments:

Rippin-Kitten said...

My dad had a motorcycle and even though I was too little to go out on the road with him, he'd put me on the seat in front of him and coast down our driveway, which was on a hill.

So...always for me! :)

Chessie (Chesshirecat) said...

MY mom tells me, that as a baby, I would about break my neck to get a look at a passing bike. I don't remember the bike my Dad had when I was a baby, but he won it playing cards...a 1939 HD. We have the pic of my Dad sitting on it...In a cognitive sense, I would have to say, ever since I was about 8, when I first saw that picture of my dad sitting jauntily on his bike!

Baron's Life said...

My Dad had a motorcycle when I was a toddler (a BSA), so I started riding bitch as a very young kid. (six or 7 years old)...actually started riding on my own in the country place at around 14...and never looked back
Just like having sex for the first time..., you never forget!

mq01 said...

my dad and tio (uncle) always had bikes and i always wanted to go. i have always put my arms in the air to bikes and said "take me with you" smiling, LOL! thinking back, that must have bugged boyfriends, HAHA...

a boyfriend in 87 wanted a bike that i wound up buying to help him out (yes, im a sucker). well it was too much bike for him and it wound up sitting. i couldnt let it sit long :) i owned it, dammit i was riding it ;) that FJ was alot of bike, and too tall for me, but i did it. woohoo!!

i stopped riding when i married a man that didnt ride. for me, that was a mistake. here i am... divorced and on my second HD. i couldnt be happier!

RazorsEdge2112 said...

Love that picture!

I remember as a four year old, riding some rural Illinois gravel roads on the back of a GoldWing (I think). That wasn't quite the time.

I remember my first bike, a Yamaha franken-bike-cruiser-thing in high school. That wasn't quite the time.

Believe it or not, it was a year and six months ago on the back of a new Honda Rebel. New license, new bike, 25 degrees out and after an 80 mile ride around Vegas, I heard it.

And I will never be deaf to that.

Rob said...

I remember being a kid and wishing my bike had a motor. I always wanted a cycle but the parents never allowed it and could not afford one till I turned 33. The dream is now realized!

kathy said...

I was 5 or 6 - can't remember exactly. I do remember begging for a ride on my Uncle Jake's big Hog when he was there for a visit. I'd never been that close to a motorcycle before and just had to have a ride. That short ride around the neighborhood was pure joy. I was hooked. It took me another 40 years, but now I have my own and it's still pure joy.

My Uncle Jake was a motor cop a long time ago and has been ill for a many years. A couple of years ago when I lived in Chattanooga, I rode my motorcycle over to Charlotte NC to visit him. Boy did his eyes light up when he saw us pull in the driveway. After my visit, my cousin went out and got a bike too. We just never know the influence our passions have on others.

Swag said...

I was literally about 3 but I swear can vividly remember my uncle putting me on Harley that was parked in the driveway... From then on I was hooked. The fire was fanned by Evel's Wide World of Sports appearances of course and by the time I was 6 or 7 I had my first mini-bike.

Unknown said...

Always...
Dad had bikes while I was growing up and loved to go with him. I got my 1st bike when I was 8 a Yamaha 80, rode the wheels off that little thing. And I've pretty much had one bike or another till 2001 when I got my 1st HD a Black 98 Eletra Glide, put alot of miles on that one. Now it's a 2004 SEEG (fast is good) As a matter of fact, it's a good time to ride, Now... TTYL

Dean "D-Day" said...

I remember when I was about 10, I saw Sammy for the first time. He rode down the main drag of the small town we lived in on his chopped Panhead. He wore small round sunglasses and had a red beard that was down to his waist. But when he rode, the beard parted in the middle and flapped in the breeze behind him. Between the roar of the engine and the fluttering beard, I thought he was SOOOOO cool. I wanted to be just like him.

Little did I know that once I would actually get on a bike that my soul would be hooked.

fasthair said...

Ms. IHG: I think we are born with it, some just discover it later. For me motorcycles were always part of my dreams. I remember day dreaming while driving down the road thinking of jumping the driveways in the ditches and soaring through the air.

Then at age 7 or so it happened. My neighbors down the country road had a SL70 Honda. I must of killed it 3 or 4 times trying to get going. But once I got going I know the smile had to be big. Then it came time to turn around in the ditch and as I'm doing this it tries to fall over and out of shear panic I gas it. This stands the bike right up and back down the ditch I go. I pull up, stop to get off and know from that moment I will have and ride motorcycles.

From then on every change I get I hop on a bike for a ride. Tom Greene's Honda, my Uncle Craig's and Keith's Triumph's and BSA's, riding my cousins little yellow mx 60 Yamaha. I would dream of the day I could be as cool as Podney on his ultra cool '59 Panhead chopper with it's Wide Glide front end, drag bars and ratchet top suicide shifter as he banged the gears wide open as the straight pipes barked in the full moon light. At about 14 I get a Honda CT70 and proceed to learn the fine art of riding and crashing.

Now at 48 I don't know if I am as cool as Podney and his Pan was, but I do have a Harley that when I bang the gears on full moon lit nights my engine sounds ever bit as sweat has his did all those years ago on those country roads.

Thanks for the wonderful childhood memories.

fasthair

Webster World said...

The late 50's early 60's at my Grandma's house. A man came to the house next to Grandma's. It was a black flathead with a sheepskin covered seat. Bought my first one in 1965 a 1953 156 Harley Hummer for $25. Just saw one on E-bay go for over $5000.

Javier883 said...

As a kid I rode a bmx-type bicycle. When I was 17 (1983), picked up a dirt bike magazine and THAT WAS IT! Purchased a used Yamaha Enduro 175; the next year a Yamaha XT 550 and sold it. After years trying to convince my wife, in 2000 we saw 3 couples on Harley cruisers a Sunday afternoon and she said: "If is to ride like that, get a Harley". I got a 2001 XL Sportster for my birthday 12/2000 and a 2007 FXST Softail in 10/2007. I love to ride them both; the XL for daily comute to work and the FXST for long weekend rides.

Mr. Motorcycle said...

When I was old enough to turn my head, the first time I saw and heard a motorcycle go by.