Who started riding after age 30

Took the MSF in 2000 when I was 35.
Started with an F650GS in 2001.
Moved up to an R 1150GS in 2003.
The rest is history.

I thought you were only 26 this year.

Jon

You are correct sir. My math is off. What do you expect, I graduated from UCONN.

yup....I turned 40 last week....no big deal....I have been in and out of bikes over the years...but lately cycles have taken front stage in my obsessive world.....push aside a few other hobbies (like flying, skydiving, sailing, scuba etc...LOL)...anyway...firends that I diverged from back in the riding days are showing up again and it is fun to catch up after 15 + yrs......and they all have kids and stuff that encumber their time and $$....so they are welcome to the stable I am building...their wives are hating me too.....hating I am back luring their hubbies away and wanting free time....so what...anyway...here is my dad and I on my first bike..a Honda Z50 paid for with my paper route monies...I miss them both.

I was 54 when I bought my first bike....that was last november.

My first bike was an 04 r1150 gs. I was looking at RT's but the salesdood talked me into the GS. I paid the price for buying a tall, big bore bike. It was stupid of me to start with the "big dog." I had saved and paid cash for the bike, so I plunked down the green, and with no orientation rode it away. The second thing I did, not two hours later, was tip the beast over at a gas station.
I took the MSF course and have ridden 3800 miles since I purchased the bike. I bought the right gear and am becoming a better rider (no accidents or close calls, I have read a great deal and I practice all of the time).
I wish I had had the money earlier and started riding earlier. I had to overcome a great deal of parental resistance. My wife is very supportive of my riding.
I have probably only ridden three other bikes in my life....and that was in the the '70's and '80s for a total of 6 hours of riding.
The GS was fairly difficult to learn on, but it wasn't the bike...it was me. I now am not as tightly wound when I ride and I told my wife I would give up my car and truck(s) before I would give up my bike.
I want a ST 1300 honda and a r1200rt. I also want a thumper.

My Mom happened to be nearby when an acquaintance asked me what kind of bike I owned. I quietly answered, "The best kind... The kind my Mom doesn't know about."

Brad

I got my pilot license when I was 19. Although I was probably the most dangerous person in middle <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:State><st1lace>Tennessee</st1lace></st1:State> at the time, I was probably safer doing 140 mph 100 feet [or lower] over the ground in an airplane than 120 mph on the ground riding a bike.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

So by a semi-unconscious (read self preservation) choice I didn’t get my first bike, a Honda nighthawk 250, until I was 36. Rode that for about a year until I discovered how fun it is to jump railroad tracks crossing gravel roads. Then I picked up my dl650.<o></o>

<o></o>

As for Mom....I think she's still in denial.<o></o>

<o></o>

Let's see:
at age 32 I bought an R60/7. No idea how to ride it. I wrecked it two days later and ended up in the hospital. After I got out, I bought a K1200RS, but didn't pick it up until I passed the MSF course.
That was my primary bike for several years, but during the last four years I bought and sold a R75/5, a K75s and a K75c. Last year I traded the RS in on a 1150GS, and then turned that into a 1150 Adventure, and I've never been happier. I love taking it off road, although I keep hurting myself, but I just finished the RawHyde training course, so I think I'll be spending less time in the ER from here on out.

I'm to the point that I am almost ready to get rid of my car.

does this mean we can assume EVERYTHING about u guys is only .8021 the size of what we have in the states?

forced myself to wait until i was 30 until is started riding... knew i'd kill myself if i didnt... so there i was on my b-day taking the test

first bike was/is a 94 suzuki 600... still going strong after three years of daily driving(or as close as you can get in cleveland and not have something fall off ) and couple cross countrys.... old, beat up, smokes a bit on startup, scratched, and just generally raggedy, but its mine and i ride the hell out of it...

my next ones in the works right now... just cant make up my mind over the klr650 and 650gs (but thats another thread) and i plan to ride that one into the ground too....

Bought my first bike in 1985 when I was 22. It was a 1976 Yamaha XT500. Had it about three weeks, got drunk and wrecked it.
I didn't ride again until 1996, then 33 years old, married, two kids. Bought a 1978 Yamaha XS650. Rode that for a couple of years, then purchased a 1986 Honda XL600R(still have that one). Sold the XS650 to finance a restoration of a 1976 Honda 750 Supersport. That went badly. Rode it less than a year. Then, in Sept, 2000, I bought a 2000 Bandit 1200, used, three months old, with 1500 miles. Now has 42k, also still have the XL600. Came home with the Bandit and gave the CB750 to a neighbor.
Starting later probably saved my ass(refer to XT500 incident mentioned above). Marriage and fatherhood calmed me down.

bought my fiirst bike in 03, was 32 at the time. it was an f650 cs. had a ton of fun, took a bunch of long trips and was hooked, for life i think. last year i had a couple of months between finishing school and starting a job and just bummed around the country, coast to coast, mexico to canada. i put 18k miles on that belt drive in two months. now all i can think about is my next trip. south america i think. traded f650 for a 12gs this year, and i'm a happy camper. i can't freaking wait.

I had wanted to ride a long time before, just never got around to it. Hanging out with friends who rode got me interested again and one sold me an old beat up Honda GL500 for next to nothing. I put about 50 miles on it then signed up for an MSF class and got a Honda Spirit 750 shortly after. Put 10k on it in a year but made the mistake of riding with a GS rider for a few hundred miles. Sold the Honda & got an 1150 GS and put 24k on it in the last 16 months.

Karl

My parents got me a Mini Trail 50, then a CT-70 when I was about 10. Thier intent was to get motorcycles out of my system. I rode both of those bikes into the ground and got distracted by cars and girls in high school. I didn't think much about bikes until I saw a Honda Hawk 650 (circa 1988) on campus one day. It got me so fired up that I actually got a job so I could buy a bike. I didn't get the bike but the job gave me the experience to get my foot in the door at my current company where I met my wife of 11 years.

About two years ago, at the age of 34, I was going nuts from nothing but work and home life and that old bug came back. I plotted, planned, and researched for six months and decided on a 2002 Kawasaki ZR-7S. I got the bike and my wife, mother, grandmother, etc. all told me I was nuts. One of my wife's friends told her to let me do it and I would get bored after a year and sell it. Instead, I rode it 12,000 miles and traded it on the DL, which has 3500 miles in just a couple of months. If it's above 20 degrees, not snowing, and I don't have anything to haul, I ride my bike and enjoy every minute ('cept the crash two years ago).

Ooh, you sound like a PERFECT addition to our little mutual-support group we call JoMomma. Come on over! We're full of advice there...

Oh, and Welcome to the Asylum!

xr400, bought when I was 34.

Best investment I've ever made in my mental and physical health. Regret that I did not buy a bike sooner. Broke my shoulder within the first 3 months and learned a valuable lesson about riding within my limits.

Still love XRs, but now own a KTM 400exc with 5,000 miles and a KTM 200exc (have a love/hate relationship with the 200).

I'll phrase the first question in my Mom's exact words, "WTF were you thinking?" (5 years later her opinion hasn't changed)
I started at age 44 (late 2001). Mom lost a halfbrother and a brother in law (CHP) to motorcycling. What do you guess she thought or felt about it? But she's accepted it.

2. What was your first bike?
'74 BMW R90S. Still my one 'n only.

3. How do you feel about starting so late?
WTF? I couldn't care (or feel) less.
4. What bikes have you progressed to / thru?
After an R90S only one way to to go: regress.

Well I wasnt over 30 when I started riding but I was about 26 and I think the story applies here well. I was in my 2nd year of college....went back to school after getting an associates degree and being out of school for 4 years. I hadnt met a lot of people and hadnt been living in the best of houses. My classes werent going very well and I was feeling rather depressed. One day a friend revived an old honda express (50cc moped sans pedals). It had no breaks and needed work but when I rode it around the campus for a few minutes it put a smile on my face like no other. It was like discovering a new found freedom and openned up so many doors in my heart I Knew I needed one. I went on ebay looking for a moped. I planned trips around the world on mopeds (still find the idea oddly romantic).....read articles about people who had ridden mopeds around the world....like this guy: http://wmuma.com/moped78/index.html

In my searching I came across the Honda CT90's and decided that this seemed like a better option. 90cc 4 stroke 4 speed hi/lo transmission....basicaly a mechanical goat that goes wherever you want and could be aquired for not a lot of money. I found one in CT for $500 and spent a spring restoring it. I took my written test that summer and got my riders permit....bought a helmet and started riding. Old roads I had driven thousands of times in a car were an entirely different experience. The 90 would do about 45 mph with me on it and it was a great way to slow down and enjoy the trip. In July I took the riders test, got my license, and 2 days later I rode the 90 from Central Vermont to North Western Maine. 550 miles round trip averaging 30 mph.....was usualy doing 40, but the average worked out to be 30.

Since then I have progressed, but still own the 90...which has been joined by another ct90 and a C70 passport, to a DRZ400E trail bike and more recently a KTM 950. The 950 and I will be departing near the end of July for 6 of traveling around North America.

I am hooked.

MLady, what an awesome first bike too! Be safe and I know you're already having fun with that.

1. I started at 31. Mom? She hates motorcycles, so I told her I had one several years after I bought it.
WTF was I thinking? Simple. I broke an engagement with a psycho, so I decided I was never going to date again. So I was going to buy a motorcycle, spend lots of money, and race it. And I didn't care what anyone else thought, if they didn't like it, too bad for them.

2. 1984 Kawasaki GPz550. Bright red, of course.

3. I hate my parents because they did not give me a bike when I was young, and made me start late. My daughter is on her second dirt bike, I think it will teach her that riding/driving is a full-time activity that requires concentration and care. I hope it will help her on the street when she gets her license.

4. Progressed?? I'll admit I never rode that 65 hp GPz at its limits. I rode fast on the street, but I could never I ride it as hard as others do on a track. I'm still learning. I sold the GPz and now have a used, large, slow, heavy Honda XR650L. I have fun with it.

I got my first bike at 50. The big five-O, lots of ideas change. I had good reasons for not starting earlier. I'm a surgeon and I've seen motorcycle wrecks than I can remember, many of them fatal. I used to hate the things. My partner still hates them and thinks I have death wish. Go figger.

The thing really started one winter day when I was at the top of our local ski hill looking over at the Grand Teton. I told my wife that I wanted to climb that before I got to be fourty. That idea passed without any commitment or concrete steps to make it happen. But as fourty was put astern I started thinking about what I really wanted to experience in life, and I recognized that I needed to get busy. I learned how to climb in my 45th year and have been doing so ever since, although it takes a lot more effort to get up the hill at 56. I made my first attempt at the Grand Teton at 46 and failed to make the summit. I felt terrible because the climb was such an extreme effort for me and I felt that I might never make it up there again.

Fortunately, I persisted. I got stronger and summited the next year with my 16 year old son. Since then I have climbed a lot of the major objectives in the Tetons and have been on the summit of the Grand three times. I have had some unsuccesful climbs by the more difficult routes up the mountain, but no more failures. I found out that with time and effort one can learn what is necessary to do difficult, technical exercises with skill and confidence. I no longer consider myself a novice in the mountains.

In a similar way I got into biking. I was in my friends store looking for chemicals for the hot tub. He had a gorgeous H-D Electroglyde on display in the entry way. I wanted to try this bike, but it is a big bike, big bike. I rode it around the parking lot for a few minutes, but when he suggested that I take it home for the weekend, I didn't even dare drive it through traffic to get it home. I had no idea what I was getting into. I liked the experience and asked my wife if I could buy the bike. She told me I was nuts at first, but when she saw that I REALLY wanted it she only had one condition. "Okay, I want leathers." What a gal. And ever since she has been along for the ride.

My first two bikes were Electroglides. Way too big for a first bike, but tons of fun when you learn how to handle them. I went to take my license test and promptly dropped the bike and flunked. The examiner, Tom, was also a MSF instructor and got me into and through the coarse. I rode the Harley for two years and learned the basics.

At this point a friend talked me into riding his BMW. I notice an immediate difference in the way it handled, particularly at speed. I felt the difference in the handling of the H-D and bought a K1200LT, and also an F650GS which I reasoned would be a good bike for my sons to learn on. I still have these two bikes but have sold the Electroglide. My wife and I love to take off cross county trips.

But even after a few years of riding I had episodes where things got out of shape, too hot into an unknown curve, riding out over the center line. I decided that for survival I had to become a better rider. I was also motivated by my friends who would leave me in the dust. So, I signed up for a track experience at Laguna Seca. This was my first experience with a race oriented bike, Honda F4. The thing scared me to death at first, but I went home with some sense that there was a lot more to riding than I had assumed. I was determined to master this too. I bought a Honda CBR954RR and put a thousand miles on it to get the feel of it and then headed back to the track. Each time I learn a little more. My confidence is improving and my ability to handle the big bike is much better. I have had a few scary moments at the track. I took a little fall in the corkscrew. It cost about a $1000 to fix the bike, but hasn't dampened my enthusiasm. I recommend track time to anyone who rides, but with an instructor, not just lap time, until you become comfortable.

I recently had a chance to attend Freddie Spencer's School in Las Vegas. A superb class!
I am finally beginning to feel like I am getting the hang of this sport. I have learned that there is a lot of finesse to the operation of the bike, much more than the basics of the MSF.
Can't wait to go back again. The instructors, including Freddie, are fantastic. Looking forward to trying my most recent bike, an MV Agusta F4, at the new track being developed in Utah.

I had the same type of experience at Jimmy Lewis's class, where I learned how to handle my GS a lot better, and as you know that open's up a whole different world off road.

Looking forward to many more enjoyable years in the saddle. My respects to all of you who share the road.