The bike I learned to ride on!

1979 Suzuki TS125. I saved my paper route money all summer in 6th grade to buy it and that was in 1992. My mom said no to MX, but the TS was enduro'ish, so I bought that instead.  

Okay....bear with me... for a trip down memory lane.

My first REAL bike.   77 YZ-80-D.       Wanted it BAD, mom and dad said "you gotta earn the money for it".  A great life lesson from them teaching me the value of responsibility, earning a living and how the world works.   So I went out into the "working" world getting jobs around the neighborhood to buy it.    I had quite the enterprise as a kid working for neighbors, caring for horses, mowing lawns, and general "day-laborer" stuff.   All of which had a nice side benefit, it was great for the physique.      

Purchased it from a friend for $175.00 ...and it wasn't even running.    That's where pops taught me another life lesson....working on your own shit. 

We were blessed to grow up in the Santa Monica Mountains along Mulholland HWY....this was our playground for horses, BMX and of course, motorcycles.   So many places to ride and create our own tracks.  All of it right outside the gate of our home.     In the pic you can see a  dirt fire-road running along the mountain.  This trail is now only open to hikers and MTN bikes and horses, but way back, we could ride that trail all the way from Calabasas to Topanga Canyon (where we had a "secret" track).  It's like 7 miles....but back then it seemed like a hundred.   Looking at it on Google Maps sat view, there has been scant residential encroachment,  which is pretty incredible after 40+ years.  The Santa Monica MTNS are a preserve and it was difficult to get building permits, it appears that is still the case.     Even the area where our "secret" track was is still undeveloped, right beside Topanga Canyon (state hwy 27). 

Today, I can only imagine the repercussions of all the good clean/safe fun we had back then on the motorcycles...probably end up in jail.    Technically, it wasn't "legal" back then either, but the police never hassled us and most neighbors were cool about us riding the trails.  We were respectful, always shut off when coming upon horse riders/hikers.     

Good times. 

Few years back, hiked to the top of the mountain in the 1st pic with my sister on a rainy day

A view of "our" little valley that hasn't changed much in 40+ years

It was an 80. It was several years old and pulled out of weeds. I was new to 2-strokes and locked the motor up post-haste. Local honda mechanic was kind to me and my mom, he offered to help me rebuild it if I got the parts. It was so incredibly fast!

It wasn't the first bike I rode but the first real dirt bike I got the hang of riding on

Me on my brother’s 71 Rupp Scrambler

Found the original brochure for my first..

Remember the first time I saw a 1980 cr80. Neighbor kid friend had one. I had my cr60. He said it was like my bike. So I was expecting a mono shock etc. 

He had it parked in his yard and we rode up on our bmx bikes. From a distance I saw the twin shocks. I said dude that's an xr80!! He gave me this angry look like I just shit all over his new to him bike. 

Of course I was wrong for some reason here in the pnw. I see them forsale pretty often. 

Me and my brother Stu both had one of these each. 79 Z50R. Then in 81 we both got YZ80s and started to race PRMA in Ft St John, BC. Funny story, first time out on 80s practicing together, I had the line, but gave in to Stu, ya know big brother an all, who proceeded to cross jump, swap, and eat shit. I raced past bike, past dust cloud, to see his head pop out just in time to kiss my front wheel. I went ass over tea kettle but no worse for wear. Stu on other hand, smashed face, broken nose. Just in time for the first day of school the following week! Good times!!!

My first bike too! Found one years ago for $600…after I tightened down the head it fired right up. I’ll try to restore it someday…right now it’s just sentimental and I’ll never sell it! 

Here was my first. My dad bought it for $50 at an auction and I stripped the lights off it, added a Petty front fender and started riding. Had to charge the battery every time I rode it.

The bike I learned to get dead last on or not finish races 😂

Awesome thread.  I started on a Sears and Roebuck 3.5 hp mini bike.  Learned a clutch and gears on friends 1976 YZ80.  Parents wouldn’t let me have a bike so I took rides on friends bikes as often as I could. Good times!

xr75, z50, kdx80

My first ‘bike” was a Sears mini-bike. I was wanting a taco mini bike but we couldn’t afford a new one so my Dad did cement work on weekends and traded some work for the used Sears bike. Then after riding it into the ground I was wanting something bigger. One Saturday morning my Dad told me to get in the truck it was time for a haircut. I grudgingly got in and we drove into town. As we went by the Suzuki dealer my Dad says let’s stop in and kill some time looking around. I didn’t know my Dad had already been in a few days before and bought me a new 1970 Suzuki TC-90. To help pay my Dad back I went with him on weekends to haul bricks while he did the fences. Hard work but was worth it. 😀

That was my second bike but mine was yellow.

Mine was red, drove the wheels off that bike. 

Congrats man!

1977 YZ80. I lived on the edge of town and had several hundred acres of undeveloped land 2 blocks from the house. On those 2 blocks there were no less than 10 kids with dirt bikes. It killed me to hear those bikes every weekend and not have one. My parents finally relented and bought the bike for my 11th birthday. Like most areas, that land is full of houses now including my own. 

Man....that is just too cool you have that.....especially the way it's displayed. 

Nice find. We’re gonna need a ride report. 😂

SL 70 and I was racing against XR75s. Life was hard.

I had the 1976 YZ80C model and it was the bike to take it from 4-stroke domination to 2-stroke domination. The XRs couldn't hang.

I wish I kept mine but I have a JWRP XR 75 with Fox Shox and mini Betors on it.

Mine was a 1974 TS 50 Gaucho. Got a brand new one and what a sled that thing was!

Tool cool !!  I had the Black Widow model and my brother had that exact one you had.  

1971 Honda CT70 my dad bought me for my 7th golden birthday in 1989. Wanted the new YZ80 but mom wasn't having that!

Cannot believe you had one! Pretty rare to hear as I did too!

1971 Honda CT70, gold fleck, 3 speed automatic.   

Pretty much this pile of shit  for a month or two chain fell off every 10 ft .  Then 77 xr75 , loved that bike . I rode from sun up to sun down 

 Visiting folks back in MN this week, ran across this time travel device ...