When was the 1st time you jumped a dirt bike?

GarySemics
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GarySemics
Edited Date/Time 4/17/2015 8:55pm
Jumping a motocross bike is one of the most fun and exciting aspects of riding a dirt bike. At 60 years of age I've been jumping motocross bikes for a half a century and I can still remember the first time I caught air. If you're already jumping you know what I mean. If you're not you don't know what you're missing. Sure many people think it's to dangerous, sure it's not everyone's cup of tea but if it might be yours don't tip toe through life to arrive safely at death.

Read more plus photos.

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Micahdogg
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Micahdogg 4/13/2015 7:22am
4/13/2015 7:22am
Age 11, skied out my buddies '88 YZ80. It was a smooth old creek bed, we were dropping in and airing out the other side. I had to pin my poor old 1990 XR100 in 3rd gear just to get any air. Naturally I pinned his YZ80 in 2nd right from the bottom and it was smooth sailing. We were all so impressed with how much air I was getting that I pinned 3rd. Then the nose dropped in the air and I landed on the gas tank and racked myself.

I've never really held any two stroke WOT off the face of a jump since then and I'm 36 now. Sure I'll get some air, but not sacking up and completely on the pipe like that.
FLmxer
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FLmxer 4/13/2015 7:23am
4/13/2015 7:23am
I was on a kdx 80 following multi time wake board champion Darrin Shapiro on his rm60 when we were little kids. I was trying to keep up and we went over this little hill and I accidently caught some air. I turned around and did it over and over then i went home and made my parents follow me out into the everglades to watch me jump it over and over. Best times ever.
ATKpilot99
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ATKpilot99 4/13/2015 7:24am
4/13/2015 7:24am
1980 but it wasn't a motocross bike . My first bike was a Kawasaki KD 100 . Landed like a ton of bricks . I got an 81 KX 80 after that.
overthebars39 4/13/2015 7:49am
4/13/2015 7:49am
When i was 12 on a yamaha trial 50, my mom just came to have a look and i scared the shit out of her.

The Shop

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gt80rider
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gt80rider 4/13/2015 7:56am
4/13/2015 7:56am
1976 on a gt80 yammer hammer of course....
Flesh206
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Flesh206 4/13/2015 8:09am
4/13/2015 8:09am Edited Date/Time 4/13/2015 8:10am
The within the first 45 seconds. Due to panic I came to the edge of my parents property into a woods and ramped off some downed logs. I saved it. Rest is history.
vet323
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vet323 4/13/2015 8:14am
4/13/2015 8:14am
11 y.o. on my stripped AT1 Yamaha. I could hit the end of our ditch and sail at least 3 feet of distance.

I can jump over twice as far as that now.
hvaughn88
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hvaughn88 4/13/2015 8:16am
4/13/2015 8:16am
I had two older cousins that raced. I was talked into doing all kinds of things I didn't want to do at a young age.
RPM68
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RPM68 4/13/2015 8:31am
4/13/2015 8:31am
1992 or 93 at Mills Road, I was 4 or 5, on a PW80. It was the first time I went on a track, and I was scared I wasnt going to have enough speed make it over the jump. So I pinned it. Launched the first Table top and was good, I did the same thing on the 2nd table top, and that was it.

I wont ever forget it.
level
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level 4/13/2015 8:37am
4/13/2015 8:37am
You know this is a great question. I don't know if I really remember.

I remember having a yz 80 and going to a hill in my neigboorhood and jumping it then going to a local mx track and practicing and just getting better and better at jumping and before you know it you are not really sure how you learned you just did.
dirtjumpcycle 4/13/2015 9:06am
4/13/2015 9:06am
In my dad's garden on my 1982 rm 50. I would cut across the rows perpendicular for the whoops section, then turn and go straight down a row. One day my dad went out and built a jump in that straight row. Bad thing is, he didn't let me know about it. So as I was pinning it for the straight, I hit that jump and about went over the bars. I saved it though. Must have hit that little jump about 1,000 times.
Frodad78
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Frodad78 4/13/2015 9:08am
4/13/2015 9:08am
I was 14, riding down in the coal strippings of PA with my buddies on summer vacation. I was on a Yamaha 1981 DT175 with all the dual sport goodies stripped off. My best bud at the time was busting my balls because I was rolling what was one of the few jumps we had down there. I kept shutting off before it and he finally told me quit being a girl and just hold it on!!!

I was pissed! So held it on, feet came off the pegs and I did a superman through the air!!! But I rode it out and survived and that was the beginning.
Dtat720
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Dtat720 4/13/2015 9:13am
4/13/2015 9:13am
The first time i got the clutch/throttle start nailed and didnt stall it, i was so excited i dodnt oay any attention to the freshly tilled garden rows in front of me. Ripped through them like whoops and proceeded to hit the elevation on the other side of the corn rows launching me about 30 feet right in to the woods where i hit a tree dead on and bent my handlebars. Most badass jump ever. It was a 77 elsinore 125m i was 9.
plynn41
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plynn41 4/13/2015 9:23am
4/13/2015 9:23am
About 1973 on a Honda Minitrail 50 (gold tank) at 10 years old. This was when Evel Knievel was on Wide World of Sports and he was my hero. I made a plywood ramp, laid a golden flyer sled behind the ramp, then about a two foot gap, and then a second golden flyer. I made my parents come to the door of the house to watch me jump the sleds. I landed front wheel straight up in the air and my feet off the pegs, but managed to save it. My parents went weak in the knees--not so much from my landing, but when the little 9 year old neighbor girl sat up from where she had been laying down in the grass between the two sleds.
FLmxer
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FLmxer 4/13/2015 9:27am
4/13/2015 9:27am
My sister would ride around in a field on a xr80 all the time when we were kids so i finally talked her into jumping this little 2 foot mound of dirt. She didn't want to though. The face had a smooth transition except the far left foot was a vertical wall and of coarse she hit the vert part and did the endo flying W but somehow she rides it out. She was screaming at me for making her do it. We rode together there on the xr. On the way home with her on the back, her foot hit a stump and broke it. Needless to say I still hear about it 35 years later.
The Rock
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The Rock 4/13/2015 9:43am
4/13/2015 9:43am Edited Date/Time 4/13/2015 10:01am
I don't remember the first time I caught air but I do remember the first double I did. Winchester Indiana in 1974 (maybe 75) they put in a double at the checkpoint. Took me until the last lap of the first moto but I did it.

Gary Semics-I don't have a problem with jumps or air time. I do have a problem with MX tracks that are more SX than MX. Jumping should be part of the MX experience but not the majority of the MX experience. How many videos of amateurs landing on people do we need to see before this becomes apparent to everyone except of course the "racing is dangerous get used to it" crowd.

I would love to know how many of these "people" even race.
Mike.
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Mike. 4/13/2015 9:51am
4/13/2015 9:51am
My first time was yesterday on a CRF250R.

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ButteryWaffles 4/13/2015 9:54am
4/13/2015 9:54am Edited Date/Time 4/13/2015 9:55am
We used to go riding in an old sand pit, now turned into a condo complex. There were decent sized mounds about 10 feet high that people would ride over. I was on my XR70, hit the little lip on the ride side and pulled up like I was on my BMX bike Laughing . Landed halfway down the other side. Best feeling ever.
kijen
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kijen 4/13/2015 10:53am
4/13/2015 10:53am
74 or 75, on a CT 70 at Saddleback on the TT track....it was set up as a pit bike with MX bars and a chopped up down pipe.
fun times!
TheMotoLife138 4/13/2015 12:44pm
4/13/2015 12:44pm
gsxrcr28 wrote:
1976 - MR50
Ditto.
1976 - on a 1974 MR50 coming out of an old irrigation drainage ditch on my grandparents ranch. I would spend hours jumping out one way turning around and jumping out the other way. It was the only Jump I had as everywhere around me was flat pasture land.
Camp332
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Camp332 4/13/2015 1:01pm
4/13/2015 1:01pm
Man, I won't forget it either. Riding my cousins KX80 around the age of 9 or 10. I hit a small double jump in the woods, let off on the face because I was scared, and endo'd that bitch!
GIwasB4
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GIwasB4 4/13/2015 1:27pm
4/13/2015 1:27pm
7 yrs old on this


Off of a 2x6 on a concrete block

ocscottie
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ocscottie 4/13/2015 1:51pm
4/13/2015 1:51pm
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have.

SouthwestMfg
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SouthwestMfg 4/13/2015 2:00pm
4/13/2015 2:00pm
1970 (?) Honda step-thru 55. Were not talking "big" air just air ! Only got bigger / better from there.

Oh and Gary get to work on the next tales from 1982 - really enjoying it !



GIwasB4
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GIwasB4 4/13/2015 2:02pm
4/13/2015 2:02pm
ocscottie wrote:
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have. [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/users/405/photos/25544/s1200_129284810_1270527674.jpg?1294240935[/img]
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have.

The good ole days


hillbilly
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hillbilly 4/13/2015 2:10pm
4/13/2015 2:10pm
73 on a 185 suzuki. 10 yr old.

Oh the stories i have of jumping things., jumped cars at the fairground o n e yr.

Railroad tracks in afton,another good one.

Going down the median of the 4 lane jimping the crossovers.
NV825
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NV825 4/13/2015 2:17pm
4/13/2015 2:17pm Edited Date/Time 4/13/2015 2:20pm
ocscottie wrote:
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have. [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/users/405/photos/25544/s1200_129284810_1270527674.jpg?1294240935[/img]
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have.

I was about this high off the ground the first time I caught air, and I remember riding up to my dad saying "did you see how much air I got!!!?" Felt like feet off the ground and the longest anyone had ever jumped haha Cool
TheMotoLife138 4/13/2015 2:38pm
4/13/2015 2:38pm
ocscottie wrote:
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have. [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/users/405/photos/25544/s1200_129284810_1270527674.jpg?1294240935[/img]
Not the 1st time, but one of the earliest pics i have.

Very nice Scottie!

Take away the trees and throw in some dead dry grass and that looks about identical to my first "jump" in the drainage ditch. I could hit it both ways so I guess you could say I had two jumps technically. Looks like we had the same bike even, though its hard to see looks like you might have the trick DG pipe, mine only had the stock soup can pipe. Years later I got a DG pipe for it for nostalgia sake after doing a full restore on it (always wanted one when I was a kid but never got it). Still have the bike, shiny and new looking on display, though not sure whatever happen to the DG pipe, maybe still floating around in the rafters of my shop.

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