The meaning of life...

[FlamingYellowInsanity]

...I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty certain it involves 2 wheels! Cage-Free for Life!!!


So, how did you all get started riding (in general, ninja specific, whatever!)?

I got started for a few reasons. I'm a full time college student, so the gas mileage of my fist bike (150cc scooter, now a street-race project type) which was around 73mpg (stock) and as high as 78mpg. Now since I have transfered to further school, I needed something freeway/commuting capable, so that is where the ninja 250 comes in. The other, non MPG reason, was the fun factor. I have ALWAYS wanted to ride a motorcycle, but my mom was not very encouraging to say the least. It was something along the lines of "well, I won't stop you, but I don't have to like it." Anyway, the scooter seemed like a safer choice to her (not really any safer), so that is why I started with the scooter.

Anyway, that's me, what about you?

Travis

*maybe this belongs in the biker general section? Sorry if that would be better.

[JCCJMM_]

Good question!

I have always wanted to have a bike, just never felt like the timing was ever right to get one. I am married with 4 kids (going on 5) and I resigned to the fact that maybe just daydreaming about them was as good as it was going to get for me. Before I got the Ninja, I actually came very close to buying a Hyosung GT250R. I am really glad I didn't.

After spending alot of time browsing for bikes, I really felt that the Ninja 250 would the the best. Price was a MAJOR factor. I must have bugged my wife about it for months and friends/family kept saying it was not a smart choice for me. Then, out of the blue last September, my wife shows up at my work and hands me a Kawasaki key!

2 days later the dealership dropped it off at my house (I did not know how to ride yet) and the rest is history!!

Did I mention how awesome my wife is!!!!!!!!

[Alex]

Good question! I didn't give motorcycles a second thought growing up in the northeast. Never even crossed my mind. But we moved out to California a little over 10 years ago, and somehow they entered my consciousness pretty quickly. Started reading motorcycle magazines in addition to the 5 or 6 automobile magazines I was already reading. A friend at work was just getting back into biking after a hiatus, which also helped encourage me. The wife and I ended up taking the MSF course together to get our licenses. The deal was she'd take the motorcycle course if we took a swing dance course as well. Enjoyed both courses, but we haven't been swing dancing since, while we've owned ten motorcycles over that time.

It's hard to explain to non-motorcyclists, but it intuitively makes sense to folks like us that have gotten into bikes. The part of the brain that says "damn, this is fun" when you're doing any type of sport that requires speed and coordination (like skiing, rollerblading, etc), that same part of the brain seems to *really* like motorcycling on a twisty road. And you can do it all day long without ever getting on a chairlift.

[SV-Mark]

When I was 8 years old I went to another kids birthday party, He got a mini bike and spent the day giving us rides around his property on it, I was hooked for all things moto, bugged the folks nonstop and on christmas eve I saw the light on in the kitchen late, I went in and my mom and stepfather were upholstering what looked like a minibike seat, On christmas morning under the tree was a minibike that my stepfather had made for me, It was no honda minitrail but it ran and got me around the ranch, a couple years later my dad bought me a Honda 55 step thru, it went pretty good till it caught fire due to a fuel leak, then I bought my friends cast off Yamaha mini enduro in a basket, I rode that quite a bit for a couple years and the rest is how they say ..history

I like to ride

[Sailariel]

I bought my first MC in 1958 when I was a senior in High School. I needed a way to get to work--majored in mechanics and got my first job as an assistant mechanic in a motorcycle shop. My first bike was a Zundapp 250 which was quickly followed by a 250 NSU. I worked my way through two years of community college and two years of university majoring in English Lit.I rode till 1967 having by then owned several British bikes. My bike then was a 1965 Dunstall Norton. The Norton was in storage till 1971 when I was able to resume riding again. The four year abscence was due to military service and the year it took to patch me up. I rode up until 1982 when some clowns in a pickup ran me off the road. I managed not to dump the bike, caught them, got the plate number, and blew them in to the
State Police. I pressed charges for vehicular assault--reckless endangerment, and the pair got a hefty fine and lost their licenses. At that point I gave up riding because the traffic was getting worse and people thought it was funny to buzz motorcycles, throw stuff at them etc. When I moved to Maine, moorcycles made much more sense. I can ride the back roads here and not see a car for an hour.