I believe that motorcycles have changed my life. I was one of those guys who always loved motorcycles but never bought one because I thought they were really dangerous. I would post pictures, I would always break my neck when one rode by on the freeway. I was even be the guy who idealize the people who rode bikes because I thought it was go cool, but never tried because of my first motorcycle riding experience.
The very first motorcycle i tried to ride was a dirt bike. It was in the early 90's, I was probably like 11 and my friend Ryan and his older brother Matthew were the motorcycle kids in my neighborhood. We lived in Newark, California and on day I was hanging out at his house and his Matthew says, hey lets go ride and I remember thinking heck yea, I'm down. So we go to the garage, and I walk up to this tall bike all white with wild stickers all over it. And there was a second bike which was Ryans and it was leaning up against the wall in the garage, it was a perfect fut for me, cherry red, with a race number 7 on the back, I was ready. I remember envisioning all of the cool shows from tv and guys riding them lookkng cool and I kept imaginging myself being one of those guys. All I thought was I'll figure this out real easy, let's do this. So we loaded the bikes up in the back of Matthews truck, drove for about 15 minutes to this open field where all the guys use to ride. Matthew takes the bikes off the back of his truck, throws on his gear amd takes off. I start talking to Ryan telling him I didn't know how to ride and he said what everyone that ride says, it's easy. That's the funniest thing about motorcycles and motorcycle riders, they look so easy to ride when you don't know how to ride and they are easy to ride when you know how to ride. But when you have no clue of how they work, thays when things go wrong. So I watch Ryan gear up amd he zip's off through the field, it seemed like he was going 100 mph on the dirt, just flyin by me doing jumps and wheelies.
So he finally stops, hops off and goes, alright Travis go ahead she's all yours. Just be careful and fuck up my bike. I remember looking him right in the eyes and sayin again, bro I don't know how to ride and I don't want to mess up yur bike and he goes ohh, it's easy. He goes on showing me how to use the clutch and how to brake and go through he gears. One thing I've also learned about teaching people how to ride a motorcycle is to have patience. So important. But that's not what I received on my first experience, so I get on the bike feeling a little confident because of my short lessons. Ryan takes off his gear, luckily we were the same size in everything, I throw it on and remember my hands sweating so much, and thinking ohh shit this is really about to happen right now. So, I kick the bike on,drop it into first gear and like a newby, I start revving the bike and squeezing the hell out of the clutch. I remember Ryan saying let the clutch out and me being new, drops the fucking clutch, takes the fuck off, the fucking front end lifts up, my legs were dangling off the damn bike. I Ryan screaming stop, I'm fuckin confused, then the bike 12 oclocks my ass, I hit the ground, the bike bounces off the ground and rolls a few feet and then hits the ground and dies. That was the day I didn't get back on a bike till I was 25.Lol
I will never forget my first riding experience, thankfully I walked away amd Ryans bike was okay but that scared me for a long time. To the people who just read this and wants to get a bike and has not yet. It really is easy to ride, just learn from people who are patient, and if your the teacher and your reading this, have more pateients with people. Even if they sound super confident, take your time. It can really bad, there are a lot worst stories then my first experience. But after it is all said and done, learning to ride amd getting back on a bike was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. I will never stop riding. I will gave my actual learning how to ride story on another day. Thanks for reading this. Do any of you guys/gals have any crazy bike stories, lets hear them.
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