Aftersharing my story of how I accidentally learned to ride a motorcyclein Peru, there was a flood of comments from all of you posting your own stories. Some of those stories are so awesome we figured we’d share them here.

This is how some of us got started:

My best friend raced minis and then later motocross all throughout our youth in the early 1970’s.
My first bike was a Llamaha DT90, bought with newspaper route money, without the parent’s consent, and kept in a friend’s garage.

– @Ohio_Danimal

I was about 11 and had the chance to ride a ToteGoat in St. Paul,Oregon. I was trying to impress an older woman, 12, of my riding skills. Of course, I dumped it trying to turn around in the street, never saw the girl again. Still riding. That was 60 years ago.

-@jumper12

There comes a time in every man’s life, and in some cool chicks’ lives, when the thought of owning a motorcycle trumps everything else – the plea from your significant other telling you no, the fact that you may not have a clue how to ride one, and your own conscience saying, “Dude, is this a good idea?”
The answer? Hell yeah, it’s a good idea!

-@JollyRoger250

我妻子和我决定在摩托车too late to start. Our last child had left the nest and we had run the marathons, raced the Gran Fondos, done the triathlons and looked to do something we had not done. That something turned out to be motorcycles. We took a motorcycle license course learning on 250 cc bikes. We bought a 2010 and 2012 Honda VFR 1200 cc bike each right after the course and set off from Toronto to Calgary and back – about a 7000 km round trip. Learned a lot riding those bikes for three straight weeks and have never looked back. Bikes have about 100,000 km of terrific adventures on them now and we have many more to go.

-@sirvelo

I was a late starter at 32. I always thought it looked like fun but never pursued it. My mother died rather suddenly from brain cancer in 2010 at the age of 60 before my dad properly retired so didn’t get a chance to enjoy the freedom of retirement. That pushed me to actually try doing things I often thought about but never acted on. I told friends I was going to get my license and ended up taking a safety course with my partner, her sister and two of my friends. I’ve been loving it ever since and hope to retire early enough for some extended bike trips.

-@ChuBrocka

How and when did you start riding? Let me know in the comments below!