Your Very First Street Bike?

[H2RICK]

DaveG - are you going to let us guess what these bikes are?

Well, SteelD, what we have there is:
The first one is probably a Honda CA-95 more popularly known as a Benly 150. Vintage is ~1965 which is what my first bike was....only in the much faster high gloss black paint.  
The second one is a Honda CB450 and that particular version in the pic was made only 1 year....1969. This was the successor to the famous "Black Bomber" which was buit from, if I remember correctly, 1966 - 1968. The Bomber had the long "torpedo" shaped tank much like the Hawk/SuperHawk 250/305 CB72/77 and a four speed tranny. The '69 version in the pic had a much nicer, IMO, teardrop shaped tank and a five speed tranny but retained a lot of the tinware from the Bomber. I owned one of these beasts for awhile, a red one just like in the pic, but a guy came by in 2001 with a fistfull of cash and bye-bye CB450.
This bike was sold in the US as the HellCat but I don't see the HellCat decals on the sidecover so they may have been removed or have worn off or the covers may have been repainted at some time.
For a guy like myself that goes on about the many virtues of 3,4 and 6 cylinder engines, I've owned quite a few twins, now that I think back a little.  
Thanks for the pics, DaveG.

[H2RICK]

If you ever decide to sell your H2, let me know, ok?

OK, Zen, I'll give you a call about 3 days before they come to take me away to the 24/7 care home......cuz that's about when I'll stop riding it.    
Of course I could be persuaded to part with the H2 if I was offered a nice low mileage original RG500.
Ahhhh....the days of monster strokers when bikes were made of wood and men were made of iron.  

[DaveG]

you are correct on the models but off by one yearon the 450.

it is a 1968 HellCat.  i thought the decals were gaudy so had the importer not install them.

a story: had a friend at manley and son ( the honda importer and distributor at the time) got for me one of the first and specially prepared new 450's.  just a little faster than your off the shelf model. A special very low price too.  My instructions were to beat the crap out of any bikes that want to see how fast it is.

drag raceed it and turned consistent 13.5's (advertising hype said 13.0) road raced it too. Had "Mike" Duff pass me at full throttle on the old humpback while i was braking hard wondering how i would get slowed down for the same corner.
new avons showed how flexy the frame was.
sadly it was wrecked in 1973. i repalced it with that year's model but it was never as good as the 1968

[GooseMan]

My Bandit 400 is my first bike  

[ZenMan]

Ahhhh....the days of monster strokers when bikes were made of wood and men were made of iron.  

[Bob Holland]

In 1966 I started riding on a Harley 45,  WLA, the main motorcycle used by the U.S. Army in World War II, foot clutch and tank shifter. In 1968 I bought a Honda CL 350, In 1970 I got a Yamaha XS 650

[mademiriam]

Saved up my money and at 17 bought my first bike a 1982 GS400 'basket case' as the dealer was unable to get it working. No manual, no clue I had that apart and back together a LOT. Learned how to ride on our gravel driveway after somebody gave me the basics on the phone. Loved that little bike, drove it everywhere. Didn't eat so I'd have gas money in college. That little bike taught me how to ride and wrench. Sold it just last year when I realized I'd never rebuild it and I was just doing it injustice sitting in my parents shed. It was the start of my love affair with bikes, I still remember the first time I saw it.

[leedogg]

Ahhhh....the days of monster strokers when bikes were made of wood and men were made of iron.  

OMG- I bout fell out when I saw the 'Roll Tide' in the background...before I realized that it was a chop(the sign).  I was about to say that I wouldn't be suprised if that was in Bama- then I saw the euro tags on the car.:lol