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How did you manage financially when purchasing your first bike?

  • Parents paid for it all

    Votes: 8 4.8%
  • Took up a crap job at the local McDonalds

    Votes: 15 8.9%
  • Parents paid for some...you paid for some...

    Votes: 8 4.8%
  • By the time you bought your bike you were financially independant

    Votes: 104 61.9%
  • Other...??

    Votes: 33 19.6%

Bought and Paid for by....

6K views 51 replies 43 participants last post by  praxedes 
#1 ·
Just curious. Lately it seems like more and more younger sportbikers are lucky enough to receive a sportbike free of charge courtesy of their parents. How did you guys manage financially when you bought your first bike? Parents? Found a job and paid for it by yourself? Both?
 
#2 ·
Other: I paid for my bike with earnings from my internship job last summer. It paid well but was unfortunately only for the summer or else I would have stayed longer since I had last semester off due to transferring to a new school.

I bought the bike back in late September paying cash. Now I'm back in college slowly drying up my savings buying gear and doing maintenance. Too bad I can't try out any of the new gear until it gets a little nicer out here.
 
#3 ·
Other: When I bought mine a couple years ago I was still living at home. But I had been saving for something (i didn't know what) for the past 3 years. So when I decided I wanted a bike, i bought one used with cash.
 
#9 ·
Strange one in my case. A Scottish/Cdn family across the alley from us in '43 & as a 13 yrs old kid I looked at their only child's m/c. He was killed in the first day at Normandy with Cdn army.

Sometime in late '44 they asked me if I wanted his motorbike. Parents realized they were very shock at the death of their only child, so took in the bike into our garage to get it out of the way of leaning up against their home.

Come '45 they did not want it back so this old '36 Harley Davidson 45 SV V-twin was mine sick as it was with shot rear piston, no front brake, etc. So a sort of freebie.
 
#10 ·
Didn't start buying bikes until I graduated college and could afford it. I actually bought the F4 as a graduation present to myself. Spicerke and I both bought the XX and the Blast together.

We probably won't buy another one until we have cash in hand, or at least the vast majority of it.
 
#11 ·
Smitty said:
Strange one in my case. A Scottish/Cdn family across the alley from us in '43 & as a 13 yrs old kid I looked at their only child's m/c. He was killed in the first day at Normandy with Cdn army.
I'm heading off-topic, but I just saw a History Channel special on Normandy, and your poor countrymen really got hosed at Normandy, partially because of the pebbly beach. F'in' Nazis :finger:

Anyway, I bought my first bike only a little while back (one, two years?), and it cost $1k, so I paid cash for it.

As a side note, I'm surprised not to see more, "parents paid" votes. I work at a university, and relative to when I attended college, there are a lot more kids living entirely off their p's, so I had assumed that would translate to transportation too. Maybe its just that p's don't like motorcycles.
 
#15 ·
YZFr6-TX said:
I dipped into retirement to buy my first bike.
Now that's love for the sport!:thumb: :laughing:
 
#16 ·
spicersh said:
Spicerke and I both bought the XX and the Blast together.
Good call on that blast btw:D
 
#17 ·
Tippmann said:
Good call on that blast btw:D
:(

I hate you so bad

:twofinger :laughing:
 
#20 ·
AudioSolstice said:
after that his parents bought him a Infinity QX4...hmmmm
:huh:
Well, I hear they're giving away a fifth of SoCo away with every purchase, so they covered him from both angles :D
 
#22 ·
By '46 I had rebuilt the '36 HD & even obtained an out-of-the-box WWII 45 engine for $25.00, I set-up as flat tracking engine, (the prior '36 might have cost prior owner $50.00 due to condition of the bike) & also ordered in a '47 Scott "Squirrel" 600 being a two-stroke liquid cooled twin & a 350 Doublas flat opposed twin.

Living with my parents the money I earned went to m/cs & in those days $300.00 would land you a new 500. Mowed lawns, planted lawns, dug gardens, built fences, & did handy jobs at the wish of people ALONG with making good money in machining out better rear axles for HD & Indian bikes along with working on other chaps HD & Indians at prices below the two dealers----simple things like replacing stripped threads to putting in piano wire for throttle & spark controls ---- back then m/cs were quite different!!!
 
#23 ·
i didn't start riding until i was 25, nine years ago. so i was already independant and had been for 6 years. so i wasn't one of those slackers who still lived at home and mooched off of their parents for everything. I bought a '90 Yamaha FZR 600 and learned to ride. i loved the thing.
 
#24 ·
YZFr6-TX said:
I dipped into retirement to buy my first bike. Probably wasn't the best idea at the time, but my investments are doing well now.
At one point of time I came into a really nice stock option deal. Had to endure 2.5 years of crap-job to get it, and the stock really wasn't going anywhere for some time. The total investment value kept hovering around $1,500, which I realized was in the range of a starter bike price. I was already eyeing my friend's Bandit at that time, so I decided to sell that stock and get the bike. I thought that was the best reward for working a job I had hated!
 
#25 ·
94 Yamaha XT-225 Dual Sport. Bought off a buddy for $1200. He let me pay 100 a month. Then was able to get my VFR after 3 years.
 
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