I was 8 years old and a new neighbor had moved in with a son just a year younger than me. I had always wanted a dirtbike but because both my parents saw first hand how dangerous they could be, it would be a few years before I got my very own.
Now I finally got around to meeting this neighbor and came to find out that Nick, the son that was my age had his very own honda 110 atc. I had never ridden anything like that honda. Thumb throttle, big balloon tires, and a seat that fit two young hooligans at a time. I can remember pulling the start cord and hearing the thing come to life for the first time. No joke, I had more fun on that bike then should be legal. The folks made us wear helmets but left us alone after that aside from checking on us every once in awhile. One of our favorite things to do was Nick would cruise around in first gear up and down the street and I would hang onto the grab bar and literally be dragged around. I wore out several pair's of pants that way and Mom was ****ed! The exaust exited right into my face and made my eyes sting so I had to let go every so often just to be able to see. Then it was my turn to drag nick. I suppose some of the things we did back then weren't to bright but sure were fun! I got my first good look at the horse trails around my house on that bike. It was small enough to squeeze in between the brush and strong enough to take two of us up the hills. We road the thing with flat tires, broken fenders, at night with no headlight, and out of gas about a mile from home. Guess who got to go get the gas (A full 5 gallon jug). I dragged that gas can on a wagon all the way to the bike, filled it up, tied the wagon to the atc with some string, and away we went. Some memories just stay with you and I can remember this one like it was yesterday. That's a honda that I fully admit to loving.

I had a similar experience. When I was 4 My dad had a buddy who had a little girl who was around my age and for her 5th birthday her dad bought her a little honda. My dad, knowing that as soon as I saw that thing I would want to ride it, bought me a red and blue helmet and gave it to me as Ed was giving Kelly hers. Off we went. We rode the little thing all over the place, in the school parking lot across the street from their house, etc. I remember the first time I went to the desert, it was just a day trip, we were still really little so I'm sure being that we were that young and girls our dads figured to start us out small and work our way up, they took us to this lake bed, I'm not even sure where it was barstow maybe, anyway I just remember it being nothing but dirt forever. Kelly and I rode doubles and took turns controling the bike. She was always a little more of a dare devil than I was and at one point in our trip she turns to me and says "Hold on" and she pops the front end of the bike up and tries to do a wheelie, well off the back end I fall, my foot gets traped in the Tow bar and there I am being dragged behind this thing screaming for her to stop, when she comes down she lands the front end on a big rock and she goes flying and the bike overturns and lands on me. I don't think our dad's were expecting injury so they had no first aid kits. My dad loaded me up in the truck drove a few miles to this little hole in the wall store and picks up a bottle of alcohol and some bandaids and a whole mess of candy. After that I was in heaven, wiped my tears away ate my candy and went home with my first dirt bike battle wounds!

Hey Ben, I still have mine sitting in the garage.

I know you do. I've been scheming on how to get the money for it too! We'll see when I get back to work and get some of that overtime.