I'll start.

EZ rider poster in my room. Pre-teen.

The guys just seem to be so cool. And free.
Having fun.

Sound of the motors.

Bad boy image.

Few times on the back. Seemed like a good idea. But scary.

That Vrooom bike by Mattel in late 60's might've started it all...

As a kid there were many influences that made me ride bikes. My first bike was a beach cruiser, I used to tie the dog leash on the handle bars and let the dog pull me - my first powered ride was 1 dog power...
My parents had friends with older children, one had an Electra Glide, I loved that bike, I was about 6 years old.
Growing up my friends in the neighborhood went to summer camp, I was alone and bored... for the first day... My best friend became my Schwinn Stingray that summer and summers after. I used to imaging racing Watkins glen as I'd zoom around the block on that bike.
Then came bronson, in '68, I was 8 and immediately started to wear my wool cap like he did. Dreaming of riding in the sun on that long lonely highway.
As I got older, motors and motor sports were always on my mind. I have an older brother that had a couple motorbikes and I got first hand experience with them. I started to buy and sell minibikes and get hands on experience of bikes with motors and my love for them grew. I was pre-teens.
I got a Honda mini 50cc with the auto 3 speed at 15 and learned how to wheelie it. I used to sneak off to the motorcycle shops when I was 16 to look at the bikes there.
BTW, I also had an Easy Rider poster in my bedroom growing up. Although I never saw the movie until years later.
At 18 a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit me in an intersection breaking my back and putting me in a body brace for months during my senior year in high school. After that my father forbid me to be on a motorcycle ever again. I used to ride friends bikes with out him knowing. I rode every chance I got. On anything with a motor.
For over a decade I focused on work and making a future for myself. By my mid thirties, I decided that it was time for me to get what I had always wanted... an Electra Glide. I got the closest thing to it: A brand new 1994 Road King - the bike I still ride some 22 years now.
I still ride anything I can just to have different experiences but my RK is still my favorite and she's still one of my best friends, right after my dog.

My best mate lobster nicked his dad's bike when we were in our teens and took me for a ride,that did it for me,I was converted,been riding ever since.put it back safely and his dad never knew.(I think).lobster died some years later in a bike accident!

I used to open the "Sears catalog" to the minibikes page-
and leave it on the coffee table for mom and dad to see-
every year before Christmas.
But it never worked.
I wanted one of those sooooooo bad.

All my friends had Honda 750's back then. As for the Sears catalog that was quite a book, I remember they were called "Rupp" minibikes. Always had to go thru the 50 pages of toys and they came the mini bikes. My first was a hodaka mini bike with a motorcycle 5 speed motor. Picture of a 69 Rupp roadster my dream bike when I was a kid and the Hodaka.



Although this one was not my bike I had one just like it! Hodaka 100cc motor.

I found a pic of the honda 50, not mine but identical to the one I bought, fixed and then sold at a profit. I had planned on getting a Honda Sabre but never did.

As for the Sears & Montgomery Ward Catalogs, wow - as a kid - better than the internet. What dreams those books created in my young mind. I remember looking at them - then going out to deliver papers in the freezing cold. Kept me always driving forward to get some cool stuff that I never got... I'm making up for it now with my second childhood.

My mother and father were both active in motorcycle racing n the gypsy tour in the 60's. He rode Ducati. Mother had Harley hummer and moto Marini. I learned to ride on her moto morini.

You KNOW you wanted one of these if you
grew up in 60's or 70's

For sure!!!!