Some great memories for you there, Doc… 
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Point one on Murphy’s Motorcycle Law’s so true, man.
I remember down in Melbourne having a coffee outside the Elizabeth Street bike shops on Saturday mornings… now and then you’d see the odd pelican drop their brand new bike negotiating a u-turn over the tram tracks with tyres that weren’t scrubbed in yet. 
Same thing was a regular event when Pablo’s Tyres were in Richmond…
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THIS IS WERE MY MOTORCYCLE OBSESSION FIRST STARTED.
YEP THATS ME AT THE AGE OF 6
THATS ALSO MY DAD’S 1957 MERCEDES 180D.
I WENT FROM BORN TO BE WILD
TO BORN TO BE MILD
AND IT ONLY TOOK 57 YEAR’S
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I had the opposite growing up…
For some reason none of us kids ever got scooters or pushbikes, probably because my old man never had aspirations to own a house so I grew up in apartment blocks. Got my first pushie at fifteen.
But once I hit ten, it was skateboards for transport until I was old enough to get a bike learner’s permit. Then the lifelong love affair with two wheels really kicked off.
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We were very fortunate, where we had motorbikes before we could even remember!
Always had some cool old metal pedal cars and Tricycles when really young, and then our first 3 wheel Honda’s as soon as we could hold onto the handlebars and reach the pedals.
The size and types of motorbikes just kept getting bigger as we grew up, eventually getting our first two wheel bikes at around 9-10.
And then the teenage years through the early-mid 1980’s was a flurry of buying and trading between mates over many different bikes until we all got our car licenses and went stupid into those!
As kids, we grew up on … island ( holidays only, after Mum and Dad seperated)
My best mate, Cruze ( still best mates today) had a honda Cr-50, 2 stroke…
as 6 year old kids, we’d grab a packed lunch, jump on the bike, tear up the beach to the creeks, swing off ropes all day, and come back at 3pm…
Adults knew where we were going, of course…
Imagine helicopter parents, doing that nowadays…
we also drove cars, as soon as our feet could reach the pedals…
Standard country fare, but gives city slickers heart attacks…!!
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Sounds exactly like our childhood with the bikes, bushbomb cars and disappearing for days over the weekends/holidays camping out and getting up to mischief!
Also was lucky enough that the old man had a massive big shed and heaps of tools and materials to play with.
Being an Electrician, he had plenty of 1” galvo pipes, benders, conduit coils etc that we shaped and welded up to make modified bikes, hill trolleys, surfboard trailers for our pushbikes and many other creations from whatever parts we could scrounge from out the local tip.
We were even allowed to drive on the backroads when we were 9-10 on long drives out the Wheatbelt to visit family, and had been taught driving on the farms/properties on all the different vehicles/machinery from an early age……. which was more a safety thing where we could operate any vehicle to get back to the farm house in case of an accident/emergency situation.
Forgot to mention being taught firearm safety and shooting guns from an early age as well, which was pretty common back then……… but as like you said, it’s all very different for kids these days 
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My brothers grew up on bikes (unfortunately I grew up before the Japanese 2 stroke invasion). They had their first bikes when they were 4 or 5 and dad would take them to Menai every weekend for a run.
A few years later, when they were working, my youngest brother picked up some new dirt bike. He rides home and offers dad a ride. Mum says “Jim you don’t know how to ride”. Dad hops on the bike, pops the front wheel off the ground for a good 100m, and rides back to borrow a helmet. Apparently my brothers weren’t the only ones tearing around Menai on the weekend
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Aaaaahhhh yes, the Jappa 2-stroke invasion of the late 70’s/early 80’s were the psycho machines that we were all buying/trading/swapping with each other around town in the 80’s!
Prior to that, everything we grew up on was 4 stroke bikes of 250cc being the largest we had as kids……. which is why I was so unprepared riding a mates brand new RM80 for the first time, thinking “hmmpphhh only 80cc”, but boy was I in for a big shock! 
Edit: forgot about the fact that I still have an RD350LC Twin Two Stroke sitting here……. now THAT was a weapon!
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I know what you mean, Doc… those Yammie two stroke road bikes used to go hard. That RD would be pretty collectible now, I’d guess. 
I had an RZ500R back in the mid 90’s… nowhere near as quick as Suzuki’s RG500, but pretty sophisticated for a mid 80’s stroker with that V-Four twin crank donk and YPVS system. I fully rebuilt the engine, trans included, and painted it in the scheme of the JDM Yammies… like this one…
Two weeks after the paint dried I had it written off by an errant twin cab driver down in Melbourne.
One of my all time favourite past bikes I’ve owned.
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This was the very last bike that my old man bought second hand in 1986 before moving further out into our new regional farm property.
I can remember a Green Frog logo on the front windshield and trying to hang onto the back of the bloody thing getting carted all around town as a kid pillion passenger!
They look extremely outdated in this day and age, but back then they were the Ferrari of bikes on the road at the time. 
That Black Paint and Gold Pin striping was a definite 1970’s leftover design, but it was still stunning for its classic appearance.
It was common for the old man to say to us that he was just “going for a short ride” on a Saturday early afternoon……… and then somehow ended up 800 klm away staying at a mates place for the night and not getting back until lunchtime Sunday!
There wasn’t many bikes out of the many that he had owned over the years since even before we were born that he could comfortably ride for such long distances very comfortably……… hence after buying one of these, it became quite common for a “short” Saturday ride to turn into a “long” two day trip! 
Funny that you mentioned the z1r 1000.
I was riding my mates (yes I still have some) Z1R 1000 on the weekend.
He has the blue one
Loved the black colour scheme over the blue.
You think I have a lot of bikes he has 26 all road registered.
I was on his 1980 XS1100 Yamaha
And we swapped bikes
He rides a different bike everyday to a cafe and home a 72km loop.
Since he can’t ride them all I help him out begrudgingly 
His bike are
Z1A 900
Z1B 900 EX CASTROL 6 HOUR BIKE
Z1 1000
Z1R 1000
Rz500
Rg500
Rg250
Harley CR1000
XS1100 EX CASTROL 6 HOUR BIKE
VF750 EX CASTROL 6 HOUR BIKE
900 BOLD,OR
GT750 WATER BOTTLE
KR1S 250
FZ750 EX CASTROL 6 HOUR BIKE
DUCATI GT750
DUCATI SS750
DUCATI 900 HAILWOOD REP
DUCATI 916
KR250
HARLEY’S FIRST SPORTSTER
BMW900S
EX ARMY WLA HARLEY
EX ARMY SUZUKI GR650
EX ARMY 500 NORTON
EX ARMY SUZUKI DR650
EX ARMY WW2 ARMY JEEP
So you can tell he is into ex Castrol 6hour race bikes
And army military
A lot of his bikes are done up to look like the bikes that were raced in the Castrol 6 HOUR races
That’s were we met in 1979 at the Castrol 6 hour race at Amaroo park in Sydney
I think I missed a few there’s one in his bedroom upstairs and one in the bar.
And you guessed it he has never been married
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That really sucks.
I wish I could afford one… Yamaha RZV500R bike for sale in New South Wales - bikesales.com.au
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Link is broken 
…… and now it 20 characters!
I have owned three rz 500 and the most I paid for one was $2500 back in the nineties.
This is when two strokes were considered evil Smellie thing’s.
And Z900 WERE STILL UNDER TWO GRAND
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Crazy isn’t it, bet you wish you had three Rz500’s now to sell 
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Yep your not wrong
I payed $1650 for this z900 with rego
In 1997.
Bought it from the original owner
In New Farm Brisbane.
Pics of me the day I rode it home.
You get ten times the price now
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Have a Z Owners Club over here in the West that a couple of my mates are members, and is always an interesting sight when they meet up for a run/weekend away
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Beautiful bike
I’ve only ever owned '76 Z900s, the porkier one with the twin disc front end. Always wanted an earlier model, particularly a Z1B. Slimmer with that smaller tank and narrower ducktail… more raw and unrefined. A proper hooligan bike.
Maybe one day… 
meantime I’m not complaining I’ve got a '76 to ride.
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