I was born in 1980, which means I grew up during a pretty amazing time for small motorcycles.
When I was growing up, 50cc was everything and in order to get a license from 16-18 you could only ride 50cc, then 18-21 up to 500cc and over 21 turned unlimited
Where I lived, there were a few bikes you saw everywhere: the Suzuki TS50X and TS50W, Yamaha DT50 and the different Derbi 50s.
They were basically our first "real" Motorcycles. Two-strokes, gears, clutches, exhaust smoke and just enough performance to make you believe you were much faster than you actually were.
More importantly, they gave you freedom.
At 16, having a 50cc motorcycle meant you didn't need somebody to take you somewhere. You just got on the bike and went.
Then there was the cool bike, the Suzuki Wolf 50.
The Wolf was different from the TS, DT and Derbi enduro-style bikes. It was a proper little naked street bike. Round headlight, street tires, disc brake, six-speed transmission and styling that made it look much more like a full-size motorcycle.
And then, oddly enough, more than 30 years later I came acrossthis Facebook reel from Mecum.
It immediately brought me back.
But what surprised me was thatI never even knew these bikes existed.
The reel showed bikes like theYamaha YSR50 and Suzuki GAG- miniature motorcycles built to look like full-size race bikes.
Full fairings. Racing graphics. Tiny wheels. Tiny engines.
Basically a superbike shrunk down to 50cc.
They would have been dream bikes.
Back then nobody cared about TFT displays, ride modes, electronic suspension or 150 horsepower. We cared about whose 50 was faster, who changed the exhaust, who messed with the carburetor and who managed to squeeze another few km/h out of theirs.
I've owned and ridden motorcycles with engines 20 or 30 times larger since then, BMWs, touring bikes, adventure bikes and sport bikes.
But I don't think any of them can recreate what a motorcycle felt like when I was 16.
Because it wasn't really about horsepower.
It was freedom.
And for a lot of us who grew up during that time, the motorcycle addiction didn't start with some big dream bike.
It started with50cc.
And somehow, that was more than enough.