When I lived with my Aunt and Uncle for a year, my uncle “gave” me a broken down motorcycle. I have no idea what it was and he said the “seals were broken” which made no sense to me at the time (about 14 I guess). I actually thought the freeze plugs were seals.
Anyway, when in The Army in Ft. Meade Maryland, and after my incident with my first car, I bought a little Yamaha 250cc motorcycle. I’d wanted a motorcycle since living with my Uncle but I didn’t know how to drive one. A friend of my in the platoon (Maury) was willing to show me how to ride so we took the little 250 out to the abandoned barracks and practiced riding up and down the parking lot. I of course killed it a few times but never dropped it. Maury was pretty strict about being safe while riding (I want to say he had a Honda 454; four cylinder 450cc); wearing a helmet and keeping both hands on the handlebars at all times.
After tooling around post on it for a short time, I rode it, smoking (needed a tune up), into Laurel and traded it in on a bigger bike. It was also my first new vehicle. A 1976 Honda CB360T blue in color.