When I was a kid my Uncle had an old motorcycle in his barn he would let me ride when I visited. The clutch lever and shfter was on the left side of the handlebars. You squeezed the clutch and while squeezing you twisted the left grip to the next gear. Anyone know what type bike this might have been?
This was back in the late 60s so I'm guessing the bike was from the 50s

 

A bunch of different brand scooters had the grip shift. Or you might be remembering that Schwinn you had so much fun on.

 

My dad had one of those. It was a old Harley Sprint 250. Thing literally would fall apart when riding down the road. So you either saw the same country twice, or had a parts recovery vehicle follow you.

 

I remember riding one of those when I was just a kid, back in the early 70s. A friend of my uncles had a red sprint he'd let us kids ride around in the hay field.

 

Well, I've been learning to ride and get my riding license in 1971 on such a old bike. Don't remember the name of the bike, but i do remember the kind of bike ! So fun.
Johd

 

Dad's was a 3 speed, I think, and had white grips. I was 13 when I first rode it. It was funny. Dad was at the end of the road watching me, and I thought he was motioning for me to "come on". So I was moving pretty good. Only after I got to him did I learn he was motioning for me to slow down. LOL

 

was it a Vespa?

 

That's funny, I remember the one I rode had white grips also.

 

When I was about 12, my older brother had a red mo-ped with white grips and a grip shift. It was an Allstate. If you ran out of gas, you could put it in second gear, pull in the clutch, and pedal to the gas station like a bicycle. Still one of the wierdest things that I ever rode.

 

I owned 2 Vespa Motor Scooters manufactured in Italy, both had the twist gear selector on the left grip.