Why ride street bikes?

[Sigarms]

I quit working a whitewater rescue job because I no longer trusted the people I worked with to get me out of a predicament.

On some of those creeks and rivers, the only help you're going to get is from yourself LOL That said, when I worked as a raft guide, I was pretty good at using a rope and pully on moving water if I had to.

 

[Jstpssng]

That explains why the guy who hit my car in the LF tire back in Jan didn't see me, I had a dark blue car. My shoulder is still not right from that...

Aaron Z

That doesn't explain why somebody pulled out in front of my beige Sierra Sierra with DLRs a few years back. He looked me right in the eye and still pulled out like he didn't see me. I left 4 strips of my tires on the pavement, if my ABS wasn't disabled I would have T-boned him.

 

[mopardude318]

I rode a Ducati 848. Loved to ride, had many bikes. Last September a Prius pulled out in front of me. Almost died, I was in Stanford Hospital for 13 days. Lost my spleen, had lacerations in my kidneys, colon, liver and stomach. 4 busted ribs. That did it for me. I'll never get on a bike again.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I rode a Ducati 848. Loved to ride, had many bikes. Last September a Prius pulled out in front of me. Almost died, I was in Stanford Hospital for 13 days. Lost my spleen, had lacerations in my kidneys, colon, liver and stomach. 4 busted ribs. That did it for me. I'll never get on a bike again.

That is a pretty convincing testimonial. A guy can't survive too many of those.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I had a '62, 70, 71 four door, 72.

All had 6's.

The 62 was a 194 with a power glide.
The 71 had a 250 with a power glide.
The 72 had a 250 with a 350 auto.

But the 70 was my baby.
It had a manual three-on-the-tree with a 230L6. I got it from my dad around 1978 with 140,000 on it. It was worn out. SOooooo..... :laughing:

I took the engine to a place called Shaker Racing, and had it bored out .60 over, and align bored, had the crank polished and whatever they did to it, had the head redone, ported it, etc.... basically got it all back in boxes and put it back together myself the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. Got some stupid radical cam from Isky. Headers and a 4 barrel intake from Clifford's. And a Holley 450 carb.

When I got it all together, that little car would do 114. I blew up the tranny doing burnouts in reverse, so I got a 4spd from a junkyard and cut a hole in the floor for the shifter. For some reason, I lost about 15MPH off the top end when the 4 speed went in, which I don't understand, as I think they all had 1:1 final drive. Maybe I changed the rear end ratio at the same time and forgot? I don't know. Anyhow, the top end dropped down to about 99mph, but man, it got there fast! It would chirp the tires in all 4 gears.

The neat thing about the 230 was it had the same bore as the 250 and the small block V8's, but it had a much shorter stroke, so you could spin it at higher RPMs. I could get 6800rpms out of it, but if you went more than about 1/4 mile, you'd pump the oil out of the lifters! :laughing: It was a great 1/8 mile car. A real good stop-light-to-stoplight pest to larger engined cars.

Sadly, the body rusted out so badly, that around 1985 my mom and I walked up to it and pulled the rear bumper off with our hands. :laughing:

I cut it up with a torch, and we put most of that car out with the trash over several weeks.

However, I kept the engine and put it in a 1971 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 with a bolt in small block V8 kit. So it lived on. I still have it in a storage shed for a future project. And I still have the hood from the 70 Nova, too, as a keepsake from the first car I ever drove.

I recall when I bought that car; I wrote a check for $2,330.00 and I got woozy. I didn't think there was that much money in the world. It had 80k on it when I got rear ended by a kid driving a big Pontiac river boat. Was waiting to merge onto heavy traffic. I watched him in my rear view mirror; he never looked at me, only the traffic.
Is that you in the picture? Is that a silver streak in your hair? I have always had the "mark of the skunk" in my hair, although it's about all white now.

 

[MossRoad]

Nooo that's not me. I got no hair, and no Nova, either! :laughing:

 

[Garandman]

Within the older demographic riders, one group at risk are the so-called “Re-entering riders,” those who rode years earlier than took years off.

I took off 1999-2007 while my kids were little. When I got back into riding, I took the MSF Advanced Rider Course. This had been watered down so I took the Total Control Course. I take some sort of training every season - but track days count!

These are all risk factors.
No rider training? Risk factor.
Haven’t read the Hurt Report? Risk factor.
Don’t wear a helmet? Risk factor.
Years off? Risk factor.
Don’t wear riding gear? Risk factor.

 

[kcflhrc]

Within the older demographic riders, one group at risk are the so-called “Re-entering riders,” those who rode years earlier than took years off.

I took off 1999-2007 while my kids were little. When I got back into riding, I took the MSF Advanced Rider Course. This had been watered down so I took the Total Control Course. I take some sort of training every season - but track days count!

These are all risk factors.
No rider training? Risk factor.
Haven’t read the Hurt Report? Risk factor.
Don’t wear a helmet? Risk factor.
Years off? Risk factor.
Don’t wear riding gear? Risk factor.

Dumb Asses in vehicles, Risk Factor

 

[the old grind]

Ape-hanger handlebars, Risk Factor.

Loud-exhaust-pipe-insecure-manhood-compensation is just an annoyance, IMO. Me '89 H-D FXSTS have quiet OEM exhaust. (so do '75 XLH and pet '80 FXEF)

Speed? 40 yrs of riding 'Milwaukee Mopeds' says I'm perfectly fine riding at the rear of the pack.

No ride freeway as going 65 in 70 or 75 mph zone means more impatient auto/pickup jockeys loom in curved mirror that skews distance perception. Pic from 10-7-17. btw have trimmed a few of those excess pounds since then.

 

[tractorshopper]

In the Navy, we had to take a 3 day motorcycle safety course to be able to ride on base. My bike was my only transportation so of course I had to take the course. Was very good BTW.

During the course, there were actual cone drills that we had to ride through with different scenarios, one of which was locking rear brakes for a short stop (not from a very fast speed either, so nothing too dangerous).

This Chief Petty Officer was in the course with me and had bought a brand new Harley with all the extras. This dresser was huge. It was his first bike and he was just learning to ride. During this rear brake lock, he got unbalanced at the stopping point and dropped his brand new bike. I felt really bad for him because I knew that thing was very heavy and he just couldn't keep it from falling over.

The damage wasn't too bad, but I'd feel sick if I scratched up a $30+ bike, so I know he must have been sick.