You Know You Are Old When

[Jstpssng]

There used to be a crack between the travel and passing lanes wide enough to catch a tire, just before and adjacent to a busy onramp of I95. If you didn't pull over they would come down into your lane like you weren't even there. I remember too well kicking somebody's door trying to make him back off. I don't recommend that while doing 60mph.

 

[Oaktree]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning motorcycles in any way. They were a big part of my life in my younger years. They're just not for me anymore.

Same here. I very much enjoyed riding when I was in my 20s & 30s, but as I got closer to 40 the fun wore off. Another factor was I started wearing contact lenses in my mid-30s, and I'd have to switch back to glasses if I rode, otherwise it'd feel like I had cornflakes in my eyes.

I never had anything bigger than a 450 Honda but you can add me to the list of people who quit motorcycles because of too many near misses from people who just didn't care. The last straw was when a woman pulled out of a parking lot in front of me on my little 400 Maxim. I kicked the rear out, slid around in front of her and stalled the engine with my head about 2 feet from the plow frame on her pickup. As I worked the shifter down into neutral so that I could start it, she sat there screaming at me to get the F*** out of her way. When I got home I put a sign on it.

Not quite as bad, but the one time I had to dump (car pulled a U turn right in front of me while I was going 55mph), I don't believe the driver stopped. I don't think I got knocked out, but much about that day was fuzzy...after laying the bike down my next memory was being in the cab of a pickup with a couple I didn't know pointing out where I lived. After we got the bike unloaded, next thing I remember was an ex-girlfriend who was a nurse being there. She said I sounded pretty out of it on the phone, but gathered enough that I'd been in a motorcycle accident. N.H. still had a helmet law at the time, glad I had one on!

In my unofficial experience, the style of motorcycle makes a difference. My first bike was a stripped down Yamaha 650 that didn't even have turn signals. I had more people pull out in front of me on that bike than in later decades of riding Honda Goldwings.

Well, a Goldwing is a pretty good sized bike, a lot easier to see.
The last bike I had was a 650 Yamaha, I don't remember it being very strippo. Definitely had turn signals (self-cancelling IIRC). Early 80s vintage.

 

[LouNY]

I rode right up till I was 70, I would have kept on but I was having difficulty staying balanced when stopped.

 

[bigtiller]

I know a guy that couldn't reach the ground at stop signs so he pushed down his kickstand and leaned over.

Then he found a girlfriend that was about 6" taller than him and she would drop her feet and balance the bike while stopped.

 

[masscity]

I was in two motorcycle accidents, one when I was 22 in Detroit City in 1969 a guy pulled out in front of me while I was

doing around 35 mph with out a helmet. I was knocked out cold and I cracked my clavicle and totaled my brother's BSA

441 Victor.

California maybe 1986 I went down with my Honda V65 Magna on a curve at 80 mph, I slid about a 125 ft along a berm

behind the bike. $800.00 on the bike, but none on my except very sore for a week. I still have the bike, but quit riding it,

because it's tall and my legs are short, which makes it hard on my bad knees.

 

[bdhsfz6]

When I was in my 50's, I sold my motorcycles and switched to mountain bicycles to get my 2 wheel "fix". I rode trails & bike paths and avoided riding on roads. IMO, riding a bicycle on a busy road is even more hazardous than motorcycling.

Now in my 70's, due to bad hips & knees, I switched again but this time to e-bikes. I'm retired now, which gives me the luxury of being able to travel all over the eastern US to ride the many wonderful rail & canal trails we have in this part of the country.

 

[WinterDeere]

When I was in my 50's, I sold my motorcycles and switched to mountain bicycles to get my 2 wheel "fix". I rode trails & bike paths and avoided riding on roads. IMO, riding a bicycle on a busy road is even more hazardous than motorcycling.

Neil Peart, drummer for the Canadian prog rock trio Rush, has traveled most of the world on 2-wheels, and written a few interesting travel books from that perspective. My favorite was "The Masked Rider", about a 6 week bicycle ride around Africa, but they've all been interesting to different degrees.

He had the opposite progression of you, riding from one city to the next by bicycle when the band was touring in the 1980's, before graduating to motorcycles in the 1990's. The one line I remember, and I think it was from The Masked Rider, was something like "bicycle is the perfect speed to tour the world, with anything motorized being too fast to absorb your surroundings, and travel by foot being too slow to get anywhere."

I think his usual routine was to run from his drum kit right to his tour bus, as the rest of the band was waving their goodbyes to the audience, and have his driver get them out of the city and to a scenic route during the night. Then in the morning, hop on the bicycle, and ride the rest of the way to their next destination.

 

[Runner]

My Brother was riding a motorcycle when he was hit by a car in his 20's and spent the last 45 years of his life in a wheelchair. I've ridden motorcycles and they are fun, but that is the main reason I've never owned a motorcycle.

 

[Jstpssng]

riding a bicycle on a busy road is even more hazardous than motorcycling

You should see the bike lanes down near where I grew up. They criss cross with auto lanes on the roundabouts and turns. You really must be adventuresome to rise them... I have yet to see them used.

 

[Runner]

You should see the bike lanes down near where I grew up. They criss cross with auto lanes on the roundabouts and turns. You really must be adventuresome to rise them... I have yet to see them used.

There is a four-lane road within a few miles of me upon which they took the ENTIRE right lane to make a bike lane. The road is adjacent to a park/lake (but not in the park) and already had 10 foot wide shoulders. However the bike lanes were created after several well publicized fatal accidents between auto and bike traffic.

Ironically, there is also a 5 mile long trail along the west side of the lake (within sight of the bike street/bike lane) that used to be nicely paved and upon which I used to run and ride my bike. However, some genius with the county park department got the bright idea to rip out 5 miles of nice asphalt trail and make it gravel.

Now, I no longer run or ride the trail because I prefer to stay off gravel and would never use that road with or without the bike lane because it is still dangerous. So I just drive 10 miles to a nice paved trail across the state line where I can ride 30 miles in safety....