Why ride street bikes?

[goeduck]

Around here many people ride street bikes year around strictly to get loaded on the ferries priority and off first (after bicycles). So we seem to have more than normal given our generally wet weather. It does help seeing them when 50 are barreling down the road at the beginning of an off load.

 

[drssg]

I took this bike to most of the major US National Parks, up the west coast, and came back east through Canada.


These days, I'm more of a fair weather rider on my current bike.

 

[Ritothebull]

Nothing like a Beemer

 

[Navvet]

Last weekend My wonderful bride and I rode the "Tail of the Dragon" ...

Not too bad for a couple of old, disabled, retired Navy Chiefs ... (She switched to 3 wheels when she turned 64)

 

[the old grind]

I started out with a Honda dream, then bought a Super Hawk vs a plane ticket when I left Ft Sill for the last time. Later I added a pair of Scramblers, one running and one for parts. All were 305s. By then I was riding a Yam XS650B ('75) and had accumulated a Triumph 500 in-basket, two Nortons in rough if running shape, and was seeking a BSA Victor or Royal Star. My N-15 Norton (twin to Matchless G-15) never got much beyond swapping in a 750 Honda fork and was never ridden with it. The Atlas had a blown head gasket and was traded out with all my Brits/pieces at once before I repaired that or rode it much. I'd traded them all for an auto-based three wheeler project that I didn't finish, either.

I've put the most miles on the Sportsters (2 '75s) and a '80 FXEF that wifey had also wanted before her untimely passing that year at 21. I still have all the Harleys ('64 Pan a favorite still in service bay) and currently ride an '89 Softail Springer (w/soaker frt fender :laughing. I picked up another '75 Yam 650 twin and as I near 70 should broom the Harleys and parts to just ride that one. Gee, it handles as 'light' as the pair of Suzi Titans (one with chromed/silenced chamber to fit stock headpipes) and would beat any Hog i ever owned at 0-60.

Currently, one '75 Sportster is rideable as-is (others' carb loaned to Pan) and the Pan needs put back together after a valve grind. The FXEF has only a stripped rear exhaust bolt hole, so it sits with the turn-key XLCH and 650 Yam begging to be ridden vs rotting in the barn. Near misses that I didn't buy a decade or two ago were a Honda CBX with 6 into 1 Kerker exhaust and a Suzi Water Buff, both of whose owners passed away before deals were finalized. I'm about to have a fire sale (hint), mostly AMF era stuff if anyone cares so see my inventory.

I'm sure I'd ride the Springer more if it had a kick start. Electric-only is so boring.

 

[dmccarty]

Decades ago I thought about getting a bike and started looking. Eventually figured out it was a death wish and got no farther. I figured I could drive the bike safely but other drivers are a different matter entirely. Back then, there was no distracted driving due to cell phones which I see multiple times a day but it was bad enough.

I remember seeing one guy pull onto a off ramp on I95. He was going too fast for the curving ramp and he was really going too fast for this particular ramp since it was a decreasing radius. Not sure how that got built but it was what it was. Anyhow, the guy skidded off the side of the ramp. Twas in FLA, and it was sandy, so hopefully nothing really bad happened to him. I was at just the right place to see all of this happen as I drove by and people stopped to help him.

A family member saw a wreck where a car pulled out in front of a bike with two people. They hit the back of the car and went flying over the car. The bike driver seemed to have broken his neck or back because he was laying in the road having bad spasms. A coworker's wife lost a leg when she was T boned by a car that ran a light at an intersection.

I figured I could avoid the first type of accident that was the riders fault but there really is not much you can do about the other driver situation.

I would guess we have at average one motorcycle death each week in this area. Many of these are in Fayetteville, NC where Pope AFB ad Fort Bragg are located. Many young guys down there and they seem to get into many accidents. Many of the accidents and deaths involve only the bike so it is the cycle drivers fault, but there are too many accidents with other cars, and while I am sure some of these are the fault of the bike driver, too many are not.

When we were in Ireland a few months ago, part of the visit was in a small town in western Ireland. We went to a great pub a few times, and one Saturday night, we met another couple whom we talked to until about 2:00am. :shocked::thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing: We were buying rounds for 6 or so hours. :drink: They had recently retired and the guy walks with a cane because of leg injuries.

Turns out they where big into bike racing. They would work during the week, pack up the truck/trailer on Friday and head off to a weekend of racing. This was their life and we talked quite a bit about the risks and such. A week or so prior to this a bike racer was killed, maybe it was two racers, it was a bad summer in Ireland and the UK for bike racers. Anyway, we had an interesting conversation about the risk/reward of racing and their life in the racing circuit. Their daughter's fiance was a racer and died in a race, they had lost friends, and he had been hurt a few times but this was their life and the racing community was one big family. While it was risky, I understood why they did what they did. They were still in the community even though they had retired from racing.

They invited us to a race north of Dublin and we really wanted to go but we had something else scheduled that we could not skip. They were going to get us "back stage" so to speak and we really looked forward to gong to the race. We really hated to turn it down. Not sure it was a good thing or bad thing that we did not go since one of their friends died in a warm up lap. Not sure if we could have helped them or just gotten in the way if we had been there....

Later,
Dan

 

[Navvet]

Decades ago I thought about getting a bike and started looking. Eventually figured out it was a death wish and got no farther. I figured I could drive the bike safely but other drivers are a different matter entirely. Back then, there was no distracted driving due to cell phones which I see multiple times a day but it was bad enough.

I remember seeing one guy pull onto a off ramp on I95. He was going too fast for the curving ramp and he was really going too fast for this particular ramp since it was a decreasing radius. Not sure how that got built but it was what it was. Anyhow, the guy skidded off the side of the ramp. Twas in FLA, and it was sandy, so hopefully nothing really bad happened to him. I was at just the right place to see all of this happen as I drove by and people stopped to help him.

A family member saw a wreck where a car pulled out in front of a bike with two people. They hit the back of the car and went flying over the car. The bike driver seemed to have broken his neck or back because he was laying in the road having bad spasms. A coworker's wife lost a leg when she was T boned by a car that ran a light at an intersection.

I figured I could avoid the first type of accident that was the riders fault but there really is not much you can do about the other driver situation.

I would guess we have at average one motorcycle death each week in this area. Many of these are in Fayetteville, NC where Pope AFB ad Fort Bragg are located. Many young guys down there and they seem to get into many accidents. Many of the accidents and deaths involve only the bike so it is the cycle drivers fault, but there are too many accidents with other cars, and while I am sure some of these are the fault of the bike driver, too many are not.

When we were in Ireland a few months ago, part of the visit was in a small town in western Ireland. We went to a great pub a few times, and one Saturday night, we met another couple whom we talked to until about 2:00am. :shocked::thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing: We were buying rounds for 6 or so hours. :drink: They had recently retired and the guy walks with a cane because of leg injuries.

Turns out they where big into bike racing. They would work during the week, pack up the truck/trailer on Friday and head off to a weekend of racing. This was their life and we talked quite a bit about the risks and such. A week or so prior to this a bike racer was killed, maybe it was two racers, it was a bad summer in Ireland and the UK for bike racers. Anyway, we had an interesting conversation about the risk/reward of racing and their life in the racing circuit. Their daughter's fiance was a racer and died in a race, they had lost friends, and he had been hurt a few times but this was their life and the racing community was one big family. While it was risky, I understood why they did what they did. They were still in the community even though they had retired from racing.

They invited us to a race north of Dublin and we really wanted to go but we had something else scheduled that we could not skip. They were going to get us "back stage" so to speak and we really looked forward to gong to the race. We really hated to turn it down. Not sure it was a good thing or bad thing that we did not go since one of their friends died in a warm up lap. Not sure if we could have helped them or just gotten in the way if we had been there....

Later,
Dan

Life happens .... You can't go around living afraid of everything (or anything) or you would never leave your house. Yes I have had close calls, Yes I have had near misses, some my fault, some not. But in 45 years of riding all over the world, I can still honestly say there is no better way to de-stress and relax than a nice ride somewhere (other than Italy, they are insane).

Last weekend, riding on the twisties in the mountains, hearing my better half giggling like a school girl as we went up and down the mountains was the best feeling I have had in a while.

Is it dangerous to ride.... yes, if you're not careful. Most accidents are young (inexperienced) riders without enough training who think they are indestructible.

Do you have to be more alert when riding ... yes, but that also opens your eyes up to everything around you. You really miss a lot boxed in a cage and going down the road. Riding also tends to give you habits that make you a better driver overall.

A friend of mine just had to give up his bike, at age 94 ...... I just hope I can get out of my recliner when I'm 94.

As Nicholas Cage said in Ghost Rider - "You can't live in fear"

 

[Ritothebull]

Motorcycling is not for everyone, I've ridden with lots of other bikers over the years through different clubs and sport touring events and most of them were good riders but some not so good and then some were an accident waiting to happen. A riding buddy of mine is an MSF instructor and he tells me stories about how bad some of his students are, he said the worst ones usually fail the class but some of them just barely pass and he said it's pretty scay thinking about these riders being out on the roads.

 

[kcflhrc]

You have to be vigilant. Been riding on the street since 1977. Love it or you don't.

 

[Navvet]

Motorcycling is not for everyone, I've ridden with lots of other bikers over the years through different clubs and sport touring events and most of them were good riders but some not so good and then some were an accident waiting to happen. A riding buddy of mine is an MSF instructor and he tells me stories about how bad some of his students are, he said the worst ones usually fail the class but some of them just barely pass and he said it's pretty scay thinking about these riders being out on the roads.

Amen to that brother ....