Any other motorcyclists here?

[addy1]

We have two Harleys, both sportsters. My late hubbies is a 88 was a 883 but he tricked it out to a 1300cc racing cams, balanced, blue printed, billeted chrome, zero miles put on it. Ported polished engine, great paint job, beautiful bike! He rode it once after he spent 30k on the thing. It is sitting in the garage here.
Dear new hubby has a 98 883 sportster with 6000 miles on it. Sitting in the garage.

I worked in a trauma hospital for 37 years, can not get on a motorcycle and ride it. Saw too much.

Hubby wants to ride, sort of, but I sort of request he doesn't rather have him alive and in once piece. The east coast drivers are insane!

We do have some electric bikes now, I will ride them in our neighborhood, at the beach, but never on the main roads. The roads here, small twisty, no real shoulder, drivers that drive insane speeds.

I like my bones in one piece.

 

[MoonShadows]

Probably not a popular stance on this thread, by motorcycles are one of my pet peeves...not all of them, but the ones that are loud...which are most. I hate the way they assault nature which their noise, and I can't understand how they are allowed to be so loud when if my car muffler had a hole and was making that kind of noise, I'd get a ticket.

 

[mgmine]

Maybe I'm just and old fart but I like peace and quiet and cannot understand how anyone can ride on anything as loud as a Harley. I also like classic design so I don't understand crotch rockets. For me I'm happy motoring down my county road on a Vespa with the wind blowing where my hair used to be. Anything more than 60 MPH I want 4 wheels under me. For that I have an XKE and a Porsche Boxster.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Maybe I'm just and old fart but I like peace and quiet and cannot understand how anyone can ride on anything as loud as a Harley.

Oh come on, how can you not find this appealing?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Probably not a popular stance on this thread, by motorcycles are one of my pet peeves...not all of them, but the ones that are loud...which are most. I hate the way they assault nature which their noise, and I can't understand how they are allowed to be so loud when if my car muffler had a hole and was making that kind of noise, I'd get a ticket.

Actually loud is NOT legal. But seldom inforced. It's bad for motorcycling in general to draw negative attention.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Maybe I'm just and old fart but I like peace and quiet and cannot understand how anyone can ride on anything as loud as a Harley. I also like classic design so I don't understand crotch rockets. For me I'm happy motoring down my county road on a Vespa with the wind blowing where my hair used to be. Anything more than 60 MPH I want 4 wheels under me. For that I have an XKE and a Porsche Boxster.

My Harley has its stock, silent exhausts. It's pretty silent even though it has the 1,600cc engine.(And a whopping 70 h.p.)
My Kawasaki has an aftermarket systen, but has legal decibel noise levels.
Upsetting non motorcyclists is never a good thing.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

We have two Harleys, both sportsters. My late hubbies is a 88 was a 883 but he tricked it out to a 1300cc racing cams, balanced, blue printed, billeted chrome, zero miles put on it. Ported polished engine, great paint job, beautiful bike! He rode it once after he spent 30k on the thing. It is sitting in the garage here.
Dear new hubby has a 98 883 sportster with 6000 miles on it. Sitting in the garage.

I worked in a trauma hospital for 37 years, can not get on a motorcycle and ride it. Saw too much.

Hubby wants to ride, sort of, but I sort of request he doesn't rather have him alive and in once piece. The east coast drivers are insane!

We do have some electric bikes now, I will ride them in our neighborhood, at the beach, but never on the main roads. The roads here, small twisty, no real shoulder, drivers that drive insane speeds.

I like my bones in one piece.

All the bones I've ever broken got broken playing football.
I've never had a motorcycle accident. Knock on my wooden head.
I have little fear of crashing. Fear is a good thing, though. And it's good to not ride if you are intimidated.
It's why my wife doesn't ride much.
Fear is good. Confidence is essential to staying safe.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Oh come on, how can you not find this appealing?

It looks a little like me except that's an old shovel head with ape hangers.
I don't think he cares about what others think....

 

[Mucky_Waters]

All the bones I've ever broken got broken playing football.
I've never had a motorcycle accident. Knock on my wooden head.
I have little fear of crashing. Fear is a good thing, though. And it's good to not ride if you are intimidated.
It's why my wife doesn't ride much.
Fear is good. Confidence is essential to staying safe.

I think the word you are looking for is respect. You want to have a healthy respect for the dangers involved. Fear can be debilitating and can rob you of confidence.
You should have some "fear" though, you should fear having too much confidence, over confidence robs you of respect and is what usually gets people into trouble. People who fear their motorcycle usually leave them in the garage, whereas people who are over confident are out showing off doing wheelies with their buddies in traffic.

I guess the question we want to know is are you in any of these videos?

 

[Mucky_Waters]

On the subject of overconfidence, I taught my two sons to ride motorcycle and went with them when they took their drivers tests and once witnessed a bit of overconfidence at one of these tests.
On this particular occasion, my son and I showed up a bit early at the designated parking lot where my son was to take his basic skills test, there was a guy there already with his dual-sport Husqvarna. We chatted with him for a while and he indicated he was a very experienced dirt biker and had competed in, and won, many dirtbike races over the years but had never actually got his motorcycle drivers license for driving on streets so he was about to begin that process today. Besides my son and this guy, there was another young guy with a borrowed motorcycle and a young 16 year old girl with a little moped type bike who showed up to take their tests. As we stood around waiting for the examiner to show up the guy with the dual sport bike decided to bomb around the parking lot on his bike doing wheelies, which I thought was a little stupid and probably wasn't going to make a great impression on the examiner if he happened to catch him, however, that didn't happen.
Anyway, the examiner finally showed up and he talked to the students all about how he was going to conduct the tests and asked them who wanted to go first. None of the inexperienced ones were eager to be the first so the hotshot wheely guy spoke up and was chosen to go first.
This was a basic skills test that simply got you your basic learners license and is only designed to test and see if you have very basic handling skills of your motorcycle like the ability to ride the bike in a straight line and turn in between some pylons and stop at a certain point, very basic stuff.The guy lined his bike up at the starting point and the examiner told him to drive straight for about 100 feet and turn around and come back between the pylons. I was watching from distance but I could see pretty clearly what was going on. As soon as the guy took off his front tire came off the ground. HE DID WHEELY!
Boy did I laugh. The guy went around the corner and through the pylons and came to a stop exactly where he was told, but all the while the instructor's head was shaking. Needless to say, he immediately failed. I walked closer to the instructor hoping to catch what he was saying to the guy and heard the guy saying something about how peppy the motorcycle is and how hard it is to keep the front wheel on the ground (BS I thought to myself). The examiner's response was that one of the basic skill that the students must demonstrate is the ability to keep both wheels on the ground. (um, ya)
So the hotshot experienced wheelie guy couldn't pass his basic skills test but all the nervous newbies went on to pass their exam with no problems.
A classic example of overconfidence.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I see a lot of late blooming

On the subject of overconfidence, I taught my two sons to ride motorcycle and went with them when they took their drivers tests and once witnessed a bit of overconfidence at one of these tests.
On this particular occasion, my son and I showed up a bit early at the designated parking lot where my son was to take his basic skills test, there was a guy there already with his dual-sport Husqvarna. We chatted with him for a while and he indicated he was a very experienced dirt biker and had competed in, and won, many dirtbike races over the years but had never actually got his motorcycle drivers license for driving on streets so he was about to begin that process today. Besides my son and this guy, there was another young guy with a borrowed motorcycle and a young 16 year old girl with a little moped type bike who showed up to take their tests. As we stood around waiting for the examiner to show up the guy with the dual sport bike decided to bomb around the parking lot on his bike doing wheelies, which I thought was a little stupid and probably wasn't going to make a great impression on the examiner if he happened to catch him, however, that didn't happen.
Anyway, the examiner finally showed up and he talked to the students all about how he was going to conduct the tests and asked them who wanted to go first. None of the inexperienced ones were eager to be the first so the hotshot wheely guy spoke up and was chosen to go first.
This was a basic skills test that simply got you your basic learners license and is only designed to test and see if you have very basic handling skills of your motorcycle like the ability to ride the bike in a straight line and turn in between some pylons and stop at a certain point, very basic stuff.The guy lined his bike up at the starting point and the examiner told him to drive straight for about 100 feet and turn around and come back between the pylons. I was watching from distance but I could see pretty clearly what was going on. As soon as the guy took off his front tire came off the ground. HE DID WHEELY!
Boy did I laugh. The guy went around the corner and through the pylons and came to a stop exactly where he was told, but all the while the instructor's head was shaking. Needless to say, he immediately failed. I walked closer to the instructor hoping to catch what he was saying to the guy and heard the guy saying something about how peppy the motorcycle is and how hard it is to keep the front wheel on the ground (BS I thought to myself). The examiner's response was that one of the basic skill that the students must demonstrate is the ability to keep both wheels on the ground. (um, ya)
So the hotshot experienced wheelie guy couldn't pass his basic skills test but all the nervous newbies went on to pass their exam with no problems.
A classic example of overconfidence.

...And with at least a touch of moron mixed in there.

 

[Limeymotors]

Im a huge motorcycle fan. Mostly older British stuff, but my favorite is my Shovelhead. -Duncan

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Im a huge motorcycle fan. Mostly older British stuff, but my favorite is my Shovelhead. -Duncan

I DO have 90% of a 1971 Norton Commando in my shed..................
And a few old Kawasaki 750 two stroke triples.

 

[Limeymotors]

I DO have 90% of a 1971 Norton Commando in my shed..................
And a few old Kawasaki 750 two stroke triples.

I had a 70 Commando. Loved that bike even though it tried to kill me a few times

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I had a 70 Commando. Loved that bike even though it tried to kill me a few times

It's absolutely docile when compared to the Kawi triples.
The Commando had ignition issues when it got parked.
Then I sold the front forks....