138 replies to this topic

[shanedennis]

Yup. Part of the plan I have is to find a boat I can stick a bike in, probably have to downsize to something like a CT110 and get back to traveling.

One of my favorite memories is was driving a two stroke Yamaha bike across the Sydney harbor bridge with a rich fuel mix. It felt like riding a comet over Sydney Harbour.

One of my favorite adventures was driving a GS125 from Sydney to Broome via Katherine in 1990. Had some great times. I could make enough money collecting cans along the road to fill up the tank and buy a can of peas. The light road bike was fast enough on the highways but still light enough for the bull dust pitted roads. Eventually ended up in Wyndham via the Gibb River Road where the police finally caught onto fact I did not have a license.

When I worked on a road crew in the Northern Territory in the early 90's, it was always fun to fun to see a little speck in the distance finally materialize as some crazy Japanese or English guy on a push bike or scooter.

These days I just happy to have survived the bike riding days and prefer to get my kicks sailing.

[jackdaw]

You don't see the similarities? Motorcycles are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders. Jetskis are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders.

Beg to differ. My bike is low emissions (standard cat converter), gets 55MPG, and is by far the most eco-friendly way I can get to work. It is also quieter than my car. At 25MPH its almost silent.

[svgreatwhite]

You don't see the similarities? Motorcycles are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders. Jetskis are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders.

Beg to differ. My bike is low emissions (standard cat converter), gets 55MPG, and is by far the most eco-friendly way I can get to work. It is also quieter than my car. At 25MPH its almost silent.

Tom
A lot of people think that way. My parents did too untill I brought an old motorcycle home and showed my dad how to ride it. In just a few years he was up to a Honda Interstate and was travelling and camping all over the western US with my mom. I am not going to make any bold statements like it is "the journey, not the destination"., or it is a "lifestyle". It is just a differant way for me to travel. The truth is that my recent one was a pretty expensive purchase and the money could have been used better elsewhere. I am not "rich" like has been discussed elsewhere. And like Jackdaw said, my mc is quieter than my car, low emission and even though it does not get great mileage, it is better than my 4 wheel drive vehicles, both of which are in the oft hated SUV/truck catergory and also considered "useless" by many.

Is riding fun? Absolutely! Carving corners on a winding road, in my dirt bike days clearing a technical trail section, up with the sunrise riding the Oregon Coast, riding the roads through the Cascade Mountains. It is all good, but obviously not for everyone!

Now as far as jet skis, I have never riden one, but they look like fun too and I would like to try one someday!

[Ishmael]

Now as far as jet skis, I have never riden one, but they look like fun too and I would like to try one someday!

Just stay off my lawn.

[Tom Ray]

You don't see the similarities? Motorcycles are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders. Jetskis are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders.

Beg to differ. My bike is low emissions (standard cat converter), gets 55MPG, and is by far the most eco-friendly way I can get to work. It is also quieter than my car. At 25MPH its almost silent.

So you have one of the "no fun" kind, huh?

Kidding! For what it's worth, I have ridden motorcycles, but only off road. I found it very entertaining, almost as fun as a jet ski.

I'm too scared of nuts on the road and generally have something large to carry or tow, so road bikes are just not practical to me. I walk to work and it's all of about 70 feet.

[Tim042]

Motorcycles are the best fun when ridden on water.

Did someone fart?

You don't see the similarities? Motorcycles are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders. Jetskis are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders.

A big difference is that it was really friggin funny when my stepdaughter and her boyfriend flipped that one. Well, it was funny to everyone except their dog, who swam out to try a rescue. It was not needed. I had explained to them that there is a right direction and a REALLY BAD direction to roll it back over, they got it right and hopped back on. No harm, no foul, just fun!

[jackdaw]

You don't see the similarities? Motorcycles are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders. Jetskis are generally useless, loud and annoying to non-participants, great fun to riders.

Beg to differ. My bike is low emissions (standard cat converter), gets 55MPG, and is by far the most eco-friendly way I can get to work. It is also quieter than my car. At 25MPH its almost silent.

So you have one of the "no fun" kind, huh?

Kidding! For what it's worth, I have ridden motorcycles, but only off road. I found it very entertaining, almost as fun as a jet ski.

I'm too scared of nuts on the road and generally have something large to carry or tow, so road bikes are just not practical to me. I walk to work and it's all of about 70 feet.

All good!

Oh of course plenty fun, on the twisties mostly. On the commutes, you have to satisfy yourself with keeping the cagers honest. Got some captain-of-the-universe type yapping into his cell while wrapped in 2.5 tons of planet hating SUV drifting into your lane? Light him up with a ear shot of this baby, 139 dB SPL of drop-that-iphone-and-steer-your-rig goodness.

http://www.aerostich...n-air-horn.html

In the words of a British friend of mine, its 'loud enough to make a lorry drive weep'.

[farleydoodle]

 P4180009.JPG   195.8K   3 downloads
This is my current bike, a 1998 BMW R1200C. I've been to Edmonton countless times on it, and went to New Orleans and back on it in 2007. It might be my last bike. I still love it, especially after installing an extra 20HP in 2005.

Previous bikes are:

1973 Honda CB350. I took this one on a 12,000 mile tour across Canada and back in 1974.
1974 Ducati GT750. I wish I'd never sold this bike.
1978 Suzuki GS750. Nothing special, but a good reliable ride.

[zzrider]

Cool. A bike thread.

My ride:




My wife and I on a Blue Ridge Parkway camping trip. She has since sold the FJR, she now rides a Honda VFR800

[kgw]

My cousin just sent me this:



Wow.

[trevoryx]

Do scooters count? I've been doing 25 miles a day over the river and through the woods... in the rain, sleet, and snow... getting about 70 miles to the gallon.
That there's a 2-stroke Stella hiding behind the girlfriend's 71 CL350.

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[svgreatwhite]

Do scooters count? I've been doing 25 miles a day over the river and through the woods... in the rain, sleet, and snow... getting about 70 miles to the gallon.
That there's a 2-stroke Stella hiding behind the girlfriend's 71 CL350.

I like the CL350! Except for the paint, it looks stock and has all the pieces.

[Tom Ray]

Hah! Cool dawg!

[Ritchard]

I've had quite a number of bikes over the years, some stayed upright more than others. Last year I bought a sailboat on a whim, and didn't really ask for permission. I sold this Black Beauty (it's in the eye of the beholder, granted) as a kind of a peace offering.

[Great Red Shark]

ah, the R12GS - a fine beast of a machine. I like those a lot but do find them a bit more complicated than really necessary - but it's German, so that's to be expected.

Lots of guys don't 'get' these but let me tell the doubters - they can be ridden as hard & fast as any sane person would want to go on public roads. If you actually ride one and NEED more speed, get thee to the track, or at the least, the TT.

If the boat is likewise as worthy then you scored something sweet.

[MadRussian]

I'm riding for 40 years. Used to race motocross ... some people may remember CZs



and icespeedway ... JAWAs ...



now riding adventure bikes ... just for fun.

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[triciarob]

Used to be a dispatch rider in London in the 80's. Never paid any attention to the mileage after about 200k but rode everything from 125cc 2 strokes up.

The secret to a long life on a motorcycle in a hostile eviroment ( less than 5 accidents I can recall ) including diesil spills on corners and one memorable occasion
when I was waiting at a set of traffic lights , just over the brow of a hill, and heard the sound of brakes behind me just before I got shunted past the cars in front of me at about 20 mph into the oncoming lane of (moving) traffic. The lead vehicle of which was a 4 axle dump truck. Funny the things you remember !

Anyway, to put it into modern parlence you have to behave Passive/Aggressive

Passive - Assume every car in front of you is going to fuck you up and if it does it is NOBODIES fault but your own.

Aggressive - Drive fast enough that you are past the fuckers before they even know you are there. Of course this only works if you keep a paranoid check in your mirrors for the Filth ( police) and know where the cameras are.

Two memorable bikes ;

BMW 1000 GS . What a great town bike, lots of grunt, can take the bumps and kerbs round town and comfortable up to about 100 mph out of town with an after-market screen, plus it handles well enough to grind the rocker boxes on smooth tarmac. Off road it showed what a novice I am when it practically killed me when I entered it in an enduro at the Army Tank Proving Area. 150 mile round trip but I did take the panniers and screen off for the dirty bit.

Laverda Cafe racer . This started of as a Jota and when my work bike gave up the ghost it got pushed into service until I could save up enough to repair or buy a work bike. This always took a long time due to the cost / benefit graph of running a Jota around town. Fuck it was hard work out of town let alone in the city all day.
There was a race frame with a fairly standard Jota engine (Cosworth pistons ) that got tested around Suzuka racetrack back to back by the Japanese Press against the then brand new Honda 900 Fireblade. Even though the Honda was 20 mph faster down the back straight the lap times were the same !

I bought one of those frames, then I was introduced to a man who used to work for BRM in the 60's. He converted the head by filling the inlet tract with weld and then machined a true downdraft head, gas -flowed for 45mm carbs, plus bigger valves obviously. This was in the days of 4* petrol so he changed the squish band, upped the compression to nearly 12 to 1 and put twin plugs in it. It was also bored and stoked to a genuine 1180 cc. After all this work I imagine it produced nearly as much power as a modern 750 . ( but with more low down grunt I hope.) He did all this in his garden shed.

For some reason I believed this was the bike to take me across the States route 66 style . I got it to turn key status but I didn't dyno it and then sold it for the money that bought the boat I am now in Malaysia

Rob

PS no pics but see if you can find anything about " La Gioconda"

[triciarob]

PPS The one thing I really miss after 12 years of cruising is having a bike,

having said that I recently hired a scoot thingy and 50 mph is so fucking fast when you are used to 4 kn.

Rob

[Vashon58]

Bennelli 50
Yamaha 125
Yamaha 360 Enduro
Kawasaki GPz 650

A boss bought me an anniversary issue Harley as a bonus.
36,000 miles later and I still love that bike.

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[Joli]

Not for a long time. Rode a little CB360 for a bit, fun bike.

[jackdaw]

Never been on a real enduro. But it got a story.

This fall a friend who sails invited over some friends that all did trips this summer. Small group, and we knew everyone except a kid in his late 20s. Nice enough guy and we all sat down to watch pix and movies from the trips on the big screen. Everyone went and told our little stories. Then comes the kid.

Seems he does not sail. He BIKES. Took some 600cc dual sport on a home-made trailer as far as he could north in British Columbia, then loads his 90 pound Thai wife on the back, and heads towards the freakin Artic Ocean. Got within 100 miles before huge floods blocked any posible forward progress. The stories and pictures made my mouth drop. I sat there speechless as he told the story. And the best part? They just packed and went. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

[Ritchard]

ah, the R12GS - a fine beast of a machine. I like those a lot but do find them a bit more complicated than really necessary - but it's German, so that's to be expected.

Lots of guys don't 'get' these but let me tell the doubters - they can be ridden as hard & fast as any sane person would want to go on public roads. If you actually ride one and NEED more speed, get thee to the track, or at the least, the TT.

If the boat is likewise as worthy then you scored something sweet.

I don't think my sailboat is as nice as that bike was, but I am enjoying it pretty well as much.

The GS's are not all that complicated. Save for the ABS there was nothing on it I wouldn't readily service myself, and being such simple engines, there's not that much to do. And talk about bags and bags of wonderful torque.

That picture was taken in South Carolina. I took a quick trip from Toronto (In late October through rain snow and ice in the Allegheny mountains - yeesh) a few weeks after I got her. Within a year it was all farkled out with silly specialized expensive bits of stainless steel and such. Oh wait, doesn't that sound just like sailing?

[Trickypig]

Not for a long time. Rode a little CB360 for a bit, fun bike.

I think I have may have seen your bike on the ferry the other day when visiting Vashon. It had fantail exhausts.

What year is it?

[A_guy_in_the_Chesapeake]

I rode yesterday - the wind died down in the Shenandoah Valley, it was 35F, so no ice. Didn't go far, didn't hit any deer, and it felt good to be outside doing something besides choppin' firewood.

I like my 28 yr old FXRT, and when I got back, I took my youngest daughter around the woods track on what's left of my son's Honda 50. The HD showed me it was pissed at me riding somethin' else by opening up a new primary cover leak. Gotta love old bikes.

[viktor]

Kim, those are awesome shots! Pedal power rocks.

I had to DIG for this one... New Years Day, 1998.

Gary Fisher,wow. I went to late grade school and jr. high with him down in Marin Co. I remember him always messing around with old bikes in his garage,putting different parts on different bikes and shit. He came up with some cool rigs back then. As I understand he went on to make a prettty good name for himself. Are those bikes still being made?

[kimbottles]

Kim, those are awesome shots! Pedal power rocks.

I had to DIG for this one... New Years Day, 1998.

Gary Fisher,wow. I went to late grade school and jr. high with him down in Marin Co. I remember him always messing around with old bikes in his garage,putting different parts on different bikes and shit. He came up with some cool rigs back then. As I understand he went on to make a prettty good name for himself. Are those bikes still being made?

Viktor,

SWMBO grew up in Marin, but I think she is old than you. She is a Redwood HS 1965 graduate.

Kim

[viktor]

Small world. Reed elm. and Del Mar middle school in Tiburon. Redwood HS 1968 graduate.
Merry Christmas to both of you and your family. Hope we can get together sometime in the new year.

[bljones]

My most recent ride- 71 kawi H1.


looking to replace her with a Ural or Dnepr sidehack rig.

[jackdaw]

Gary Fisher,wow. I went to late grade school and jr. high with him down in Marin Co. I remember him always messing around with old bikes in his garage,putting different parts on different bikes and shit. He came up with some cool rigs back then. As I understand he went on to make a prettty good name for himself. Are those bikes still being made?

Victor,

Awesome. Yea back in the day Gary would head out on some rig he made in his garage for some 'Tam time'. He and some friends would bomb the fire roads on Mt Tamalpais like maniacs. He was a world class biker and was still many years after he got real good at making mountian bikes. That one was from say 1995, right about the time he sold the company to Trek. He stayed involved for years, might still be. A cool dude.

A few years after that pix was taken I broke that frame right at the Y in a huge crash. It was out of warranty, but Gary sent me a letter and said that if I survived that wreck that ruined that frame, he would give me a new one. Signed it personally with an paint pen. I still got that one.

[blackjenner]

My most recent ride- 71 kawi H1.


looking to replace her with a Ural or Dnepr sidehack rig.

Beautiful. I like the pods, chambers, clubmans and bar ends.

I owned a 1969 (first year) with the nicely styled tank.

Later in life I picked up a 1975 H2 (750cc).

They were both very fun bikes.

[triciarob]

Whilst we're on this topic can any of you LC / GT / H freaks remember the best way you used to de-coke the pipes ?

Ta

Rob

[Nicolations]

1974 R75/6. Just rolled over 200k. I put 80 of that on but now she's tired and need some tlc.

The standard by which all others are measured.

[PATSYQPATSY]

CB 750 F learner, crashed it
500 interceptor raced it, crashed it x5 (favorite bike of the lot)
600 ninja raced it, crashed it
CB600 raced it, crashed it
Realized that fast bikes might be my undoing.
Learned to like low and slow.
78 FLH Mexico bike. Shovels rule (not really) Tijuana toy runs, friend crashed it. It remains
94 Fatboy remains

A friend asked me to trade out my Fatboy for his 'Busa on a stretch of road awhile back. I politely declined citing psychological impairment. Avoided crashing it.

[Deadhead]

1. '77 Yamaha XS400 - First bike. Commuted to college on this one. Took the '66 Corvair when the weather was really bad.

2. '66 HD XLCH (900cc) Sportster - Magneto ignition w/ kick start only. Tore my ACL once when the kick shaft sheared. Reinstalling the individual ball bearings when replacing the shaft was a PITA.

3. '85 HD FXWG (1340cc) Wide Glide - My buddy bought it new in fall '85. I traded him the Sportster & 3 grand for it when he needed cash a year later. I still have her. She rides like a baby carriage. Did Americade in Lake George a couple of times in the early 2000's. Don't ride as much as I should though.

[Py26129]

I had a Yamaha XS 750 triple in the '80s, the model before they changed the styling and made the bikes look like a wanna be chopper.
About ten years ago I rode a Honda Nighthawk 750 for a few years. I sold that bike for the sake of peace in the family but negotiated buying a bigger boat in reg return.

I still miss the bike but love the new boat.

[gun_fordeckie]

Did have a nice GSXR, it was stolen and I bought an cheap interim bike to punt around until I found something else. 5 years later I still have the "interim" bike, '86 Kawasaki GPZ600, it gets me to work and back every day its not raining. Almost 100000km's on the clock and still going strong. Service once a year and a new battery is all I have spent on it in all that time. Could sell it tomorrow for what I bought it for.

Also owned
Yamaha SRX250
XT250
GSXR.

[J.R.]

¡You've owned an amazing bunch of bikes!

I started with a sixth hand Rieju moped in 1986 (Rieju is a small Spanish brand).
Then, a Suzuki scooter that I biught when I joined the Navy in 1993. I replaced it with my first "real" bike, a Laverda 125 two-stroker. And, in 1997, I bought a BMW F-650ST. I still own it and it runs like new. I travelled a lot around Spain with it, but now (married, one kid) I use it mostly for commuting in Barcelona.

[U20guy2]

My cousin just sent me this:



Wow.

A friend went and watched the big super bike event there. He said video does it no justice the guys doing that live there and ride that road every day and know every little dip and paint strip.

This one was also a big deal Stock WRX STI set the record for fastest lap on 4wheels though he almost stuffed it. I recall seeing him in an interview and he said yes I had a moment there.. LOL

[xeon_tsd]

Motorized:


NonMotorized: