I find it horrifying how some riders dress. Shorts, flipflops, t-shirt. omg.
2 Likes
My GF lives in Philadelphia where I see lots of riders with no helmet. Amazing.
1 Like
Yes, and often with a young woman on the back similarly dressed. She looks cute, but will be horribly injured if they go down even at 20 MPH.
It is maddening.
2 Likes
I’ve always said there are two types of riders, those who have been down and those who are going down. Me personally have been down twice, not a scratch on me tho.
2 Likes
I have two pals who own motorcycles and they are so very different.
One has a BMW (no clue on model) and I think he treats it as an important method of transportation in a city and not much more. He rarely talks about motorcycles and only socializes with other owners when he has repair questions.
The other owns three Ducati motorcycles and I’m fairly certain he dreams about motorcycles. His wife told me his happy place, if not riding, is just being around and working on the bikes in his garage. He does cross country rides and also attends MotoGP races.
I find these different levels of involvement with audio equipment, cars, all sorts of things. It is fun to see how many different approaches there are.
I am a tweener with motorcycles, but owning three Ducatis I fully appreciate how one can get bit by them, hard.
My scooter on a recent ride. I wear so much safety gear on a recent police interaction I was let go with a warning due to the fact that I was wearing so much gear.
3 Likes
Well done.
1 Like
I used to think I rode on the fast side. When I got my Ducati I started riding with people who actually do ride extremely fast and competently. Most wore pro leather riding gear. I learned I am not fast, not compared to them. On one ride a friend hit a deer. It punctured the radiator on his god awful fancy Honda something or other. He stayed up, pulled over to the side and put the kickstand down. One of the other riders took out his carry and ended the deers suffering. I put the rider on the back of my Multistrada and drove him back to town. Later, on the same ride a new addition to the group lowsided his GXR and a helicopter was summoned. Fortunately he was able to use a regular ambulance. We rode his bike to a nearby gas station.
I don’t ride with those guys anymore. No sir.
I prefer to ride alone and convince myself that I indeed ride the fastest, while quite happily knowing I don’t.
(But the giant killer motor on my big ice cream cone bike is on supernaturally intoxicating. I only need to shift gears in tight twisties to use engine braking to eliminate a lot of braking. Wax on, wax off. Zoom!)
2 Likes
When I started riding 43 years ago, I was a leather jacket, gloves, and full face helmet rider. Pretty good but apparently not good enough. I usually wore jeans. One day someone in a left hand turn lane decided he didn’t want to turn left anymore and he lane shifted right in front of me. This was in the days long before anti lock brakes. I hit the brakes for all I was worth, the back locked up, I slid and went down. Lessons learned? Jeans don’t last very long in a fight with the street. The gloves and helmet did there job. The jacket wasn’t a really good, fitted jacket. It did a reasonable job protecting me but it was able to move around me a lot as I slide down the street and it generated what looked like carpet burns on multiple locations of my torso.
After that day I have never gotten on a bike without a full leather or mesh motorcycle suit that fits me tightly, gloves, over the ankle boots and an Arai full face helmet.
I had the misfortune of being hit about 6 years ago. I was motoring down the left turn lane to turn left, I glanced to my right and see a car coming right at me from a parking lot off the road. I might have been doing 15 or 20 miles an hour. She struck the right saddle bag on the bike with the passenger side front of her car. When I woke up I was in the hospital emergency room. I had been thrown into an on coming car. Now as bad as all this sounds, the end result was 6 broken ribs and a separated shoulder. The gear, while ruined, had done it’s best to protect me. I had on a full leather racing suit, boots, gloves and a full face helmet. My wife and I don’t even like to think about how differently it would have been without the protective gear.
We recently took a trip to Utah, a no helmet law state. When I saw how some of the riders “protected” themselves, all I could do was shake my head. If you ride, please, please, please wear protective gear. It’s only a matter of time before it saves your skin. As tmcqueen said, there are two types of riders, those who have been down and those who will go down. It doesn’t matter how good of a rider you are. Things happen that are beyond your control and they happen really fast!
I also recently added a Brake Free helmet light to my arsenal of protective gear. It won’t protect me per say but it is really bright and get’s the attention of the driver or rider behind you when you’re slowing down. Highly recommended. Getting off my soap box now.
4 Likes
I’m too old for that.
1 Like
Beautiful bike!
Young at heart? If you prefer outriggers, this may do.
1 Like
Nah . . . I know/ride with some riders in their 70’s on liter sport bikes. I bet you do, too. 
1 Like
I always did like that propeller.
1 Like
What kind of sound systems do y’all have on those noise makers?