Regaining my youth

[Lefley]

I use to race bikes many years ago! Decided life is getting short time to shop around and get a bike again lots of choices out there!

 

[Lefley]

Then my wife comes in and gives me the okay to buy one as long as it's something she's okay with. Here it is!!!!

 

[Lefley]

How did we get so old so fast!

 

[Spectric]

You can look at this as either having less time in front of you so less to lose or that because you have less time in front of you it becomes more valuable. I think that having worked all my life to earn a decent retirement then I am not going to let the government keep my money and not pay out the pension so there is plenty to do without getting another motorbike in later life to risk making it any shorter. Times have changed and if you think back the roads were far less conjested and therefore less chance of being taken out, also your reaction time would have been sharper but on the plus side we do now have air ambulances to get you to hospital quicker. I think any form of mid to late life crisis has to be avoided if it involves high risk, I don't need to experience near death to confirm I am alive.

 

[Adam W.]

How about a vintage Vespa, I think they're super cool.

 

[selectortone]

I bought an MX-5 two years ago. (Yeah, I know, bring on the hairdresser jokes...)

I'm 71 and I have wanted a sports car since my teens but family and mortgages always said 'No'. You can call it whatever crisis you like, but after losing several good friends to old age over the last five years I thought - "What the hell, life really IS too short".

In these depressing times it never fails to put a huge smile on my face. I've just come in from a top-down ride through the New Forest in beautiful sunshine. Hard to beat. Go for it Lefley!

 

[Stigmorgan]

Go for @Lefley I am desperate to get my baby back on the road before next summer, my first bike and absolute love of my life was a 1998 Kawasaki ZX6R G1 in red and purple, I adored that bike right up until circumstance forced me to sell her, then when I needed a bike to get to and from work (I can't and don't want to drive a car) the company I worked for offered to buy me a bike so I opted for a Suzuki Gladius SFV 650 and its a beautiful bike to ride, the geometry and weight distribution make her an amazingly fun bike to ride.

 

[Lefley]

Go for @Lefley I am desperate to get my baby back on the road before next summer, my first bike and absolute love of my life was a 1998 Kawasaki ZX6R G1 in red and purple, I adored that bike right up until circumstance forced me to sell her, then when I needed a bike to get to and from work (I can't and don't want to drive a car) the company I worked for offered to buy me a bike so I opted for a Suzuki Gladius SFV 650 and its a beautiful bike to ride, the geometry and weight distribution make her an amazingly fun bike to ride.
View attachment 147156View attachment 147157

Nice! My first bike was a 350 Honda then 3 months later bought a 400 Honda hawk. I believe it was marketed as a Honda dream in Europe. Then 2 months later straight to 750 super bikes.

 

[clogs]

these are what I own.....been waiting 40 odd years to get finished well started.......
still waiting for the workshop to be built....

cant do the head down

up anymore....

last one of the modern bikes I rode was a Beemer S1000, scary fast.....

Stig....enjoy......
have u done ur advanced M'Cycle test....?......best money I ever spent...

 

[Stigmorgan]

these are what I own.....been waiting 40 odd years to get finished well started.......
still waiting for the workshop to be built....
View attachment 147160

View attachment 147159

cant do the head down View attachment 147161 up anymore....

last one of the modern bikes I rode was a Beemer S1000, scary fast.....

Stig....enjoy......
have u done ur advanced M'Cycle test....?......best money I ever spent...

Not done the advanced but did something similar that was organised by my local council and police station. I bought my ZX6R before even doing my test, I had never ridden anything before, not my smartest move but I fell in love with her in the showroom while I was buying my lid and leathers etc.

 

[powertools]

If the Honda 125 trail was sold in the UK I think I could be tempted to return to having any sort of 2 wheeled transport after 50 years away from it.

 

[Kittyhawk]

In my youth I had a BSA Gold Star. Beautiful thing, 500cc single banger, and I would dearly like another or a modern version of it, but I won't.
This is because of things I saw and learned as an Ambo.
What I saw I keep to myself but what I learned concerning adults 65 years +.

Motorcycle deaths/injuries by age in NZ. 2015.
20 - 30 year olds - 160
40+ year olds - 570
It was estimated (2015) that motorcyclists over 60 comprised 22% of the biker population.

From my experience the most common injury in a motorbike accident is a NOFF - neck of femur fracture.
If you are over 65 then you have a 20 - 33% increased risk of dying within the first year subsequent to a NOFF than a younger person does.

Not saying don't do it, just be aware that if you're 65 or more, your body and your reactions are not what they were. For God's sake be careful out there.

 

[evildrome]

I started off on a Honda CB125 T2A and rode that as daily transport for 2 years on an L plate.

Then I got my licence and got a Honda VFR400R, then the 750 version (the RC30). Then another RC30 & another RC30 ( VFR750R.com ) and when the Yamaha R1 came out in 98 I bought one of those.

Of the six sold by the dealer, after 3 months I was the only guy with a bike and a licence.

I went past a police car at <unprintable> mph and sold it the next day.

Then in 2002 my life went to **** & I had to sell all the bikes.

20 years later, things have turned back up for me and my wife said "If you're going to get a bike you better do it soon. You're not getting any younger."

So, dutiful husband that I am, I rushed out & did the one thing I said I would never do & bought another R1.

Same age as the first 1998. 13k on the clock. Blue instead of the Red & White I had first time.

 

[baldkev]

I was always too crazy to own a bike when i was younger, i smashed up more cars than i can admit to and loved every second
After i totalled my favourite car ( 3000gt vr4 ) i went out an bought a yamaha dragstar 1100 from a guy in Birmingham who had started to convert it to a trike.
I got it home and finished it off. Driving down the a38 at about 70, it suddenly felt weird, so i pulled onto the hard shoulder where i discovered how bad his 'welding' was. The frame had been altered and he butt welded the tubes without using slugs
Another time the handlebars came off in my hands whilst going round a corner.... the bolts he'd used werent in the #aluminium# risers more than about 8mm the ali didnt hold.

Also once, when cornering the left hand grip came off the bar and the front tried to straighten up.... i kept my arm straight, but the throttle opened up as the throttle grip twisted and i wheelied into a ford fiesta

I havent ridden it in years because its not been mot'd since we had kids
One day I'll get back to it so it can try and kill me some more

 

[baldkev]

Here she is:

Sadly after quite a few years in storage those front forks need to be re chromed or i might get them dipped eventually. It took quite a few stone strikes at the time after the cheaply resurfaced the roads.

Hope you have fun with your new toy when you get it

 

[bourbon]

I was always too crazy to own a bike when i was younger, i smashed up more cars than i can admit to and loved every second
After i totalled my favourite car ( 3000gt vr4 ) i went out an bought a yamaha dragstar 1100 from a guy in Birmingham who had started to convert it to a trike.
I got it home and finished it off. Driving down the a38 at about 70, it suddenly felt weird, so i pulled onto the hard shoulder where i discovered how bad his 'welding' was. The frame had been altered and he butt welded the tubes without using slugs
Another time the handlebars came off in my hands whilst going round a corner.... the bolts he'd used werent in the #aluminium# risers more than about 8mm the ali didnt hold.

Also once, when cornering the left hand grip came off the bar and the front tried to straighten up.... i kept my arm straight, but the throttle opened up as the throttle grip twisted and i wheelied into a ford fiesta

I havent ridden it in years because its not been mot'd since we had kids
One day I'll get back to it so it can try and kill me some more

That shouldn't pass an MOT. Think yourself lucky

 

[baldkev]

That shouldn't pass an MOT. Think yourself lucky

When i finished it, it looked like I'd have to take it for an s.v.a test. Then i stumbled upon a forum post whete a guy had simply taken his newly triked bike to an mot station, got it mot'd, then took the mot and insurance docs to his local dvla office and re registered it as a trike.... i did the same and a couple of weeks later the new v5 arrived. It clearly would have been better to have the pain of the s.v.a

 

[Superduner]

Ah, the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. I had one in Dubai for a while. It would out corner almost anything including my mate's Porsche 911. Until the gearbox mainshaft broke.
Twin turbo with intercoolers and fearsomely complicated to look after. Trouble was it sounded like a sewing machine.
Now I get my adrenaline rush from a BMW F800GSA.

 

[clogs]

superduner
almost anything will out corner a Porsche 911.....
as a very young man I was looking a a very early 911 and a Harley Duo-glide.......
the later won....hahaha....
wish we could ask James Dean what he thinks of porsche....

 

[Superduner]

If I remember correctly it was a GT3, so a few steps up from a James Dean model.