A Piece Of Me Died - So Long To My Victory
- Thread starter WardenRoss
- Start date
Why is riding a motorcycle is childish?
wilkoi
Member
I have been riding since June of 1964, still riding my 2008 Goldwing.
In my own words:
To take a motorcycle away from a person who has learned to ride is like taking the wings from a bird that has learned to fly.
In my own words:
To take a motorcycle away from a person who has learned to ride is like taking the wings from a bird that has learned to fly.
I only rode a motorcycle for a couple of years but really enjoyed it. I don't think I ever rode anywhere but back and forth to work, for the most part. That was a 150 mile round trip though, and I did it almost every day, for a couple of years or so.
My first one was a 400 CC Yamaha Majesty, sort of a "proof of concept" project. I had no idea if I even wanted to ride, so I started off small and simple.
Learned to ride, took my test and got my MC endorsment with it. It was a lot of fun. Kept it a year or so, and put about 20,000 miles on it. Then one day I stopped at the local BMW shop to buy a pair of gloves.
Came out with this. BMW K-1200 LT (Light Tank as I called it).
My wife got me in trouble as she so often does with guns. "You look good on that. You should get it." That's all the encouragement I needed, so I traded in the Majesty and became the proud owner of a Beemer.
I had never ridden a motorcycle with a clutch. I had never shifted gears, or used a foot brake. (The Majesty had a CVT transmission and both front and rear handbrakes) I had certainly never ridden anything as large as this...(about 800 lbs IIRC). I rode it around the parking lot at the dealers, I don't think I ever got out of second gear, then figured I had to do it sooner or later and pulled out on the road.
Got home alright, and promply dropped it in the driveway and had to get help getting it up.
I learned to pick it up byself after that. I dropped it a couple more times in the next week or so. Always at low/stopped speeds.
I gradually learned to ride it, and before too long was back to rideing to work on it. I remember pulling in Christmas morning as one of the regular "Harley guys" was pulling in. He commented on me riding in the cold...I told him, "It wasn't bad until the last 20 miles or so." "The LAST 20 miles? Where do you live?" "In Fredericksburg." (about 75 miles north of Richmond). He shivered, and just said "Hard Core" rolled up his window and parked his car.
Then my wife suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain, and I retired to take care of her. The bike was something that had to go. I posted it for sale on a BMW forum, and it sold quickly to guy in Idaho IIRC. I made my last ride to meet a truck at the church parking lot about a mile from home, watched the driver load it, then caught a ride back to the house.
I miss it once in a while when the weather is nice. Must really be hard for you folks who really got into it.
My first one was a 400 CC Yamaha Majesty, sort of a "proof of concept" project. I had no idea if I even wanted to ride, so I started off small and simple.
Learned to ride, took my test and got my MC endorsment with it. It was a lot of fun. Kept it a year or so, and put about 20,000 miles on it. Then one day I stopped at the local BMW shop to buy a pair of gloves.
Came out with this. BMW K-1200 LT (Light Tank as I called it).
My wife got me in trouble as she so often does with guns. "You look good on that. You should get it." That's all the encouragement I needed, so I traded in the Majesty and became the proud owner of a Beemer.
I had never ridden a motorcycle with a clutch. I had never shifted gears, or used a foot brake. (The Majesty had a CVT transmission and both front and rear handbrakes) I had certainly never ridden anything as large as this...(about 800 lbs IIRC). I rode it around the parking lot at the dealers, I don't think I ever got out of second gear, then figured I had to do it sooner or later and pulled out on the road.
Got home alright, and promply dropped it in the driveway and had to get help getting it up.
I learned to pick it up byself after that. I dropped it a couple more times in the next week or so. Always at low/stopped speeds.I gradually learned to ride it, and before too long was back to rideing to work on it. I remember pulling in Christmas morning as one of the regular "Harley guys" was pulling in. He commented on me riding in the cold...I told him, "It wasn't bad until the last 20 miles or so." "The LAST 20 miles? Where do you live?" "In Fredericksburg." (about 75 miles north of Richmond). He shivered, and just said "Hard Core" rolled up his window and parked his car.
Then my wife suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain, and I retired to take care of her. The bike was something that had to go. I posted it for sale on a BMW forum, and it sold quickly to guy in Idaho IIRC. I made my last ride to meet a truck at the church parking lot about a mile from home, watched the driver load it, then caught a ride back to the house.
I miss it once in a while when the weather is nice. Must really be hard for you folks who really got into it.
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