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Anyone else quit riding motorcycles?

#41
DerHoggz said:
I don't see why you would complain about wearing a helmet, it is just plain stupid not to.
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Indeed. Nothing sucks worse than seeing someone die from a head injury that would have been easily prevented by a helmet. I tell everyone that I've bounced down the road both with a helmet AND without. I prefer to do it the next time with a helmet on :D Now that I'm riding Harleys again, It really bothers me that many of the guys I've met or sometimes ride with, don't wear helmets :( I only wear my full face when I take a long trip but ALWAYS wear my shorty helmet.
 
#42
RWP said:
I have kids and I just couldn't. So I sold my Wide Glide a few years back. I miss it from time to time but I feel like I dodged a bullet.
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this is the key here. Once a guy has kids I think he needs to think Lon and hard about giving up high-risk activities or at least putting them on hold for 18 years or so. At that point it's no longer just about you anymore. I have 2 students this year whose fathers barely escaped motorcycle wrecks alive. One lost his leg. I cannot imagine what it would have done to either of these boys to lose a father.

bc
 
#43
I've heard all kinds of horror stories. And a good friend of mine was in hospital for a month last spring after taking a corner too hot. But that's not really what caused me to get out. I just don't feel the passion for riding like I used to.

I like to get a couple hundred miles out of town and stay out a few days and it seems like I hardly ever have the time to do that anymore. And when I did, that 650 thumper wasn't warming my soul enough to justify the decapitation risk.

Locally, it used to be more of a social thing. But my best friend (who taught me how to ride & helped me fix up my first bike) is lost in booze, these days. Just not the same scene. :hmm:

Funny, though. I spent yesterday helping the buyer clean up my former bike and get it in shape for an adventure ride through Asia. Once I get in to it, I do actually enjoy wrenching. (It certainly helps to be doing it with another person who is compatible.)

Another buddy made me a tempting offer on getting my vintage BMW back. I decided to pass on that - look forward instead of revisiting the past.

But I'm also in a band with a guy who heads the local HD maintenance dept and is a Brit bike fanatic. So I guess we'll see what happens. :hyper:
 
#44
I had my bad road experience with a "bike" when I was still riding my Moped at 15 years of age. I was riding down the street enjoying the ride when someone in a car pulls up along side of me on the left side and decides to turn right. Instead of getting knocked over, I leaned against the car and started banging hard on the car's passenger side, rear fender. The person finally slowed down and stopped, jumped out of the car and screamed at me. She was clueless about what just happened. She had no idea that she almost knocked me right off the road. That was it for me. My desire ended to someday get a motorcycle.
 
#45
Jools4001 said:
Sorry that the MS has stopped you riding. My wife can no longer get on the back of my Ducati ST because she's now in the secondary progressive stage of the disease and doesn't have the strength in her legs or the balance to get on and off the bike; neither does she have the core stability or balance to be safe when she is on there. She misses it and I miss her being able to come along with me.
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Side Car.

Doesn't solve the problem of getting in and out, but solves the problem of staying on the motorcycle.
 
#46
Been riding since about 1974. I usually average about 6000 miles a year but after having L1-L5 fused in November of 2008 my 2009 average was way down. I had to wait for the bone to grow back around the new metal. Of course it rained a lot that summer too. Hopefully I'll be back in the groove this summer.
 
#47
Life is risk. You cannot avoid it.

You can wake up tomorrow, trip on a pair of pants laying on the floor, hit your head on the dresser and boom, gone. You are waking up next to St. Peter welcoming you to the pearly gates.

You take the family out for dinner at McDonalds, and die from food poisoning.

Your presumably safe car could get wedged between two semis that didn't see you, and you sit there trapped as it catches on fire.

Your heart could simply stop, for no known reason.

The choice to ride a motorcycle is not necessarily saying, "I want to do something dangerous." That is just silly. Now, if you want to stop riding because YOU don't feel safe, that is your choice. But, please, don't preach that motorcycles are dangerous.

What's dangerous is allowing people to operate a cell phone while they drive. There is no way to protect yourself from stupid people. They will always find a way to hurt you.

I ride. It saves me money on my work commute. It relaxes me. In 30,000 miles of riding in the last 3 years, I have had to change my course of action due to other cars, but no more than I would have in my truck. A bright red truck. With big bright head lights. And I still get cut-off and get that surprised look, "Oh, I didn't see you there."

Live life, not fear.
 
#49
I rode non-stop for about 8 years or so. Went through a lot of different bikes, I quit once i started losing a lot of friends to idiotic motorists. I don't miss it at all.
 
#56
DigMe said:
Caeman,

Either you are attacking a strawman or you simply do not understand the other side of the argument.

bc
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I understand that some people adverse to specific risks. Personally, I view sky diving as too risky. But I am not going to state to unilaterally as some of the posters here, "Don't do it! You'll die! I once watched a jumper in front of me hit the ground. I'll never do it again!"

Okay, fine. My sympathies on having lost a friend or associate while they rode a motorcycle. Would they have wanted you to give up riding and use them as excuse for it?

If an activity is too risky for you, then don't do it. But to attempt to speak as with authority that no one should do it, is a bit much.

I have lost friends, family and associates to car accidents. Can I now proclaim for all the world to know, "Cars are dangerous! Give up driving! You have too much to live for!" And everyone should just follow that advice?

We all make choices with what to do in our lives. Every choice has risk. Even some of the most innocuous of daily activities can turn out badly.

A motorcycle rider that takes the proper precautions when riding minimize their risk. Wearing the proper gear is the first thing to consider. Some may see it as stupid, but being covered head to toe in proper equipment is a great first defense against damage should you and the pavement have a date. That anguishing 5-minutes to put on overpants, jacket and helmet are nothing compared to years of skin graft therapy. Those helmets? They work. Proper safety equipment for the task.

In our cars, we have seat belts and air bags to help prevent injury in an accident. They have proven successful. If only more riders would get over the attitude against gear, those ER rooms wouldn't have so many visitors.

If the rider is riding recklessly (speeding, weaving, stunting, etc) and without gear on, that is asking for an ER trip in the first place. Don't use those people as examples of how dangerous motorcycles are. I can use drunk drivers in a car in a similar way.

I know many riders that have been riding for a long time. I recently talked with a rider out of Indy, been riding for 53 years. Nice guy. Never been in an accident, always rode responsibly.
 
#59
caeman said:
I understand that some people adverse to specific risks. Personally, I view sky diving as too risky. But I am not going to state to unilaterally as some of the posters here, "Don't do it! You'll die! I once watched a jumper in front of me hit the ground. I'll never do it again!"

Okay, fine. My sympathies on having lost a friend or associate while they rode a motorcycle. Would they have wanted you to give up riding and use them as excuse for it?

If an activity is too risky for you, then don't do it. But to attempt to speak as with authority that no one should do it, is a bit much.

I have lost friends, family and associates to car accidents. Can I now proclaim for all the world to know, "Cars are dangerous! Give up driving! You have too much to live for!" And everyone should just follow that advice?

We all make choices with what to do in our lives. Every choice has risk. Even some of the most innocuous of daily activities can turn out badly.

A motorcycle rider that takes the proper precautions when riding minimize their risk. Wearing the proper gear is the first thing to consider. Some may see it as stupid, but being covered head to toe in proper equipment is a great first defense against damage should you and the pavement have a date. That anguishing 5-minutes to put on overpants, jacket and helmet are nothing compared to years of skin graft therapy. Those helmets? They work. Proper safety equipment for the task.

In our cars, we have seat belts and air bags to help prevent injury in an accident. They have proven successful. If only more riders would get over the attitude against gear, those ER rooms wouldn't have so many visitors.

If the rider is riding recklessly (speeding, weaving, stunting, etc) and without gear on, that is asking for an ER trip in the first place. Don't use those people as examples of how dangerous motorcycles are. I can use drunk drivers in a car in a similar way.

I know many riders that have been riding for a long time. I recently talked with a rider out of Indy, been riding for 53 years. Nice guy. Never been in an accident, always rode responsibly.
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Could not agree more. I live in the UK where helmets are the law but I wouldn't even go out on a 50cc scooter without at least a full helmet and a jacket with proper padding.

Personally I feel that helmets should be law everywhere. And I also believe that you should treat every other road user like an idiot (as a lot of them are).
 
#60
Hugh9191 said:
Could not agree more. I live in the UK where helmets are the law but I wouldn't even go out on a 50cc scooter without at least a full helmet and a jacket with proper padding.

Personally I feel that helmets should be law everywhere. And I also believe that you should treat every other road user like an idiot (as a lot of them are).
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so because you feel that way everyone else should....brits are not allowed to do a lot of things for their own good....that's why the empire decided to go their own way
 

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