A little message for Bikers

I have a quad bike and I had a Yamaha SS 50 moped when I was 16 and I had a Honda 50 for messing about in the fields when I was 13. Am I a biker ?

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An Italian scooter in British racing green!

Can’t tell if the blend makes it faster overall? Or more prone to breakdowns? :thinking::joy:

Holdens used to pretty cheap down here, once Holden shut down all the prices shot up! The classics have always been a bit pricey.

Ah. So Holden no longer excist? They are a very very rear bread here in Scandinavia.

You have a beautiful one @TheMadman_tobyjenner :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Yeah. It seems so. Since I don’t have the sportster anymore and I’m missing it very badly :frowning:

Hope its new owner is taking good care of it. Here a photo when was still mine :smiling_face_with_tear:

Nice one Richard :). Why did you get scared of the bike? Any accident?

I love this style of bikes too. What a classic!

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Two things in particular.

Once, I was lead riding ahead of a friend, on a country road with no traffic anywhere in dry conditions. I saw a sharp looking bend up ahead but I completely misjudged how sharp it was due to the road dipping down and out of sight part way round, and it being partially obscured by long grass and shrubs. I had two options. Continue to take the bend and have a full wipe out or abort and hope for the best. I chose the second option. I pulled the bike back up and rode straight on, failing to take the bend and heading directly towards some trees and scrub land. By the time I stopped I had narrowly missed hitting several trees and falling down a ditch of water. Phew.

Also, I have epilepsy. My form of epilepsy means I occasionally suffer from short spasms in my left arm. I am unable to control them and my arm tenses and locks for about 20 seconds. At the time of deciding to sell my bike I was having these episodes quite often. Much less so in recent years. I recognise the signs of them and know one is coming about 1 or 2 seconds in advance. If I had been traveling at speed on a bike I would not have had time to pull over and stop safely, so would potentially have been in a dangerous situation.

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Shut down in 2020 unfortunately… nothing to do with COVID, just too expensive to make cars in Australia and they didn’t shift to SUVs and trucks well enough.

Good call Richard. Better safe than sorry.
:sunglasses:

Looks a bit like this may well be true then :thinking:

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Hey Richard, hope you have a thick skin cos I gotta have a laugh at this. Not your epilepsy, would never laugh at that. Good to hear it’s not as often now. But your scare on the bike. That’s the second time this week you’ve had a problem with the F in country roads ! :joy:

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Bought my first bike when I was 12 raced Motocross until I was 17. Bought a Goldwing in the 80’s and road it until my back injury wouldn’t allow it any more.
Had to dig up some old photo (pre Cell phone) of the may bike trips in the mountains. Rain or Snow wouldn’t hold us back but prefer sunny days.

The Triumph is a buddies. Took it for a ride a few days after he finished rebuilding it.


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Haha.
:rofl:

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Oh. Sorry to hear that. At least is less frequent now. Anyway, leaving motorcycles at time was the correct call.

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Took me a while to figure out what was in the middle of the 4th picture :sweat_smile:. I was thinking it was a small motorcycle with … hair? Zooming I saw it was actually a girl tying her shoelaces :joy::joy:

She’s putting on rain gear. Was one of those days that started out nice and sunny then started raining. Then rained harder but that life in the mountains.

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I see :sweat_smile:. Soz about the confusion. My small phone tricked me

I lived in SoCal (Orange County) while stationed down at MCAS El Toro and had a Kawasaki 454 LTD (my Prince bike, as I called it, lol). LOVED lane splitting and, if done correctly, it’s perfectly safe. It’s the bozo’s who have a general disregard for CA’s splitting guidelines that are the problem (both cars and bikes). A few close calls here or there from ticked off car drivers, but otherwise, no biggie. It was much better than being a sandwich between inattentive/bored rush hour drivers.

I think we’d do better if it was commonplace across the country, like it is in Europe.

Oh, one of my current horses… Yamaha Super Tenere (also have an FJR 1300)

Loved the Super 10 when it first came out it was huge. I have a 29 inside leg (known as ducks disease back in the day, as every time I stepped off the kerb I banged my arse on it) and had to hang off one side to get one foot on the ground when we saw out first at the Collin Collins dealer in Harrow UK. Sales guys says yeah no one can sit astride it with both feet planted. My missus has crazy long legs, threw them over and had both souls firmly on the ground !! Should have seen their faces, especially when she then said she didn’t ride !! Happy Days. :sunglasses:

Ha ha! I’ve got a 32" inseam and can flat-foot it, but it is tall. With the sidebags installed, it can be challenging to get on without using a peg. This bike’s a tractor and really thumps at lower revs, which was one of the draws for me. :smile:

I think the seat height has dropped over the years as they became more of a sports tourer, rather than the outright desert racer that was first produced. If I recall seat was around 37 inches unladen. My missus has a 36 inside leg as straddled it with ease. It dwarfed the Transalp when it came out but your are going back donkeys years. :sunglasses:

Edit - actually 34 inches but still huge, this was the old but new then yamaha xtz 750 super tenere late 80s