Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 12, 2005 - 01:43am PT
At times I've heard people that climb look at motorcycle riding as dangerous. I thought I'd pose this question to the board and see how many like to ride, and if so, what do you ride.
I ride a 1997 Harley FatBoy. Cut my teeth on a BSA 441 "One Lunger" and then on to a 750 Atlas Commando. But my heart was always pounding for a Harley.
1993 Ducati 900 Super Sport and a 1976 BMW R90s. Life begins in the curves.....er, I mean on the sharp end.....er, it's all good. Given a choice between a weekend of Climbing and attending a track-day weekend, I spend Sat. at the track and Sun. Climbing. What a great weekend!
Used to ride daily.
Once went 3 1/2 years without a car just 2 bikes.
I survived an accident with 72 stitches in my neck, 16 in my forehead and a torn medial collateral ligament.
Started out with a cute lil Honda 250, then moved up to the sweetest ride I ever had.... 1969 ElectroGlide. Had her for many moons but let it go four years ago. Now got no bike, until the next Harley grabs my eye. Someday.
Started climbing in 1971, riding in 1977. Been injured doing both. Suzuki GS425, Yamaha XS500, Suzuki SV650, Suzuki GS700. Why would anyone want to ride a Harley?
The only thing that makes bikes more dangerious than climbing is that other people have a lot more -impact- on you. Pardon the pun.
I have owend:
GS500E, TZ250, RD350 and now ride an SV650.
The GS was a good bike to learn on,
The TZ and RD where both a kick, but a hand full on the street
the SV is a good middle ground; Like a clasic 5.8
I have no idea why anyone would want to Ride a Harley, loud, heavy and not very smooth, [except maby the ElectroGlide ;)].
T2...I did a google on your dream bike and came up with a Yamaha outboard motor. Now I can appreciate living on the edge, but where do you put your feet?
I left Yosemite in 1983 to return to school in Berkeley. Both to deal with nasty parking around campus and to replace my adreniline fix needs, I bought a Yamaha XT 250. Worked great. I brought it back to Yosemite in 1986 and rode it around the local forest service backroads.
Then came the helmet law. I know it's lame but I just hate em, for climbing and biking around town too. Sold the bike. Probably needed to downsize anyway.
Hey klaus, nice fazer! I have an '02 that i've owned for a year now. I also have a '78 Yamaha SR500. I live in a house with two other motorcycle freaks.
Those videos are a joke. I have no simpathy for any rider who dies of worser yet becomes a vegetable doing that stuff on the street. It has no place! They give bike and thier riders a bad name. If any of them hade been on a track thay would realize that they are not going "fast" and just a cars left turn from bieng dead and more to the pint hurting some one who is just minding thier own beeswax. If you listen to there shifts you would notice that they are not smooth riders. They just open and close thae throttle full on to full off. That is not skill.
Too many dead and paralyzed friends due to motorcycles.
Many more hurt on them than from climbing accidents.
A water buffalo was walking along and fell into a sinkhole.
A Harley rider came along, looked into the hole, and said, "Hang on, I'll go get some help for you." Just as the Harley rider rode off, an elephant came along, looked into the hole, and said, "I can get you out." With that, he straddled the hole, lowered his dick down the hole and the water buffalo grabbed on and the elephant pulled him out.
Moral of the story?
If you have a dick that's big enough, you don't need a Harley.
ouchhh..... now that was uncalled for.
I am an avid bike guy. I even race them. But doing stunts an the open street puts people who did not ake to be involved in the hospital.
I do like the superman!
Nothing personel Klaus, must be nice to get paid to post on ST all day.
TR - something is going horribly wrong with the engine of your truck...it is attached to two wheels instead of four!
And EC...I put in the winky smiley. But still...if I could ride a wheelie 90mph on the innerstate I would and I wouldn't feel the first bit bad about having done it, either.
I'd rather ride stunts (ok, not in traffic) and track days than climb El Cap any day of the week, thing is, I'm too light for the riding, so I stick with the climbing.
I just got home from a 150 mile ride. It's 2:45am. I was racing some annonymous car at 1am doing 95, well I kinda let him/her keep up. One of my headlights burnt out, good thing my bike has two. Sorry if my posts seem exhaustive, offensive, or gay. I just love riding more than climbing and wanted to share some pics that get me excited. And like I said, I was bored at work today, uh, actually that would be yesterday.
No worries, klaus. Those photos were awesome. I just saw the superbikes race Laguna Seca back in July. I'm an ex-motocross racer that never had much experience near the pavement. Those guys were incredible.
Ever ride Hwy. 9 or skyline in santa cruz mountains?
90mph is childs play...what, were you racing a hybred? ;)
(kidding, glad you made it home safe...btw, don't 'upgrade' to the R1...)
I raced an audi TT in San Diego one night last year. Both my bike and his car were silver. His pipes sounded really good. (my bike is a piped/chipped/modified V2, so it sounded good, too) After the stop/go light dragging down town, we ended up on some innerstate that runs through town, nobody on the road. (2am ish) I guess we weren't really racing, more like playing. He knew the roads so he chose the route.
Why does this sound like one of those playboy write-ins? "I couldn't believe it was me, I'd never done anything like this before, but there she was..."
By the time we were done my threads were showing all the way around on the rear tire...had to stay in town an extra day to get a new one before firing up Hwy 1 to SF to cut over to the valley.
The days that just about kill you are the ones that make it all worth sticking around for. :)
Eric, get a MF answering machine that works, and lets ride.
-Kate.
PS EC - your message is an important one, though, I ride pretty safe around cars, and will continue to do so until I get that wheelie thing down. ;)
hey guys from all the pics guess everyone got the gist of the whole thing . we got riders and we got others who get hurt, so is that the same way you'll think about climbing . me I do both and enjoy both and am still intact .. take care out there folks
I've been thinking about the parallels between riding and free-soloing quite a bit lately. Both are behaviours that bring me incredible highs and act as stress-reducers. The feeling I get way off the deck with only my hands and feet for safety feels a lot like the sensation of tearing up some twisty roads at high speeds; both are situations where one must live fully in the moment and remain totally in control. Both have objective hazards that must be watched for; soloing has loose holds (and down south, wasps), biking has gravelly corners and a million morons in cages trying to kill you.
The best of both worlds was always tossing the shoes and chalk on the bike (BMW F650GS, baby) and zoomin' on out to the crags, the relaxation of the ride perfectly accentuated by the calming effect of getting a bunch of pitches in on perfect S.E. sandstone.
In the decades I've done it I've never had a bad fall free-soloing. I finally met the idiot driver with my name on her SUV a few months back; I'm finally walking, and just now starting to climb again (a bit of roped stuff, but a lot of easy solo).
I also just bought a new bike (F650GS Dakar, baby).
Here's to risk taking. Who wants to live forever?
"Yeah, but you always end up at the same place you started: your truck."
And my truck can go a long ways away from the pavement.
Or, you just ride out of your driveway or your buddy's driveway... except in California, that is...
So, I suppose there is something special about street bikes where they don't always end up where they started? Maybe that's when they get hauled off to the wreckage yard? You're familiar with that, aren't you Klaus?
Klaus you posted 43 times on this thread, thats almost half of the posts!I personally think bikes suck, cause broken bones suck, and I dropped my scooter when i was 15, after that i vowed never to get on a crotchrocket they equal death, I'll take a steel cage on four wheels thank you very much. plus I saw some dudes brains hangin out all over Ceasar Chavez St. when I was young cause he wrecked his bike.
2002 Suzuki SV650 (naked, non S)
1998 Kawasaki KLR 650 Dual Sport thumper, dirt and street
I don't winterize my bikes, I winterride them. When I didn't have to wear a suit to work everyday, I rode my bikes all but about 5 days one year. Going around a sharp curve and thinking, "sh##, is that dark spot ice?" will warm you up some.
The paramedics I ride with call them "donorcycles". But hey: go out happy, and leave your organs to some good people with a few bad parts. It's not too bad.
Of course, most of my personal motorcycle use is the engine we're using in our Formula car.
I started riding in 89.
Yamaha 89 FZR 600.
Yamaha 99 R1.
Yamaha 99 R6.
Suzuki 01 GSXR 750.
Yamaha 91 SP 750 AMA superbike.
I raced but stopped after I shortened my left arm half an inch. Track days are loads of fun but once I started riding on the track, riding on the street was no fun.
These kinda bikes can't be ridden close to their limitations on the street. On the track, you can start to appreciate their design and horsepower. Just when you think you can ride, some guy on an old piece of sh#t blows you away in a corner. It's all in the rider.
I would love to have a Dakar for commuting to work but all my money is tired up in climbing and bicycling at the moment.
Previously:
125 Honda enduro
1200 HD sportster
1200 Yamaha Venture Royale
440 Kawasaki (up and over Donner pass on several occasions. Once in a miserably cold light snow.)
Honda 400 Nighthawk(?)
It's all dangerous. All we can do is try to manage and mitigate some of the risk through knowledge and judgement. So why do I keep posting here?
We spent yesterday trail riding in the clouds all day. My sons on their little KX's and me on my trusty CR500. They are getting fast and will skool me sometime in the next few years no doubt.
I just picked up this fuel injected CRF450 for track duty and after a test session at Piru, I'm totally addicted to big air, again.
Credit: pud
Took both these beasts out as well over the weekend. Just for some mellow road time.
Yeah, but he did it on a two-lane back road in the San Joaquin farm country
not knowing if somebody would pull out of some fruit tree grove. Kinda hard
to find a road you can lean it over at 130, isn't it?
Reilly, your buddy is playing with fire doing those speeds on open roads.
Hit a coyote anywhere over 150 and you won't be going home that day.
130 or 180 mph on a track with slicks at proper temps is incredible.
It is awesome to control a bike at those speeds.
Busting out 180 on a two lane is hairy. Too many objective hazards in an already lethal environment. Your friend should take it to a track.
Thanks Bryan looks like your crf is running the same set up. When I picked up my XR she was totally stock except for the over size tank. She had been crashed and neglected but had a strong motor. I got her for a song and a dance then droped about $3500 into her. The wheel set was originally more than I wanted to put back into the bike but I am so glad I did now.
My girlfriend has a plated 2001 XR250R
Big red and little red love riding with each other
I just added this Trail tech Voyager GPS dash board unit on big red. The thing is bad ass. I now have a temp gage, tach, speedo and altimeter. You can import gpx ride tracks I love this unit.
The first pic of the XR is at Corral Canyon OHV area. It is located east of San Diego near Lake Morena and Pine Valley off Hwy 8.
The first 2 pics in my second post are in the Big Bear area. The 2nd one is on a trail that drops from Crab flats campground to I believe Deep Creek eventually ending at lake Arrowhead. The 3rd is in Bishop. I glanced at your above link to your trip report on adventureriders.com I look forward to actually read it. I just bought my XR back in August and it took me a liitle bit to get her dialed in. She needed some love! I am all about this dualsport riding thing and want to do some bigger, longer rides like the one you did. I am constantly looking at maps, roads and places to ride with my new buddy Big Red. Going to explore Ocotillo and Anza Borrego for a few days over Thanksgiving with my girlfriend. If you ever are putting together a local (SO CAL) day ride or even a bigger ride and have room for another rider please let me know.
Zoom Splats. they go zoomin down the road then they go splat. I love bikes and I love watching Moto GP but I do not think I will ever seriously ride again. there really are only two kinds of motorcyclists. Those who have been down and those who are going down.
Rideing at all fast at night is complete russian roulette. You really do outrun your headlights pretty quick. An owl swooped down and picked a mouse off the road in front of me once. Only going 70 but would never have had a chance to avoid that one. We simply missed each other by luck. I have dumped it at 110 when I burned a hole in a piston and high sided. walked away with a broken collarbone and two sprained ankles. Hitch hiked to the hospital. I thought it was a pretty cool crash. My best friend crashed, burned and died a few weeks later....
Willow Springs, first weekend of June 1983, ARRA Box Stock qualifyer, going into turn 7 wide open on my Katana 750D and booom! The front tire blows. No SHET!... at around 120 or so.... what a slide. Bike went flying into the desert and I all the way down some 200' almost into turn 8. Luckily there was no one along side or behind me.
Got many other slide for life at over 80+ stories on GPZ550's and my other Katana, the 1000, PUD. But as you posted, gotta be luck or just fate.
My Katana 83' 750 was soooooooooo bad ass...
(Borrowed from the web!)
Maybe if we lived near a real track my friend would still be alive? Street raceing is real bad but even if you are a conservative old fuddy dudy your going to get squeezed out by a truck sooner or later. if you ride a Harly you will most likly end up obease and croak from a heart attack..
For every harly rider that is in shape there are 10 fat slob wanna be tough guys. For every hot harly chick there are 10 wall mart +++ size specials ... just the facts..... sad but true..
T2, yes we should hook up for a ride. Talking about doing the Mojave trail again soon, would also like to repeat the classic Anza Borrego loop. I still haven't recovered financially from Nevada. Work is slow.
Love the Voyager, the main reason I got it was for the coordinates. With a map and the coordinates you can always figure out where you are. I was kind of a dummy on the NV ride as for a couple days I couldn't remember how to access the coordinates and had to rely on my friends GPS. Finally figured it out, duh!
I'm gonna' finish posting the story by the end of this weekend on ADV.
WOW! that Isle of man TT video is liveing proof that nascar is for pussys! many of the moto GP races were like that back in the 60's 70's and 80's. I think Isle of man was part of the moto GP circuit back then?
Isle of Man TT
oh Yeah!
The epitome of real road racing.
"only" 6 laps of a 38 mile race on public roads. About 230 miles.
Except for WWII, it's been run since 1907. 10 laps of a 15 mile course. A LONG way to race a motorcycle in 1907.
Over mountains, through villages, speeds from first gear to 200 mph. Lap record is about 131 MPH! 200 curves in one lap.
John McGuinness, the Superbike winner had 128 mph average over the entire race this year.
Actually there are several classes including an all electric class (which has a lap record of 104 mph!)
Different classes race difference distances. 1 lap for the electrics, 3 laps for sidecars and 600cc bikes. 6 laps for superbike and supersport bikes.
On my bucket list for sure. And if I get there before I'm decrepit, riding the course on public day after the races is also on my list.
I had a 2003 Yamaha R6 for awhile. I did 7 trackdays and then sold it to buy a house. Good thing I didn't buy a house, because a year later I got laid off. I miss my bike everyday. :(
As far as I know the IOMTT has never been part of the world championship circuit. Moto GP racer tracks have good run offs in the corners and sandtraps, etc. The stone fences, houses, bridge jumps and trees--well, that's the Isle of Man. BTW, John McGuiness holds the record at 131 mph set in 2009. That includes 6 laps AND 2 fuel stops!
Good stuff pud! When did you go from riding a Kawi to Yamaha with your track bikes and did you switch for any paticular reason? Do you still do track days or races on a regular basis?
When did you go from riding a Kawi to Yamaha with your track bikes and did you switch for any paticular reason? Do you still do track days or races on a regular basis?
I raced 2009-2010 seasons @ Willow Springs.
I Raced the R1 in the Superbike class, the Kawi 250 in the Ninja Cup and the Honda 650 Motard when we raced the small track (Streets of Willow).
Ending one race and jumping from a 33 HP 250 onto a 160 HP bike for the next was always a blast.
I crashed the Honda hard the second to last month of the 2010 season (highside) and was barely able to race the finals in 11/10.
I did, and finished the season winning two titles and 2nd on the Honda.
I sold all my race bikes and gear and continue to ride street and only race off-road now.
T2, nice Trail Tech unit there. I had one of the original versions, years ago, but had problems with the magnet in the front rotor. The unit didn’t always give a proper reading and sometimes the speed reading was doubled. How does that unit sense engine RPM and temp? Is the unit fairly accurate overall?
Ahh the motorcycle thread.
So I guess I will jump in. dont post much here of late but I cant resist this one. I know a few know us here (PUD) and if your racing fans.
My 18yr old son #56 Austin DeHaven is a AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike racer and rode for the Kneedraggers.com Triple Crown Industries AMA team this past season where he had quite a few top 10 finishes. In 2010 he won the AMA Supersport National championship and then moved to Europe to race in WSBK for a season before he returned home for this year. He has been racing bikes since he was 8yrs old.
So we have owned quite a stable of bikes over the years, now just a few dirt bikes and supermoto bikes as all the race bikes are provided by his team.
here are a few pics, anyway. enjoy
Eric
#56 (my son Austin) seen here at NOLA motorsports park for the AMA Final
can anyone recommend a decent touring/"enduro" bike for road trips in the mountains? I want something reasonably comfortable for riding 3 hrs at a time, but that won't get me overly anxious when I go over fire trails and Buttermilk Road.
If you are shopping for an 'enduro type bike' Hang out here: advrider.com In fact, find your 'local' sub-forum and you'll likely find some friendly motoheads that'll help hook you up with a nice bike and/or test rides etc.
WERA 1983-85 (?) Started on VF750 and then discovered 'the smell of castor oil in the morning' and ran an MT125RII for a while. Was never fast but was slow, mostly. But sure had fun... still brings a smile to my face :-))
May as well post a pic of my 650 V-Strom. I got rid of it to get rid of speed, thinking I might last longer - went back to a KLR 650. I posted my DRZ400S already. That's Boundry Peak in the background.
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Let us know!