A question for ex-motorbikers...

[GaryA]

That's not what the evidence says, on whatever basis you look at it. There are plenty of comparative stats around the forum.

 

[GaryA]

Id join in but I still ride to work every day (NTV650) and got VFR750R in garage for weekends.
Had a m/cycle since I was 17

 

[Vapin' Joe]

OK guys, bear with me. Motorcycling is generally safer than cycling, so some of you have given up because of safety. OK I accept with a crotch rocket you'll push it, but we 'push it' on a pedal bikes too - 50 plus MPH on less than 10kg of bike, and flimsy lycra ?

I appreciate if you've had a bad crash then that will make you stop.

Motorcycle accidents are different to cycle accidents because of the weight of the machine. You won't travel very far when you come off something that is less than a tenth of your own weight, but the much heavier motorcycle can propel you a fair distance - watch what happens to racers when they highside - and you also have the problem of the bike landing on you. That said, the dangers never stopped me though it is part of the reason I'm selling up now, and I'd never try and dissuade anyone from a pursuit which has given me plenty of enjoyment over the years.

 

[Silver Fox]

The deaths of my brother and sister in law in 1993, they left behind a 2 month old baby girl.

Never been on a motorbike since, I don't fancy becoming just another organ donor / statistic.

 

[raleighnut]

My RGS Jota tried to kill me at high speed on a bendy rural A road in Wales. No idea what went wrong. No idea how I recovered it.
I was having to get up earlier and earlier on a Sunday morning to ride empty roads.
Then b-i-l, motorcycle paramedic, got wiped out by a nobber driver and it was touch and go if he would ever walk again.
Whereafter wife and children would cling to my leg as I headed to the door with my crash helmet in hand wailing "Nooooooo........!"

Haven't owned a bike now in five years. Haven't ridden anything above 250cc in two.

Still in lust with a Morini 3 1/2 Sport mind.

Jota's tend to do that even the RGS I used to live in a tower block near Roger Winterburns place. Windy Corner.
Mind you the 3 1/2 Like em nearly as much as I did my 350 Desmo.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

BSA C15 of course!

In which case it isn't oil, it's character.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I'm a terrible pillion, I'm too curious to see what's around, plus I was brought up racing motocross (badly) so have a tendancy to lean in the wrong direction around corners...

 

[Archie_tect]

Someone nicked a lot of parts off my Honda CD175....

Wow, they must've been strong!

 

[Basil.B]

Never took my car test till I was 39. Always ridden motorbikes since I was 17.
Couldn't afford to run a car and a motorbike, so the motorbike went.
I became a square.

 

[byegad]

Family. Plus I had an accident, when my kids were 1 and 3 years old, where a moron in a car turned right across a main road wiping me out!* Since then first cash and then a balance issue stopped me from going back onto two motorised wheels. While I yearn for a motorbike now and again I know I can't ever return to two wheels.

*His first words when getting out of the car were to ask me, sitting in the centre of the road, bike with the forks bent under the engine lying on its side on the white line,were,'Did I hit something?' My reply, harshly edited for strong language is still, sadly, unprintable. He got 9 points on his licence and that was, for me a lenient penalty. I'd have strung him up.

 

[raleighnut]

BSA C15 of course!

A mate of mine had one in 74 he used to get pi**ed off cos the Honda C90 cub was quicker and an old guy on one passed him most mornings on his way to work.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Jota's tend to do that even the RGS I used to live in a tower block near Roger Winterburns place. Windy Corner.
Mind you the 3 1/2 Like em nearly as much as I did my 350 Desmo.

Had a pre-loved Pantah. pos. Didn't agree with the English weather. Both Guzzi's were the same.

Phil Todd had breathed on my RGS previously and Jota-ised the engine. Overbored carbs, hotter cams, pukka Jota exhaust. Didn't do a thing for the handling nor make it any less of a pita in town. It was quite funny the way flames would shoot from the exhaust after overrun mind....

iirc Roger got royally screwed by Triumph at one point....

 

[raleighnut]

Had a pre-loved Pantah. pos. Didn't agree with the English weather. Both Guzzi's were the same.

Ah! Italian electrics plus their excuse for "Chrome Plating". The joys of running up and down the road trying to get a high compression single to start on a cold morning. Them were the days

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Someone nicked a lot of parts off my Honda CD175 and as I didn't have anywhere secure to keep the bike at the time I just sold what was left and never bothered again.

CD175. I had a CB200, last jap bike I ever owned, though one Guzzi dealer loaner was an awful CB400 automatic twin thing that Honda came out. I rode the Honda almost as much as I rode the V50II. CB200 was faster I reckon.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

CD175. I had a CB200, last jap bike I ever owned, though one Guzzi dealer loaner was an awful CB400 automatic twin thing that Honda came out. I rode the Honda almost as much as I rode the V50II. CB200 was faster I reckon.

I had both the CB175 (Twin carb "Sportier" version of the CD) and the CB200. Cracking little bikes for their day, a neighbour bought a new Bantam the same day I picked the 175 up and he spent all week sneering about Jap Crap. Mine ran faultlessly for two solid years of commuting and leisure unlike his oil leak on wheels and there was no comparison in performance.

A great shame the 175 - 350 class range have been killed off by the learner laws, they were cheap to buy and run, easy to maintain and nice and light to handle.