Motorcycle Riders

I'll play: 1965-1980. Honda C-65 1965-66, Honda CL350 1970, Kawasaki H-1B 500 Mach III 1971-74, Honda CX-500 1979-80. Nothing for 32 years! I salivated over Honda Interceptors and various BMWs for years, but never bit.

The Kawasaki triple, by the way, had loads of acceleration, but virtually nothing else.

Dang3r wrote

I know exactly what you're talking about, since I own the HP4 some things had changed my style of riding.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your HP4C!
I'm sure the weight difference is noticable when compared to your Kawi, and I'm sure the lizard requires more technical skill to ride in most conditions, whereas the HP4 can be tame in around town, then transform into a beast on the track and open highways and nimble in Twisties!

Great all around bike. Unique as well, so having a collectors item always instills a sense of wonder in ownership.

I hope you continue to enjoy it for many years to come.

Riding 48 years with a hiatus while raising a big family:

1973 Honda Z50
1974 Honda 125 XL
1978 Suzuki GS550E (road raced this one)
1979 Suzuki GS1000E (road racing)
1981 Suzuki GS750E
Then the hiatus until:
2012 BMW K1600GT
2013 BMW S1000RR (Mostly a track day bike)
2015 Kawasaki KLR 650 (prepped and rode the TransAmerica Trail)
*2016 BMW R1200GS (epic adventure machine)
2016 Honda CBR250R (long story)
2016 KTM Super Duke 1290R (for the inner hooligan in me)
2016 Yamaha TTR110 (first bike for the kid)
2018 Honda Grom (taught my kid to ride with a clutch)
2017 Beta 200 trials bike (for the humbling experience)
*2018 Yamaha WR250R (trail bike and light adventure riding)
*2018 Kawasaki KLX140G (kid's dirt bike)
*2020 Sur Ron X (stupid powerful little e-bike)
*2019 Yamaha XT250 (kid's street legal adventure bike)

*Currently owned bikes. At 64 years old my racing days are in the rear view mirror and I'm mostly riding trails with my kid and taking big epic adventure rides with some friends on the GS.

I've had my motorcycle license longer than my car license, and gave up riding after a close friend went over the cliff on Rt. 218 (aka: Eagle's Nest) north of USMA/West Point. All y'all riding up around Bear Mountain and the other fun roads be extra-careful if you take a tour through Rt 218. Someone went over the cliff on a bike again this year, and I don't want to see anyone here suffer that same fate!

With that said, I was at a cardiologist appointment this morning and a loud bike passed outside the window in the pouring rain. He called it a donor-cycle, because an unusually high number of donor hearts come from motorcycle accidents. If you haven't done so already, now is a good time for everyone (not just motorcycle riders) to give some thought to checking the organ donor box on your driver's license......

I really enjoy 218, behind west point. Nice and twisty. Great place to practice, nice lookout spot with a view, but it IS very dangerous. A buddy of mine went down early on the ride up that road about 3 weeks ago(target fixated, went down). Thankfully he was okay, the bike suffered some damage but nothing unfixable. She'll be back on the road in no time. A police officer showed up as we waited for another friend of mine with a pick up to arrive so we could get the bike home. He told us about that wreck where the guy went over. We then walked over to where my buddy went down and man... talk about humble pie...3 or 4 feet to the right and he would've gone over as well... it wasn't even a tight corner or anything extreme, he just fixated and panicked. Again, I'm just grateful that walked away without a scratch. And he still wants to ride, ways to go back to the road and that corner. I guess to conquer it? Get over it? I check the organ donor box on my license.

I avoided 218(as well as 9W/Storm King&9A heading to the Mobil) simply because on the weekend it was flooded with riders from NYC with more money than talent and they'd run wide,cross the double yellow when they can't hit the corner properly and end up heading straight for you,leaving you to figure out how to avoid hitting them head on.

Oldgixxer wrote

I avoided 218(as well as 9W/Storm King&9A heading to the Mobil) simply because on the weekend it was flooded with riders from NYC with more money than talent and they'd run wide,cross the double yellow when they can't hit the corner properly and end up heading straight for you,leaving you to figure out how to avoid hitting them head on.

Thanks for sharing this. I've never encountered an inexperienced rider going wide, crossing over into my lane from the opposite direction, but I can certainly believe that it happens quite often.
Like you said, it's definitely a congregation of a wide variety of skill levels and income levels in that area over the weekend. Combine that with some riders trying to prove themselves to strangers or keep up with those they just met who happened to have more skill or familiarity with the roads... Well I just hope we don't get any more horrible news about riders getting seriously injured or losing their lives just for those couple hours of what should be exciting and fun.

Samurai of 2day wrote

Thanks for sharing this. I've never encountered an inexperienced rider going wide, crossing over into my lane from the opposite direction, but I can certainly believe that it happens quite often.
Like you said, it's definitely a congregation of a wide variety of skill levels and income levels in that area over the weekend. Combine that with some riders trying to prove themselves to strangers or keep up with those they just met who happened to have more skill or familiarity with the roads... Well I just hope we don't get any more horrible news about riders getting seriously injured or losing their lives just for those couple hours of what should be exciting and fun.

THIS! This is one of the biggest if not THEE biggest cause of crashes on those roads or that area. Egos...smh

Started riding bikes on gpa's farm back in about '77. What was fun there, none of them ever had any hand controls, they were always busted off on the farm. Power-shifting, baby!!

First I actually bought was a '98 Fatboy. Then in '99 my youngest was on the way, and I couldn't even imagine moving into a 2.5bed, 1 bath house with mom, 2 other sons, me, and an adult sister, so we started a construction loan. Just as we think we have it approved, and the builder is ready to start building our 5+3, the bank says "We need a 10% contingency" You've seen all my bank statements, I don't have a 10% contingency source. So I hopped on the Fatboy, drove to local Harley, and said "Don't dick me around, just write me a check" Now i had my contingency!

One year after the loan was granted, I re-fi and took out 25K, then built another bike, based on FXD.

Oh, and that youngest son, his name is Harlee.

Started riding in 2013 on my 2012 Yamaha FZ1 and that's the only one I've had.
Been thinking about getting a BMW bike, but not sure if I want to go the sport or touring route.

Riding around 35 years.

Started out on 80s and 90s ninja and CBR600s. Moved up to gsxr750 and CBR900RR. Then to a 97yzf1000r. Had a Suzuki sv650s to play around on track with for a few years. Then made the decision to get into adventure bikes and had a 650gs funduro, and newer f650gs single, and now have a f650gs twin to ride along with my wife on her g310gs.

I’ve been riding since I was about 8 so that would be around 50 years, thanks for that!

Sorry I’m too old to remember how long I had each bike,

Honda 50
Yamaha YZ80
Yamaha DT175
Yamaha YZ250
Honda 500TT
Suzuki RGV250
Suzuki RM450
Suzuki TS250
Suzuki GSXR 750M
Suzuki TLR1000
Yamaha YZR1000 R1M
Hardley Nightrod
Ducati Panigale 1199S
Ducati Panigale V4S

That’s about it

Riding on and off about ~35 years.

'89 Yamaha FZR1000 (past)
'18 BMW R NineT Vintage 21 (current)

I stopped riding motorcycles decades ago, but enjoyed it when I did. Here's my list in order of ownership; nothing big:

1. Honda 50 (later modded to 55cc)
2. Honda 160 (twin)
3. Yamaha 175 Enduro
4. Yamaha twin 90 (mini cafe racer)

The Enduro has to go down as my all-time favorite. Huge amounts of off-road fun.

I stopped riding in the early 2000 but here is my list.

Started on dirt and trail bikes

90cc Honda trail
175cc YZ
Yamaha FJ 600
Yamaha FZ 750
Honda 750 Interceptor
Kawasaki 750 Ninja
Kawasaki ZX-7
Suzuki GSR1100
Yamaha R1

Saw this bike a few mins ago - anyone know what it is?

Looks cool/fun

floridaorange wrote

Saw this bike a few mins ago - anyone know what it is?

Looks cool/fun

Looks like a Ducati Scrambler.

This was my baby for a couple of years from 2006-2008.

2006 GSX-R1000

I started to ride when I was about eleven on a Honda 50cc mini trail (Monkey). Then my dad enrolled me in Junior Cross on a Yammy 80cc and 100cc (Twitty Bird) where I had my fair share of crashes and eating mud.

At sixteen, I had my first street bikes, a Ninja250 then a CBR400 and a Susy SV650. All of those bikes were second hand but practically new and low mileage. My dad did the shopping.

I had my first new bike when I graduated from university: A 1000cc BMW RT and I have been riding Airheads, Oil Heads, Cam Heads and Flying Bricks ever since.

This is what I ride now. The picture was taken for a Club Calendar shoot. I have many bike pics on my profile albums.

Lady Jane wrote

Looks like a Ducati Scrambler.

Specifically the Desert Sled version.

If its a pic thread then Ill play, my stable:
The Duc, its the current track bike:


The MV, the retired bike. Only for nice days, bike nights, having people pose on it for parties:


Griso, this is the workhorse. It gets ridden to work, mountain runs, for coffee, for dinner, or 1000 miles in a long weekend:


And this is the newest, just a Ninja 300se. The starter for the girl to learn on:

ryan stewart wrote

If its a pic thread then Ill play, my stable:
The Duc, its the current track bike:


The MV, the retired bike. Only for nice days, bike nights, having people pose on it for parties:


Griso, this is the workhorse. It gets ridden to work, mountain runs, for coffee, for dinner, or 1000 miles in a long weekend:


And this is the newest, just a Ninja 300se. The starter for the girl to learn on:

Lucky bugger!
Original MV Augusta #drool