This thread makes me giggle every time I see the title!!
As someone who just does not feel her age and forgets just how high that number is sometimes, I forget that I'm pretty sure I'm older than Rockburner - then I remember and wonder when age will become a factor in biking for me
But I try to do more of the than the
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
IME gravel is a PITA, not so much for the bike sinking in, wheel spinning, or whatever. It is my bloody feet that lose traction, so I can't push it around, or save it if it starts to topple over.
BTW, it is fine 'refusing to you acknowledge getting older', but one day you will wake up and discover you ARE old. .No ifs, no buts, you are knocking on towards 80 with no way back. All your friends and family are falling off their perch and even your kids will be discussing pensions
Gravel is an enemy in so many ways. At its simplest it makes pushing a bike much harder, as there is much more resistance, and can easily 'dig in' to the gravel. Why do race tracks have gravel traps? There is also the tendency for the bike to fall over, and as CJ says, gravel does not provide a solid base for feet to gain traction. I really cannot understand how anyone can think that gravel and motorbikes are a positive combination.
wheelnut wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 11:34 am
How about getting some stabilising matting for the gravel - it will be just under the surface so you won’t see it but will stop the bike sinking in to it?
Its already got that. Main problem is that the gravel isn't level, and the bottom of the slope, where the gravel tends to gather, is right in front of the workshop door!
wheelnut wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 11:34 am
How about getting some stabilising matting for the gravel - it will be just under the surface so you won’t see it but will stop the bike sinking in to it?
Its already got that. Main problem is that the gravel isn't level, and the bottom of the slope, where the gravel tends to gather, is right in front of the workshop door!
As I posted earlier, set slabs into the gravel.
Scrape some away, level the trackway, place slabs, backfill around the slabs so they're not proud.
wheelnut wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 11:34 am
How about getting some stabilising matting for the gravel - it will be just under the surface so you won’t see it but will stop the bike sinking in to it?
Its already got that. Main problem is that the gravel isn't level, and the bottom of the slope, where the gravel tends to gather, is right in front of the workshop door!
So I presume your garden slopes down to the shed/workshop where the bike is kept, and gravity tends to cause a build up of gravel by the shed door? And I seem to remember you saying that you have to use a ramp to get the bike out of the shed/workshop?
Personally I'd be inclined to put some of that gravel to good use in a concrete mixer and make a level concrete causeway from the workshop door to wherever it naturally joins to the slope down to the workshop. Make the causeway at least a metre wide and use shuttering to stop the concrete mix from going where you don't want it to. That would remove the most troublesome aspects (as long as I've understood your layout correctly, of course).
I was going to suggest an R1200RT until I saw the wet weight was 260kg. I knew it wouldn't hit the 200kg but I didn't think it would be as much as 260kg. In practice, the RT feels a lot more manageable than my GSA though a lot of that could be down to the difference in seat height. I've been having similar thoughts about my GSA, it's a big unit to be pushing around.
KungFooBob wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 8:11 pm
If you ignore the weight requirement, it would see that Sir's ideal motorcycle is a 700 Honda Deauville.
RB could be a little more extravagant and hunt down a Pacific Coast
The 700 dullville is newer and more fasterer, due to the EFI and the extra valve per cylinder.
I tired one for a short period of time. I'm usually good with 'utilitarian' bikes but it was shocking - weighed about the same as a London bus and painfully slow, anything over 75mph and it didn't feel happy. Struggled to break the 100mph barrier, let alone cruise at 110.....
Cousin Jack wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 12:01 pm
BTW, it is fine 'refusing to you acknowledge getting older', but one day you will wake up and discover you ARE old. .No ifs, no buts, you are knocking on towards 80 with no way back. All your friends and family are falling off their perch and even your kids will be discussing pensions
Oh I know. But for now I'll keep pretending! I do often find people my own age quite old though - that's pretty weird!! LOL But luckily I'm finally starting to meet people here around the same age that are similarly mental. I mean mentally young!!
I totally know I won't be doing some things here just because of age/risk, but I will keep doing the other stupid shit that I already know (mostly) how to do until I really can't!!
Cousin Jack wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 12:01 pm
DAMHIKT.
Ermmm -huh????
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
Noggin wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 11:42 am
Oh I know. But for now I'll keep pretending! I do often find people my own age quite old though - that's pretty weird!! LOL But luckily I'm finally starting to meet people here around the same age that are similarly mental. I mean mentally young!!
I totally know I won't be doing some things here just because of age/risk, but I will keep doing the other stupid shit that I already know (mostly) how to do until I really can't!!
Exactly my thoughts. A year or two back when I was a Citizens Advice advisor I used to see people 10 years younger than me who were complaining that they couldn't do stuff, usually on-line stuff, or filling in forms, or understanding anything even vaguely complicated. Basically they had switched their brain off 40 years ago, and their body had followed 20 years later, so at 60 they were brain dead and fit only for an old people's home.
Keep thinking, keep learning, keep active and you may not live any longer but you will enjoy it a lot more.
Cousin Jack wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 12:30 pm
Exactly my thoughts. A year or two back when I was a Citizens Advice advisor I used to see people 10 years younger than me who were complaining that they couldn't do stuff, usually on-line stuff, or filling in forms, or understanding anything even vaguely complicated. Basically they had switched their brain off 40 years ago, and their body had followed 20 years later, so at 60 they were brain dead and fit only for an old people's home.
Keep thinking, keep learning, keep active and you may not live any longer but you will enjoy it a lot more.
I've seen people here do that - turn 50 and get old?? FFS!!! I do know age is more than a state of mind, but if you allow a number to tell you what you can and can't do anymore, well, you bloody will get old, fast!!!
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
Beancounter wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:40 am
I was going to suggest an R1200RT until I saw the wet weight was 260kg. I knew it wouldn't hit the 200kg but I didn't think it would be as much as 260kg. In practice, the RT feels a lot more manageable than my GSA though a lot of that could be down to the difference in seat height. I've been having similar thoughts about my GSA, it's a big unit to be pushing around.
I was looking at the R850(R?) yesterday and they weigh in over 200kg too. (Did a France trip with a bunch of people and one of the women had one...because it was a lighter bike. They just seem like an 1150 with smaller holes in the cylinders!). They're getting a bit old now too.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Beancounter wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:40 am
I was going to suggest an R1200RT until I saw the wet weight was 260kg. I knew it wouldn't hit the 200kg but I didn't think it would be as much as 260kg. In practice, the RT feels a lot more manageable than my GSA though a lot of that could be down to the difference in seat height. I've been having similar thoughts about my GSA, it's a big unit to be pushing around.
I was looking at the R850(R?) yesterday and they weigh in over 200kg too. (Did a France trip with a bunch of people and one of the women had one...because it was a lighter bike. They just seem like an 1150 with smaller holes in the cylinders!). They're getting a bit old now too.
Yes the 850 is the same bike, just slightly smaller bore on the cylinders.
