Bikes giveth and they taketh away

[Skub]

I'm 48 years into bike ownership this year,doing some looking back and weighing up the pros and cons of a long obsession.

Bikes have given me years of pleasure,both riding and to a lesser degree,spannering.

Bikes have taken me places purely for the joy of riding and I've also known the misery of not going anywhere due to periods of 'official rest'.

Bikes have taken shedloads of my money,but also earned me a few quid.

Bikes have been instrumental in meeting interesting folk,some remain lifelong friends and sometimes I've had to bury those friends.

Bikes have forced me to adopt a healthier lifestyle,because I desire to continue riding. Bikes have put me in hospital many times.

I've never looked upon biking as a hobby as such,more just the way I'm bent.

How has it been for you lot?

[weeksy]

Mostly amazing. From touring Europe to racing and trackdays. I've made many friends and lost a couple too of course. But overall bikes have been a massive part of my life and continue to be so.

Long may they continue

[Dodgy69]

Its in the blood...not just riding, but you've always got something to piss about with in the garage.

My favourite bike time is on trips. Cocking your leg over a bike full of luggage is one of the best feelings I have. Hopefully, 2021 works out better.

[Buckaroo]

I have been around bikes since I was 4 or 5 years old. My knee bears the scar from my Dad's BSA Gold Star exhaust. Seared in me for life.
My Dad stopped riding on the day he turned 65 as he associated bikes with work. I on the other hand see bikes as something to be enjoyed, lusted after and pampered.
I'll hopefully reach my dearly departed father's age and beyond with a bike still in the garage and a crash helmet besides it.
Thanks Dad.

[Mr Moofo]

I came to the conclusions many years ago, that anyone who had owned a buell, and not set fire to it, has to be a person worth knowing ...

[Dodgy69]

I bought a Buell once, it was a very happy day...when I sold it.

[G.P]

I'm in my 45th year of bike ownership
Motorcycling has provided me with some of my most treasured memories, introduced me to some of my closest friends, taken me to places I would otherwise never have gone to.
Just this afternoon, (on a private road), I saw 130mph on the Ducati clocks, trying to catch up with a mate on an '06 ZX10 at the end of a really nice and (up till that point) civilized 130 mile trip to the south coast. Not really any different to having fun on bikes 30 years ago. Its like the old saying goes; you can't stop growing old, but growing up is optional.
I'm Planning to go to the Classic TT next year. 40 years since my first trip there. Can't wait. Got a trip to the Pyrenees planned for next year too. Enthusiasm for riding is not diminishing with age.
I've been lucky in that I haven't broken bones or lost many friends to biking accidents, I've lost more friends to suicide, and most of them were not motorcyclists. Maybe they should have been because I know it does my mental health the world of good

I quite like you 'orrible lot too xx

[G.P]

I have been around bikes since I was 4 or 5 years old. My knee bears the scar from my Dad's BSA Gold Star exhaust. Seared in me for life.
My Dad stopped riding on the day he turned 65 as he associated bikes with work. I on the other hand see bikes as something to be enjoyed, lusted after and pampered.
I'll hopefully reach my dearly departed father's age and beyond with a bike still in the garage and a crash helmet besides it.
Thanks Dad.

Yep, my Dad encouraged me to ride. One of the best holidays I ever had was touring Scotland for a week with him in 1979. He'd been working abroad for years and it was a brilliant catch up for us. riding all day and drinking too much together in the evenings. Happy days.

[Bigyin]

Strangely enough today i had a similar conversation with a couple of CBT students when they asked how much i made from instructing and why i did it.

I earn very little (below minimum wage most days if its a day with 4 "challenging" students) and going back to something more like my former profession i could earn at least 4-5 times more .....BUT...... i have been riding legally on the road for about 36 years now and being on bikes is my happy place.

I told them it has brought me the best of times including my involvement with the race paddock and also at the same place put me in the worst of times dealing with fatalities of close friends bot on track up close and personal and also on the road more distant.

I also passed on that i have met some amazing and lifelong friends through riding bikes and a lot of them are the weirdos off the internet i started riding with 18 years ago when i turned up to my first VD rideout. I have toured all over Europe and seen some amazing places, all on 2 wheels with some of those weirdos as well as on my own before them. I also used to earn a living on bikes as a courier back in the day.

Today was a prime example of why i now teach. 1 student who was sacred to turn up for her CBT as in her head it was a test she could fail and was nervous about riding a bike on the road as well as being among a load of blokes on bikes on her own. We had a good laugh during the day, got through the elements in classroom and on the training pad and then out on the road sorted out a couple of issues with gears she had. By the end of the road ride i took them off the usual route and onto some National limit roads for them to open up the 125's beyond the usual 30 mph and have a little play despite the appalling weather and rain. By the time we came back into the base she was bouncing around the place about how much fun it had been and was grinning ear to ear. 1 student like her makes up for the many bellends who rock up and dont really get it but get through the day safely just to get the ticket.

I have converted someone who wasnt sure about bikes into someone who cant wait to get through her tests and progress as she now "gets it" big time

Thats why i do the instructing bit ...... i enjoy it and i get to put something back into what has given me so much pleasure over the years

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I tried giving up bikes a few years ago, I became miserable and depressed, my wife practically cheered when I spent £600 on a CB400 Super Four about 5 years ago, bikes make me happy.

[Druid]

40 years and counting.

During those years bikes have been, at different times, a mode of transport, a means to earn a living, a toy, an all consuming passion and almost irrelevant. There's always been a bike in the garage though, and I can't imagine a time when there won't be

[bob_summers]

Nice thread
My waffly addition (Tl;dr version- bikes are good, as are dads)
I write this sat in my late Dad's house as we clear it out for sale. Not pleasant; still boxes of tissues around the place from when the funeral director was here. Still blood on the carpet that we can't get out, from the fall that put him in hospital for the last time. However, I'm leaving on Friday with his bike in the back of my van and I'm going to start riding again after a 10 year layoff. He was always into bikes (found a Dragon Rally 1966 badge up in the loft I'm taking with me), sold them when he had us. Came from a large Catholic family, in a post war bombed-out Northern town, father died young and Ma had a breakdown, leaving the two older brothers to look after the family. He and his bro still managed to come up with the money to go halves on a bike - as someone said above, I think that's why despite the layoff, it's just the way I'm bent. Father/son relationships can be quite taciturn (or is it just us Northerners?) so having that common bond was good. I stretched it a few times (reverse-charge phonecalls from the top of Shap in winter, my LC350 seized again; "Dad....") and ultimately it was me who got him back to the fold when I abandoned my RG500 in his garage - broken down and couldn't afford the repayments anyway - and he got it running, paid it off, and bought several more bikes, culminating in the 1400 Kwak I have in the back of the van.

The last ten years were eventful - divorced, emigrated, had a kid, probably trained/raced more miles on a bicycle than I ever did on a moto - but you never don't feel like a biker. You still congratulate yourself on calling that V4 Honda motor long before it came into view (a skill my son can't believe is not pure witchcraft), you still feel a tinge of pride mixed with longing when you pull aside to allow a filtering bike through and he sticks his foot out for you.

While I was here I wanted to take the 14 for a ride out to Wilf's or down to the boat club, which is as far as it went in later years, but CV19 put paid to that. Instead, its next ride will likely be down the Basque coast which I suppose isn't a bad place to reconnect.

Cheers!

[Gimlet]

My favourite bike time is on trips. Cocking your leg over a bike full of luggage is one of the best feelings I have. Hopefully, 2021 works out better.

That moment when you pull away onto the road at four in the morning before it's properly light. Everyone else is asleep and there's thousands of miles ahead of you. Best feeling in the world.

[Horse]

Weeksy posted a similar thread on TRC, possibly 10 years ago! I'll try and remember roughly what I wrote then, but with an update.

My dad rode, as did his brother (used to do trials sidecars - until he ran out of passengers). Dad had a sidecar, went to four wheels after I arrived. He tried to talk me out of getting a bike, but I needed transport to work and hadn't passed my car test.

Within a few months of getting the bike, I went to a class reunion. Walking in with a crash helmet (actually two, as I was giving a lift for someone afterwards) led to a conversation with someone I'd hardly spoken to during the previous two years (he also had two lids and was giving another of the girls a lift home). That meeting led to a group of friends which has lasted for 43 years (not all riders, but several were).

I got involved with training. From that came another group of friends, and many opportunities.

I met my wife on a blind date, because she'd never been on a bike before. Married 22 years, son (who has no interest in bikes )

I was made redundant. The training experience partly led to an opportunity for an interview, which led to my current job - which has also resulted in travel abroad and some weird and wonderful experiences ('human crash test dummy' is probably the epitome/apex/nadir of 'weird'!).

A 'big' crash in 2001 (actually at only 12-15mph, but still spectacular) led to a neck injury. What I didn't then know was that it was a hint of things to come, health-wise. The outcome there is that the bike was sold a couple of weekends back. I said, very early in biking, that I would only stop if a Dr told me to. Actually, I knew before being told.

However, not having a bike won't stop me from trying to help others. Almost 30 years of training experience doesn't just evaporate!

[Couchy]

I’ve been riding 45 of my 52 years now. Every friend I have is because of bikes simple as that. They have given me everything and unfortunately took an awful lot from me, but without them I wouldn’t have had so much to lose. I’ve no idea what I’m trying to say but I love being on 2 wheels of any type.

[DefTrap]

I must be 30 years in now, never been without one in that time, sometimes more than one, not all of them always work all the time.

It's had to take a bit of a backseat at times, kids, work etc but it's been the one constant and the only thing truly mine.

I'd like to do it more, I probably should while money and health allows. I really want to do the Moto giro d'italia.

[hilldweller]

I really want to do the Moto giro d'italia.

We've done a lot of two up miles in Italy, it's pure magic. The roads, the scenery, the architecture and the food it's all a treat. Never been further south than Amalfi. Even getting there is a huge treat.

Last time I was there, solo, was 3 years ago to an annual bike meet in Roverato in August. Cheap camping at a sports stadium.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/380 ... 11.0401399

[Tomcat]

I stopped counting the friends I lost, but equally I'm not counting the friends I have made, some of the best people I know and will be with me for life. I've never stopped feeling the joy, the freedom of riding either, from the fastest race bike to the smallest put-put. I like that you can constantly re-invent it, not only by getting new bikes but by doing new things, riding new places, learning new disciplines. It's not a way of life, it is life.

[Bigjawa]

Right, here goes......

Literally everything I have done since the age of 16 has been through bikes, bikes have literally given me everything I own and my entire family.

I had bikes when I was a kid, my father had one, died on it, my aunts and uncles rode bikes, my own ma had one too. I got one for my 5th birthday and had them all through my childhood, I never wanted to race the things as at that time I didn't have much of a competitive nature and we couldn't lay our hands on the sort of money needed even then.

I got my first road bike on my 16th birthday, even then I had a bit of spanner skill so the original MT5 engine was chucked and we put in an H100 one, but the plan was, I'd ride it until I was 17 and flog the damn thing. Problem was, I didn't sell it, something clicked and I realised that I couldn't be without one. Then for some mad reason, I decided to become a courier, which I did for around 8 years before I had a big accident.

Along the way, I started knocking about with a lad who had a nice sister, the sister had a mate and eventually I married the mate. we split up but were on and off for 20 years, we've 8 kids now. Wife number 2 was friend of the other half of a courier mate and I'm almost domesticated now.

My cats came from a mate who rides bikes and even my dog came from a pound where the dog warden rides bikes and is a friend of a friend.

The spannering skills I got from working on bikes enabled me to get a job running a workshop, and the redunancy money from that enabled me to keep afloat long enough to get my current job.

So 40 years after first throwing a leg over a bike, I'm still here, 4 bikes all over 750cc and a wee 125 for messing about, eldest boy has his GPz550, 16yo daughter is half interested, 8yo son is mad for the pillion and even my wee demon of a 5yo daughter wants a bike.

I reckon I must have owned well over 100 bikes in 30 years, I've seen the inside of an ambulance a few times, have a few scars and can tell when bad weather is coming by my aches and pains, I've got my knee down, pulled a few wheelies and been chased by the cops, fortunately not been to too many funerals, passed put drunk in fields and brought back to my tent in a wheelie bin.



This is my favourite bike of them all, an ancient 750 import Bandit that I've owned for 15 years, bought a a bit of a heap and fixed up with whatever was lying about, it now has 128000 miles on it, gets fed cheap car oil and has never failed an MOT. It's been over all parts of the UK and Ireland and I know that if I go up to my shed tonight, if I pull the choke, turn the key and hot the button, it'll chug into life.