Just for one day

Anything you like about motorbikes
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Ditchfinder
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Just for one day

Post by Ditchfinder »

Just so we don't keep polluting @tricol 's thread about his Trident.

What's the best/ worst/ most memorable one off ride you've had.

Best - a go on a dt175 in a field when I was 16, compared to my MZ it was like a GP bike.

Worst - given a Gladius 650 whilst the Duke 390 was having it's first service, I took it back with fuel left in it.

Memorable - the ride that got me in to bikes in the first place. A family friend took me to a club trials event in the 80's and sat me on the tank of a Triumph 3t. We rode between stages like that and scored the riders, heckled and got cold helping them pick up old Red Hunters, Tiger Cubs out of random bits of field drain for a day. On the way back to the car I was allowed throttle duties so technically my first ever ride.
'07 Griso 1100 (for sale), '94 Sprint 900, the scabbiest Himalayan in the country
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weeksy
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Re: Just for one day

Post by weeksy »

Best KTM 1290 gen2. Brutal power, performance and epic handling.

Worst Yamaha 600 diversion I nearly lost at Silverstone when I'd not only forgotten the colour, but even the make of it.
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wull
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Re: Just for one day

Post by wull »

For the most memorable was after passing my test I stopped off at my mates garage, he had a zx7r at the time and I had a 125 which I had bought after doing my CBT, anyway he walked over to me as I arrived and handed me the keys to his 7r and said “don’t crash it”……….

I took it out the Mollands straights in Callander and pinned it, what an experience, what a rush, needless to say the 125 was gone doubly quick. Bought his other bike off him, a vfr400 NC30. That was a completely different experience that bike.
Le_Fromage_Grande
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Le_Fromage_Grande »

As on Tricol's thread, SV650 and 660 MT03, but very honourable mention must go to the GSXR750K2 that I then bought.

Worst - GSR600, horrible, horrible engine, in a very bland chassis.
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Scotsrich
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Scotsrich »

A 600 Fazer I had for a day when my GSXR 750 was being serviced.

Nothing remarkable about it but just enough power to be able to wring the nuts off it. Or maybe it was just because it ran out of petrol and I had to push it a mile in full leathers.
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Yorick
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Yorick »

Best. Whizzing round Jerez. I was on fire that day and my lap times were pretty good. Was always my fave track to watch.
Closely followed by first trophy and win.

Biggest disappointment.
Bought a new RF900 in 1994 after my CBR600 nicked.
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Woke up Monday to heavy snow which lasted a week :(
IanB
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Re: Just for one day

Post by IanB »

The best is an easy one. In 2010 during a tour around France G.P & I had a day when we rode through the Georges du Tarn, over the Millau bridge & then had about 30 kms of flat out riding along the perfectly tarmacked D911. No speed cameras & just the occasional vehicle to hunt down & overtake. Never bettered.

Worst was when I returned to motorcycling many, many years ago & someone who shall remain nameless kindly lent me an Aprilia Pegaso 650 on which to relearn my biking skills. “Just needs the carbs & sprag clutch sorting mate”. What a pile of expensive shit that was.

Most memorable was my first ever ride on a motorcycle, aged about 13 in a farmers field on a Suzuki TS125. I failed to grasp the concept of closing the throttle when braking, rode into the middle of a very thick hedge & me & the bike had to be pulled out. That was it for me I was hooked.
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Taipan
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Taipan »

I had a day off and it was beautiful sunny day, so I jumped on my Honda Bros and headed out with no particular destination in mind. Ended up in that weird empty bit in the middle of kent, then onto the coastal road, past beachy head and ended up having fish 'n chips in Rye harbour for lunch. Then I went up through some back roads on Sussex and eventually found myself back in Kent with no idea where i'd been or how I'd got there. A perfect sunny day with light traffic or empty roads.

Worse day was working through stand still traffic on the M25 and turned off to the 217 to find the cause was a biker on the floor and someone had thrown a coat over the body but the blood was seeping out from under. Shook me to the core and changed how I rode forever.
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Dodgy69 »

Best... 16th birthday, after school on the fizzy.

Worst... waiting for recovery after another doomed ride on the Buell.

Memorable...playing on the fizzy with mates in the snow.
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Le_Fromage_Grande »

I misread the first post, so best riding day, probably an early May Bank Holiday in the early 90s, a 1985 GSXR750, and a very quiet A6 from Darley Dale to Buxton to Matlock at about 6 in the morning, I bet I was popular in the Peak District that day.
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Couchy »

Best
Weekends on grandads farm on our field bikes, from age 6-16.
2008 Euro tour plus Spa on my superduke R
2006 LA mountains with a group on a loaned SV1000
2015 Portimao with the lads
2020 Peaks laning in the snow a 9 hour epic that we prob shouldn’t have done but memories yeah
2003/4 Northern monkey supermoto ride out

Basically it started off as good as it gets on the farm, some awesome trips along the way to now though

Worst, I’ve enjoyed most of my bike stuff tbh so don’t really have a bad ride on them
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Dickyboy »

Worst ride was 140miles home for xmas on a suzuki TS100 - in freezing fog on my first bike.

Best ride was a culmination of a few days work doing site surveys in the North West, then Anglesey and finally Aberystwyth, riding the A44 from there to Wycombe on a sunny afternoon on company time & company moto guzzi lemans IV was pretty lush.
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Count Steer
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Count Steer »

Dickyboy wrote: Sat Apr 02, 2022 5:21 pm Worst ride was 140miles home for xmas on a suzuki TS100 - in freezing fog on my first bike.
Similar. Riding back from south of London to North Wales after Christmas. By the time we'd crossed the border I was reduced to weaving the bike around to see if the headlight would pick up either the white line or the edge of the road. About 2 hours before that my waterproof overtrousers had deposited what felt like a pint of ice water in my groin. :(

The only :thumbup: about the whole journey was getting home in time to dry off and get to the pub before closing time.

Best would be almost any of the trips on the other side of the Channel.
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Re: Just for one day

Post by IanB »

Dodgy knees wrote: Sat Apr 02, 2022 3:24 pm Best... 16th birthday, after school on the fizzy.
That's it you win.
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Re: Just for one day

Post by asmethurst99 »

Leaving Milford Haven on a wet Monday morning then A40 back to London - turned into a really great day- Bandit 650( worst - riding to work in high winds being blown all, over the place)
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Bigyin »

Worst: The day i lobbed the Multistrada after riding home from Wales in torrential rain and high winds. Made it 320 miles but didnt manage the last 25 ending up under the central reservation thankful i hit the barrier rather than going under it to the other oncoming carriageway. Lucky to walk away from that one with the fairly low level of injuries i ended up with which were fixed by surgery

Best: Not a single day but the 2016 2 week tour of Norway with Abel. Some of it was so far out of my comfort zone on loose gravel mountain roads that were barely used by the locals never mind a pair of Brits on bikes but even those bits put a smile on my face when i completed them. Best sustained time on a bike in over 30 something years riding

Memorable: First ever time on an F1 sidecar outfit as passenger with Ged Canfield who was, at the time , leading the British F1 championship. He was a mate anyway and told me he was going to give it some at various parts of the track over a few laps to get me into the rhythm then give me a couple of full lap at race speed .....fucking hell, by the time i got off the bike my forearms were so pumped up i couldnt unzip the leathers and i was speaking at 100 mph made even funnier by him admitting he cocked up the braking at one corner explaining why i almost got thrown over the front of the outfit as he rescued it
Last edited by Bigyin on Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Felix
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Felix »

Best day must have been my first bike trip to the Dolomites. Old GSX750ES held its own with much newer bikes. Great weather great roads and great company. Organised trip through a tour company so all strangers of all ages but all bonded straight away what was good. Never had a shit ride TBH. Had a crash and ended up in an Ambulance with the blue lights but as it was my first time in one it was just as exciting as sore plus i was on route to work a night shift so missing that was a bonus
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DefTrap
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Re: Just for one day

Post by DefTrap »

Worst was waking up at 4am with a filthy cold and the rain pounding on the windows, knowing that I had a ferry trip and 400 miles of riding ahead of me. And then that whole awful day, obviously.

I enjoy most of my riding so difficult to pick one. But really enjoyed sunny early morning lockdown rides last year on the roads through the dunes and forests round here - normally they are swarming with tourists ...
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Mr. Dazzle »

I think my 17th Birthday stands out for me quite a lot. It was the day I started learning officially, I then did (and passed) my test a couple of days later.

It was "just" riding around town etc. for a few days followed by an instructor on - IIRC - a Pan European. But of course, it was also the first time I'd been out on the road on a proper motorcycle and it was something I'd been looking forward to with more and more anticipation since I was about 14.

I honestly think it'll be hard to top that level of anticipation/pay off, especially when you consider how all feelings are a bit more unfiltered when you're 17 and not 37 :lol:
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Re: Just for one day

Post by Rockburner »

Best one off ride is very difficult to pick, soooo many good memories from the very first ever ride around the house on Dads RD400 (staying in first), right up to the most recent ride which was just a shakedown spin around the countryside.

Even the "worst" experiences, in hindsight, are never that bad, well, except when injury and worse happens, having my right leg turn nearly torn off was a bit of a low point I'll admit, especially when it happened at the end of the driveway and it was a head on with my brother's LC.

Memorable days are pretty much every day on a bike, for good or "learning experiences". Some that stand out are the trip to the Manx when everything went wrong on the first day but it ended up being a fantastic weeks holiday, the first FLASH tour, trackdays with the VD mob on the ZXR400 and mums CBR400, the Bruntingthorpe trackday and party that Hedonist organised, even commuting was fun on a good day, especially when i came up being someone else who was prepared to ride like a twat. :D
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