Bikes have changed my life....

[crashe]

Yeee gawds, now this is draining the brain power....

I saw "Easy Rider" and just loved that style of bike with those apehangers on them.

Ok. I had just rolled my A30 3 times.... and I needed transport to get to work... Yep this was back in 1975 and so I went out and brought my self (and I dont want you all to laugh)...cos hey it got me to and from work in Palmie Nrth. it was a Benelli 50cc automatic mini bike it was blue..... well I used to hoon all around Palmie on it... and Yep I went for my bike license on it.....
Now imagine this picture.... me on a mini bike and a traffic cop on his big bike.... going around the streets of Palmie... sure it looked a sight... but I passed first time... and I had my full bike license.

Now somewhere in my memory, I got to have a weego on a scooter back then.... the throttle is different to a bike.... well lets just say that there is no dent in the concrete wall. But I did have one sore knuckle on my little finger... which played up for years when it was gonna rain. I dont like riding scooters....

I sold that bike at some stage to raise a family.... and drove cars.

Well, 4 1/2 years ago..... I went for a few rides on the back of a bike.... wow it was great.... That was it.... I had to go out and buy a bike..... so now I own my baby my Yamaha Virago.... when I first brought her I got someone to ride it home from the shop for me.... Reason I hadnt ridden in years and I hadnt ridden a bike with gears. So that day I was given my first lesson.... and talk about kangaroo hopping.... and stalling... ok 5 minutes later I am going up the road and I had gotten into second gear.... we went to Span Farm... and around and around the block I rode....getting faster and faster..... even learnt to hill start.... took the bike home after one hour with FIRM instructions not to take it out by myself...

The next day my instructor arrived and we were going further afield.... so up the back roads to Massey and then over the Greenhieth bridge... to the North Shore to the Bike shops over there.... to buy a lock for the bike...
was doing so well, that coming back I went onto the motorway without my instructor telling me to.... when I got home.... I got told "Your on your own now you did well" .

Well since that day I havent looked back.... I ride whenever I can..... like 95% of the time... My car goes out once in a blue moon....

I just love riding... I'm not into speed, as I like to see what is happening around me....

so for all those that were with me on the ride to Wellsford and then to Parakai... thanks for waiting... and I would to say that you lot are a really neat bunch of people......

Have a safe and Happy xmas and a Happy New Years....
Lets all be safe out there.

[scumdog]

Back in 50's the old man never allowed me near bikes in Malaya when dad was ASP (Assistant Superintendant) in Malaya, he picked up too many bit of bodies wrapped around rubber/palm trees back in the 50's - never stopped me from being on a 50's Triumph in 1959 as shown on the pic. I have in my lounge. :cool2:

Fast forward to NZ in 1971 - no way are you getting a hot-rod or motor-bike boy, buy a sensible car (ergo a Morris 1100).
First Kiwi m/c event? - crashing a Philips 'Gadabout' in 1968!!

Now have all the hot-rods and m/c's I want - and if I want more I can get them too- stuff the old man!!

P.S., the old man has been in a few of my hot-rods BUT cannot get him onto a m/c!! still the old lady had her first m/c ride on a H.D. in 1996 at age of 72!

[Shade]

Ok hold up, thats my bad.

I met Logan before i got my bike, however I was still going to get one

But yeh, i remember logan telling me stories about how he just went to the track and was real close to getting knee down etc, lol.. Then i rmemeber you first getting it down and I was trying to learn all i could, haha.

"ok so like, how much do you hang off.... so like an average 50k corner, what speed would you do through it to knee down..... etc etc."

Those were the days

[avgas]

Careful, least Bob closes off another thread...

yeh well thats the sad thing about it, some people ride cos they can, and others ride cos life would be too different without it.
Either way its worth the ride.

[scumdog]

yeh well thats the sad thing about it, some people ride cos they can, and others ride cos life would be too different without it.
Either way its worth the ride.

The point is; we ALL enjoy riding for our own reasons. :spudwave:

[Jackrat]

The old man an all his family loved bikes,me mother didn't.
Turns out she didn't really like the old man much either.
Me mother liked Hunting&fishing and came from a family that made their living from it.Had an uncle on my mothers side that was a pro' hunter in the south island,he also rode bikes(My hero for sure)
Anyway I got the best from both of them.
Been into Hunting,fishing an bikes for as long as I remember.
My old man(where ever the fuck he is)still don't like Hunting&Fishing(or my mother).My mother still doesn't like bikes much(or my old man).
When I ride, I'm in a place that's mine and mine alone.
It's about total independence,being in control,no input or interferance from others,traveling,going somewhere,doesn't matter where.
Being by myself on the road with my bike or on top of a mountain range with a rifle or bow in my hand are the two things that make life for me.Driving for a living or wetting a line fill the bit's in between.
Biking hasn't changed my life,it's just part of who an what I am.
It's VERY good.

[scroter]

cant remember how i got into it and its only about 4 or 5yrs ago. dont how the hell i could stop doing it either.

[NC]

Honestly, if it wasn't for bikes, i'd probably be at Queen St right now, driving a riced up car with a brain dead car hoe sitting next to me, doing continues laps wasting my life/time away.

That has to be the quote of the year

[Rainbow Wizard]

That's a wicked avatar you've got SP, did the guy survive?

[Drunken Monkey]

When I ride, I'm in a place that's mine and mine alone.
It's about total independence,being in control,no input or interferance from others,traveling,going somewhere,doesn't matter where.
...
Biking hasn't changed my life,it's just part of who an what I am.
It's VERY good.

'nuff said.

[Two Smoker]

That's a wicked avatar you've got SP, did the guy survive?

You can download it from here http://www.superbikemagazine.co.uk/content/videos.htm

this is the blurb next to the video:

This is terrible, but compulsive. 2.5mb mpeg without sound

[erik]

You can download it from here http://www.superbikemagazine.co.uk/content/videos.htm

this is the blurb next to the video:

This is terrible, but compulsive. 2.5mb mpeg without sound

A bit of searching found this:

http://www.r6messagenet.com/forums/a...p/t-20894.html

"cu360r6
that TT rider ended up with only a broken arm. Amazing, isn't it.
"

It was on an internet forum, so it must be true...

[Sutage]

Im the same, i love riding, just on my crappy 50 for the time being, may buy a gn250 tomorrow yay.

My parents will ask me to go up tot he local shop for something so i say sure, then they say 'oh its raining, wait 5 mins' i dont care, i just go because i love riding to the shop. cant wait to get my bike

[Flyingpony]

Bikes have changed my life by allowing myself to be spotted riding somewhere when it wasn't me.

There are other bikes running around Chch of the same model/colour and the rider is wearing a similar coloured jacket and helmet combo.

Sometimes commuters see double because there's a very close copy riding the same roads as me to work.

[Ixion]

Well, my goodness, after the lyrical paeans below, mine is most prosaic. Forty odd years ago my two mates talked their olds into buying them motorbikes, respectively a BSA Bantam and a Silver Pidgeon scooter (now *stop* laughing, and I bet no-one else has even *seen* a Silver Pidgeon, let alone ridden one).

Now the thing was, they could now *go places*. And I hankered to do the same. Mum and Dad heartily disliked the idea (for all the obvious reasons) but finally relented (though they wouldn't buy it for me , I had to manage that myself, not easy), on the basis that if I was determined to be an idiot I'd just have to get it out of my system.

So i became the proud owner of (wait, for it, wait wait, the suspense ) a *BSA Bantam* . Oh man, all of 40mph whenever I could find a long enough hill. But, it took me faithfully (well, not really, they broke down about every 20 miles, but I soon became an expert at fixing them) all across the country . Literally because we didn't bother too much about whether there were roads there or not. This was the era of the very first, primeval trail bikers.

Albeit slowly, I could now roam at will throughout the country.

A little later, cam a Triumoh 500, which could roam a bit faster. And only broke down every 50 miles.

And then a Velocette . Sob sob , I sold it. Young idiot that I was. I have so often wished my legs were flexible enough to kick myself for that idiocy.

But a succession of British iron (not quite scrap iron, though it would be pretty close by today's standards) followed, all of which took me places at reaonably rapid rates . And didn't break down too often , provided a constant supply of oil was ensured .I'm sure I must have been personally responsible for a major part of the depletion of the planet's oil reserves. Wherever I went I seemd to be accompanied by a puddle of oil. But, then so were all bikers of the era.

There were a few gaps, when buying a house, and getting married and such like intervened. But I always kept returned to that love , of *going places*.

To be honest ,I'm not so much into bikes as i am into biking. It's the riding, the epiphanic contact with the road and the wind , the procession of scenary, the experience of being an integral part of a complex system of man, earth, sky and steel, the nice balancing of conflicting forces, that matters to me. At such times, God is very close to us.

And the more varied the better. I could not be content to ride over the same bit of road again and again. I want new roads, unexplored paths. Gravel, seal, fast , slow, off road, on road, the more varied the better. "I wonder where *that* goes" is my catch phrase". And "Hm, haven't been there in years. Wonder if it's still the same "

My bikes are never given the love and attention that others bestow on their mounts. I don't really care what they look like. They are merely a means to an end, kept in good nick mechanically (in fact they rarely break down now !), but nothing to look at. They *get me places*. They don't have to be especially fast , I'm not a sports biker. To be honest (this is going to shock people, the young and impressionable had better stop reading now), I find sports bikes rather boring. All they seem good for is going over the same bits of roads at very high speeds.I like to go fast because then I get places quicker, that's all, but the speed itself is really quite irrelevant. Track days I could never get excited about. Just going round and round the same bit of road. Where's the fun in that ?

I find I can get as much enjoyment at 40kph , in the right circumstances, as at 200 kph. Biking is fun at any speed.

I guess they have shaped my life. At one time there was a suggestion that I should become an accountant (Parents !). I'm sure it was bikes that put paid to that notion. Phew, close escape!

And I've met a tremendous variety of wonderful (and a few not so wonderful) people over the years. There's a cameraderie amongst bikers like no other.

And the task of fixing the brutes has altered the direction of my life a bit too (away from accountancy for one thing! )