Anyone here ride bikes....motorbikes ?

[Hobbit]

You are in a minority then, as the VFR is rightly rated as one of the all time great bikes.

I loved my VFR800 vTec. Could eat the miles, fully loaded, and could mix it on all but the tight twisties up the Dales. The Street Triple R gave me the most buzz but scared the whatsits out of me too often.

I miss the VFR more than the Street. Maybe it depends on what the first bike was you ever had, a Honda for me. But I don't miss Suzuki, Kawasaki or Yamaha. I learned more about spannering from the BSA B40, but not through choice. Damn thing was always breaking down.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

That would apply to my friends Ducati Damah. You only had to look at it and it broke. Last time he visited us with it, the rear sprocket sheered clean off 5 minutes after leaving my house. 4 rediculous bolts holding it on. He got shot of it shortly after.

 

[Fish]

Rooter would blow you all Away, he used to race them.

 

[Rooter]

Rooter would blow you all Away, he used to race them.

LOL but he doesn't ride any more! Not ridden a bike for 3 years. I have a syndrome where i put on a helmet and all sensible brain cells leave my head. I call it the door knob syndrome.

Here is my list, Bare in mind i could ride a motorbike before i could ride a bicycle! Think i was 3 when i got my first, lets say they are in the blood! Family holiday for my childhood was the Isle of Mann for 2 weeks every May/June for the TT as my dad used to race sidecars, so I met many times the worlds best in Joey Dunlop!

Anyway,

PW50
Many many Moto X bikes
16 - Kawasaki AE50
17 - Honda NSR 125, TZR250, KMX 125
18 - Kawasaki ZXR 750
20 - GSXR 600
21- Got banned from driving due to dangerous driving for a year (was caught at 130 on 1 wheel)
22- Started road racing, did mainly endurance racing which was 6 or 8 hour races in a team at places like Oulton Park, Silverstone, Snetterton etc.
Then had a few other bikes when i got my licence back, Triumph Daytona 595 is all i remember.

Brother was a journalist for a bike mag, so i got to ride all the latest and greatest machines, thats when i realised i was stupid when on a Ducati Panigalle in jeans and trainers i saw the speed i was doing. (prison speed) And not ridden a road bike since.

Might buy a dirt bike at some point, Brother is now marketing manager for KTM uk, so can get a deal if i want...

Only pic of my glory days on my PC...

 

[Reemul]

I started riding at 16 in a blaze of glory with an RD50, yay, rebored it to 60cc and added a micron exhaust and was away, a downhill top wack of 55 mph. I was hooked then.

At 17 upgraded to a TZR125 and have the ypvs valve removed, meant it was sluggish until the powerband then would do 105mph on a 125cc engine, just awesome.

Passed my test at 17 and upgraded to a RD350YPVS with twin micron exhausts. Beautiful machine, really good fun to ride.At 19 bought a new plate Aug 1st (Remember that) FZR600. Which I did 80,000 miles on using it as a everyday rider. Included in this was a 1 month ban for doing 94mph in a 30mph zone.

I then ended up with a 1998 Yamaha R1, lunatic machine, 85mph in 1st gear, front wheel up at 120 without trying, going fast had never been so easy.

In this time I had 2 accidents, one a head on with a Jag, not my fault that wrote off my RD350 and a slide up the road on my FZR600 on black ice. For someone doing 8-10k miles a year that was good going. At the beginning of 2000 onwards things seemed to get more dangerous, continually close calls, lunatic driving by drivers, mobile phone usage went through the roof and traffic on the roads became choc a bloc. in the space of 3 years I got knocked off 5 times none my fault just stupid driving by cars in a rush to either get to work or get home from work.

Then my wife got pregnant and my brother in law died of cancer at 34. he had 3 kids aged 7, 4 and 3. the effect this had on his family and our big family was heart breaking.

At this time I decided to stop riding bikes, losing my life to the stupidity of someone else or even my own hardly seemed fair to the family is was bringing in to the world and after seeing what happened to my sister in law and her kids I stopped riding. I do miss it occasionally and I did manage to pass my car test in 2015 at the age of 44 and now drive a car like most others.

But bikes are enormous fun....