Did motorcycles change your life styleJust a few ked

Just been thinking if motorcycles played a big part in your life from a young age to old age inbetween with family and kids, work as well your mates, I know it did with me and what about your parents did they approve.
I got my first bike when I left school at 15 when I started working and able to afford one, my mun would never approve as my brother and I saved our pocket money and brought a mini bike with a lawn mower engine in it as soon as we got it home mum forced us to take it back, you will not have one of them she said, things changed when she pasted away when I was 14 and my plans of joining the Navy following my older brother steps, but seeing a ad in the paper for a Honda MT125 dirt bike I wanted one and asked my dad if he go guaranteed for it and to my surrprised he said yes.
That was the start of my whole life of motorcycles, 3 Honda dirt bikes before I was able to have a licence then getting into British motorcycles, my brand new Norton Commando which I still own and ride to this day, except with a few changes.
Funny thing when I left school my mates did the same we all got into dirt bikes and our Honda dealer in Sandgate become Australia leading Honda dealer at the time because of all of us buying bikes at the same time.
We all got into road bikes at the same time as well some brought Honda 4 and some brought British bikes, we all put shit on each other but we were all close friends, there where 3 groups from our local area, the Brighton boys ( mine) the Bracken Ridge boys and the Sandgate boys 3 seprate groups but we all stuck together and looked after each others backs, drank at the local pub, partied together and had weekend runs together, we are all around the same age and we are still riding together after 45 years and we still have some great parties together.
I just turned 59 the other day, been married for 26 years, 2 grown up kids, but my bikes was always number one, when I settled down with my wife number one rule was when I want to go out on the bike or away for a few days or weeks on the bike even with out notice she have no say at all, silly girl aggreed to that one, but I was lucky I knew my wife when we were kids her dad was my dads best friend and she knew what I was like.
After 45 years on the road riding and still riding the dirt bikes life has been great with me, still have most of my mates I have grown up with, yes we have lost a few but we all have stuck together on our bikes, still riding hard, drinking hard when partying and enjoying life, nothing has changed and hopefully won't till I he day I die.
Share with us your stories about your life with motorcycles, I am sure there be some funny stories as well, I know I have heaps but I need a book for them all.

Ashley

Are you serious? Did they change us??

I often wonder how much time, and money, I’d have if it hadn’t been spent on motorcycles !!

I don’t regret it. But it is a disease, and one that I’m rather glad my kids seem not to have.

I’m one of the younger ones on here at 49. So when I was growing up, all my mates had Jap bikes. I was the only one in the gang with Brit stuff. At 17 I made my Tiger Cub keep up with RDs and at 18 my Bonnie kept up with GPZs! Etc.

That was a late Harris Bonnie that I had from nearly new. Poor thing had the life of a race bike really. Put away in the shed, dragged out and thrashed, back in shed, repeat!

My TSS was the real street sleeper though, the lads just couldn’t work out how that thing was so damned quick.

Eventually I ended up on GSXRs whilst I built my Triton. I was so close to the edge though with the points on my licence, so I built the Triton as a racer, got to know Dave Degens, ended up riding for Dresda, loved every second of it!

Racing is a strange game though. It taught me that I have an addictive streak. I was totally and 100% consumed by it. It was a great few years, but didn’t mix with a ‘normal’ life.

So these days I stick to a couple of track days a year. Still get a kick out of making old Brit stuff go as fast as I can, and faster than most folk think they should though !

My first bike was a 500cc Indian Scout. My mother would not let me ride it without a sidecar. So the first thing that happened was it chucked me head-first into a paling fence because half the bearings were missing from the sidecar wheel. I got my road licence on it. From there I progressed to hotted-up 650 Triumphs because I had a friend who was an idiot. He had raced in the mid-50s and taught me how to build a motor. I rode on public roads until I was 27 and woke up that my days were numbered. So I then road-raced regularly for about 12 years using a Triton 500 which had everything done to it. - A nasty piece of shit. It taught ne how to survive, but not how to win road races. After I stopped road racing, I built the Seeley 850 which taught ne a very serious lesson. - THE BIKE MAKES THE RIDER. The Seeley sat unraced for about 20 years because I never believed in it - now I know better. While I was racing, I had three kids to raise . At my first road race, my two sons watched me chuck the bike down the road at about 100MPH. So I never had to watch my kids road race - thank God for that ! I did race a methanol-fuelled T250 Suzuki for a while, I can recommend that, it is a much easier way to go.
The scariest bike I ever rode was a Ducati 250. It was ultra-high comp., factory race cam, close box and GP carb on methanol. I shudder at the thought of it. It was like a kid's BMX bike with 40 BHP - like sitting on nothing going far too fast.

haha! good story... yes, even as a small child I wanted to ride! now as an old child, considering letting the combat go and replacing it with a smaller, around the village thing. we'll see. but no plans to quit altogether.... and +1 Eddie, glad my boy rides the muni around san francisco instead of a 750

There is a friend of mine who was a good A-grade rider in his day. He was with Kim Newcombe when he was killed at Silverstone. Due to the stress of getting Kim's wife etc, back to New Zealand he had a breakdown. I saw him at Winton with his son with a TZ250 Yamaha, a few years ago. He was absolutely shitting himself while his son was on the track. I told him 'you cannot be like that'. A while back I saw him again and asked him how his son was going with his racing. Apparently the kid had run into the side of a car with his road bike. The accident took the muscle out of his upper arm, so that was the end of his racing. If you have kids, have them taught tennis and do the racing yourself.

I started in the two-wheeled transportation mode at 16, when I left school and started an engineering apprenticeship in the aerospace industry. The bus ride to work took 90 minutes each way and was a real chore. Mom said I couldn't have a motorcycle, so I got a Vespa scooter - much more hazardous than a good bike. After a couple of years with a small car, I got an Ariel Leader which was a motorcycle but looked like a scooter. I then moved up to a BSA A7 (500cc twin), which I kept until a couple of years after I got married.

I didn't get back onto a bike until I went to work at Norton-Villiers. They provided me with a beat-up old 650SS to ride to work. I was test riding various Norton and AJS machines as a job, until I left to emigrate to the US.

I took one look at the little old ladies peering through the steering wheel of their Olds 98's and doing 45 on the freeway and decided my biker days were over. I adapted to driving on the left quite well as one's viewpoint from the left front seat kept you on the correct side of the road. Not so on a bike.

I haven't ridden on the road since then (July 1968) and it's very unlikely I will take it up again now, in my mid-70's.


Frank

I can neither allow nor forbid my kids anything after age 18. Until then, I try my best to expose them to as much as possible, with all proper precautions taken.

Life happens, death must inevitably happen. Live till you die.

acotrel said:

If you have kids, have them taught tennis and do the racing yourself.

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That’s kinda how it works in our house !

I have lose a few good riding mates over the years but the thing is only lost one from a motorcycle accident the others from work related deaths, bad health, cancer, I have seen mates go down, hit by cars or gravel on blind corners, even lose road markers but they all survived to get back on the bikes, I have only just broken my first bone in my life just a few years ago when my Norton decided to spit me over the handle bars from faulty front brake was only down for 6 weeks in that time replace the whole front brake system while down, it was painfull not being able to ride the bike while recovering.
Even when I am so busy notbeing able to get out on the bike the wife notices a big change in my mood, it gets so bad after a few days she tells me to take the day off and get out on the bike as she knows when I get back I am better for it.
The last 3 weeks I have been extenting my shed and doing all the work on my own and the last week concreting the slab in sections as it to much to do in one go by myself, mixing the concrete by myself, pouring it and skeeting it, but Sunday had to take the bike out to recover from my sore feet and legs as my 59 year old body is showing its age from hard work, but after the ride even in wet weather I felt good and was ready for another big week on the shed, just one more concrete section to go and its finished.
After its finished a mate asked if I want to ride up to Cooktown and back over a 3,000 ks round trip from Brisbane before xmas but its getting close to the wet session up far North Queensland and its also cyclone session as well, I have to think about that run as they are already getting heavy rain up there.

Ashley

frankdamp said:

I haven't ridden on the road since then (July 1968) and it's very unlikely I will take it up again now, in my mid-70's.
Frank

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Strewth Frank, that’s when I was born... you have literally been a lifetime off of bikes !

Not sure how you managed to resist it, even though they make yer drive on the wrong side, they do have some great roads ‘over there’ !!

Hey Ash... bigger shed = more bikes...?!?

Eddie its a open shed 7.4m x 4m the main shed gets so hot in summer to work in but we get nice sea breezes here as not to far from Moreten Bay and we are up on highest part of Brighton, 1/3 of the slab at the front of my big sliding door to the shed will be a outside covered work area for the bikes and the other 2/3 will be a covered open entertaining area where hopefully a large slat top snooker table will go when I find one, my shed only has bikes, workshop and my machining equipment in it as well beer fridge and my music, can't get any cars up the back, the shed I built 25 years ago and this extention is so overdue I been collecting the steel C channels for a long time and only had to pay for the roofing iron and concrete.

Ashley

Okay, the original question - Did Motorcycles Change My Lifestyle.

Simple answer - YES!

My parents were absolutely against them, but allowed me to buy my own bike with my own EARNED money, once I was old enough to have a license (16, in late 1973). Since then, I've always had a motorcycle, usually more than one, and since about 1982 (35 years) I've never had less than a dozen. My wyfe Sally was riding before we met, including overhauling the carb on her brother's trail bike so she could learn how to ride with clutch & gears. All my kids ride, Sally taught my 2 older boys to ride on mini bikes. We've ridden the Texas hill country solo, 2-up, and even 3-up (sidecar), and with most of my extended family out and about on up to FIVE bikes, often with a chase vehicle so we can pull over and let different kids & grandkids get turns zipping thru the hills.

I've owned 166 of them, and restored, refurbished, overhauled or custom built another 101. I've been in 5 significant crashes, but took them in stride (thank God no serious injuries). I've raced a few, and did reasonably well with them, including setting my class record on the Bonneville Salt Flats. I've ridden them in 20 different states, plus Cancun, Mexico. I wrote a book about Old Bikes. I moderate the Classics & Vintage sections of 2 worldwide Triumph forums, and still have a half-dozen classic bike forums on Delphi, although facebook has pretty much killed that medium. For over 12 years, motorcycles paid the bills and kept us fed. I'm currently the VP of the local CMA chapter that I've been involved with for 14 years. My garage has more square footage than my house, mostly for motorcycles.

I owe a lot to the motorcycle industry in general, a better part of that to the BRITISH motorcycle industry, a healthy percentage of THAT share to Norton, and the majority of THAT share to the classic Norton Commando.

While I owe my very life and EVERYTHING in it to God almighty, I'm proud to say He allowed me all of this joy, all of these adventures, and all of the friends I've made over the years, to have motorcycles as the thread woven through all of it.

So, yes.

After some reflection, I must agree motorcycles, or at least one, significantly changed the course of my life.

It was about 2 months before graduation, and getting my Bachelor of Science Degree.
I was standing near the door of a campus building, when Prof. Miller, the Asst. Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Dept. burst out, and seeing me, asked "Is your transportation parked near here?"

I answered "Yes it is." He asked "Can you take me to the airport?" I answered "Yes I can". He asked "Where are you parked?"

I turned my head about 45 degrees, looked at my Atlas, and said "Get on!"

He looked at the bike, looked at his watch, looked again at the bike, and again at his watch and said "I gotta do It!"

On the ride to the airport, he asked me about my plans after graduation. I said I was thinking of grad school. This was true, but it was never in my plans to go beyond the Masters level. He asked if I would consider a 3 year Fellowship leading to a PhD Degree.
"Sure!" I said. No point in turning down anything free.

"Great!" He said, "I will put in a word for you with the Chairman of the Aerospace Engineering Dept. at Rutgers"

About a week later, I got a call from the Chairman, who dropped a NDEA Fellowship in my lap, and I became a rocket scientist. God only knows where I would have ended up otherwise.

Slick

I started out on a 250 BSA and got a 500 Kaw because it had lots of power. Then riding with Britbike buddies, I realized handling was just as important as power unless you only went in a straight line, so I bought what is now the SS clone. After flogging it half to death keeping up with my Jap bike-riding buddies, I bought an 1100 Suzuki. Kept the Norton. Later, sold the Suz and got out of riding for 15 years to raise kids and pay the bills. Jumped back into the fire 12 years ago with a Kaw ZZR 1200 and now my main ride is a Kaw ZX-14, which is now pushing 75,000 trouble-free miles. I'll probably replace it with something lighter in a year or two.

I don't hunt, fish or sit at the bar drinking (much) so motorcycles have been my preoccupation. Changed my life? They've made my life and most of my friends, so outside of family, what else is there?

texasSlick said:

...About a week later, I got a call from the Chairman, who dropped a NDEA Fellowship in my lap, and I became a rocket scientist. God only knows where I would have ended up otherwise.

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I don't think that one can be topped.

I have always had an obsession with mechanical objects. When I was a child, my parents had a drawer that they put broken mechanisms into for me to have things to tinker with, so I wouldn't disassemble the television when they weren't home...

When I quit college because I wasn't persuing a viable carreer there, my dad asked me what I want to do. I answered, "I want to take my pick up truck apart, pass it through a hula hoop and assemble it on the other side". The look on his face said, "My fucking kid is an idiot" They never understood that I was obsessed with mechanical objects of all kinds.

When I brought the non-running Norton home at age 19, my dad said, "Get rid of that thing, You'll never fix it". I couldn't get it to run with a 19 year old's skill set. Luckily, my aunt who always favored me allowed me to store the commando in her basement because it was not welcome in my dad's home. There it sat for many years while I planned it's restoration. At age 25 I crashed my honda 750F while racing on the streets. I would have been dead if not for a passing motorist who dressed my wounds. I broke my pelvic socket, my collar bone, and had 100 stitches in my back where a cut off sign post that I landed on, had impaled me through my leather jacket... I gave up riding for some years until I had my own commercial shop space where I could do whatever I wanted when work was slow. Somewhere in the 80's I had the free time and money to tear my commando apart and rebuild it to turn it into a runner. I rode it with buddies through harriman state park on the sunny weekends regularly with a rear swingarm that wiggled (before I discovered the kegler clamps) and wondered why people always said that a commando handled really well.

My obsession with it was less because it was a norton and a holy graille of a bike, but because it was a mechanical object who's design was so different than the direction that mainstream motorcycle design had gone. It had 3 cases, A bizzare clutch, positive ground, developed weird crankcase pressure, and the entire drivetrain and engine that was rubber mounted inside the frame.... What mechanically obsessed person could resist messing with this combination???

Of course now my bike is a bizarre FrankenNorton with a late model honda/dunstall fairing and yamaha cast wheels. It represents my curiousity to learn and my determination to experiment, more than my desire to ride hard and long...

I don't think motorcycles changed my life, but were simply part of it. I am actually an industrial chemist and spent a large part of my life in defence factories finding better ways to kill people - guns, aircraft and explosives. So with me, it has always been about development. That is why I race. My bike is now about as good as it is ever going to get. Road-racing is infinitely safer then commuting on a bike, as long as you leave your ego at home. If you have something to prove, it is extremely dangerous. I have known 3 people who have been killed while road-racing. Before I was 27, I had lost about 5 times that number of friends in highway crashes.

Always remember - you are not dead until you are dead and after that it does not matter. AND A miss is as good as a mile.