Kind of sad, selling one of my remaining race bikes.

At one of the only races my wife came to, I happened to crash, and I rarely crashed, and the doctor at the hospital made a big deal about a hematoma on my calf caused by the upper back side of my boot, to the point that I was due for a blood clot that evening. She complained and used the "irresponsible" technique on me, so, after some consideration I stopped racing.

This was my primary bike in the 90s as a 350 and a back up to the TD3 you see in my avatar in the 2000s as a 250. It got a bid. And it has over 50 watchers, so it will sell. It is a little sad as it tells me I'm too old to do what I most liked about bikes, i.e. road racing. I am keeping the TD3, who knows, I may decide to lose some weight and race again. But it is doubtful.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 3AIT#v4-37

The TD3 sounds better than a rocking chair and a lap blanket.
We are all getting old, and injurys hurt more and longer,,,, BUT,,,,,
Graeme

I got two huge hematomas, one on my arm and one on my leg like you. The doc shot a little locale in the leg and cleaned it out. Kind of put me off grape jelly for a while. (He said the arm was the wrong kind for this treatment so it went down on its own.) This was the result of a drunk turning abruptly in from of my BMW and a product of the POS brakes on my /6 (whoever thought it was a good idea to have a cable operated master cylinder hidden under the tank?) My point is you don't have to be racing to get hurt. I was just going up the street to get some gas. Life is risky business. Every day people die doing sensible and mundane things. Bathtubs are dangerous as hell!

Big_Jim59 said:

I got two huge hematomas, one on my arm and one on my leg like you. The doc shot a little locale in the leg and cleaned it out. Kind of put me off grape jelly for a while. (He said the arm was the wrong kind for this treatment so it went down on its own.) This was the result of a drunk turning abruptly in from of my BMW and a product of the POS brakes on my /6 (whoever thought it was a good idea to have a cable operated master cylinder hidden under the tank?) My point is you don't have to be racing to get hurt. I was just going up the street to get some gas. Life is risky business. Every day people die doing sensible and mundane things. Bathtubs are dangerous as hell!

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Tell that to my wife. She can't take yes for an answer.

Yep, that's kind of sad. I feel for you. I've raced every year since 1981, not a lot of races every year, but enough to keep me keen and ( so far) I'm lucky because my wife is happy knowing it's safer than riding on the road. She's witnessed one of my biggest crashes which involved a cartwheeling Norton that nearly landed on me and she's still OK about me racing.

I don't ride as hard any more and instead of winning races I seem to get a few places further down, but I think it keeps me young.

Maybe you could point out that it is safer than road riding, and with bikes in your blood, you're going to do one or the other.

pommie john said:

Yep, that's kind of sad. I feel for you. I've raced every year since 1981, not a lot of races every year, but enough to keep me keen and ( so far) I'm lucky because my wife is happy knowing it's safer than riding on the road. She's witnessed one of my biggest crashes which involved a cartwheeling Norton that nearly landed on me and she's still OK about me racing.

I don't ride as hard any more and instead of winning races I seem to get a few places further down, but I think it keeps me young.

Maybe you could point out that it is safer than road riding, and with bikes in your blood, you're going to do one or the other.

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Actually I've gotten too fat now. I'd have to lose some weight and get in shape. People that don't race don't understand that after 4 or 5 laps if you are not in shape you really can't be competitive.

But you can still enjoy yourself, even for only a few laps. Do it,,, I bet you loose weight too.
Life is too short
graeme

GRM 450 said:

But you can still enjoy yourself, even for only a few laps. Do it,,, I bet you loose weight too.
Life is too short
graeme

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Hahaha. Ok, first thing is to check if I fit into my leathers!!!

The wife is right motorcycles are irresponsible and you can not predict what will happen d/t your own, others or the bikes faults. At least ya got to race and are still around. Not sure how long I can take my own riding anymore and wonder what I can get for what I put so much into.

One of my ridding buddies used to race a lot in the 90's and early 2,000's but had to sell everything due to a divorce. Last year he decided to start again and just as he was collecting parts for a bike he bought to race we were on a ride through some two lane mountain roads we had never been on and he went down in a slow left right switch back. We came around a blind left turn and the road suddenly dropped down hill very steeply and turned right, he had no choice but to be on his brakes and hit a two foot wide 15 foot long patch of wet antifreeze dropped from a car. His front wheel went out & he hit the ground tumbling. 20 mph and still broke most of the ribs on his left side, chipped a bone in his back tore up his leg and by the time it was done he had spent two 1/2 weeks hospitalized, another week off work at home and lots of $. His insurance covered something like $120,00.00 ! He decided he was to old & fragile to race & sold the bike. We still ride a lot on the street though. I guess the point is, you never know what can happen. This 20 mph unavoidable crash did more damage than any race track crash & he saddly crashed a lot on the track. I've never been on a race track & sometimes I think I don't have the nerve to push as hard as I did in my youth but then I find myself flying down some two lane close to the edge of what my feeble skills & sleaved Lockeed MC will handle!

What happened when you crashed? Lean too far to the left?

Now you guys got me running scared. To mitigate any risk, I have a plan. I have a centerstand so most risk can be avoided. I can ease into my leathers, put on my Vendramini's, start the old girl up on the centerstand, warm her up until she idles, put on my shades, put on my gloves, put on my helmet, sit on the bike and rev it for 30 minutes or so.

When I'm Jones'ing, track days are my fix. Run around until onset of fatigue; come in, rehydrate, go out again.

xbacksideslider said:

When I'm Jones'ing, track days are my fix. Run around until onset of fatigue; come in, rehydrate, go out again.

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I've never done the "track days" thing, though I have watched them at one of the side circuits at Summit Point Motorsports Park while I was racing at the main track. Don't know, it seemed a bit orchestrated, but I might be wrong.

montelatici said:

xbacksideslider said:

When I'm Jones'ing, track days are my fix. Run around until onset of fatigue; come in, rehydrate, go out again.

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I've never done the "track days" thing, though I have watched them at one of the side circuits at Summit Point Motorsports Park while I was racing at the main track. Don't know, it seemed a bit orchestrated, but I might be wrong.

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Track days don't have the adrenalin of a race; they are a bit like untimed practice. Indeed, quite a few racers over here use track days to get track time, sort their gearing and suspension, etc. Not sure how track days operate across the pond, but in Ireland and the UK, they usually have a number of grades, depending on ability. Riders with race experience like yourself would elect for the fast or intermediate group, and on a tightish track, you could have a lot of fun and surprise people on your classic racer.