Have you ever ridden or rode/owned a motorcycle?

Yeah ,about 15 of them 2 street bikes the rest were off road motor cycles.

I have ridden on motorcycles. My ex-boyfriend had a Harley. Two weeks after I had my hysterectomy, I had to take some paperwork to my doctor. My boyfriend took me on his bike to her office. I dropped off the paperwork and went home. About 10 minutes later my doctor called me. She said her staff had seen me ride up on a motorcycle. She said I was NOT allowed to ride a motorcycle until at least 6 weeks after my surgery. She was pretty angry.

Yes, ridden/drove one. Didn’t like it.

Yes, my first hubby had one. My sister (60) has had different ones since high school; last 15 years or so a Harley. My dad had one since he was in his 40’s. College dean tooling along on a BMW in a suit. LOL He loved riding and would take long trips alone – mom wasn’t a bike person. He went to the Keys several times from TN. I don’t remember what kind/s of BMWs he had, but they were like riding in a Cadillac – smooooth – had saddlebags, an in-helmet radio, and he towed a little trailer when he went on trips.

Yes. It’s the only way to move around.

Sure. Who hasn’t?

Biker Dudes, cool!
@chyna Only two weeks…(ouch)
Thing I remember most, was all the different smells in the air around every turn. Most good some not so much.

1 dirt bike, 2 street bikes. A Kawasaki 400 and a Yamaha 650 .

Congrats. Nice brag.

I have never owner nor ridden a motorcycle. Bicycle, yes. Never with a motor. Nor would I particularly want to. IMHO, they’re impractical and dangerous. Sure they look fun, but I’d be enjoying it once or twice and then it would just sit around gathering dust. I would never commute on it, or go to the grocery store.

Even if I drive it PERFECTLY, when someone pulls out in front of me in traffic without enough time for me to evade, I’m going to get into a wreck. And at road speeds, I’m probably road pizza. Whereas I have been in an accident with a sedan and I survived because the crumple zone crumpled and absorbed the energy. The seatbelt and airbag worked as the engineers designed them and I walked away with a thumb sprain, and various minor abrasions. On a motorcycle, I’d have been accordioned into the side of a pickup truck.

How does one ride a motorcycle with the utmost safety? Pretend that you are invisible.

I’ve been a passenger a number of times, though not lately, but never driven one.

Motorcycle = murder-psycho. HA!

From 1979 through 1986 I rode a Honda Hawk 400 in San Francisco and up and down the coast to and from Monterey. Road all year in most bad weather conditions (wind, night, cold fog, rain). Had a glass bottle thrown at me from a passing car (smashed my headlight). Dealt with many other bad attitude car drivers. Got a flat front tire while driving 60 mph on the freeway. Laid it down (400 pound of motorcycle) crossing trolly tracks, construction gravel and soft asphalt too many times so I got rid of it and never thought about riding another motor cycle.

Lucky to walk away alive.

In a word, Yes and Yes.

@gondwanalon Damn! Can’t blame you. Auto drivers can be arseholes, non-looking, non-caring jerks!

Yes. I still have it! A Kawasaki 500 two-stroke triple, Mach III. It was called the “Widow maker.”

I got it in 1975 and still take it out occasionally in the summer. I ride it until I scare myself. That usually does not take long.

I had an ‘82 KZ305 in my late 20’s, and mostly enjoyed my 12-mile commute between Chapel Hill and Durham. I had no incidents despite driving on tires with sidewall cracks, weakening my clutch pedal (by bending it) until one day it broke, having a short period where gas was streaming out of a carburetor valve that was stuck open, and brushing against a curb that I veered toward as I was looking over my shoulder to merge onto a highway.

Around 5 years ago, I thought supplementing my aging RAV4 with the commute-specific 2014 NC700X would be a good solution for my 25-mile commute (and frequent 80-mile driving days) in the Albuquerque metro area. That worked pretty well for about a year, but it’s been mostly garaged since. I didn’t foresee that I would lack the desire to maintain two systems (car and motorcycle), and I also entered a period of being chronically sleep deprived (i.e. not in a condition to ride) on account of my asshole neighbor. It’s garaged with 11K miles on it, and I haven’t yet decided what to do with it.

I’ll add that I learned something nuanced about helmets. There’s a taboo about dropping a helmet, which presumably ruins it. What I learned is that the helmet materials make for a crumple zone, so dropping it most often is not that bad unless there’s some mass inside the helmet that would cause the material to crumple. But, it’s important to note the manufacture date inside of the helmet and replace it within 5 years because the material gradually loses its ability to crumple due to aging, sweat, etc.

@kevbo1 Ever been to Rockingham Speedway? Just curious.

Owned and rode motorcycles for most of my life. I started losing interest when they passed the helmet laws. I understand the safety issues but it’s just not fun with a helmet on and if it’s not fun why do it. I’ve built a chopper from the ground up and had Harleys, Triumphs, and Hondas. I’ve commuted on them and taken road trips. I love them but age has crept up on me.

A Harley rider, riding a HONDA?!! That’s blasphemy! lol joking :D

By the time I finished building it, it didn’t look like a Honda but the Harley always looked like a Harley.

I don’t own one but I did ride a dirt bike if that counts. Vary fun as long as you don’t crash.

Sure that counts! It’s still a bike, I had a Yamaha 250 dirt went airborne and almost killed me more times then I’ll admit.

I used to ride on the back of a friend’s; he gave me rides home from high school.

I was sitting around talking with some friends about all the motorcycle accidents friends had been in, when one said to me, “you’re about the only guy I know that hasn’t gotten hurt in a motorcycle accident.”

To which I replied, “I am about the only guy you know that has never driven a motorcycle”

@Dig_Dug- never been.

@kevbo1 Okay, I wasn’t actually there but drove by it many times. Hated race week, traffic mess..uhgg!

Growing up my neighbor had a minibike. The things we did on that bike! Mom would have freaked if she’d been paying attention. But she never was.

I started with a motor scooter. I was required to get a motorcycle license to drive it on the road. It would go 60 mph and got over 100 mpg so it was okay. When I went for the test there were probably 30 other guys and gals with their motorcycles there too. Some smirked and some joked about me and my scooter. Until the test happened. I went first (which everyone said was a sure failure) and zipped through the course without even a problem. It was too easy. After I was done, some of the guys on their Harleys or their Crotch-rockets suddenly looked at me differently. They started asking me about it and the more they heard the more they were impressed. One guy said I needed to show up every Saturday to rent it out for people to take their test on. I rode that for a couple years and then moved up to something with a bit more power. Enjoyed it all the time but quickly learned that other motorists don’t see/care about motorcycles. I don’t have one now but if I get one it would be something like a Can-Am.

@seawulf575 That is the one biggest problem with ridding, is the motorist. They don’t watch for bikes, heck they don’t watch for other cars either. Too many people looking at their phones to care about what’s in front of their death mobiles.

When I rode it regularly I would fiddle with it almost daily – engine, suspension, gears, etc. My most fun modification was a small (1 inch diameter), uncontrolled rocket I mounted under the gas tank and steering damper. (Estes C class engine). I used the horn button and relay as my fire control. I shorted a nichrome ignition wire across the horn and securely embedded it into the rocket engine. An “Arm” switch would enable the relay. To fire, all I had to do was push and hold the “horn” button until I heard a “beep.” That meant the nichrome igniter had vaporized and the rocket would be exiting the tube in about ¼ second. The 12 inch rocket had spring loaded fins that would open up for stability once it left the tube. (Sort of.)
I live in the boonies and was able to launch and play without bothering anyone. No matter how fast I was traveling the rocket would blast away like I was standing still. Since it was unguided, it would leave a lazy spiral tube of smoke about ¼ mile long down the road.
I felt like I was in a fighter plane. Fun! (And crazy)

^^ lol! I can picture that, crazy for sure!

The majority of my life, I have owned one bike, or another. My first memory, is seeing my palms on my father’s Burgundy Honda. Yes. There was apparently a time, when you didn’t go straight to jail for putting a baby on your lap, and riding on public roads. If it’s legal now, I’ve never seen it. We used to fly down pine barren, hilly roads, close to and around Fort Jackson. I don’t recall what the maximum speed the bike was capable of. It was a 700, or 750 cc?..... Knowing my father, I know we were frequently going in excess of 100 mph.

I purchased my first bike, at 18. A 750 cc Honda Shadow ACE.
It’s an excellent bike for a taller, heavy guy. The seat is nice and low, and wide. That saddle really drops you down into the frame, and lowers your center of gravity. For the first 5 months or so, I drove it for hours a day. Drove it until I ran out of gas. Filled it back up, for about $3, and drove some more. Anywhere. Everywhere.

I laid it down bad, when I was 19. Helmet saved my life, but I was pretty messed up otherwise. It was crazy. Because my brother was behind me on his bike, when I wrecked, and as we waited for an ambulance (I was laying on the ground still, and couldn’t move much because of the pain,) my brother stood my bike up out of habit and a garbage truck ran into the parked bike and damaged it further. The bike faired pretty well for how violent the wreck was. I bailed at one point, and right before I smashed the shit out of my head and right arm, I saw the bike rolling, and jerking and jarring. I turned my fall into a roll, as best I could. Sliding would have been worse, given I was just wearing a windbreaker, and cargo pants.
Only slightly broke my elbow, and messed my back up, tore chunks of my flesh off here and there. Recovery wasn’t too bad. I stayed high as giraffe ass, on some decent weed I was gifted by a friend. A quarter, and two packs of Phillies, beat flowers any day.
When I was 21, I traded that bike in for an 1100 cc Sabre. It was gangster AF. Gloss black with silver designs that matched some of my ink and as a Raiders fan, the black and silver was the only way to go. Added custom wheels, and some Vance are Hines shotgun pipes, with no baffles, and some other tweaks. I got a new speedometer so I could see what the max speed was. The factory speedometer only went to like 120 mph.
The gears were SO tall. It could haul ass past 60 in first, and I had to be careful power shifting because it wanted to spin the tire even at speed. Or I could creep along a nice straightaway at 140 mph or so. If I laid down, I could get over 150. I used to go to Biker Week, and Black Biker Week, in Myrtle Beach each summer. (No. You don’t have to be black, to go to Black Biker Week.) It must be horrific for the locals in Myrtle Beach. We just owned the streets, and parking lots. The whole city smelled like burnt rubber, and gasoline. I never had to stop at red lights, or even stay in a lane, or on the road. Everyone on a bike just road around all the cars, trucks. We road on the sidewalks. Road into bars, and hotels. Smoked, and drank in public, in broad daylight. There was no way to enforce the law. The Army reserves were always brought in to augment the police. But. It didn’t matter. The bikers outnumbered the Army, and cops, by thousands…

Well. Karma caught up to me later in life. My security company picked up an account (I swear to God, I’m not making this up,) at a Biker bar called. “Suck, Bang, Blow!” Yes. Your imaginations are serving you well… When I herd we got that account, I laughed. I was amused thinking of the poor bastards that would have to work that gig. Unfortunately. My boss called me up soon after we picked it up, and was telling me how perfect I would be, as HOS there for Biker Week. It was wild. I have to say. I felt right at home there. It was not very different from a dystopian, Mad Max-like environment. Indoor burnouts, drugs everywhere (that part sucked,) v-twins, flatheads, tattoo guns whizzing, brief skirmishes that I just sat back and watched through the smoke everywhere. Half of the bikers or more were flying colors, and carrying open weapons. We got through without any deaths, on the premises. That I know of… And when I got back to Charleston, I called up the owners of my main venue and told them I was to be replaced there, and re-asigned. They called my boss, and pulled the right strings. I never had to go back to MB again and I was able to pull some of my favorite guys back under my watch, at my main venue. And there was much rejoicing…

I never had a motorcycle license. Just a extremely expired learner’s permit, from when I was 18. I never to the test. I had some friends in some PD’s, and honestly only stopped for blue lights a couple times. I could straight leave the Crown Vics. After the last 5.0 Mustang Interceptors were retired, I just had to worry about the rare Camero Interceptors. I could own them too, if it was an urban area. But. If they got up behind me on a straight road, they could match me.

Goddammit I loved that bike…

It was no small miracle that I only wrecked once again, and somehow survived my “ride it, like you stole it” lifestyle. I wonder how many other LEOs, lived such duel lives…Enforcing the law, on the clock, and doing my own thing off the clock…

I’m a different person now. I’ve had different bikes since those days too. I sold my last one a few years back.

I’m currently without my own transportation. A used bike, would be in my price range. But… I feel obligated to protect my new liver, and not waste that gift from a stranger. It’s odd, to say the least, having a dead man’s liver in me… I mean. It’s mine now, but in a way, I’m a living memorial to whomever he was. He lives on, in me…

Apologies for the long story. Many thanks to those who took the time to read it. I just miss riding SO much.
Even the worst times. Freezing. Sitting in traffic during our tropical weather. Showing up to work completely drenched. It was all worth it. Riding is the closest thing we have to being able to fly.
Or form unique bonds with a few girls over the years. And unique bonds with other riders.
As my nostalgic memories are still vivid, I guess I’ll have to just relish, and appreciate the times I had…
Thanks to all the other shared stories as well. I’ve got a picture of a massive jellyfish, riding a motorcycle. Thundering down the road. Tentacles flapping in the wind. Just out for one last ride to go watch the sunset in a special place. Then head back to the Mansion by the pond. Making sure to put the bike in neutral and cut it off, with just enough momentum to make it to the garage. Silently gliding in, so as not to be rude in case some jellies turned in early….

Fin…...

^^ ♡♡ I LUV YOU ♡♡ ^^

a little wave from my handle bar

@MrGrimm888 no wonder why you received the colossal squid award.

~@MrGrimm888 I can hook you up with a rocket, or two, if you’re interested. ;-)

@KRD . What’s that? Seriously. I don’t want to derail the thread. But. I have never been able to see anyone’s “awards.” My nephew dropped in years ago, to troll me. He told me about them, but I never put much thought into it. Unless I’m incredibly dense (yeah, yeah,) I haven’t seen a way to look it up….

@LuckyGuy . This isn’t the first time I’ve thought this, about you. With all due respect, and love, “you might be a redneck.”...
And. Hells yeah! I’d love some rockets. Maybe we should start a “go fund me,” for me now, for my inevitable need for bail money…..

I’ll also need some type of James Bond smokescreen.

I’m thinking…. We can mount a dozen foot long PVC pipes on the handlebars, for loading them up with fireworks too…

@MrGrimm888 I used black plastic golf bag tubes for my launch tubes. Sometimes the ends would get melted from the engine blast so I needed a ready replacements.
I used a solid plug at the back end of the tube to reduce the chance of getting burned and encourage the rocket to leap out of the tube. A C-11 had enough thrust to jump away and not touch the ground before reaching full flight speed. The sound and smoke trail were thrilling. As for the smoke screen, I had that covered too. The Kaw 500 is a two stroke. Go wide open with conventional two cycle oil in the oil injection reservoir and you can believe you are in Bond movie.

Here is a video C11 going vertical – like it’s supposed to. You can find many more examples on youtube.
C11 motors have 0.8 sec burns and can reach over 350 ft/sec in that time. Like Tony the Tiger says: “They’re Great!”

Sweet

I just reread the question as “Have you ever ridden or rode a cowboy.”

That’s a question for another day @Forever_Free LOL! ~ I’ll let you ask that one :)

Mood of the day!
Riding on the range
I’ve got my hat- on
I’ve got my boots- dusty
I’ve got my saddle
On my horse
He’s called (t-t-t-t-t-trigger)
Of course