I'm too old to ride anymore

[carsick]

If I were that friend I'd be on my toes 'cuz payback is a bitch.

You need not concern yourself with such matters, being in your 30's excludes you from having an opinion in this thread

FIEND was not a typo. But bravo for trying to fix the spelling in your favor. I'll save you the description of my infirmities from this morning's ride since I'm not eligible for Social Security yet.
P.S. I think there's a handicap for having children, it ages you faster than... well anything really.

[Dan Filetti]

P.S. I think there's a handicap for having children, it ages you faster than... well anything really.

True dat!

Dan

[Dean Hess]

"P.S. I think there's a handicap for having children, it ages you faster than... well anything really."

Yes and no.  My boy got me back into backpacking and dirt bikes.  My friends without kids are mostly couch potatoes, getting old fast.  On the other hand, we're into the college payments and have taken a vow of poverty for the next 8 years...

Sunday I put the new battery in the FJ and cranked it over - it started within a minute!  The bike hasn't been touched since early August last year and it ran like a champ after getting up to operating temp.  I put it away with a full tank of stabilized gas last year; Stabil is great stuff.

I got two rides in; a half hour in the morning, and an hour just before sunset.  The bike feels as good as ever, but I noticed two changes since last year:

1)  The local governments are tight on money so there are many roads that are being maintained with the economical "tar and chips" process which turns previously smooth twisty lanes into double-track trails with gravel in between.  The roads are still fun, but they aren't the swift road rides they used to be - one has to stay on the trail.  No more sweeping apexes. Fortunately, there are still roads that haven't had the treatment yet.
2)  My FJ muscles are severely underdeveloped.  I'm looking forward to the therapy for those.

[Mark Olson]

this too old to ride thread has made me think about how long I have been riding motorcycles.

36 years ago It started for me on a rm80.

Through all the years I have always had a motorcycle to ride. kids did not stop it ,wife did not stop it, a bad wreck almost stopped it,till I put the bike back together.

way back it was the thrill of a new thing and the danger of the ride, then it was the cheap commute to work in the rain and all kinds of weather, now it is purely I ride because I

want to.

no matter if it is a solo ride or a group ride I enjoy just being on a motorcycle and it has become a necessity for my mental health. Just ask my wife and she will tell you there are times when I am told to get out of the house and go ride the fj for a few hours.

with all the stuff everyone has to deal with I will probably ride till the day I die even if I have to get something with training wheels like the can am.

too old to ride ?  not anytime soon.

[1tinindian]

this too old to ride thread has made me think about how long I have been riding motorcycles.

36 years ago It started for me on a rm80.

Through all the years I have always had a motorcycle to ride. kids did not stop it ,wife did not stop it, a bad wreck almost stopped it,till I put the bike back together.

way back it was the thrill of a new thing and the danger of the ride, then it was the cheap commute to work in the rain and all kinds of weather, now it is purely I ride because I

want to.

no matter if it is a solo ride or a group ride I enjoy just being on a motorcycle and it has become a necessity for my mental health. Just ask my wife and she will tell you there are times when I am told to get out of the house and go ride the fj for a few hours.

with all the stuff everyone has to deal with I will probably ride till the day I die even if I have to get something with training wheels like the can am.

too old to ride ?  not anytime soon.

I could easily copy your quote and sign my name to it, as my riding life mirrors everything you said, even the years on motorized two wheelers!

My son and I took part in a poker run this past weekend which totalled 175 miles in the afternoon, and while at one of our stops I reflected my thoughts on riding to him, and said, that we need to take advantage of these time, as we are both in the prime of our lives, doing what we love to do and you never know when it all may come to an end. And I was referring to our health and ability to throw a leg over the saddle.

As far as the kids thing is concerned, I feel I ride more now these days due to my sons interest in bikes, so in that regard, I am very fortunate to have them here with me riding by my side. I only wish I could have rode with my dad as much as I have with my sons...these are memories that will live for a lifetime!

Leon

[chapindad]

My right knee is having problems and it's my good one. 3 cortizone shots 3 synvisc shots in 6 the last months and no relief more than 3 weeks at a time. The other night I couldn't stand, couldn't work on the race car.
All I did was piss and moan all night, I would have told me to shut the fuck up but not him (he's not mean enough)
 
I got my knee drained and the 4th cortizone shot friday morning, they don't have a clue to whats wrong with it yet. That's why it's called practicing medicine.


[/quote]

Be careful with the cortizone shots, they can kill your liver in a heart beat.  I would guess you have some cartilage floating around and will need to be scoped to get it out.

[Dan Filetti]

this too old to ride thread has made me think about how long I have been riding motorcycles.

36 years ago It started for me on a rm80.

Through all the years I have always had a motorcycle to ride. kids did not stop it ,wife did not stop it, a bad wreck almost stopped it,till I put the bike back together.

way back it was the thrill of a new thing and the danger of the ride, then it was the cheap commute to work in the rain and all kinds of weather, now it is purely I ride because I

want to.

no matter if it is a solo ride or a group ride I enjoy just being on a motorcycle and it has become a necessity for my mental health. Just ask my wife and she will tell you there are times when I am told to get out of the house and go ride the fj for a few hours.

with all the stuff everyone has to deal with I will probably ride till the day I die even if I have to get something with training wheels like the can am.

too old to ride ?  not anytime soon.

Nice one Mark.  Your post made me smile with nostalgia and recognition.  I feel similar.  For me it was also 36 years ago, interestingly.  I however started on a Honda QA50.  Wait, a year earlier I got on, and immediately dumped, an XR75 -I don't really count that...  I remember the feel of that QA doing maybe 15 mph, I felt like I was flying, and I was hooked.  The following summer I bent the frame something fierce by trying to jump the little QA.  It still ran but the rear wheel would drag, so rolling off the throttle, the bike would come to a stop as if the brakes were applied...

My parents were anti-motorcycle so it's a miracle that the following year I managed to talk them into letting me buy my buddy's well used XR75 (yup, the same one I had dumped).  He has upgraded to a YZ80.  I went everywhere on that bike.  I was 10 years old, and I'd travel so many miles from the house, occasionally getting chased by the cops, (they never could catch us) off exploring the local area, down a pipeline trail that passed nearby.  North one day, south the next.  There were three of us that used to ride all day long, only coming home at dinner time.  We got wise and stashed a fuel can at a halfway point, bring sandwiches and simply not come back 'till dinner.  We were amazingly independent.  

I look at my 9 year old kids and realize that I had a vastly different upbringing then they will have.  They have a little CRF50 but they ride it on my 5.5 acres only.  They can 'disappear' for maybe an hour, but after that, they need to check in or their mother or I will call/look for them.  I just can't imagine them being gone all day, not for a few years yet anyway.

Oh, well, nice stroll down memory lane.

Dan

[Mark Olson]

It seems to be a common thread with all of us,  start riding young and play all day. 


Leon , enjoy the time with the kids . Riding with my father are some of the best memories of motorcycling.

Except for high school and riding my xs400 over to the local catholic girls school and giving free rides.

[ddlewis]

...I was 10 years old, and I'd travel so many miles from the house, occasionally getting chased by the cops, (they never could catch us) off exploring the local area, down a pipeline trail that passed nearby.  North one day, south the next...

Dan

that reminds me of how we were as kids.  As long as the bikes were in running condition, they'd never sit still.

I live in the same town where I grew up and still ride most of the same places, often with my brother and a couple of our old friends.  My children never really got into it.  They can and do ride some, but they don't love it like we did.  Not sure if it's a generational thing or just diffrent strokes.  Rarely see people < 20 yrs old out rding and when we do they're ALWAYS on quads

Anyway, early this spring, my brother and I were out riding and we came across this lone kid, 10- 12 years old, a mile from the nearest road, all alone.  helmet, jeans, gardening gloves and rubber boots..  His bike, little drz 110 (yellow version of my kids klx110), was in a wash-rut as deep as the bike was tall and the kid was struggling to drag it out.  The kid of course was super-glad to see us, he thought he was screwed.  We stopped, lifted but it wouldn't start - it had just recently been upside down in the rut   and the boy was afraid it had also out of gas - running out the vent while he was trying to flip it over. lol.  I messed with it - plenty of gas just flooded.. so I got it started for him.  good thing because it is a long steep uphill back up to the road.  

After it was running we asked if he needed anything and told him to be careful and rode away but within a couple minutes I realized he was following... and a fair job of keeping up in the tight woods.  We stopped and he came up grinning ear to ear.  Could tell he was happy to be riding with somebody, even us old farts.  Said he had to go home but wanted to know when we might be coming back!  cool kid..  70's throwback.

[mz_rider]

Too old to ride? check out this guy:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010794/Britains-oldest-biker-going-strong-94-Reg-Scott-ridden-nearly-400-000-miles.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Though I've done more miles in half the time!

Stuart