Time to give up biking?

[ELIMINATOR]

Came round a downhill bend to see a Porsche of some description on my side of the road, this was all over before any reflex kicked in.
It was on my side of the road, having crossed double solid white lines overtaking another car. If I was 100 yards further along the road, you wouldn't be reading this.
I almost came off the road a couple of seconds later. Don't know why, the event had passed, maybe delayed shock.

Had several close calls in the past, this was the closest.

1974 I hit a parked car, dislocated and fractured the top of my femur.

1985 hit from behind by a van that made no attempt to stop.

2012 hit from behind by a car.

Various other incidents.

I'm 64, don't know how much  longer my guardian angel is going to sit on my shoulder.

At the moment, I am a bit shaken. Thinking I should give up riding.

[FJmonkey]

If you give up riding, make sure you do it for the right reason.  Otherwise the doubt will nag...

[PaulG]

My older brother just retired a couple of years ago.  Moved out to the country, bought himself a slightly used KTM650 Enduro instead of a street bike, then hooked himself up with a trail riding club.

If staying on the road is getting too harry, off road is always an option to satisfy the urge.  Probably safer too.

Take a break and a deep breath, (a few belts of single malt might not hurt).  Let things settle into perspective.

Take care 

Aside : He used to be in the motorcyle industry from the 70's to late 80's (mechanic, sales, corporate).  My bug started in earnest "way back then" when he rode into the driveway on a yellow Ducati 350 Desmo.  Probably 10-12 yrs old, thought it was the coolest thing. Still gives me good advice when troubleshooting the FJ.

[fj1289]

I know quite a few guys that will only ride on the track - won't street ride anymore.  Maybe just a change in venue?

[ribbert]

Statistics are wonderful things.....
In the US, the leading cause of accidental deaths for male adults over 60 is falls (followed by motor vehicle accidents)
Most of these falls occur in the home ( but outside the house)
This means if avoiding premature death by accident is your goal, you are statistically safer out riding than staying home!

If you compile a list of all recreational and non-essential travel and activities that have a death risk associated with them, then avoid them by staying home, you are still putting yourself at greater risk. However, if one were to do so in order to prolong life, why would you bother?

While there is no data to substantiate this, it is well known that not riding can exacerbate underlying health problems and bring about your premature demise anyway. Play it safe, keep riding! 


You say "if I'd been 100 yards further down the road....."  You weren't! I do understand it putting the wind up you and it does skew your view on things for a while, but give it a bit of time, there's no rush.

As Paul said, get over the fright and reassess things then. Like his brother, I was in the business in the 70's and 80's and the most commonly represented group of returning riders was blokes who'd given it up simply because they thought it was appropriate at their age (nothing to do with health or mobility) and had died a little every day since. Haha, the next most common mistake was them believing a 250 would be big enough in their senior years.

Most people fear not living more than they fear dying.

Noel

[Pat Conlon]

Almost 9 years ago I had a low side wash out where I broke 4 ribs.....I was ready to walk away from street riding but wiser heads prevailed. They asked me to wait on my decision. Heal up first.
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=4258.msg37606#msg37606

Good advice.

Bob, I don't know if you are serious, I suspect not.... but I am thinking along those same lines. i.e. Is it worth it? Really?

I am thinking about giving up street riding......There, I said it.

I'll still enjoy the Glamis dunes and trail riding.

It's not that I am too old to ride, I'm only 58, and I am healthy active, strong, but this last body slam accident with my broken bones has really knocked the shit outta me. (or as my family says, perhaps knocked some sense into me)
I know that it could have been much worse, look what happened to Henry.
However Henry is a young stud. He will be healed by next week and riding in two.

If I did something wrong that I could identify and work on, OK, but I don't know what I could have done different. That's what freaks me out.
Gary was riding about 20 seconds out in front of me. Why the fuck did Gary make the corner and I didn't? Different line? Probably. Better bike? Yea, Gary's Aprilla is a very competent bike and Gary is a better rider. It has been 20 years since my last accident, which was very minor.
But This one HURT.

As Klavdy eloquently explained, Newtonian Physics is unforgiving and does not give a damn about how long you have ridden your bike:
Have you been riding trouble free for years? No matter, it's over in the corner doing push ups, watching and waiting....patiently waiting....
The ghost of Sir Isaac is always there, watching and waiting for the right moment.

My wife and kids are freaked. My 4 year old grand daughter says that (sometimes) she dosen't love me anymore 'cause I fell off my bike and made everyone sad. Out of the mouths of babes, huh.
My wife and I worked for 40 years to get to this point where we have the time and money to enjoy life....together ( the most important point: together)
Here I am shuffling around the house with 4 broken ribs......so is it really, really worth it?
**Can I put my wife through the ringer again?**

**I don't have time for this healing shit.**
There are things I need and want to do. I need to do yard work. I want to go outside and play. It Hurts to breathe. I can't sleep. I can't fuck. I can't hike. I can't workout. I can't play volleyball. I can't swim or surf. I can't ______. (fill in the line)   However, I am alive, to which I am thankful. Yes, ATGATT worked.



I shuffle out to the garage, and look at my damaged '84 and I just want to cry, but it hurts to breathe .....
Yea, I think I'm done.    

[Bill_Rockoff]

We all ride for various reasons, but most of them add up to "it's fun." To go a little deeper, maybe "it's fun, in a way that is partly how I define myself" for a lot of us.

But if it starts being something where the worry outweighs the fun (or the expense does, or the time commitment) then really, yeah, you can still be all the things you like about yourself even if you quit riding.

Alternately, there are other things that let you keep riding but without the danger you are starting to see everywhere. You can commit to riding sportbikes only on track days; way fewer oncoming cars there, the mistakes are less likely to be injurious (and there's an ambulance standing by just in case.) You can ride dirtbikes on trails, or ride adventure bikes on dirt roads where both you and oncoming traffic are moving much slower. You can do the bicycle equivalent of dirtbikes and ride mountain bikes; most of us could use the exercise, frankly, and it's fun in a very different way.

It'll be up to you, and what you predict you'll be feeling in the future, to determine whether you'll conclude "maybe no more riding for a few days" or "no point keeping these, I'm never going near them again, may as well sell them now" or "I don't know if I'll ever want to ride one of these again, but if I do, it'll probably be this one, so the others are for sale but this one I should maybe wait a bit."

Good luck, man. I think a lot of us will be reevaluating who we are and what's important to us in the next year or two.

[tmst08]

What we haven't seen, yet, is the insurance company bankruptcies in western countries. They're coming. There will never be a safer time, for your loved ones, to get your kookaloo on. Just be sure to go out in style rather than getting yourself maimed or something. It's a good day to die.

[Bill_Rockoff]

I found out while on vacation that I got approved for my extra life insurance.

"Good news, honey! If I fall off this dock and get eaten by sharks, you don't have to check out of this beautiful resort for like ten more years!"

Frankly, I'm kind of surprised she's talking me out of riding lately, I'd expect "it's a nice day, you should go ride that Ducati today. Say, where's the WD40?"

[tmst08]

Oh, yeah, those of us left will be literally wiping our asses with the faces of dead presidents, so you might consider telling her to immediately hedge with bitcoin or *physical* (rather than some derivative garbage) metals.

[red]

Had several close calls in the past, this was the closest.
I'm 64, don't know how much  longer my guardian angel is going to sit on my shoulder.
At the moment, I am a bit shaken. Thinking I should give up riding.

ELIMINATOR,

It may be time for a hiatus in riding.  I think it would be a mistake to put a time limit on that decision, in either direction.  Others here have presented various two-wheel options.  I'd like to open that up, to whatever may interest you, now or later.  I have always wanted a Hobie-Cat, but now I live in a desert state, so not yet.  I didn't say never, but not now.  I have always loved flying, which is why I moved here; flying fills my soul in ways that nothing else can.  I ride, when I can not fly (weather, logistics, other commitments, et c.).  I also enjoy flying RC aircraft, with a satisfaction level somewhere between actual flight and riding the FJ.  Flying RC aircraft/drones as a virtual pilot of the craft (called First Person Viewpoint, with 3-D glasses) is going to be my next "upgrade" on RCs.  The current pandemic has given me the opportunity to afford such gadgetry, both in time and money.

I do not expect your interests to mirror mine, but I would suggest that you pursue your own (now secondary) interests, while the bike is sitting idle.  We here are all more than riders; we are musicians, techs, artists, sailors, family rec advisors, and the list is endless.  Try some of everything, and find the facets of your being that you may have neglected, lately.  If the time is past (or maybe not yet) to ride again,  there are many other opportunities which can give you fulfillment.

Best wishes.

[Bill_Rockoff]

Oh, yeah, those of us left will be literally wiping our asses with the faces of dead presidents, so you might consider telling her to immediately hedge with bitcoin or *physical* (rather than some derivative garbage) metals.

I agree, steel and the knowledge that goes into making it (along with a variety of other alloys - various aluminum alloys, various types of stainless, copper extruded to be a conductor) as well as using it, will always have value. She grew up with bright parents who valued knowledge (her dad taught science for 30 years) and she holds a degree in architecture, so she has a good familiarity with how to create, use, and maintain a variety of useful things.

She's not stupid enough to believe that gold coins or bullion hold any more value than whatever they can be exchanged for, which is reassuring; if she still thought a chunk of silver or gold was worth having (beyond "how well it conducts electricity" or "how much useful currency it can bring") like people believed thousands of years ago, then chances are she'd also believe a bunch of other thousands-of-years-ago nonsense like "reciting that phrase out loud will bring you gifts from the Invisible Sky Friend" or "there is a large beetle that rolls the flaming orange ball across the sky each day." If that were the case, I would worry that she would starve to death and go blind by sticking the fork with food on it into the wrong face-holes.

I also agree with you that paper currency with dead presidents on it is pretty much passe, an artifact of an earlier age. We just maintain the unit of measure for consistency, like using "knots" for velocity. Just as nobody ties knots in a rope and throws it overboard to measure a craft's speed anymore, there's really not much use in a piece of paper with an old president on it.

I am, however, getting much more use these days out of paper with the face of the current president on it. Let me know if you're running low and I can mail you a roll or two, I understand it's in short supply in some places lately.

[tmst08]

also believe a bunch of other thousands-of-years-ago nonsense like "reciting that phrase out loud will bring you gifts from the Invisible Sky Friend" or "there is a large beetle that rolls the flaming orange ball across the sky each day." If that were the case, I would worry that she would starve to death and go blind by sticking the fork with food on it into the wrong face-holes.

Good stuff  Though I was comparing gold bullion to any of a number of currencies now being issued with historic abandon by central banks.

[Mike 86 in San Dimas]

...Thinking I should give up riding.

I agree YOU should give up riding

[ribbert]

Last September I was run off the road by an oncoming vehicle and landed on my head, I spent a few months flat on my back and I'm still unable to work 6 mths later. Only a week or so back I went for my first test ride since. I couldn't manage to ride the FJ because of the neck angle but I could ride something more upright for a relatively short distance.

The fact is, despite my wife caring for me and the extra work load for her, it has been her pushing me to go for a ride. As the one closest to me she is best placed to know how much I benefit from riding. Riding for me is not only about the bike but the places it takes me and the manner in which it gets me there.
She dreads the day I can no longer ride and gave up lecturing me about safety 30 years ago, she accepts it's just what I do. She even ignores me riding to the shops in thongs and shorts as she knows there's little point saying anything.
She has also given up trying to understand my love of riding in extreme weather (except heat) and just accepts that I do.

Of all the things I have been unable to do over the last 6 mths, riding is what I have missed most and thought about getting back to the most. It was also the thing I feared most not being able to do again when the prognosis was initially unknown.
My point is, how easily we give up riding, or any other passion, depends on how deeply rooted in our DNA it is. I treat my near miss with an oncoming car for what it was, considering my total mileage over 50 years, it was literally a one in a million incident. I can live with those odds.

As Pat says "There will come a time (5/10/15 years?) when I can not safely ride anymore... A point of my life I don't want to think about (but I do)"


Noel