Motorcycles. Who has (had) what?

[BrokenolMarine]

received_1936493550192473.jpegRedthies, I am a big believer in the 'adventure ' bikes. I still own a Honda Transalp, though it is with my son now. I swore I would never sell it. My back convinced me to stop riding.
The bikes you mentioned will get er done.
I packed luggage for multi day trips, and rode mountain fire roads to wonderful places.

As you can see, this is not a garage bike.

I think Honda is producing an up dated version of the Transalp. Bigger, better. Highly recommended.

Marine, I was going to work one day, on a very familiar road. Checked out something over my left shoulder. When I looked back ahead, a hen pheasant was clearing the windshield by 2" and over my helmet by 1". Took miles for my heart to settle. Glad you made it OK.

I rode a couple times with friends afterwards. But I guess I hadn't taken the hint. Someone gave me one more. I was headed home after an afternoon group ride in the country, coming down a short section of four lane, running under the speed limit. It had started to rain, hard. I had about a mile to go. This section had a wide grass center median, with a deep ditch, and deep ditches on both sides of the road. The businesses sat higher than the highway, and there was a golf course and a huge cemetery on the road. Lot's of runoff from the ran, but it ran into the fifteen foot ditches.

As I approached the red light and started to slow, I saw a nine hundred year old woman in a brand new cadi look directly at me. I know the cadi was new, she left the peeling stickers on the rear windows so all her zombie old lady friends would know the car was new, what options she had gotten, and the list price. Not what SHE paid of course, WHO pays sticker?

She looked me dead in the eye, I'm four car lengths away in a driving rain, and... She pulls out in front of me. Remember, its a mid 70s cadi, it's a yacht. I'm in the left lane, she wants to make a u turn at the light. She pulls across both travel lanes and noses partially into the left turn lane and stops, not enough room to pull into the lane. Her door is directly in line with the path of the bike.

I touch the rear brake, the rear tire shoots out to the left. I'm now a tripod, sliding on the drip strip straight at her door. Eyes locked, I SEE her say, "Not my car."

I'm thinking, "Not my bones!"

I hit a dry spot, and shoot into the right lane at the last second. I felt my left boot clip her rear bumper. Just a kiss. I stop on the roadside, and put the kickstand down. Get off the bike and sit on a oversize curb by the ditch. Ground is soaked. Bike falls over.

1969 Dodge charger pulls up. Bearded driver yells, "You okay brother?" The
"Yeah man."
"Anything I can do? "
"Whip up on a 900 year old lady?"
" Cool. "
I hadn't noticed the harley wings in the back window til he pulled away...
I hope he really didn't...
... He wouldn't?

[BrokenolMarine]

Yes, I took the hint.
Hadn't ridden since.

[Redthies]

Yes, Honda is doing a new Transalp, but it’s like 70-30 street-dirt and I’m looking for more like 70-30 dirt-street. The Yamaha Tenere is looking like where I’ll go if I buy one. The new ones come in old school blue up here in Canada. I kind of dig it…

Braaaappp!

[Headhog]

Up until May of this year this was my ride. A 2017 Harley Road Glide Ultra. This was a great bike and I really enjoyed it, but it was a 900+ pound behemoth. Considering I live on a gravel road about 250 yards to the main paved road that ends on a downhill merge. At 75 it's been a white knuckle ride down to the main county road and not much better coming home. So I decided to sell the Harley and go with something a little lighter and easier to manage at low speeds.

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Having previous experience with sport touring bikes from BMW I decided to look at what good used bikes might be available. My first thought was a dual sport BMW R1250GS. I ruled that out since I'm just too old to do off road riding. So I found a great deal on a 2011 BMW R1200RT with less that 12,000 miles. The bike has all the comforts of the Harley (radio, GPS, storage, cruise control, custom Day-Long seat...) but at 300 pounds less. I just realized I don't have any pictures so I just grabbed a stock picture from the net. My RT has a tour pack and BMW (Garmin) GPS not in this picture.

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Paul

[Redthies]

Nice bikes Paul. My brother is currently working for Legend Suspension out of Sturgis, and has a long history of work for and with Harley Davidson, so I’ve been around them and ridden them quite a bit. They do have the Panamerica now, which I have some time on, but it’s not for me. I am heading towards the Yamaha as it’s only 440 lbs full of fuel, and is apparently a phenomenal bike for my use.

I’d post some pics of my bikes, but the few I have are on slides. I haven’t owned my own bike for more than 10 years. I’ve just ridden my brothers spares. This is his new project bike below (well, it’s a pic from the website), and it will have its warranty voided about 8 mins after he takes possession. He builds custom bikes for the bike events (Daytona, Sturgis etc), so they get a TON of stuff done. I can’t fathom the spending, but I guess I do have an Airstream for my business that is close to $90,000 worth…

[rickhem]

Long and storied history with bikes for me. Had some friends that had mini-bikes growing up, and that bug bit way back then. I bought a 1975 Yamaha DT125 as soon as I got my driver's license, and owned that before I owned a car. Used to ride that all around the Hackensack meadowlands, the areas where Giants Stadium, and now Metlife Stadium are now, along with that whole Meadowlands Sports Complex. Mostly out on the access roads through the tidal flats, and it was a blast. My buddy and I even took our bikes to the Jersey shore after a hurricane hit back in the late 1970s, and rode up and down the beaches for a few hours. We figured the cops would be preoccupied with other things, and we took advantage of the conditions. Riding south was hard since all the jettys were like three or four foot walls, and we had to go up into the soft sand to get around them. The storm come up from the south and pushed sand up against the south side of each one. But after a couple miles of riding around them, we turned back around and would ride the wet sand waterline, wide open, going up and off each jetty, using it like a ramp, and jumping off each one.

Took a hiatus from riding until 1999 when I bought a 2000 Yamaha V-Star Classic. Really nice shaft driven bike that looks a lot like a Fatboy, which I just couldn't afford then. I still have that, but don't ride it as much these days. It's nice for riding the roads that used to be the main roads before all the interstates went in. We can still ride comfortably at 55-60 mph, but hardly anyone rides these roads anymore, they're all out doing 75-80 on the interstates. I've also owned a 1986 Sportster, bought it with less than 3000 miles on it and that thing was mint. Ended up selling that to buy my daughter her first car.

Shortly after moving to upstate NY, and realizing that I needed to get to know how to get around in this new area, I bought a 2009 Yamaha TW200. For you guys that are looking at the adventure bikes, this is the tiny little baby brother to those bikes. It is amazingly capable, and brings back all those same feelings from riding the minibikes in our youth. It sits low, and I can flatfoot both feet with my butt on the saddle, and has these giant fat tires that power through any terrain I've ridden it through. He's a pic of it in front of my Echo after a ride through some seasonal roads and snowmobile trails by me.

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The TW has remained basically unchanged since being introduced in 1987, and it fills a tiny notch in the world of motorcycling, but it fills it perfectly. I've spent entire days out exploring on this bike and it's become my favorite go-to for an adventure. I've ridden up to a couple abandoned fire towers, ridden to ponds for fishing at the end of some Jeep trails, and explored as many seasonal roads as I could find. Back in 2020, in the midst of the whole Covid lockdown, I did a ride up and down the Erie Canal. Since the keepers at the locks were all home on lockdown, they just left the gates all open and the canal never filled for navigation. That left it as just a trickling stream in some areas, with an expansive shoreline to ride, which I did. Here is a picture of my bike on a gravel bar just upstream from the gates and Lock 12 in Fort Hunter. The lock is on the left side of the gates, and is practically dry. My bike would be under 25 to 30 feet of water under normal conditions, so you get a sense of how cool that day was.

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I did a write-up about the day on a TW specific forum if anyone is interested, I can send a link.

[clovishound]

I started out with a Honda 50 Super Sport. That was the one that was more of a motorcycle and less like a scooter, unlike the Honda 50 Cub. I bought it a couple days before turning 14, and camped out on the DMV door the day of the my 14th birthday. I had the handbook practically memorized, and aced the test. I worked my way up to Honda 350 until my dad pushed me into a car when I turned 18.

I've always wanted another bike, but between the expense, and current traffic conditions, I've never given in.

[BrokenolMarine]

When I got close to retirement, I got the bike bug again, but would only have ridden in the country, again, the two lane roads away from traffic. Miss T used to ride dirt bikes in the gravel pits behind her house as a kid, and rode a bike to work as a young woman, so if "I" bought ONE, I'd have to buy two, she wasn't going to ride in the B seat behind me. I went to the local Harley Dealer and due to my physical challenges, I spent some time with the lead salesman, discussing my options. Being a bigger guy, I wasn't going to get the "Sportster" as it wouldn't be enough bike. We settled on a FatBob and they would lower the rear for me to accommodate the shattered femur rebuild and fake right knee. Seat swap would accommodate the lower back issues. 1200 Sportster would work for Miss T, and an enclosed trailer to store them in and lock them up while in hotels on the road cross country to ride around the country. Hauling them to far reaches to ride.
(Yeah yeah, too old to ride cross country)

Then I started talking about a package deal. "What deal, this is the price, you pay it."
"So you toss in a couple helmets and a Couple jackets for a package this large."
"Nope. We don't have to make deals, Harley's and Harley Gear Sells."

How about that.
I told him to have a nice day.

[Redthies]

Yes, the attitude at some of the dealers I’ve been talking to is shocking. They don’t seem interested in selling bikes.

[BrokenolMarine]

Yes, the attitude at some of the dealers I’ve been talking to is shocking. They don’t seem interested in selling bikes.

To be fair, I ran into the same attitude at the Dodge/Jeep dealer in 2012 when we were looking to trade in a Subaru Forester we had. It was less than a year old, and we had owned FIVE Subies. The new one though was a huge disappointment. The cabin had shrunk, and the seats were substandard. Confidentially, one of the Salespeople from another dealership told us that Subaru had subtlety reduced the comfort of the Forester to move people UP into the Outback.

I had always wanted a Jeep... Friends had them when I was in High School. So, When Tina decided she didn't want to keep the Forester, I went to look at a Jeep. I am NOT one for flash and they had a Black Wrangler with NO chrome, Black wheels, black hardtop and soft top, bully bar and winch... V6. No garrish graphics. Just what I wanted. I asked them what kind of deal could we work up. The salesman pointed to the sticker price. "That will do 'er. Oh, we can give you the $500 Veteran's incentive. We don't discount Jeeps, we don't have to. We will sell every Jeep on the lot before the model year end, and be Jeepless for a couple months. No Discounts, no special financing, nada." Then he kind of smirked and shrugged his shoulders, like... hey, that's the way it is.

Okay then....

I looked at the Challenger and the Dodge Chargers.... During the test drive of the Charger, which I liked... he looked over and said, "Before you ask, we don't have to discount these either. The only thing you can get a break on are the small economy cars, they aren't selling right now."

We left.
I drove to the Nissan Dealer and bought the 2015 Nissan Frontier Pro4x.
We won't be buying another new vehicle. I HATE buying cars... always have.