Motorcycles. Who has (had) what?

[Redthies]

I had a 1985 Honda Magna 500

I was going through an intersection and a truck turned left coming from the opposite direction and hit me. I flipped over the truck and landed in the street. Luckily I was young and fit and nothing got broken. I was banged up pretty bad and that ended my motorcycle life…

This was pre helmet law time frame. I got lucky.

Well, “they” say “there’s 2 types of riders… those that have been down, and those that are going down”. Mine was a left turning soccer-mom who darted across 3 lanes of traffic. The cube van beside me missed her, but I wrote off a 2 week old Ducati 999. I got away with broken bones in my foot and bruised ribs. She (and her kids) were incredibly lucky I had sold my ‘86 Chev 2500 on 39” Michelin XZLs the week before or they would all be dead.

[Vaquero]

Had a lady pull out in front of me a few years back.
Coming from my right side out of a parking lot, then when she finally sees me, she stops instead of keeping on.
Luckily I had just came through a traffic light intersection and wasn't going to fast.
I tried going towards where she came from and and only clipped the rear of her mini van, but
I still flipped over the handle bars and some how managed to land on my feet.
No big injury except I did pull my hamstring. Totaled out the frontend of the scooter.
I rebuilt it myself and am still riding it.

RP

[Hatchdog]

I mentioned above that my first street legal bike was a Yamaha Enduro 100. I thought I didn’t have any pictures of it but my sister in law recently did a family album on Facebook and posted this picture from my mom. My buddy and I taped Micky Mouse ears onto our helmets and went downtown to cruise the Expo 74 site just being dumb kids. I was 17 in 1974 and where did that skinny kid go?

IMG_0183.jpeg (79.7 KiB) Viewed 3211 times

Congratulations James on your purchase. Bet you had a good time shopping and trying out all those bikes. I know you have a four month wait but hey, it’s winter anyway.

[TeddyBear]

My current ride. 2019 HD Tri Glide Ultra

[rickhem]

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.

That is definitely not the situation at the Harley dealerships now. Funny how these things run in cycles, and now the previous decade of resurrection for HD is now seeing things swing back in the other direction. Saying that sales are slumping is an understatment.

I can say that my occasional visits to the "for sale" sections on the internet are showing a lot of bigger Harley bikes being offered up at very low prices compared to what they were new. At least in my area they are. Most are riders just ageing out, and/or not comfortable with a bike that big and heavy anymore. Used to be that springtime would be when prices were highest, but seems like it's this time of year that guys realize it just isn't going to work anymore.

[BrokenolMarine]

Here in Oklahoma there are a lot of lonely two lanes running through farm country. When we make the drive down to my daughter's place on the OK/TX border I always think, "This would be a great place to ride a motorcycle." You might go ten miles on two lanes with NO other car in sight. I would love to get a bike and ride again.

However, I'm too old to consider a bike purchase, with the major injury to the right femur and the instability of that knee. A bigger problem are the issues with drug use which can make it unsafe to drive in your car many times, the inattention of the drivers who are more focused on their phones, and the fact that many seem to think that speed limits here are merely suggestions.

Bikes wouldn't stand a chance in a collision with most vehicles, especially one of the loaded livestock trailers rolling along at 70mph.... Oklahoma tries to mind their own business so there are no helmet laws, and you see cyclists in shorts and t-shirts, wearing sandles zooming along at 80mph through the countryside, no helmets. (You will see those with a little more safety conciousness with half helmets and boots, jeans, and jacket to protect them in case they have to lay the bike down.) What's that saying? There are two kinds of bikers: Those who have laid a bike down, and those who will.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Luckily, I never laid one down, but I always wore Long Jeans, Boots and a Helmet. When there were no helmet laws and I would wear one, it seemed like I could get away with things a little better. Like my long chrome Straight Pipes for example on my '72 HD XLH Sportster.

[rickhem]

I have a lot of those same lonely roads here in upstate NY, and with the Thruway and other interstate highways, the older roads are practically empty. When we do go for a ride, those are the roads we travel. Those older roads are also where all the nice places to stop are, like little luncheonettes, and places like that. We have Route 20 that is designated a "scenic byway", and I can imagine a family in a station wagon out on a day trip on this road. There are the remnants of long gone roadside attractions, like the Petrified Creatures Museum, which a co-worker told me was a bunch of paper mache dinosaurs, or that's how he remembered it when he was a kid. We also have The Teepee, which is a giant sized native american teepee shaped building, still open, and they sell moccasins and turquoise jewelry.

Those are the kinds of roads I enjoy. But as was mentioned, it's those other drivers on the roads that are the problem. When I first moved up here in 2013, you'd hear of people getting hurt on a bike, but it was mostly self inflicted, if you know what I mean. Now it's just like it was in NJ, with distracted drivers and people not paying attention. Back in 2019, a group of riders coming back from Laconia, NH, were killed when a truck pulling a trailer swerved and swung the trailer over into the oncoming lane where the line of bikes were. Think about having a flatbed trailer drifting across your lane while out on a nice two lane road. No escape from that one. All the accidents I hear about now aren't about someone on a bike just going down, they all involve cars now. I had a few rules I always followed, like how my mirrors could tell me no when I wanted to change lanes, but not yes. I had to actually turn and shoot a quick look directly back to the side I wanted to go before actually moving over, saved me more than once. I've also wished for louder exhaust more than a few times when cars just changed lanes into mine, they never knew I was there.

I've fallen tons of times riding off-road, but those are mostly low speed events, and aren't all that bad. Bent up some brake and clutch levers, snapped off some turn signal stalks, and stuff like that, but nothing major. I did go down once on the VStar when my back tire hit a manhole cover and I lost traction. It was a summer evening, a few hours after a thunderstorm, and a great night for a ride. I was turning out onto a road with poor visibility, and a car came up over the hill coming towards me and going fast as I started my left turn across that lane. I opened the throttle a bit to get myself completely into my lane, but the back tire broke loose and slipped while still leaning left and accelerating. It felt exactly like kicking the rear end out on a dirt bike, and I really thought I could just power through it, just like you'd do on a dirtbike, but the bike got low enough that my left footpeg hit the pavement, and flipped the bike and me over high-side. I had a death grip on the handlebars, and felt myself flip over the bike, then slam into the pavement, first my back, then butt, then feet, all while still holding on to the handlebars. I got right up and got out of the street as I was worried about getting hit by a car if I stayed there, but another guy on a bike came up to help me, and parked his bike blocking off the street. I picked up my bike, walked it onto the sidewalk and just walked around for a bit making sure I was still functional and not hurt in some way I hadn't noticed yet. That other biker told me it was the manhole, I had no clue what happened, but he said he watched it happen, and how the back end when out when I went over the manhole cover. I was just focused on getting out of that other car's way, which I did, but went over that damn manhole cover. It was old and worn smooth, and just wet enough still to make that slide happen. That guy stayed with me for a bit, and I told him my garage was only a block away, so he left. I decided that bringing the bike home would have lasting repercussions, so I just went for a nice long ride to get my confidence back. Glad I did that. I was wearing a heavy leather jacket, a full face (modular) helmet, gloves, heavy jeans, and heavy leather boots. I didn't always have all that gear on, but I did that time. Bike got some scrapes and scratches, but nothing on anything with paint. I thought I got away with it, but the next day I had bruises all over, and my wrists and forearms hurt like hell. That was all from going maybe 25-30 mph, not fast at all.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Glad to see you were OK. I like how you mentioned "wished for louder exhaust". I put my straight pipes on for sound, but I really liked how, even though I would avoid it as much as possible, when I was in someone's blind spot that they surely knew I was there. In a unique way, it was a safety feature.

I would also turn around and look before changing lanes. Paid off for me too.

[BrokenolMarine]

Rickhem,

Don't know if you did or not, but I hope you replaced your helmet after that fall. When Tina and I went through EMT training, during the accident portion several of the instructors said we should tell those on bikes to replace the helmets after any crash if the helmet took an impact as it weakens the helmet. Manufacturers often put a card in with the rest of the information that states exactly that.

We would get the same information with our Vests. If they took a hard impact in a crash or (God Forbid) a bullet, the department replaced them as they were no longer certified. The integrity had been violated by the strike.

Helmets get broken in, and comfortable and can be very expensive... so riders are resistant to replacing them, but if the brain bucket is there to save your life...