Why i ride.

[Prestone]

Tell us why you ride.

 

 

[Prestone]

Why i ride.

 

Life in general is honestly not a very big deal to me and never has been!

Except when im riding, when i ride i live.

 

Back in 77’ when i was 7 years old i got a ride on the back of one of my dads friends brand new Kawasaki Z900, it was rust red/brown and had 4 exhaust pipes, to me it was the most beautiful/wonderful and magic things i had ever seen, or heard.

I remenber the smell of the exhaust and the feeling of not being able to breathe behind the driver Johannes because of the turbulence, i remember the wonderfull noise and the wind pulling my shirt and hair, and no, back then kids didnt wear a helmet or anything else when going out for just a little ride.

 

When we got back from the ride he told me that we had been driving 100 km/h and i was kind of in a daze over the experience, i had no idea what this had started in me and what had just happened to my soul, and what path my life would take after that very short 10 km ride! From then on, without me knowing it, life was just waiting, waiting to get a license and a bike of my own.

Years came and went i had bicycles and mopeds, a lot of really crazy things happened and i kinda lost my soul and will to do much to better my conditions in life, i was stuck.

 

Then i turned 18 moved out on my own and got my driverslicense for both car, truck and motorcycle, right away i bought a big beautiful white and loud 1985 Honda CB900F2 and i was on top of the world, or the bike was on top of me, back then i weighed 65kg and the bike 250kg, guess who won time after time, but it didnt scare me of, i loved the bike and the feeling of freedom and just being out and about on my own driving around enjoying the sights and small roads, bikes came and went and one day in 1991 by chance i bought a Suzuki TS185R offroader, and then my life changed once again,i could go offroad, gravelroads and into the woods and there i found a whole new world of concentration, peace and serenety that i really needed to calm my soul, to this day it is till the best thing that ever happened to me.

 

These days im a bit older, 53 in fact, i have been riding about 350.000 km’s on various bikes, 21 to be exact, and in all of those years i have met a lot of weird, nice and interesting people, gained a handfull of really good friends and lost a handfull too due to illness, crashes and what else life brings along the way, the offroad part kinda stuck to me, now i ride a T7 and a Freeride 350 and i love every peacefull second in the saddle.

 

No matter how good, or hard times are i always celebrate or cure them by riding my motorcycle, just put on my gear, put some food and water in my backpack and ride out into the world enjoying life the best i can.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Prestone

[Dougie]

Well not so much why I still ride but why I started. Obviously every kid in the ‘70s hade Barry sheen’s Suzuki poster on their wall, which helps.
But XTs with studded tyres chasing 007 down ski slopes and toboggan runs?! I mean come on!! I think I actually wanted them to catch him. 
As for teneres., my fist “bike” magazine was June 89’ and it had Heinz endler travelling from Munich to cape town on a 1Vj over 8 months. That’s what bikes were made for, and I knew I’d be a Tenere owner. I skipped past the pages and pages of plastic rockets. Although I do love 90’s sports bikes.

[Tenerider]

Great thread!

 

My first real encounter with a motorcycle was similar as to @Prestone' experience.

Must have been in 1994 or '95, my cousin's fiancé rode a sportsbike back then (I'm pretty sure it was a Gixxer, but might also have been a Kawa) - brutal machine which according to him could do 300 kph.

Finally, my parents allowed me to take a ride with him. It lasted maybe 15 minutes but wow what a ride. I remember my stomach diving into my pants when the traffic lights turned green...scary feeling but so intense. Then, he pulled her up to 140 kph, on a road with 70 speed limit. Later, he told me that motorcyclists always salute each others.

 

After that, my aunt (who worked as an accountant at a Yamaha/BMW dealer) brought me some brochures - and a big poster of a red 1100 GS, my dream bike back then. I also loved Yamaha's Diversion and R1 (white, double headlights, deltabox frame ), but not so much the whole XT range (I hated the coloured bellows on the forks). But the word "Ténéré" got deeply engraved into my mind.

 

As I was only 14 years old, the dream died over the next years. But then I turned 18 and got my driver's license (car only). A buddy of mine had a market overview magazine lying around, and we studied all models which where a) limited to 34 HP (only those where allowed for new riders of our age) and b) at least in theory affordable. Back then, I fell in love with a Bandit 600, but also liked the LC4 (one guy at school had one, he was an a$$h0le but nevertheless we admired him - later, he ditched it into a gorge in Austria).

But being 18 and still living with my parents (who wouldn't support my rider's license at all), I again buried the dream. After that, I told myself for years that motorcycles are killing machines anyway and motorcyclists a bunch of reckless and completely insane people.

 

Years later, my wife and I founded a family, and this again helped me keeping the dream buried: I couldn't risk my life, my sons need their father and so on. All over the years, my anxiety kept me from trying out new stuff, always staying in my comfort zone.

 

I had been an avid cyclist in 2019, doing some extreme stuff like 300 km rides in 20 hours, and of course from time to time got in dangerous situations (caused by cars, no surprises here). But then COVID came. In 2020, after the first wave, I needed to break free and bought me some bikepacking stuff - I wanted adventures! Only to find that after half a day's hard work I'd only covered some 50 kilometers, the whole luggage taking all of the fun out of cycling. I stopped cycling completely. The constant struggle, constant training wasn't my thing any more. Back then I was a fanatic climate saver as well. Combustion engines were the devil's gift and petrolheads Satan's children.

 

Finally in 2021, I met a guy (now a very good friend) who like me drives a ridiculously small electric car, but also rides a Bonneville Bobber. We didn't talk about motorcycles a lot, but anyhow this thing grew on my mind. Talked to colleagues who are riding as well. Had a look at the Zero range, the Harley Livewire - these were "good" motorcycles of course, being electric. Watched and read everything I could find about these - more and more, my old dream came back to life.

I talked to my wife that I wanted to get a rider's license. To my big surprise, she agreed immediately!

So I signed in at a local riding school (mandatory in Germany), where the teacher is an avid rider as well.

Meanwhile, I somehow escaped the electric motorcycle bubble. I went to a local Yamaha/BMW dealer (coincidence?) in December 2021 and sat on an MT-07. I'll never forget the amazing feeling of this "heavy" machine between my legs. Then I sat on an XSR 700. Not bad. Then, a Tracer 700 - this felt even better!

And finally I asked the dealer If I could sit on a Tenere. She was TALL. It scared me a bit. But I adored the - as the dealer called it - "sublime" seating position.

Three weeks later, before even having started my riding lesson, I put a deposit on a white T7.

 

My first REAL ride then was in February '22 on an SV650 - just doing circles in 1st gear to get the feeling for the bike under supervision of my riding teacher. This was my thing! The amazing feeling of riding a two-wheeled vehicle, but effortless, so much more enjoyable than riding a bicycle! Only on very few moments in my live have I been happier than on that day.

 

Finally, roughly 28 years after my first encounter, I got my license in March '22 on my own T7.

 

[sunndog]

Why do I ride?

 

How could I not???

[mcbrien]

Growing up it was bicycles. My first memory of bicycles was a bad crash learning to ride. My first motorcycle was a Suzuki Gocho 50. My 14th birthday dad gave me that bike

brand new and turned me loose in a large square flat field. I rode 200 miles that weekend, around and around I went. Dad gave me a 750 Honda for high school grad. I have never been

without a motorcycle. At 65 and retired I now have 3 motorcycles, 4 bicycles and 1 scooter. Over the years I found singles and twins to be my favorite. I really miss the 2 strokes. My

RD's were magic. I ride to be happy.

[Mapbook]

It all started with theft, when i was 11 years old in 1961 i used to ride my elder sisters moped around the village where we lived all 50cc of it

got caught by the local copper who said if you want to ride moto's i'll take you  to the local  moto cross school.

That was the start of five years of competition i was hooked, when i was 16 i got my licence and my first road bike 175cc BSA Bantam over the next fifty odd years i have never been without a bike including a Egli Vincent, Triumph thruxton Bonneville, three other Bonneville's one stolen, one destroyed in a fire, one written off in a crash, pissed off with Triumph.

Three BMW GSA's and various other machines, currently riding a T7 and at the age of 73 that will see me out.

PS  I wish i still had the first two.    

 

[winddown]

I guess because it's fun.  I had a lot of fun on my first bike, a 50cc honda mini bike and have just as much fun on my bikes today.  When you're on a bike you're on the edge, every decision is life and death.  My first car was fun too but now they are just cars and 10 minutes up the road you're just driving somewhere.

[Redbikejohn]

I started to write a book about my biking life. It was going well but then got distracted and it's sitting on a stick in a draw somewhere .

Wanted to call it 'half a life of biking' but time is ticking on!

[Redbikejohn]

I didn't have any family connection but when I was quite young in South Africa I collected motorbike stickers that were sold in playing card size. Not sure if they were in sweets or gum but I had tons. I coated a cupboard double door in them all lined up.  I would sit and stare at them. Someone visited on a small 175 or something and left his gear for my parents to look after. I used to run around house with helmet and gloves/goggles on lol.

Years later I got a new group of friends as I moved school and had a spin on a dt50. The bike drug was firmly embedded into dna. Been obsessed ever since. Even moved countries to be able to buy one/more.  

Edited September 5, 2023 by Redbikejohn

[winddown]

On 9/5/2023 at 9:36 PM, Redbikejohn said:

I started to write a book about my biking life. It was going well but then got distracted and it's sitting on a stick in a draw somewhere .

Wanted to call it 'half a life of biking' but time is ticking on!

 

My sis gave me a book about riding adventures, it was mostly Harley stuff and poorly written.  I'll keep it here for a while in case she comes over then toss it in the bin.  If you write it FFS make it interesting