The “Who's ready to ride and whatcha' ridin'?" thread...

Mine's on the left. Bought it in AK when I was leading moto tours up there. Drove it across Canada, down to Utah and then to Southern Ca, back up to Wyoming then to Vancouver Island (got married), spent two weeks riding it back down the West Coast, back up to Idaho and numerous side-trips in between....:D

Somewhere on the ID/MT border:

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I gotta try a dual sport/adventure bike, we used to call them enduros/scramblers, I had one of the first bmw dual sport 1987 R80 GS, a little ahead of its time, got some strange looks back then.
 
I gotta try a dual sport/adventure bike, we used to call them enduros/scramblers, I had one of the first bmw dual sport 1981 R80 GS, a little ahead of its time, got some strange looks back then.

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Not mine but looked like it.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I gotta try a dual sport/adventure bike, we used to call them enduros/scramblers, I had one of the first bmw dual sport 1987 R80 GS, a little ahead of its time, got some strange looks back then.
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I am totally taken by the new Triumph Scrambler. It looks just like the old ones but with a nice little fuel injected 850 engine. I will have one in the near future if I have my way.
 
Here is my main ride, a 2009 Suzuki DL-650 appropriately "farkled", although I have a 2011 Yamaha WR250X as well for the adventurous off road side of me. I have had several bikes over the years--bigger, faster, sexier, etc. etc.--but this one is probably my favorite road bike yet.

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Just found these old pics of my '78 Kawasaki KZ1000, this puppy was fast and set up to street race:thumbup:, to make a long story short, (like I could make a long story short) When I moved to pa in '83 I brought my '78 KZ

This happened to me after the bike was parked for the winter, so before you start that bike that's been sitting in the garage all winter make sure you get it checked out or check it out yourself, especially the older bikes or this could happen to you.

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I stored it at my mothers gas station for a few months and when I brought it out to start it up for the spring it had back fired when I tried to start it, the cam chain tensioner must have been slack allowing it to jump time.

I put the bike in the back of my truck and brought it home, then put it away again, my wife was pregnant and didn't like the idea of me riding while she was preggers, so I left it alone for about 3 1/2 years, in the mean time I had picked up a few other bikes, one being a Honda XL350 which I rode in the interim.

One nice spring afternoon I was watching my daughter and decided to start up the bike, (I had forgotten about it backfiring) so while my daughter was playing in the yard behind me I hooked it up to the car battery to give it a jump to start it.

Now I had gotten rid of the air cleaner and breather box and replaced them with velocity stacks to get unrestricted air flow and put bigger jets in the carbs, all this made it go a little faster, I was trying to squeeze every extra mph I could get.

Anyway, with the changes I made and the timing being out 180 degrees when I kicked it over the plugs fired when the intake valves were open and blew a crap load of flaming gas out of the velocity stacks all over the engine and fuel tank.:eek:

The rubber fuel line caught on fire and melted feeding fuel all over the burning engine which in turn started the fuel tank on fire.:eek:

I had two choices, try to put out the fire or get my daughter away from the rapidly burning bike:confused:, I threw my daughter in the car and backed away from the garage and burning bike to a safe distance, than I called the fire company and ran back to grab the garden hose and put the fire out.

Now this all seemed to be happening in slow motion but in reality it only took 6 minutes from the time the bike caught fire till I got the hose on it, by that time the flames had melted the safety plug on the fuel tank cap and flames were shooting 30 feet into the sky.:eek:

I managed to eventually put the fire out within a few minutes and wouldn't you know the fire company had showed up right after wards and sprayed the smouldering remains with foam to insure it was out.:rolleyes:

Well the bike was a total loss, it had gotten so hot the tube frame had gotten to soft to ever ride the bike again and between the flames, water and foam the motor was toast.

For all you guys who say without pics it didn't happen, here are the after pics.:(

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Moral of the story, always do a safety check and mechanical check on your bike after letting it sit so long before starting it again.

The pics made me sad so I had to relate my story, in the end I got another bike and all was well but I'll always miss my KZ. :(
 
Here is my ride...

2011 Road Glide Custom..

Best handling Harley I had ever had..
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Everyone ride safe this year..
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This was taken in Sturgis, before I added some chrome to the front wheel, and tour pack.. me and my lady..
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My 8 year old loves to ride with Daddy!!
 
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T. Erdelyi said:
Sweet ride, when I was back home in Hungary in '06 I woulda went 6 weeks without ridin', after the first couple of days my cousin noticed I was mopin' around so he asked me what was wrong, when I told him he took me out to his garage and told me I could ride his bike.

When I saw it was this Vespa I laughed and told him that back in the US I ride a real motorcycle, another day went by and the rest of my family were out visiting other family so while hanging around his yard on an 85° day I broke down and snuck out for a little ride where no-one would see me.

So I took the back road outta town on the Vespa and went for a 2 hour ride along the most beautiful part of the Danube River. When I got back I tried to sneak in the back gate but my cousin was standing in the yard smiling at the ear to ear from he saw on my face.

I took many trips around the Hungarian countryside that summer, mostly along the Danube River though, that was my favorite part.

There's something about the laid back attitude ya have when ridin' one, it's not a click thing or trendy thing, it's a major mode of transportation there, sometimes the only mode.

I've ridden every kinda motorcycle out there, sport, cruiser, touring, motocross, endoro/dual purpose and I learned one thing, if your a true biker, in the wind is in the wind, so long as you're on 2 wheels it doesn't matter.

It was such a beautiful day for ridin' today, 62°, took a short 100 mile trip around the block this mornin', hope y'all got to get some ridin'in today.

Stay safe guys and remember, keep the shiny side up and the great side down.
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It's not just the laid back attitude, but the lack of attitude we like. We've done the motorcycle thing, and as we got to retirement age, it just got old. In 2001 we sold the better half's and my motorcycles and went with the Vespa's. Love how quiet and smooth they are, not to mention just plain fun. They are way more enjoyable than the Harley's we had, and for cruising around country roads, more relaxing. It's nice to glide quietly down a road, and hear what's going on, like a dog barking, birds singing, and the wind makes more noise than the bike.

Too much of motorcycles these days is all about attitude, and people are more hung up abut the image they are putting on than the object of just having fun and screw what people think. We hear the "get a real motorcycle" comments all the time, and it's sad that people are so hung up. Last summer we did a weekend trip to the Shenandoah National park and rode down the Skyline drive till the end. We stayed at a B&B and some bikers were there. One of them saw the scooter and asked how far we came. When we told him that we were from the Washington D.C. area, he didn't believe us. Said no way we rode a Vespa 200 miles out. Hated to tell him that it cruises with two up at 55 to 60 with no problem and tops out about 85 or so if we have to pass a slow truck.

After riding Vespa's since 2001, no way Karen and I would go back to a motorcycle.
 
jackknife said:
It's not just the laid back attitude, but the lack of attitude we like. We've done the motorcycle thing, and as we got to retirement age, it just got old. In 2001 we sold the better half's and my motorcycles and went with the Vespa's. Love how quiet and smooth they are, not to mention just plain fun. They are way more enjoyable than the Harley's we had, and for cruising around country roads, more relaxing. It's nice to glide quietly down a road, and hear what's going on, like a dog barking, birds singing, and the wind makes more noise than the bike.

Too much of motorcycles these days is all about attitude, and people are more hung up abut the image they are putting on than the object of just having fun and screw what people think. We hear the "get a real motorcycle" comments all the time, and it's sad that people are so hung up. Last summer we did a weekend trip to the Shenandoah National park and rode down the Skyline drive till the end. We stayed at a B&B and some bikers were there. One of them saw the scooter and asked how far we came. When we told him that we were from the Washington D.C. area, he didn't believe us. Said no way we rode a Vespa 200 miles out. Hated to tell him that it cruises with two up at 55 to 60 with no problem and tops out about 85 or so if we have to pass a slow truck.

After riding Vespa's since 2001, no way Karen and I would go back to a motorcycle.
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Carl,
The guy I bought my WR250X from was a little bit older than me, say in his mid-50s. If you are not familiar with the WR, it is basically a street-legal super-moto hooligan bike. The previous owner did not ride it that way (nor do I BTW) and had a cup holder on the bike that he wanted to keep when he sold the bike to me. He had one other bike sitting in his garage, a big Harley cruiser, also with a cup holder on it. I asked him what he was going to do with the second cup holder (the one he wanted to keep from the WR). When he said he wasn't sure, I told him that he could always add it to his Harley so that he would have two of them on it. :D:thumbup: He laughed and said that his Harley buddies give him a hard time because he already has the one cup holder on it, and that two cup holders would be "twice the fun". When one of his Harley buddies showed up just before I left, he related to his friend that since he was keeping the cup holder off the WR, he and I thought it would be a great idea to have a Harley with two cup holders instead of just the one. Needless to say, I think I only made one friend that day and not two. :( Crazy what will ruffle some folks' feathers sometimes.
 
'02 Honda Shadow 1100.....haven't had it out yet this year. Perhaps this weekend.

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It's so nice today I wanna ride but I got a 102° fever, coughin', almost every joint I own aches, granted I'm stupid and know better than to go out for a ride when I'm this sick but damn its gorgeous.

I think I'll sleep all day today and hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow then I can go out.
 
Family scooter get together for a breakfast ride. From left to right; Karen's GT200, Bother in laws Piagio 500, Sister in laws LX150, my old school PX150.

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I wish I could do pics.

I ride a 2003 Kawasaki Concours and a 2005 Russian IMZ Ural sidecar rig.
 
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