Anyone interested in motorbikes?

Cool - are you able to get official support from NAS?   Banners, tabbards etc?

If you are local to Brighton or west bay in Dorset I have 2 rides happening on the 26th and 27th of June.. 

we have 200 bikes set to leave the cafe racer store on June 26th and 120 for the ride from the legacy 1885 store in three legged cross down to west bay in June 27th

all raising money for the national autistic society... 

my other ride is in September from Leeds to. Scarborough..

https://linktr.ee/SupergoodBFA

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welcome to this forum

Have you tried a restricted quad bike ? Might be worth a try .. are you looking to buy or see if someone has one ? 

yes on sunday  they stop near me and i was chatting to a beautiful autistic girl biker, blue/green/red hair and autism tattoos  which are in . She was real nice. She had such a powerful bike 300/350cc road racer - yahama cant remember model  She's coming back next week  on the "east coast run"  (belfast/ carrickfergus >  larne - ballycastle and back  charity thing ) 

Northern Ireland is bike central. :)

travelled everywhere ( england Ireland scotland )  on a TS125X suzuki . It felt like someone had bored her out. I mean she was as powerful as a 250cc. ----- she was a great bike sold her on. never had any issues.  MOTed her myself for years.

she had road tyre on back  knobbly on front so cornering was a skill.

i moved house from Yorkshire to Dublin using her  everything i owned on back of a motorbike ---- couldnt do that now

I really think the whole biking experience depends on where you live-  Central London - death-wish., Short rural commute - probably very nice

Harley have pulled out of almost the whole world market, concentrating on their home market whilst producing less and less saleable machines for an elderly buyers market - their latest product is an enormous chrome-covered 'bath-chair' 3-wheeler.

People are suspecting their next product will be a H,D, Casket.  

They have driven their business into being a lifestyle clothing retailer that also sells a few bikes.

It's a real shame - I hope their business recovers but their management team just don't seem up to it.

I'm interested in tons of subjects. But it's a rare subject that i am into in terms of activity rather than theory.  So i have casual interest in motorbikes that goes so far as wishlisting this great book on the tt and watching yt clips of the moto gp. All this stems from one kid giving me a ride on his back  of his motorbike when i was 16.  Never ridden a bike in my life despite having the desire too.  Desire is a funny one.  I'm not sure i'd cope with the sensory nature of it all. Maybe i'd find it extra thrilling. 

I used to find that the greatest cause of absenteeism amongst local young guys (& women) was falling off or crashing a motorcycle. And sure enough they would invariably arrive a few days later hobbling along on crutches. The local tradition is to try and do everything you would do in normal life on a moving motorcycle. (And I mean almost everything. And with no protection.) It is quite a laugh (I shouldn't but I can't help myself) to see someone actually riding a bike with a crutch under one shoulder, in case they have to come to a halt or have to do some drastic 'pole' steering. The more careful ones might ride pillion with crutches, but it would often be side-saddle to avoid having to get their broken leg over the seat. 

I'm more into actual 2WD and FWD tractors. But it reminded me that I used to live near the UK Laverda sole importer years ago. Well, I certainly knew that there was also a Italian tractor manufacturer called Laverda, but I discovered the Laverda family got into crotch rockets after having previously made combine harvesters. And sure enough, the UK importer was also in a rather rural location and, probably also some farmer's son's sideline. They fixed my lowly Suzuki 90, so I can't complain.

I have to admit that I am currently not the greatest fan of MCs due to the fact that local playboys use our street as a racing circuit, and it's too loud for late night comfort. But what i would really like to do right now is get a well-made electric motorbike or trike , and prove to the local ejitts that quiet usually gets there quicker and safer.

There are old motorcyclists and there are bold motorcyclists but there aren't many old and bold motorcyclists they will tell you.

Then there's me. I'm just stupid, lucky, and when things go wrong, it appears I never stop working the problem...

I'm sixty. I ride an FZ750Genesis 1A1. It can get up to eighty and stop within the length of an aircraft hangar, and I've only been passed twice in the last 18 years when I was getting a ripple on. And one of those times was because I remembered I had a badly worn front on, after initiating "combat". Haven't ridden for the last couple of years due to money and mechanical issues, can't wait to get back in the saddle. 

I attribute much of my longevity to having instinctively developed a basic psychic survival ability in the eighties, which I call "the cone of hatred" which makes me much more visible to other motorists who have the misfortune to be in front of me.

It's the only real positive use I have found for the emotions of anger and hatred. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "mirror breaker" type of hater. I just hate on the danger you represent to me whilst you are in that area, and the hatred vanishes as soon as you are out of that cone. 

Explanation: My research into the matter suggests that if one is feeling unusually combative or taking a genuine instinctive sexual interest in a stranger at a distance there is a very high probability that they will abruptly take a look in your direction. It's one of the few psychic phenomena that can be easily tested, using a down hill stretch of road with a bus stop, a pretty girl sitting reading a book whilst waiting for a bus, and a well placed observer. Who can observe and record how often the girl looks up from her reading instinctively to check out a car driver who will always turn out to be fairly obviously checking her out. (My mate devised this experiment after I'd been telling him about this sort of stuff, which I'd just discovered that a guy called Rupert Sheldrake also talks about, but there is something to it. All I know is that people don't pull out in front of me any more, and it works for me. (although I still cover my brakes, and I only really give it the beans when there are no side roads...)

Motorcycling has been really good to me, I'm not really fast, I'm not really "good" but I have been able to crash much better than any one else I know.. I got one scar on my shoulder from when an ill advised overtaking manoeuver on an RD 250 caused me to clip the A pillar of the mini turning left with said shoulder as I somersaulted across it's bonnet, but I didn't actually break anything. Except that the blow to the cars A pillar which the window, giving me a pretty visual effect I remember passing through, although I was already tucking into the roll as the ground came up to meet me and also twisting to avoid the curb... 

I've had more than fifty cars and bikes, around a 50% split, I guess, most of them knackers that I have fixed up, used, then passed on at a profit or scrapped, depending on what I've found during the period of use. Eventually you find the vehicle that just does what you want, and you never want anything different. With a bike, if you are willing to put in the work, you can have that. With a car there is always inaccessible rust and the need for special equipment in a big empty room to get underneath it working against you, whereas a bike, not so much.  

Ah, OK. That would be it then. Thank you!

i think this site only likes .gif as a photo format.

I know this is an old post but it has a few more recent replies so I thought I'd put my two'penn'orth in. I've been riding since I was 16 (well over 40 years ago now. Sheesh, I feel old! Lol!), and now own two factory customs; both Yamaha XV's. A 535 which I'm restoring from the ground up (which will cost far more then it's monetary worth, but... you know...) , and an 1100 (tried to upload a pic, but it wouldn't let me), which is my summer ride (I no longer ride in the winter, chrome and road salt do not mix well, as I discovered to my cost!). I'm considering getting a winter hack for the rainy months but haven't made a decision yet. I'm not the sports bike type, I'm built for comfort, so it would have to be a cruiser, and by default they're mostly chrome.... Not a Harley fan, mainly due to the right hand air pod that always digs in my knee... 

I agree with some of the points you wrote about, but I don't think Harley Davidson is in decline. At least I really want to believe in the best, since I am an absolute fan of Harley Davidson since childhood. I love my bike and recently I got into the process of finding True Dual Exhaust For my Harley. On the site https://allforharley.com/true-dual-exhaust-for-harley/ I read a very high quality review of this product. I liked the Cobra True Dual Head Pipes variant (6250) very visually and technically. Guys, if someone used them, please tell me how convenient they are.

They've been my specific interest since I was 6, I'm now nearly 40. Raced BMXs for 10 years because I couldnt afford a motorbike. Since being an adult I've ridden motox tracks, owned my first bike was a zx6r ninja which I rode from London to Portugal and back, and I've done track days at Silverstone and Donington.

Bikes are great, there is so much to enjoy about looking at, being around, or riding them. So, whatever level of ability you have, it's a great culture to be part of.

Harley's are fun to ride, but you tend to find people buy one and purchase a new lifestyle with it. Was a bit cheesie for me. But I am in the UK, I imagine being a Harley owner in the states is a different experience?

But overall, bikes celebrate as individuals, but make us part of something bigger

Can't beat a Triumph, been riding one since 2002

Harleys are a very niche bike - popular in the US but they are considered a bit primitive and 'tractor-like' when compared to practically everything else.      I have a friend who bought a V-Rod brand new and just put it in the garage to rise in value.     It's never seen daylight.