Author Topic: The things we did on our bikes...  (Read 7242 times)

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Offline Deltarider

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The things we did on our bikes...
« on: September 29, 2012, 01:22:16 AM »
Must have been in the early 80s. I’d become the proud owner of a Walkman and I wondered if I could use it on my bike. I had small earphones that would fit under my helmet, so why not give it a try? Friends warned me it would be unsafe but I reasoned that over 100 km/h inside a helmet one didn’t hear a thing anyway, anything but the wind and I thought that I might just as well listen to my favourite music. So I plugged my ears, put on my helmet and went for a test ride. I was cautious not to bring on the music whilst still in town, so I would be able to receive useful signals like fire brigades and all. But once out on the road I fiddled inside my jacket and pushed the PLAY button. What I  found out was that over 100 km/h the riding wind muted the music, but if I rode at 90 or less I had music. Woww, I enjoyed that and wasn't I clever! After 45 minutes the music stopped and I realized I had to flip over the compact cassette for more. I didn’t like to stop just for this. Whilst riding I managed to eject the cassette and – to check for the right side – had a quick look at it. Quick but not before I checked the road ahead of me. A funny whining sound soon reached my ear and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The riding wind had managed to get into the small opening and had caught the tape. The whining sound was produced by the spinning cassettewheels. In a few seconds the wind had all the tape out of the cassette and I now was flying a very long thin brown banner. I never bothered to check how many cars behind me by now had switched on their wipers to get rid of that mysterious brown serpentine on their windscreens. I thought it safest to just throw the cassette towards the side of the road and open the throttle wide to speed away from discussions I could do without. That was the end of my experiment.

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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2012, 02:41:03 AM »
let me get this straight,,you had an eight track in your jacket?

Offline Terry in Australia

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2012, 02:50:56 AM »
No Dave, he had a Sony Walkman, a great device before personal CD players and of course, Ipods. It used to be a game in city traffic to throw the tape out of a buggered cassette out of your window and watch it sticking to cars, particularly if it was raining. That stuff is so light it would fly around , sticking to cars (or bikes and their riders) then fly off up into the air and find another target. Great fun! (not that I ever did it myself, of course........) ;D
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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2012, 02:59:12 AM »
let me get this straight,,you had a reel to reel in your jacket?

Offline Dimitri13

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2012, 03:02:22 AM »
I put a burrito in my jacket...

Offline Deltarider

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2012, 04:06:00 AM »
Dave, it was a socalled Compact Cassette (a Philips invention).
The bulky 8-track never made it here (nor in most of the world).
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Offline Xnavylfr

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2012, 04:20:12 AM »
When I was 16 ,I was working at a Drive-In eatery (Kinda Like SONIC). It had snowed about4" and the only transportation was my CB160. So I come up with idea of a SNOW CHAIN!! I took a chain like you tie your dog in the yard and hooked the latch to one spoke then wrapped it through the wheel and around the tire. Made it to work ,no Problemo. Then by noon all the snow was melted, so remove chain and ride home.


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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2012, 04:24:12 AM »
 let me get this straight,,you had a beta max video player in your jacket?

Offline Deltarider

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2012, 04:30:06 AM »
Dave, I fullfil your wish, so I give it to you straight: You're no fun anymore. ;D
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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2012, 04:40:46 AM »
let me get this straight,,you had like an edison thing?you know,,his masters voice and all?

Offline 70CB750

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2012, 04:41:56 AM »
I listened to walkman too with phones velcroed to the helmet. It woked for me, never had any troubles. Probably thousands of km like this.

But I never tried to flip the tape while riding. I think it played both ways, if memory serves right - from end to end and back again.
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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2012, 04:43:14 AM »
did it play 78s?

Offline scunny

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #12 on: September 29, 2012, 04:46:20 AM »
try playing your favourite LP as you meander through the country side, then try and flip the record over for the B side and not miss the start of the first track. some modern motobicycles come attached with a 12volt supply to do this.
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Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2012, 05:27:08 AM »
let me get this straight,,you also had a "k-tel"scratchomatic"motorcycle stereo?

i just sing songs in my head,,that way i can pause,rewind/fast forward/rewind as i choose!

Offline Raul CB750K1

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #14 on: September 29, 2012, 05:38:16 AM »
I managed to convince my mother to buy me a Sanyo walkman back in 1985. Still keep the original box, demonstration tape and bill. Something like $75 -25 years ago!!! Today you can buy a 2 gb mp3 player for like $10.

I would not go anywhere without it. I would carry some spare tapes to change the music. It was an auto-reverse with graphic equalizer- top of the range, but I would have not mind to have one with radio too. When the batteries run low and were unable to move the motor, if you had radio you still have more minutes of entertainment....

I used it to jog. Attached to the shorts with the belt clip was useless - at the third stride it would jump off. So I had to jog with it on my hand. I put it inside a plastic bag to avoid the sweat getting into the internals.

One way or the other, it sometimes got the occasional blow or fall, so the door hinges broke and I fixes it with a pin and loctite. Also the jack solder would break every now and then and I had to open it and re-solder. Always carried a pen to rewind tapes and save battery life.

I even built a rectifier to use the bicycle generator to power up the walkman so I could ride the bicycle and listen to music. When you slowed down, so did the music.... :-)

Five years later my wife -then girlfriend- bought me an Aiwa walkman. This time with digital radio. I also took it with me everywhere, but I was 20 or so and didn't use it for jogging. Very soon I discovered the CD and got me a portable CD player. Talk about high battery consumption. 4xAA cells would last just a couple of CD's. That was the reason to switch to reachargeable batteries.

It was impossible to jog with it, the slightest shake would stop the music. A couple years later I found a good price for a CD player with 40sec anti-shake buffer. Nah, didn't work either, you started to jog and the music didn't stop, but 40sec would help just for the occasional shake, not a continuous shaking.

Then I found a CD player with remote control for $10. I was already paying attention to mp3 players, it was 2002 and a 32mb mp3 player costed like $100. There wasn't even space for a full CD! Got me the CD player, it was practical as I could carry the CD player in the backpack and mute and stop the playing with the remote.

My first mp3 player costed like $120 and had 256mb space, something like 4 CD's. I have had three or four since then, usually the price remained similar but the capacity was four-fold. Now I use the phone to play music, but only listen to it while commuting on the train or the like....

I have managed to buy three or four walkmans out of ebay, like the first one I had, and keep them only for nostalgic reasons. When I have to explain my kids what is a compact cassette or a VHS tape I feel old....

Offline dave500

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2012, 05:47:51 AM »
so let me get this straight raul,,you didnt have one of those players that recharge as you jog?

Offline mono

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #16 on: September 29, 2012, 07:11:02 AM »
Dave I'm seriously lmao.  Well played.

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Offline Schnell

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2012, 07:13:32 AM »
So let me get this straight: Dave's the kind of guy who takes things too far? ;)
A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. --Lao Tsu

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Offline DustyRags

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #18 on: September 29, 2012, 07:30:21 AM »
Well ya gotta admit, it's not like people were getting the joke the first three times...
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Offline veloracermike

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The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #19 on: September 29, 2012, 07:31:53 AM »
I've done plenty of dumb things off road but the dumbest on road thing I've ever done was after my high school graduation. We had a big pool party with plenty of kegs and I got appropriately drunk.  I then got on my buddy's KZ900 and rode over to my girl friends to get some. No helmet   No shirt   Flip flops and shorts. I'm lucky that I didn't eat it that day.


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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #20 on: September 29, 2012, 07:40:16 AM »
About 35 years ago, my buddy had a Suzuki GT750 café racer. Chambers, clip-ons, fiberglass tank and seat. It seemed like a good idea at the time. On the tank he had a tank-bag, in which he had an 8-track. The 8-track connected to headphone speakers in his helmet via a long coiled cord. I still remember seeing my buddy sliding in one direction while his bike slid in another, and the cord stretched between the two.

Bob

Offline SohRon

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #21 on: September 29, 2012, 07:45:24 AM »
I've done plenty of dumb things off road but the dumbest on road thing I've ever done was after my high school graduation. We had a big pool party with plenty of kegs and I got appropriately drunk.  I then got on my buddy's KZ900 and rode over to my girl friends to get some. No helmet   No shirt   Flip flops and shorts. I'm lucky that I didn't eat it that day.


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We have folks like that here in Colorado, especially during late fall and early winter... Flip-flops, shorts and a down parka... I just don't get it...

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Offline Damfino

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #22 on: September 29, 2012, 07:46:44 AM »
i just listen to the voices in my head,,that way i can pause,rewind/fast forward/rewind as i choose!


Let me get this straight, what are the voices telling you now, Dave?
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Offline Magilla

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #23 on: September 29, 2012, 07:55:07 AM »
Back in 83 my CB350 was my only transportation. So I use to ride it in the cold New England winters.  To keep my face warm I wore a World War 2 gas mask and to protect my head I wore a tin Army helmet.  So I had NO peripheral vision and basically no protection for my head WHILE RIDING IN THE SNOW. 
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Offline Stev-o

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Re: The things we did on our bikes...
« Reply #24 on: September 29, 2012, 08:01:35 AM »
Probably the dumbest thing I did on a bike was street race, but it really didn't seem dumb at the time, just exciting.

I had a Kaw 1000 and my brother a Yamaha 1100.  We took many weekend trips to Central Texas and would do rolling start races. Both bikes ran fantastic, his being 100cc larger was just a little faster. We both were very good at "power shifting", rarely missing a gear. My bike saw 125mph regularly, that was top end, the Yammi would do 130.
My only fear at the time was hitting a cow as it as a common site to see loose livestock roaming around, but thankfully never did.
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