Topic: I try but I just don't like going fast.

[Jayelwin]

So I've been riding for years and I've probably owned a dozen different motorcycles. (7 in my garage right now). Riding a motorcycle is truly one of life's great pleasures. But I will say that speeds over 65 MPH on pretty much any bike I've been on is just downright unpleasant. I've been in my car on the highway looking over at someone cruising along side me ON A BIKE MODEL I OWN (for example my Vstar 1300 tourer) and they look like they are enjoying themselves. Yet when I'm on the same bike on the same highway at the same speed it's just an unpleasant experience for me. I can cruise around country roads at 45 MPH all day and have a grand old time. Or even punch it on the occasional straight away. I just don't see how people slog it out on the slab for long periods of time. Now if I did find 70 as enjoyable as 45 so much more riding would open up for me.

Does this ring true for anyone else?


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[ken65]

over here in oz, the opportunity to go 70miles an hour is illegal  . only a few months ago i got fined $220 for going 13kph over the limit, if i feel lucky on a back road i might give the fj a quick blip up to 200kph, but heres the thing , its fun , it get the adrenal going but at the back of my mind i can see my body with all the skinned rubbed off and feeling sorry for myself, over the years ive lost my fair share of skin,  i can definitely understand where your coming from , 

[martin99]

There aren't that many roads near me where you can sustain speeds of 70+ for any length of time, but my usual route to work is one of them and on the 750 it's 70-80 for about seven miles straight. Every bike I've ever had I've had to ride fast, can't help myself, if only the once to see what it will do. Sold my xjr1200 for this very reason - couldn't trust myself to behave and scared I'd kill myself on it. It's weird, I don't particularly enjoy going that fast, I don't find it comfortable, it's dangerous because the roads are peppered with fukcen great pot-holes over here but the adrenalin  hit makes it all worth it somehow. On the same route in my car I don't go over 60, that's the speed limit.

Well, maybe I'll grow up one day. I'm only 53 after all.

[trueblue]

Well, maybe I'll grow up one day. I'm only 53 after all.

I wouldn't get too carried away, mate.  Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional .

My 650 feels comfortable up to about 140kph, can sit there all day.  Don't attempt it too often though.  The coppers around here are absolute arseholes.  The longest I have sustained those sort of speeds was one day I was busting for a crap and was about 40km from the nearest #$%*house.  I didn't really feel like squatting behind a tree .  The old 650 was singing the whole way between 130 and 140, on a couple of straight aways I pulled 160 but at those speeds I need to start crouching and my helmet starts to get pulled back a little and gets uncomfortable.  Mind you the old beast never ran so good, it loved it and afterwards ran better than it ever has.  

[mick7504]

Here in the Northern Territory, in certain sections of the Stuart Highway, there is an open speed limit.
 It was like that for years, until for a while it got zoned back to 130kph (80mph)
That was all to do with road toll until they realised that pissed drivers don't need to be going fast to wipe themselves and others out.

But back to question, I don't go flat stick anymore for extended periods and like Ken said, a quick ring of the neck to get an adrenalin rush is priceless.
The ol' self presevation thing kicks in a bit as the years pass. 

[Bailgang]

I tend to wind the bike up a bit when I'm riding solo but behave myself when my wife is with me. Once my wife and I went for a cruise with her brother and his wife and we took them down a favorite stretch of road we ride often. To me it was just a normal ride doing about 60mph on the straights and slowing down a bit for the turns, we weren't putting along but definitely not ripping through either. Once we came to a stop for a break my sister inlaw said "are you in some kind of hurry or something?" so to make her happy I slowed it down a bit on the way back which about bored me and my wife to death.

My wife and I have booked a trip to the Smokey Mountains the first of next month hauling the 750 with us and of course cruising Deals Gap/dragons tail is part of the plan. I have no intentions what so ever to make any sort of time trial run through the dragons tail especially with my wife on back with me.

[trueblue]

I find my bike handles much better with the missus on the back.  Settles the tail end down on the entry to the corners.  I keep telling her it is the extra ballast on the arse end 

[MoMo]

Nothing wrong with slowing down and enjoying the scenery,  and remember Canned Heat's slogan  "speed kills"...Larry

[Jayelwin]

I'm all for hitting speed for a bit to feel what it's like. I just don't see how hours on the highway at 70 MPH can be pleasant. And around me in New Jersey on a 10 lane highway 70 can be slow sometimes.


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[dhall57]

Father time has a tendency to to slow us some, rather we ride motorcycles or not. I remember back around 76 or 77 and I still had my 76 CB550. I would never do this now,but 40 years ago at 19 I didn't think twice about it This was a great running bike and it pull strong to the red line(9500) and do 110 or a little better on the 130mph speedo. Haven't had this bike in nearly 40 years but I still remember the gauges, I guess because most the time back than when my a$$ was on the seat I had the 550 stretched out
Nowdays Im the most comfortable riding in the 60 to 80 mph range and this just happens to be the range our 750's cruise the best.
But don't get me wrong, even at 57 I still like to see the ton every now and then and for my 750's of course this no problem.

[azuredesign]

Funny,
As a younger man, going slow or simply more slowly than I was,  made no sense to me . In the last few years however,
I have found that it wasn't just the speed rush that attracted me. As I slowed down a bit, I found that I saw things as they went by that I had not noticed previously. I don't piss off as many people on the road, and they don't piss me off. I can hear the beautiful sound of the engine better without all the wind noise.
Riding on a highway is still boring unless one is going fast, but on a beautiful back road, its nice to check out whats going on, at least for a few minutes until I just have to goose the throttle and see if I can make that next curve..

[Retro Rocket]

I've slowed a bit with age but i still like going fast, I find that if you sit on 100MPH for only a few minutes you get used to the speed and it seems normal, I drove a V8 supercar here a couple of months back and had a ball, the damn thing was very quick, on the track I was on, I could only go hard in 4th gear for about 5 seconds but that was around 120MPH, needed a bigger track.... Been 150+ MPH on a bike, now that takes some concentration on the road, its like riding through a tunnel, one white center line and a blur both sides...

[Stev-o]

I think it has to do with the roads you are riding on. 

I agree, riding 70mph on a straight, flat expressway does not sound like fun to me either. 

Most of my riding is out of City limits and I'm lucky enough to live in the Hill Country where there are great roads with twisties and elevation changes.

[demon78]

I find that I'm slowing down a bit and have picked up a CT200 Honda push rod engine and I'll use it to potter off into town for groceries and to green lane the concession rd's here, you know 15 mph and look at the birds, trees rock formations, now if I had a an MV 4 500cc, or a G50 I would go fast for a while but not all the time, the great pleasure that an empty road or lane way is incomparable and listening to bird song refreshing, stopping to watch cloud formations brilliant.
Bill the demon.

[vfourfreak]

I like to give the old girl a spirited ride when I can, but have definitely become more cautious with age.

My formula : leave the house at 06:30, up the Cevennes mountains. Advantages : no coppers and no cages + cool weather. Bit of a blast, mostly involving twisty bits and not outright speed, but all definitely over the limit (I like to think). Breakfast at roadside café about 08:00 then gentle run back home for 10:00 before the masses clog up the roads.

Result : invigorated for a good day's work and satisfaction that the coppers never get me.

Nice.

Kev

[demon78]

Sounds good to me. My roads are a little different here but there is the occasional twisty bit the only thing I'd do the slow speed through corners both ways to check for sand and gravel my days of stuffing a foot down at high speed and hot shoeing through a corner are gone.( it's maybe why my joints are sore, also to get the collective bits to respond in a timely fashion is a chore) You know come on heel down at the right angle, ankle take the strain, leg faster, hip roll back, etc you get the drift.
Bill the demon.

[Cougars750F0]

I enjoy I short burst of adrenaline that usually gives me a big grin on my face but were I live you never know whats going to be around the next turn. I have hit deer while driving down a straight roads with good visibility. In one case in the middle of the day a deer was hidden from my sight behind a bush that was growing in a other wise clear area it jumped out in front of me with no warning by the time I was able to touch the brake let alone press on it I had already hit it. Luckily I was driving my pickup at the time. I also had a deer hit me! It ran into the side of the same truck. That's just the some of the larger wildlife there are even more smaller animals that could easily cause you to go down on a bike let alone derbies, bad pavement etc.

[Killer Canary]

Retro's response resonated (practicing my alliterations ) with me because every spring after 6 months of white #$%*e , I have to get my legs back under me and 80mph seems pretty fast on the first ride. After a short time it's warp speed again. You definitely get accustomed to speed.

[Killer Canary]

Maybe even addicted.

[Retro Rocket]

Maybe even addicted.

 ... Speed definitely fades after maintaining it for a while, its actually easy to be complacent, funny thing is i've had more hairy moments going relatively slow {compared to highway and beyond speeds  } through the twisties...

[Retro Rocket]

The phenomenon Retro referred to is called becoming "velcotized". Drivers do begin to react more quickly and up to speed after just a few minutes of excessive speeds, proven fact.

Happens when you run the highway (car or bike) for more than 20 minutes at speeds greater than 70. Then you exit, and 35 feels like you're crawling or in retrograde motion. Thats when dumb stuff happens because you're dismissing the awareness from boredom (actually being over-stimulated).

Anyway, I like to ride as aggressively as I can while maintaining the safety factor in the twisters. It's not about the speed, it's about the best line as my challenge.

Yes, I always try and pick the best lines in a sort of sporting mode way of riding even though it has nothing in common with track riding, I try and avoid using all the road when riding... Although it does happen now and again, definitely not in traffic though...

[rb550four]

I find that anyone can go fast on the highway....so what , big deal...boring. I ride them at the speed limit.
   Back roads, now that's a different story, balls to the walls testing your skills on a crappy road...got to know your limits, got to know your mood, got to stay loose and call it before it gets out of control...I go for 40 or 50 mile runs at a clip,going progressively faster during the first 20, I expect to go all out for 10 of the middle miles just to get it out of my system.Cruise back at 45-50 for the last 10 miles. I don't ride if I've had anything stronger than coffee, I don't ride in a bad mood, don't ride if it isn't sunny and under 65 degrees. I plan to die in my sleep, not on the road, any other kind of day I'm happy turning wrenches .
perhaps if I rode more often there wouldn't always be another projectbike. I'm just happy around Hondas, and they don't always have to go fast.

[dave500]

only ride how your comfortable with,let someone else go faster if you want,canned heats line(no pun intended)"speed kills"that song was about henry vestines amphetamine addicted girl friend,nothing to do with moving motion speed!

[petercb750]

Yes, never feel pressured to go faster than your skill levels/comfort zone.....or it will likely end in tears.

[MoMo]

only ride how your comfortable with,let someone else go faster if you want,canned heats line(no pun intended)"speed kills"that song was about henry vestines amphetamine addicted girl friend,nothing to do with moving motion speed!

I knew that, just threw it in as an obscure attempt at humor, glad someone picked up on it...Larry