Topic: What will it take to make you stop riding your bike?

[shark]

At some point in my life, I will realize I cannot ride anymore (bad reflexes, no longer feel comfortable, or just can't physically do it).


At some point in life, your going to die, you have (almost) no control over it.

                            So why worry over it. Have fun while you can.

[74cb750]

Death.
Only time I will definitely, unequevocally stop.

[clarkjh]

Hmmmm.......
I haven't stopped riding the 550, only put her to bed for a little while.  I'll ride the "couch rocket" till the back won't let me hold him up on two wheels, then I'll find a sidecar or trike him.  I want my kids to learn but SWMBO won't let me get a dirt bike.

So, I guess I'll stop when the body or mind gives out.

James

[Cuts Crooked]

Am now at the point where it is hard to get my leg over the bike when I get off after a 50 miler. The old hip has just about had it and the saw bonz sayz replacement is not an option. Funny, I can still run fast enuff to pass my required physical agility tests but after a few miles on the bike the hip starts to seize up.
Once I reach the point where I fall getting off the bike.....I guess I'll give 'er up.

[trueblue]

A mate of mine rebuilt and rode his cx500 with a broken leg which he recieved from said bike, he was out of hospital 2 days before he was in the shed repairing the damage and riding again within 2 weeks, with his leg in plaster and all, he now has a stuffed back and can barely walk but he still rides his GL 1200 regularly.

[japscrap]

death. there is no other reason to stop riding.

broke my back in sept '07 on sept 29th at 12:30 am,hit a buick and got body slammed.
went to hospital,they released me after about 45 min of tests,never told me my back was screwed,didnt find that out til two weeks later whem I had an MRI/catscan for a kidney stone that escaped my kidney.

any way... i was right back to work the next morning wrenching on cars and trucks like nothing was wrong,but my whole life has been like that...

[Kong]

Only one of my bikes is here at my house right now, the others are at my son's place, housed in his garage for safe keeping.  I have been riding very little over the last two months, even though the weather has been good.  The reason is a tumor in my gut.  I take pills to keep the pain down but if I get on the bike after about a mile it hurts too much to continue and if I eat enough pain pills to make it possible to stand the pain caused by riding the intoxicating effect is too great to allow me to ride.

Now the other thing, the danger of riding.  For the first ten or fifteen years I rode bikes I lived in good sized cities (Washington, DC and Miami, FL) with lots of traffic - just the places to get mowed down by fools in cars.  I have heard all the stories, I have had a number of friends who have survived horrible accidents and two who did not - I do not need to hear stories from others about how dangerous it is.

And how dangerous is it?  I recall reading that most motorcycle accident fatalities take place within the first 90 days of riding.  Apparently after 90 days or so you will have got the living #$%* scared out of you just enough times to make you start paying attention.  I do not know this to be true or not but I also suspect that the majority of now dead bikers were not wearing helmets at the time of their fatal accident either.  My 90 days is long past and I always wear a helmet.  I also don't ride in cities very much any more; that's gotta help.

And of course we all think we are the best rider alive and are invincible; we all secretly (and quite openly for some blow-hards) believe that our lightening quick reflexes, natural agility and ballance, superior understanding of the road and traffic patterns, and just plain god-given-talent is what makes it all but impossible to be harmed by wayward cage-jockies or anyone else.  That part alone has carried me for miles of fearless riding.

[BobbyR]

This week I rode 120 miles in the rian with Godzilla. I have not ridden any distance in the rain in decades. I proved I still had something left, so I think i will be good for a couple of years.

Kong, sorry to hear about that tumor. I finished up my radiation treatments for Prostate Cancer earlier in the year. Life is good so far Stay strong Bro..

[bluezboy]

 Kong,  I'm sorry to here about your tumor,  I hope you have a full and speedy recovery.

[mrbreeze]

2 broken hands and a kick in the nutz!

Yep......that would do it for me!!!

[brooze72]

Old age...

but that's just a number, I haven't figured out when old age actually starts yet.  Grandma couldn't figure it out either.  When she was 95 she would complain to the doctor "I get tired in the afternoons & need a little nap, is that normal?"  God, I hope I'm like her! (& still riding)

[mrbreeze]

Im 54 and have been riding bikes since I was ten. I am more addicted than ever and cant even imagine not riding... My son works at Malcolm Smiths dealer and recently sold a new Yamaha R1 to an 80yr old... I want to be that guy.

Thats fookin' awesome!!!! Stories like that make me wanna get up & go again tomorrow!!!!!!!!

[pat english]

At some point in my life, I will realize I cannot ride anymore (bad reflexes, no longer feel comfortable, or just can't physically do it).


At some point in life, your going to die, you have (almost) no control over it.

                            So why worry over it. Have fun while you can.

word

[Markcb750]

I quit for 33 years; stopped the week my oldest son was born, restarted when my youngest graduated from college.   Making sure I was there for the kids was what made me quit for a while.

BobbyR, I was at the Fairground swap meet with my friend after delivering his restored 69 cl450, sorry I missed you guys.  I spoke with AllenF but I had to leave because my friends leg was giving him trouble.

My tag line says it for me now.

[dave500]

 "My son works at Malcolm Smiths dealer and recently sold a new Yamaha R1 to an 80yr old... I want to be that guy."

in Mr burns from the simpsons voice,,"smithers,fetch me my R1"

[demon78]

Let's see the arthritis in my wrists and hands,dizziness (balance), Arrhythmia, so what I need then is a smaller (less weight),faster bike.
But age NEVER.
 Bill the demon.

[EMS541A]

I rode dirt bikes for awhile without much incident. But my very first time on the road, I put a brand new Harley Nightster (my mom's) into a guard rail doing 35. 13 stitches on my side, lacerated my kidney, bruised my lung, broke my 12th rib. Was in the hospital for a week coughing up blood, getting trashed on morphine and calling my girlfriend by my ex's name (oops), knockin' over urinals...  About a week before my doctor said my rib could handle it, I was back on the road on my own bike that I had someone else pick up for me in the month or so I was couch bound.

Before I started riding, I had been to a couple fatal accidents and a couple more really terrible non-fatal accidents. Motorcycle vs. moose, motorcycle vs. car, motorcycle vs. inanimate object.

The possibility is scary, but the idea of not doing something I want to do, because of the possibility of getting hurt is there, is ridiculous to me. You can get in an accident in a car, a bicycle, a snowmobile, a canoe. Get old enough, you can get in an accident just standing up. Or hell, laying down in bed. You could be 22 year old and have a heart attack in your sleep.

What, me worry?

[BobbyR]

BobbyR, I was at the Fairground swap meet with my friend after delivering his restored 69 cl450, sorry I missed you guys.  I spoke with AllenF but I had to leave because my friends leg was giving him trouble.

Hey Mark, sorry I missed you. We have been invited back to Rhinebeck for next year. Hopefully we can have a good turnout.

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

wont stop

[dualcert]

Started riding when I was 13 and my older brother (by 12 yrs) convinced our Mom I should have a dirt bike, he bought me a Penton with a 100cc Sachs motor. That's when this "disease" LOL took hold. That was 1978 or 79. I stopped riding in 1994. Had a meeting in '94 with an 85 y/o cager who decided he wanted through a red left turn arrow (3 fractured vertebrae hip and tail bone), wife asked if I'd take a break until our son was at least 18. My freshly turned 18 y/o and I went and bought Dad a bike in mid April of '07 after HIS bday, LOL. I was asked by him "Gee Dad I didn't know you like motorcycles" 

Well I have yet to find a reason to deny myself one the greatest pleasures on earth that can be accomplished with a internal combustion engine!

[Cuts Crooked]

And of course we all think we are the best rider alive and are invincible; we all secretly (and quite openly for some blow-hards) believe that our lightening quick reflexes, natural agility and ballance, superior understanding of the road and traffic patterns, and just plain god-given-talent is what makes it all but impossible to be harmed by wayward cage-jockies or anyone else.  That part alone has carried me for miles of fearless riding.

GAWD!!! I just WISH I felt good enuff to believe that about myself for a few minutes!