Time have changed

I guess we [well guys over 60] can remember buying a bike back in the mid sixties? This was my requirments then

1 tyres..yep its got some. Tread...what was that? Pressurers Boot check, kick it if it sounds hard..that will do.
2 Engin oil drips..so? bit of smoke..fine , never liked bad rattles!
3, Torn seat...plastic bag
4, rear chain boil in link life...my mother hated that! Well it was in the kitchen...
5, Broken spokes...i drew the line at 6
6,crap cables...didint all bikes have them?
7 poor starter......simple.. bump the cow.
8 Crap brakes ....what where good one's?
9 None working speedo..these chro's are dear?
10 none working rear susspension ...oh come on how did you know that.
11, Battery always flat ...bump again
12...Orange glow head lamp....good job i new the road!
13 Horn.....What?..."get out of me way missus!"
14 Oil change? what....just top up with dads car oil
15 Road tax..... LOL! MOT ditto!
No crash helmets, no leather...well whats up with a TED SUIT...smart or what. Drain pipes and winkle pickers. Fab bike gear.
beer..oh yes...Did you think after all the greef getting the bike going for a blast up the boozer...only a 1/2 pint?
Great days i now saddly miss.
Ho the folly of youth!
If it wasnt for late night bike polishing down in the shed.. a few beers, candles and radio Luxinburge .presto.... Daughter! Dont blaim me it was Barry White!

if you want to look back with rose tinted spectacles, then getting frozen while riding in winter, and soaking wet in the rain, having XX amount of crashes, personally I sometimes wonder how I survived :!: :shock:

I have fond memories of buying complete basket case Commandos in the '70s for $150 to $300 just for the engines to support my road racing habit.

Ken

John

Just read your post, it was the same late seventies and early eighties. I was at a bike show at the weekend and I met
The guy who sold me my first bike 74. Dt175 he told me the wee bike had been to the island and been round the big circuit several times.

It is much better to remember the good old days it helps you forget the hospital visits to friends who have lost limbs and the funerals of guys that should still be with us.
Be safe on Friday 13.

When I was with N-V, I was given the task (it was why they hired me) of setting up an instrumentation system for gathering "real" test data instead of relying on "rider opinion". It never happened, due to amount of funds they pissed away on the "Green Globe" PR debacle.

During my research, I went down to the South of England to visit the Road Research Laboratory and a couple of instrumentation companies who had started to make some pretty neat RF instrumentation that could transmit real-time data from the bike by radio to a base unit. It was a two-nights away trip.

It was a beatiful February day when I set off on my trusty 650SS. The hotels I was booked into were a bit surprised when I walked into the lobby in racing leathers, carrying a crash helmet. I guess there weren't many commercial travelers using motor-cycles! I had good visits with everyone I went to see.

The problems started when I headed for home late afternoon, starting out from close to Southampton. The "beautiful" weather had turned typical winter cold and I had about a 220-mile ride. Never had I been so cold. It got down to about 24F during the trip. I reached a point where I stopped at every transport cafe for a mug of tea. I didn't drink it, but used it to warm my hands before moving on.

I had to stop so often that my average speed for the trip was only about 40 mph. If I'd been thinking more clearly, I'd have put myself and the bike on the train to Birmingham or Wolverhampton!

It is much better to remember the good old days it helps you forget the hospital visits to friends who have lost limbs and the funerals of guys that should still be with us. Be safe on Friday 13.

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John that's what I try to put out of mind each time before a ride but still get a whisper in my ear from one or more of them when feeling invulnerable.

Frank floors me on scope of his back ground and facing-enduring the elements to self injury level Norton didn't give a flip about. Glad to know you made it this far and wisely got off motorcycles in time.

I carry tools and a few spares on my vintage and modern which both seem to need them about as often as my old car and truck.

camping gear was a bedroll and your leather jacket was your pillow.

I think that by the time I was 25, I'd lost about 15 friends in motorcycle crashes on public roads. One rode through the side of a car at high speed when it pulled out in front of him - he killed himself and the driver. Another hit a bluestone pylon which held up a railway line. And the most memorable was the kid who hit a car which was backing out of a driveway. His foot got caught behind the bumper bar, and he got pulled down and hit his head - no helmet. He was dying on the side of the road when we got there - the ambulance guys didn't even try to move him. Like Bernhard, I wonder why I am still alive - it was a different world. I still sometimes feel like getting on a bike on the local roads and really fanging it - the kill-joys would lock me up and throw away the key. The laws are all bullshit - some of us need to take risks to stay alive.

John we all take risks to enjoy our riding experances, I have been riding for over 40 years now (55 now) we rode hard when we were young and never gave any throught about it, death was never to far away and lost a few good mates, but the older you get the more you think about what could have happen, I still ride my bikes hard but i am always thinking ahead which we never did when young, there is more traffic on our roads now as well a lot more coppers, but in our younger days I use to just throw my bed roll (swag) on my bike with a bottle of rum and go away for a week or 2, no change of clothes, what you wore is what you lived in, I still do this but now only a few days at a time, I still have the same swag to sleep in, I carry a small BBQ plate to cook on, my saddle bags with one side camping gear the other side with clothing and what ever else is needed and a small esky on the back rack for the beer and meat, I can also carry a 12'x12' canvas trap that can be used if it rains hard, we nomal go with 2 or 3 of us just to get away.

So looking back not much has changed with myself and my mates since we all started to ride all those years ago, we are all still doing the same things, we are all still parting as hard as we did, we are still riding as hard as ever, its not us changing but things around us is what is changing, the world is changing but to myself and all my mates nothing has change all that much, its how you look on things these days and take each days as it comes.

Ashley

acotrel said:

The laws are all bullshit - some of us need to take risks to stay alive.

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Close. Life without risk is not living. I don't mean stupidity, I mean not spending your life wrapped in cotton wool. Something this country has lost and needs to find again. Australia - The Safe Country.

Ashely strikes again on most flavorful way to risk life on two tires. I'm still working on getting there.

Steve if you ever get the chance to come to Australia and to my state of Queensland you will always be welcome to stay at my place, the same invite to anyone else vistoring my way, we are all friendly mob over here, we love a good drink and friends that enjoy motorcycling, its all part of a great lifestyle and would never change it, I will never be a rich man but I enjoy what I have and my mates that I have grown up with are all doing the samethings, life is so good for me and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Ashley

ashman said:

John we all take risks to enjoy our riding experances, I have been riding for over 40 years now (55 now) we rode hard when we were young and never gave any throught about it, death was never to far away and lost a few good mates, but the older you get the more you think about what could have happen, I still ride my bikes hard but i am always thinking ahead which we never did when young, there is more traffic on our roads now as well a lot more coppers, but in our younger days I use to just throw my bed roll (swag) on my bike with a bottle of rum and go away for a week or 2, no change of clothes, what you wore is what you lived in, I still do this but now only a few days at a time, I still have the same swag to sleep in, I carry a small BBQ plate to cook on, my saddle bags with one side camping gear the other side with clothing and what ever else is needed and a small esky on the back rack for the beer and meat, I can also carry a 12'x12' canvas trap that can be used if it rains hard, we nomal go with 2 or 3 of us just to get away.
So looking back not much has changed with myself and my mates since we all started to ride all those years ago, we are all still doing the same things, we are all still parting as hard as we did, we are still riding as hard as ever, its not us changing but things around us is what is changing, the world is changing but to myself and all my mates nothing has change all that much, its how you look on things these days and take each days as it comes. Ashley

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Your comments of using the same clothes has reminded me of a poem I sent to my 80 year old brother in his birthday card;
You're getting older
And that is that
And as the years go by
You'll have to fight the fat
Your knees will go
And your wrinkles will show
And you'll get various problems
Down below
Your bones will creak
And you'll start to get stiff
And if you don't wash often
You'll start to whiff
But come on now it's not
All bad
You're still alive
So just be glad

True as long as you don't upset to many with the smell but hey you get quick service when you smell just to get rid of you.

Ashley

Appreciate the invite Ahsley but I've read how the police over there view bikers riding together. Wes and I have slept on a big plastic tarp with just clouds floating by moonlight over head. On that way out of state trip return phase I left the big 5 pole awning and two man tent and 4 man table at the campsite to lighten the load on return but axle still broke so needed some more of the full set of tools and rescue items carried. Fortunately I ain't aging as expected - bone joint muscle wise, so may yet get some pay back from Ms Peel.

davamb said:

acotrel said:

The laws are all bullshit - some of us need to take risks to stay alive.

Click to expand...

Close. Life without risk is not living. I don't mean stupidity, I mean not spending your life wrapped in cotton wool. Something this country has lost and needs to find again. Australia - The Safe Country.

Click to expand...

Dave, I was involved in writing 'The Guide to Managing Risk in Motor Sport' Along with the controlling bodies and Standards Australia. My definition of 'safe' is -
'a situation or condition where the risks are minimized to a level which is tolerable to all stakeholders'
In other words if your family hate you racing - you don't do it. If the circuit has not been assessed buy the competitors or their representatives and the circuit owners - you don't ride there. I'm a lout at heart and I would never be party to something which attempts to totally remove risk - that is impossible anyway. My friend who was the CEO of Winton Raceway was a bit bemused when I told him that road racing motorcycles is 'safe'. If the riders are competent, the bikes and circuit are assessed and approved - it is 'safe'. The safest racing is at the top where the international guys are, even though the speeds are highest, it is only the frequency with which they race which can be a problem - the odds are against them due to fatigue and fitness requirements.

Jimmie and Freddie legends, not any norton hero's these days.

The jimmie Guthrie memorial run is tomorrow 15th. June hope they get a good day for it?

Don't think track safety was a big thing in the thirties , but you still have to watch out for other riders.

Steve we still ride in big groups when needed, when we go for our 3 weekly ride there is nomaly between 10 and 30 bikes, the police haven't put us off riding together, we have a mix of bikes as well from Harleys, Jap, Europeen and British, since this crack down I haven't been harrased yet, we have some great mountian and country roads around my neck of the woods and on the weekends you get a lot of poeple out riding their bikes, the police are only after the outlaw bikies, but if you ride with a big group of Harley riders then that could change unless its the Harley owners club who arranges very big group rides and inform the police where they will be riding.

Ashley

Appreciate the invite Ahsley but I've read how the police over there view bikers riding together. Wes and I have slept on a big plastic tarp with just clouds floating by moonlight over head. On that way out of state trip return phase I left the big 5 pole awning and two man tent and 4 man table at the campsite to lighten the load on return but axle still broke so needed some more of the full set of tools and rescue items carried. Fortunately I ain't aging as expected - bone joint muscle wise, so may yet get some pay back from Ms Peel.

Once in a while per decade I don't mind parading with hundreds in the city events or dozens at vintage rallys short circuits but 1 2 or 3 is busy enough closeness for me. I rode 5th time this yr on SuVee to find 2 dozen HD's of all sorts stuck in our village d/t flat in 21" front tube. No biker had tools or air to take wheel or tire off or inflate but their PU backoup buddy had tools and a jack and 12 v air a HD next to could power off cig lighter plug. I called Wes down from his Mt steeple chase to see if he had patches and tire irons, as they did get tube out with three new 3/8" wide screw driver blade slices in tube side wall section. 3 patches got it fixed - as one big patch covered 2 blade holes. There is an art to applying rubber glue and getting carrier vititols evaporated out with a flame in gusty wind so patch actually seals same day. Stored Wes's pump and irons and patch kit in my place and took 2 hr joy ride of 65-ish miles - 13 of em THE Gravel short cut up the plateau to hit great hwy twisties to press all the way back to Buffalo River valley - then about 30 miles more on routine ways home plus our hand full of THE Graveled miles to homes. Still glowing grinning like
a kid again before times changed. About mid morning here most the herds of bikers get tired of waving but everyone still grinning.