Biggest difrence between Bikers of the 70's and these "Bikers" we got now?

Leather bellbottoms.

 

I would like to thank those who shared their old school memories. I learned a lot of history from everyone. And the pictures were great, too. Seriously, thank you very much. And I think the old schoolers should know that, to my great surprise, I discovered an actual forum that has a seperate category dedicated to the aging rider. I have yet to read any of the posts in that specfic category but I surmise that older riders their help their fellow older rider with certain aspects of riding that might "challenge" an older rider. Perhaps a senior citizen has special needs when they ride? It's worth a look. I would benefit from your wisdom, as would others. All of us are gonna "hit the wall" someday in that you just gotta figure that there's gonna come a day when a reasonably healthy senior citizen is going to find it physically impossible to ride a motorcycle due to old age. You know the saying, "The mind wants to but the body can't." The question for some will be will you blow your brains out when that day of reckoning comes? Some might dwell on that option for a moment or two. So please check that forum out. Its at msgroup dot org. The "ms" stands for "motorcycle safety" and with a domain name like that you know they're legit, they mean well and they prioritize safety above and beyond all.

 

You know I can look at this 2 ways , first with that user name and a nice shill job of another forum this can be a form of phishing . Lots of script kiddies who are running hacks & cheats trying to beat the software safeguards run off the wall usernames like that , nobody makes up **** like that just because .

Second way I'll take your post is for face value because I agree there's comes a time when the saddle doesn't call you as much as it used to or the body just says fuc it no way . How that gets handled isn't talked much your right and I've known guys go out the hard way either through depression and suicide or riding past the point of ability from shear hardheadedness and the obvious happened .

Bikes have been my entire life since 17 I lived for and on them most of my adult life . Time & miles has racked up my riding has slowed down but I have my shop and constant stream of bikes coming through to keep my hands and mind busy . You don't have to be running the wheels off one constantly to love the machines and lifestyle you just evolve as time marches on .

 

I'm not so sure that makes Everett a keyboard commando as he's not dissing a fellow poster. IMO that makes him a little more like a teacher or a spiritual leader but then I wonder is Everett talking about the type of payback he renders in the day and age of the cell phone or is he talking about getting justice back in the day before the cellular phone was mass produced and made available to the general public? I'm thinking this: Cage driver has cell phone in car. Cage driver calls LE. And then 60 seconds later Everett and/or the student looks up in the sky and sees two helicopters one with a police emblem on it and the other whirlybird being represented by a local television news station pining for a story for the 6 o'clock news.

 

Back around 2005 or so I was sitting on a carpeted floor in a Border's bookstore for about a couple of hours. I was reading a book authored by Sonny Barger, reading it page by page, chapter after chapter. I came to a part where he wrote that he at one point seriously or semi-seriously contemplated riding a BMW. Now I don't know what decade he mulled that idea over in his head, meaning I don't know if he was considering switching over to a BMW in the 70's, 80's or 90's. I won't say that I didn't believe him. I won't say that you can't believe everything you read. I'll just say that I really didn't know how to take that statement, I supposed that it might have been a bit of a "tounge in cheek" type statement. At the time, in 2005, it didn't make complete sense to me. What he wrote about the BMW-thing was a bit ambiguous, a little incomprehensible. I mean, c'mon, the HA riding around on BMW's? That seemed a little weird or something. But after reading your statement and others like it, 7 years later... I get it, finally, I think. So it appears that there was no brand discrimination or steel prejudice back then like there is now. As an example, if you go to YouTube you'll read statements from loyal HD riders spewing mass hatred laced with venom toward Victory riders and vice versa. It took a long time to read through this thread so I think I'll retire might as well since I didn't get paid to read the damn thing.

 

Yeah spinning wrenches sounds like one good way for a rider in his 80's or 90's to transition from rider to non-rider status. Others far less mechanically inclined will have to consider, and in some cases suffer, the alternatives. Especially riders who fly solo and don't have many acquaintances like fellow club members to consort and hang around with. David Hough, are you out there reading this? I'd love to hear what a good man of your worth has to say about the dreaded transition a dedicated rider will someday come face to face with. That skull painted on the gas tank takes on a new meaning once a veteran rider hits a certain age...a veteran riders heart might still be hard as stone but he, or she, will have to quit the sport for good at some point in time. Psychotherapy is one alternative, I guess....

 

Guess I'm the 'ol fart now....Back in the 70's the majority of H-D owners did ther own maintenance and the local dealership had 2-mechanics at most....Those same dealerships were a Mom/Pop outfit.

Today they are a Mega-Mart with a Mega-Staff, easy financing, and trade-ins recommended after break-in....

Guess the Motor Company is doing what they have to do to keep employees on the job...Nuthin' wrong with that...Perhaps this is progress for the Motor Company and Society?

 

Not sure where you got the notion that this is somehow 'dedicated' to the older riders. The basic gist of the conversation is the difference between then and now. As far as when to stop riding, think it is a personal decision. Bought my 84 FLH last spring from the original owner. He was 88. He only sold it because he had been fighting cancer and just couldn't get a leg up over it anymore. We had a very long talk before he finally signed the title over to me. His biggest concern was that I was going to chop it. We had a very long discussion about bikes, trips and the whole motorcycle experience. It wasn't easy for him to let the bike go but you could see it that he"knew" the time had come. Me I figure as long as I can kick over my 49 I am good to go...




Back in 89, at the Redwood Run, met a Red n White member out of Daly City who was on a Beemer. He recognized me from what I did for a living and we had a friendly discussion about how he ended up on it. Seems he had gone through some serious back surgery and there was no way he was going to be able to ride an HD and there was no way he was going to miss the run; the BMW was the temp alternative.

 

With all due respect I did not misconstrue the premise of this thread meaning I did not have a "notion" that this thread is dedicated solely to the older rider - you made a mistake and that's easy to do in this form of communication - I've made the same mistakes elsewhere on the Internet - and I'm bound to make the same mistake again. I do want to thank you for sharing your story about the Red n White member who rode a Beemer (boy would I like to have a pic of that rider and his machine!). Historical data is always a little interesting to read, thanks again for sharing. Approximately 10 pages back someone said something analogous to "This thread has just about received all the info you can expect to read about what took place during the 60's and 70's, put a fork in it." My eyes rolled when I read that - I felt that comment/idea was way off and much too premature - it was a very foolish comment as I figured he/she can't speak for thousands and/or millions of bikers unless he or she is a mind reader. Some of my faves was the story about the guys who rode Honda Trail 90's form Indy to California(!) How many people out there think that you can still ride a 90cc or 100cc bike from Indy to California in this day and age? I surmise that it...ah, never mind, I don't know what to think about the chances of something like that ever happening again in 2012. I also liked the story about the Coke machine that spit a can of beer out if you knew how to "hit" the Coke machine just right, and there were others, too. The pics were great and while I know beggars can't be choosy if anyone has any pics of the HD dealers back then that were gruff, sordid, grimy and loathsome to the general public then please post them when you get a chance that'd be nice, thanks.

 

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Where did you come from? or is this deadfred in drag. Blow my brains out when I can't ride anymore? or therapy to deal with it. It's what they build trikes and sidecars for. Besides after 63 years, a massive mci, stents, copd and other such nice things that life has thrown at me I think I can pretty much figger out how to deal w/ it, even if it's just polishing the roadking and thinking of all the times I was able to ride.