What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Neilo
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by Neilo »

Harley Davidson.Best way to turn petrol into noise
If it aint broke, fix it til it is.
mercalia
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by mercalia »

I think the cyclist/non motor cyclists are just green with envy :mrgreen:
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661-Pete
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by 661-Pete »

mercalia wrote:I think the cyclist/non motor cyclists are just green with envy :mrgreen:

Nope. I just see them dressed in all that leather and plastic from top to toe on a hot summer's day, head encased in a plastic fish bowl, unable to hear a thing except their own engine, and.... Envious, moi?
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
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bigjim
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by bigjim »

“Because you are on two wheels and not four, you are much closer to the ground. By closer I mean more intimate with. Take the surface of the road. You are conscious of all its possible variations, whether it offers a grip or is smooth, whether it's new or used, wet, damp or dry, where there's mud or gravel, where ruts are being worn - all the while you are aware of the hold of the tyres or their lack of it on the varying surfaces, and you drive accordingly.
Bends produce another intimate effect. If you enter one properly, it holds you in its arms, just as a hill points you to the sky and a descent receives you. And speed is of the essence. By this I do not necessarily mean the speed at which you are travelling. The reading on the speedometer is a small part of the story.
The fastness that counts most is that between decision and consequence, between an action and its effect - changing direction, braking or accelerating. Other vehicles may in fact react as quickly or more quickly than a motorbike, but a jet plane, a highly tuned car, a speedboat are not as physically close to your body, and none of them leaves your body so exposed. From this comes the sensation that the bike is responding as immediately as one of your own limbs - yet without your own physical energy being tapped. And this effortless immediacy bestows a sense of freedom.”

John Berger
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bigjim
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by bigjim »

Or.


Lawrence had a regular run for sausages, bacon and pie, a run he did on his
Brough Superior SS100. Here's a excerpt for your enjoyment:


"The extravagance in which my surplus emotion expressed itself lay on the road. So long as roads were tarred blue and straight; not hedged; and empty and dry, so long I was rich.

"Nightly I’d run up from the hangar, upon the last stroke of work, spurring my tired feet to be nimble. The very movement refreshed them, after the day-long restraint of service. In five minutes my bed would be down, ready for the night: in four more I was in breeches and puttees, pulling on my gauntlets as I walked over to my bike, which lived in a garage-hut, opposite. Its tyres never wanted air, its engine had a habit of starting at second kick: a good habit, for only by frantic plunges upon the starting pedal could my puny weight force the engine over the seven atmospheres of its compression.

Boanerges’ first glad roar at being alive again nightly jarred the huts of Cadet College into life. ‘There he goes, the noisy bugger,’ someone would say enviously in every flight. It is part of an airman’s profession to be knowing with engines: and a thoroughbred engine is our undying satisfaction. The camp wore the virtue of my Brough like a flower in its cap. Tonight Tug and Dusty came to the step of our hut to see me off. ‘Running down to Smoke, perhaps?’ jeered Dusty; hitting at my regular game of London and back for tea on fine Wednesday afternoons.

Boa is a top-gear machine, as sweet in that as most single-cylinders in middle. I chug lordlily past the guard-room and through the speed limit at no more than sixteen. Round the bend, past the farm, and the way straightens. Now for it. The engine’s final development is fifty-two horse-power. A miracle that all this docile strength waits behind one tiny lever for the pleasure of my hand.

Another bend: and I have the honour of one of England’ straightest and fastest roads. The burble of my exhaust unwound like a long cord behind me. Soon my speed snapped it, and I heard only the cry of the wind which my battering head split and fended aside. The cry rose with my speed to a shriek: while the air’s coldness streamed like two jets of iced water into my dissolving eyes. I screwed them to slits, and focused my sight two hundred yards ahead of me on the empty mosaic of the tar’s gravelled undulations.

Like arrows the tiny flies pricked my cheeks: and sometimes a heavier body, some house-fly or beetle, would crash into face or lips like a spent bullet. A glance at the speedometer: seventy-eight. Boanerges is warming up. I pull the throttle right open, on the top of the slope, and we swoop flying across the dip, and up-down up-down the switchback beyond: the weighty machine launching itself like a projectile with a whirr of wheels into the air at the take-off of each rise, to land lurchingly with such a snatch of the driving chain as jerks my spine like a rictus.

Once we so fled across the evening light, with the yellow sun on my left, when a huge shadow roared just overhead. A Bristol Fighter, from Whitewash Villas, our neighbour aerodrome, was banking sharply round. I checked speed an instant to wave: and the slip-stream of my impetus snapped my arm and elbow astern, like a raised flail. The pilot pointed down the road towards Lincoln. I sat hard in the saddle, folded back my ears and went away after him, like a dog after a hare. Quickly we drew abreast, as the impulse of his dive to my level exhausted itself.

The next mile of road was rough. I braced my feet into the rests, thrust with my arms, and clenched my knees on the tank till its rubber grips goggled under my thighs. Over the first pot-hole Boanerges screamed in surprise, its mud-guard bottoming with a yawp upon the tyre. Through the plunges of the next ten seconds I clung on, wedging my gloved hand in the throttle lever so that no bump should close it and spoil our speed. Then the bicycle wrenched sideways into three long ruts: it swayed dizzily, wagging its tail for thirty awful yards. Out came the clutch, the engine raced freely: Boa checked and straightened his head with a shake, as a Brough should.

The bad ground was passed and on the new road our flight became birdlike. My head was blown out with air so that my ears had failed and we seemed to whirl soundlessly between the sun-gilt stubble fields. I dared, on a rise, to slow imperceptibly and glance sideways into the sky. There the Bif was, two hundred yards and more back. Play with the fellow? Why not? I slowed to ninety: signalled with my hand for him to overtake. Slowed ten more: sat up. Over he rattled. His passenger, a helmeted and goggled grin, hung out of the cock-pit to pass me the ‘Up yer’ Raf randy greeting.

They were hoping I was a flash in the pan, giving them best. Open went my throttle again. Boa crept level, fifty feet below: held them: sailed ahead into the clean and lonely country. An approaching car pulled nearly into its ditch at the sight of our race. The Bif was zooming among the trees and telegraph poles, with my scurrying spot only eighty yards ahead. I gained though, gained steadily: was perhaps five miles an hour the faster. Down went my left hand to give the engine two extra dollops of oil, for fear that something was running hot: but an overhead Jap twin, super-tuned like this one, would carry on to the moon and back, unfaltering.

We drew near the settlement. A long mile before the first houses I closed down and coasted to the cross-roads by the hospital. Bif caught up, banked, climbed and turned for home, waving to me as long as he was in sight. Fourteen miles from camp, we are, here: and fifteen minutes since I left Tug and Dusty at the hut door.

I let in the clutch again, and eased Boanerges down the hill along the tram-lines through the dirty streets and up-hill to the aloof cathedral, where it stood in frigid perfection above the cowering close. No message of mercy in Lincoln. Our God is a jealous God: and man’s very best offering will fall disdainfully short of worthiness, in the sight of Saint Hugh and his angels.

"I let in the clutch again, and eased Boanerges down the hill along the tram-lines through the dirty streets and up-hill to the aloof cathedral, where it stood in frigid perfection above the cowering close. No message of mercy in Lincoln. Our God is a jealous God: and man’s very best offering will fall disdainfully short of worthiness, in the sight of Saint Hugh and his angels.

Remigius, earthy old Remigius, looks with more charity on and Boanerges. I stabled the steel magnificence of strength and speed at his west door and went in: to find the organist practising something slow and rhythmical, like a multiplication table in notes on the organ. The fretted, unsatisfying and unsatisfied lace-work of choir screen and spandrels drank in the main sound. Its surplus spilled thoughtfully into my ears.

By then my belly had forgotten its lunch, my eyes smarted and streamed. Out again, to sluice my head under the White Hart’s yard-pump. A cup of real chocolate and a muffin at the teashop: and Boa and I took the Newark road for the last hour of daylight. He ambles at forty-five and when roaring his utmost, surpasses the hundred. A skittish motor-bike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. Because Boa loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him.

At Nottingham I added sausages from my wholesaler to the bacon which I’d bought at Lincoln: bacon so nicely sliced that each rasher meant a penny. The solid pannier-bags behind the saddle took all this and at my next stop a (farm) took also a felt-hammocked box of fifteen eggs. Home by Sleaford, our squalid, purse-proud, local village. Its butcher had six penn’orth of dripping ready for me. For months have I been making my evening round a marketing, twice a week, riding a hundred miles for the joy of it and picking up the best food cheapest, over half the country side."
Lawrence of Arabia.
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Mick F
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by Mick F »

Neilo wrote:Harley Davidson.Best way to turn petrol into noise
Why?
Why turn petrol into noise?
Why not turn petrol in to movement?
What is the noise for? It serves no mechanical purpose.
Mick F. Cornwall
Mark1978
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by Mark1978 »

I believe that was the point Neilo was making
tatanab
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by tatanab »

Mick F it's a joke, along with Hardly Able To and Hardly Affordable. As for the noise, these things come from the American way where bigger is better. Just think of the thunder of a 7 litre V8 American muscle car - this is the equivalent. The particular sound of a Harley has become something of a trade mark.
Historically both the muscle cars and Harleys were only any good in a straight line, they could not be driven quickly around corners. Hence the good natured mockery between owners of European cars and bikes and American ones. I recall watching a race where the field was made up of Mustangs and Corvettes along with a solitary Morgan. The Morgan was passed on the straights but made up the deficit on every corner. Truly David and Goliath.
I used to live in the USA and had great fun ribbing my boss and others about their superbly polished Harleys versus my tatty old lightweight Triumph. As always, the problem comes when somebody takes it too seriously.
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hondated
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by hondated »

Good day today as it was motorbike in the morning for a couple of hours then home for a sandwich and then off on a bike ride.

I am really glad I do both because today the bike ride was far much better than the motorcycle ride.

The motorcycle will certainly be funding a better bicycle some time in the future rather than the other way.
BigFoz
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by BigFoz »

Ah, Hardley Davidsons. 80% of all Harleys ever made are still on the road.


The other 20% made it home....

Motorcyclist and cyclist here too, current circumstances mean I'm currently pining for a motorbike. Don;' think I'll ever understand it, and my wife will never even get close to understanding, but it's like an addiction. From the first time I rode a monkey bike, I've always wanted a bike. For many years I had no car and did everything by bike. Family enforced a car, and mortgage etc enforced a temporary lay off. But one fine day i will get another Laverda RGS, preferably a Corsa. There is no feeling like it, it just makes you grin from ear to ear, like going down a mountain pass on a bicycle...

Performance is part of it, my old commuter Kawasaki 750 saw off a Aston Martin DB-7 who was trying really hard (I hadn't noticed till I eased off at 70 and he came barrelling past). But really, I'm not interested in 200hp superbikes, my Laverdas made around 90, and that was more than plenty.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
BigFoz wrote:my old commuter Kawasaki 750 saw off a Aston Martin DB-7 who was trying really hard (I hadn't noticed till I eased off at 70 and he came barrelling past)

Been there got the T shirt...............but mine was 70 in second up hill :D
Unfortunately the following car was a 2.8 Granada deep navy blue :(
He said he was doing 50 and I was pulling away.........well I would be wouldn't I :lol:
Fined off course :(

I could explain what riding a motorcycle is like but it would also sound like me riding my road bike on the flat above 35 and closing 40.
Its called Passion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_(emotion)

"Passion (from the Latin verb patere meaning to suffer) is a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion, a compelling enthusiasm or desire for something.

1.Pleasures and pains of the senses
2.Pleasures of the mind or of the imagination
3.Our perfection or our imperfection of virtues or vices

4.Pleasures and pains in the happiness or misfortunes of others" :? Not sure................
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
LollyKat
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by LollyKat »

bigjim wrote:Lawrence had a regular run for sausages, bacon and pie, a run he did on his
Brough Superior SS100....

And he died in a motorcycling accident. :(
Wikipedia wrote:At the age of 46, two months after leaving military service, Lawrence was fatally injured in an accident on his Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle in Dorset, close to his cottage, Clouds Hill, near Wareham. A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars.He died six days later on 19 May 1935.
Tangled Metal
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Not a motorbiker and admit to not liking a minority among their numbers. We are talking those bikers who effectively ride the roads like a track. Anyone driven a car or ridden a bicycle near Devil's Bridge??? If we could remove the idiots from cycling and from driving and from motorbiking then people should get on better when they do other modes of transport.

Having said that, with working in a company that was involved in super sport bike exhausts, I know how there are road legal exhausts that give good power performance while producing noise levels that are really not too far reomoved from race pipes in practical use. That is my other bugbear about motorbikes, the fact that anyone can own a super sport bike and swap out the original exhaust for a road legal but effectively race pipe without any comeback if the noise is too great in real terms use. That is even before you consider those who put a straight pipe on anyway without any pretension of meeting any required noise levels however ineffectual the test is.

Sorry, rant about bike exhausts over, let us responsibly enjoy our times out on whatever transport means we choose without harming others (noise does harm and if you live on a popular race track, I mean country road popular with super sports bikers, you will know about it).

PS one more rant (related to Devil's Bridge and similar biker areas) is the "Think Bike" signs. A little inappropriate isn't it? I mean most of the very near misses I've had there were all with bikers on the wrong side going round bends. Shouldn't they be re-written and aimed more at irresponsible bikers?? If I see one of those signs in a new area I accept that sooner or later I will have to brake to let a biker back into his/her land after going round a bend. It works just not fairly IMHO, I should not have to change my responsible driving to cope with their dangerous ones. A minority but a highly grating one.
reohn2
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by reohn2 »

Tangled Metal wrote:PS one more rant (related to Devil's Bridge and similar biker areas) is the "Think Bike" signs. A little inappropriate isn't it? I mean most of the very near misses I've had there were all with bikers on the wrong side going round bends. Shouldn't they be re-written and aimed more at irresponsible bikers?? If I see one of those signs in a new area I accept that sooner or later I will have to brake to let a biker back into his/her land after going round a bend. It works just not fairly IMHO, I should not have to change my responsible driving to cope with their dangerous ones. A minority but a highly grating one.


Generally I agree,it was ever thus but there is an answer and not just for errant motorcyclists but all dangerous and stupid road users.
Effective and responsible policing and penalties would reduce such behaviour to an absolute minimum,however it's been deemed that effective policing and implementation of penalties that fit the crime,isn't affordable by our politrickians in their effort to reduce taxes,therein lies the problem.
Shortly we'll have the chance to change that.
I'm not holding my breath........
Freedom without responsibility is a road to destruction,we are as a society,on that road on so many levels IMHO.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Tangled Metal
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Re: What is gr8 about motorcycling?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Perhaps there should be some way to reduce the liklihood of excessively powerful bikes (and indeed cars too) hitting the streets without limiters of some kind. Doubt it could happen nor would it. My reasoning is if there was some limiter on vehicles then perhaps it would discourage the use of them by the minority who ride around bends in country lanes like a racetrack bend. I am not talking limiting topline speed but perhaps the ability to accelerate at a faster rate or some other method that removes the ability to interest dangerously racing bikers except on tracks where there is a controlled key to de-limit them. Put the responsibility of the irresponsible users on the makers and those controlling the sport. It is not easy to police them after they have the means to ride or drive like maniacs but perhaps there is a way to make this happen at source, i.e. something that becomes part of the bike. This would be certified by the manufacturer (meets the required legislation) and tested under current test cycle. If the "key" is controlled then anyone using it improperly could be discovered (Devil's Bridge area claims another mad biker) and it tracked back to the "key".

Not saying this is possible, desirable or will happen. I just offer the idea that it is not beyond the wit of man to stop the irresponsible riders rather than police them. Especially since a lot of super sports do not have easy identification. Certainly not enough for a copper to catch as a bike sped by. Police motorcyclists would never keep up with some of the ones coming round near me. Certainly never on the weeks either side of TT!!

Can I say one more thing, we do not need to police the majority whether they are on bicycles, motorcycles or motor cars. It is always the minority and we should accept that when we question other groups. It is the individual's behaviour that need modifying not the whole. Although if we could change the nation's attitude to the bicycle then all would be healthier and safer. That IMHO is not going to happen with legislation just straightforward change in culture. Ain't gonna happen!!!!
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