I was a good peddler from my first bike @ 16 until I hit about 35/38 and I seemed to have lost any skill I had or maybe I matured and considered the dangers? Now I'm nearly 60 I've got quick again! It's called not giving a flying fuck
I'm a better rider than I was in my youth. I'm older and wiser with a keener sense of my own mortality and a willingness to learn instead thinking I know it all already and I can afford better, faster bikes with decent suspension, tyres that grip and brakes that work. Well, front brakes anyway..
When you're youngish with a career, a mortgage to pay, a wife, children to support, and plenty of life ahead of you - it makes you a bit careful. Then with career ended, mortgage paid, children grown up, and that much nearer to death - well, it doesn't matter so much.
'it doesn't matter so much' - provided you don't take anyone else out with you, and no ambulance crew has to clean up after you - should one tread over the line of mortality as one gets old(er) and it matters less/less careful. p.s. great threads resurrection, a couple above, from 2013!! it must be winter somewhere!!
My riding was ok for the first...er...42 years,(I'm not including the first 7 years 'cos it was off road only),but since I went for the IAM I am much more confident,smoother and much,much quicker. My observer was 76 years old and has only been riding 6 years,(done all the training right from the beginning),but he's a farking good,(quick),rider and riding with him is an absolute pleasure. I enjoyed the training so much I'm now going to do the ROSPA course,I know people take the piss but I really don't give two hoots,I've learned loads and I have an awful lot of fun. Every ride is a challenge,I rarely miss an overtake but I don't put other people in danger. Best thing I've done in years.
ROSPA advanced motorcyclist.....32years of riding +150mph bikes without incident .....then... Currently in recovery.....remember you have to be lucky (safe?) On every single ride.
I'm with you 100% It doesn't matter a shite how fast you ride as long as you don't endanger anyone else, you stay safe and you're having fun. Getting on a bike is taking a chance, that's the appeal for me, but when luck runs out, and most if not all of us push it, then it fecking hurts, or worse, and is expensive. I only came across your crash thread recently, AirCon, and I count myself lucky coz over the years there are quite a few times I could have ended up where you are. Sometimes because of me being a dick and sometimes beyond my control. The accident that shook me up worst and took me longest to get over was when my front tyre just let go, I don't know why, but it doesn't matter what skills you think you have, when a front tyre lets go then you are going for a slide and just pray you don't hit anything hard. We all ride our luck. Being faster doesn't make you better than anyone. Just less safe than you could be. That's the choice you make.
!!!!!!, I started racing when I was 43, won a championship, did it for 3 years, there are guys at 60 racing in Desmo Due and winning, to say your past it at 42 seems more like a confidence issue rather than a skills issue.
51, 51! Get over yourself man. Went to NW200 a few years ago. Made a horrific piss wet journey from Sheffield to Northern Ireland. Rain hitting us sideways. Met a guy in our hotel that had made the same journey from Sheffield but on a Tuono. Spent some time with him riding and struggled to keep up. He was 82. 80 fricken 2. On his own, with his bike, watching the racing. 51....just think about what you are saying. I'm 54 and just bought my first sportsbike (749). I want at least another 30 years.
I think your as old as you feel. Saying that the more youre on it the more tuned you become to the surroundings. If anything, for me, riding a bike over the years has taught me to read the road in front a lot further ahead.....I think its all about feeling alive, for me anyway. Riding a bike keeps me feeling young...46 now but in my head im still 22ish...! wont say where I was or what I was doing but tagged onto a 65plate r1 on Friday night on the way from home on my z1ooo....mines had a fair bit done to it and im very happy to say he didn't get away from me and by the time we ran of road I was in front! so, either he wasn't trying but id say he was the rate his pipe was backfiring! or, mines as quick as I think it is!! The TT is a good thing to go to as it gives you a chance to explore your own limits. One thing I never do is try to follow someone who is quicker than I am. I never, no matter what, leave my comfort zone...that I think is when problems start to become apparent very quickly.
So much so I'm 51 now.... In the intervening 2 years my son has passed his test....Kawasaki ER6f (a hoot), Ducati 900ss ie and now RSV1000 for him. TT last year good measure of our ability.....we are up there in the top 10%. There's always faster guys to learn from.....you spot them easily: smooth, make progress, not relying on stupid dangerous overtakes, actually using bike control skills setting up for corners, driving through. In keeping my son and one of his mates safe, I enrolled them in Performance Plus and went along again myself. Then did some more training with Hopp Rider Training. Lapping faster at Cadwell than I've ever done. Good instructor on an HP4, 1 to 1 session. Still grinning but also analysing what he taught me. Faster through building on skills. Though I've not stopped riding since I was 17 I had a thirty year gap on training. I guess the point is we rarely go out and practice basic skills. All too often we just ride....there's a time for that, but let's face it, even racers have testing and or practice days. I know it's really for the bike set up, but it helps them get dialled in too. So when the dry roads return....either do some training or dedicate a few rides to honing skills. If nothing else we are all a bit rusty come spring time. Those who've done track days will know the progress that comes from knowing how to use the right hand lever really well, not just whacking the throttle open on the 125/150/175/200 bhp available. See you at the TT......
Everyone makes mistakes, if you love the bike that much would not sell it over a bad day at the office, tbh you can have bad days on any bike being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as long as you learn by your mistakes, and not kid yourself, remember age does slow it all down, but most of all make sure your eye sight is up to scratch, it is the eyes in my view that is the start of mis judgments, that lead to timed mis judgments.
I went on a "spirited" ride out a while back. Didn't know anyone else there. There were a variety of bikes and riders of all ages. When we were standing around at the meet-up point getting our directions I noticed one old boy who must have been well into his 70's. He was skinny and scrawny with a stooped back, a dripping nose and the arse hanging out of his leathers. Couldn't help wondering what bike he'd be riding. When we set off he got on a tricked up 2010 R1 covered in Cadwell Park stickers with tyres that had been ridden ragged. There's hope for me yet.
As this is resurrected from more than 2 years ago, are you still with us Paul :Wideyed: and how have the last 2 years gone?
There is an old boy who comes in every day on his bike come any weather he must be late 70s I have seen him riding and he doesn't hang around Reminded me when some said about runny noses
Here is my take on this. When you are young and dumb you just think you are quick, when you grow up you realise that you really weren't quick, at least not quick and safe, you were just young and dumb. Then as you grow older you learn how to ride quickly and safely according to the conditions. This is of course assuming you survive the young and dumb phase. Me ? I passed my bike test when I was 55 and couldn't care how fast or slow I am as long as I stay safe, but you know, if it feels good it generally is good.
I'm 50 now, have been riding bikes since I was 16 and have always been slow ! Still like having sports bikes though I put it down to being blind in one eye and can't judge distances ( tend to err on the side of caution ). Never seem to arrive much behind others though, especially with the amount of traffic about now.
