Given that motorcycles are fun, and we riders like to talk about them on the Boards, that they get better gas mileage than most cars, they’re fun, they’re cheap to insure, they’re easy to park, and they’re fun, how many of you non-riders are considering learning how to ride?
They’re great for commuting, and with the high price of gas I really appreciate their efficiency.
The wife and I are in an in-between stage right now. We’ve already made the decision, but haven’t bought yet.
My wife bought a 125cc scooter a few years ago just for fun, and we’ve put maybe 150 - 200 miles total on it in the past three or so years. We had actually attempted (unsuccesfully) to sell it a couple of times. She’s been interested in having her motorcycle license for quite some time, but I only caught the fever recently when we visited friends in Michigan this summer who gave me my first lesson.
Since then, we’ve both taken the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s course and earned our licenses. We actually went out and bought some gear today. But we still don’t own anything other than the scooter.
We both have our eyes on different motorcycles we’d like to own. I have a gas-guzzling 8-cylinder Ford T-Bird that is slowly falling apart. I’d be happy to get rid of it if I ended up being completely comfortable on a motorcycle as my main vehicle. I almost never carry passengers or cargo, and we still have another car in the household if I really needed one for some reason. I would probably still take the train most day sto commute to work, but there’s free motorcycle parking at the train station I use currently, so it’s still a bonus. My wife has a much shorter commute and would probably also benefit from having a motorcycle (although our other car also gets 45mpg).
So yes, for the fun and for the fuel economy, we’re both very much in the market for motorcycles. Just a matter of saving up.
I’ve had friends take me for rides on their motorcycles and they do seem fun. A lot like flying, but lower to the ground. And bumpier.
Anyhow - two main obstacles to getting into them from my viewpoint.
I’d like one. I already ride my bicycle to and from campus most days in the summer, and I don’t like driving my (relative to a motorcycle) big car wasting the gas on such a short trip when it gets colder and/or at night. I also relatively frequently make a long trip to see my family or my girlfriend, and I pack light, so one would be useful there too, though they get (a bit) more snow than I get here.
However, it would have to be a secondary vehicle probably, which isn’t really feasible as a college student. I frequently make large purchases at the grocery store stocking up on food and the like, and I’ll be moving around a bit in the next several years (internships, graduation, etc.) and having to haul all my crap around. Not to mention laundry day. I’d have to get one of those little motorcycle trailer thingys if I didn’t have a car.
Thought about it, but I never got round to it on summer holidays at uni’. Then I had a baby just when I had the money to look into it properly and I decided against on the grounds of practicality and safety.
It might have been, as Johnny suggests, a cheap route to fun motoring, but needs must.
The way traffic is in the U.K., there’s no way I’d buy or ride a motorbike. I’ve seen far too many accidents; I’ve been in accidents that would have killed me if I’d been on a bike. And if you do ride a motorbike, make sure you have an organ donor card with you.
I’ve wanted a motorcycle since I was in my early teens, but have never had one. My husband is a nurse who has worked orthopedics and he is dead set against me ever having one. It wouldn’t be my sole form of transportation - I’ve ridden in the winter in the rain and never want to do it again! But I don’t think family harmony is worth giving up for it.
I want one, but first I need to get my full license. Plus, hubby’s pretty dead-set against me getting one (spoilsport!)
My dad had one when I was about 10-13. I know they are fun. But Quartz is right. When i used to work in surgery, we referred to them as “donorcycles”.
Now that I work in forensic, we see the worst motor vehicle deaths, and let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than a motorcycle accident over 45 mph.
The commonest scenario for death in a motor vehicle collision is an unbelted driver who is ejected. When I say those words I see pictures in my mind for which the all inclusive word “head trauma” does no justice. You cannot be belted on a bike and every accident over some ridiculously low speed like 35 mph results in ejection.
Helmets are wonderful, but helmets do not prevent a broken neck. The ejected motorcyclist is sent into the air and lands on the head. If the skull is protected then the neck is vulnerable.
And the skull is not always protected even through the helmet. Nuf sed.
Of course you don’t have to die on your bike if you ride a bike, any more than you have to live in a car collision if you drive a car. But I’m not contemplating a bike for me or any of my loved ones. Regret that, but too many visuals in my memory.
I have, especially since a new coworker was driving his (quite large) dirtbike 50km to the office every day. (He said it was great when they were doing months of construction and he could bypass a huge lineup by riding in the ditch).
I’d really like to own a moped like a Vespa, but I mostly drive my car 30 km to the office on a highway (it’s right out by the airport), so that would be impractical. Next up would be a highway-rated scooter (my coworker showed me some non-motorcycle-looking things made by a bigname manufacturer), but the prices on those are quite high.
I imagine I could get a used scooter, but it’s just not the type of thing that’ll happen without having a friend who knows what to look for, what gear to get, what prices are good and what aren’t, etc.
When I first met my fiance, I was totally turned off that he had a motorcycle. After a while I started to understand his passion more and more. After going for a few rides on the back of his bike, I decided it was something I had to do.
I finally got into an MSF class (a must if you want to ride, IMHO) and absolutely fell in love with riding. I swore I was going to get a bike. Even if it was just to ride around the parking lot, as we did in class, I would be happy. It is that much fun.
Of course, we didn’t have enough room in the garage for another bike (and bike theft is huge where we live) so it was sort of infeasible to get one.
And the more I thought about it, the more I read about people wrecking on motorcycle boards, the more I knew just how quickly things can go terribly wrong and how precise you have to be at every moment while you are on a bike, the more it seemed like way too much of a risk for the reward.
Plus, I am an overly active worrier, and every time my fiance gets on his bike to commute to work, I am overcome with thoughts of him wrecking or getting cut off by a car, or something equally terrible happening, and I don’t want him to go through that worry with ME. I am too excited to spend the rest of my life with him that it makes more sense to minimize risk to my health than to maximize it for a little bit of fun. (Besides, we just got into snowboarding and that’s a pretty good high on its own).
Unfortunately, he has ‘caught’ some of my fears which has taken the joy of riding away from him a little. I feel terrible about that, but can’t help but be a little relieved, since it means he rides less.
I used to have a motorcycle (dirt-bike) back when I was younger. It was a Honda, and I miss it, but now that I’m off at college and live in a city (well, a city compared to what I did live in) I don’t think it would be that practical. Of course, this still leaves me the option of getting a crotch-rocket or other bike, which I would love to do, but given my driving record, Mrs. Small doesn’t think it is a good idea yet. She says to wait until we at least get out of colleges and settled into a house and area before I get one, and I don’t think that is such a bad idea (until I remember that I have so long left in school, wanting a masters and all)
Brendon
For a non-rider, I have a lot of experience riding motorcycles, though none of it legally, except in the Cook Islands, where the test was simply to ride round the block without falling off - but they forgot to make me take the test and gave me the license anyway.
I seriously want one, despite the truth that Quartz speaks about the horrendous driving conditions in the UK. My commute is about 45 minutes, of which about 25 minutes is just negotiating round town onto the highway. If I had a motorcycle I could get that down to about five minutes, and I balance the risk against the convenience. Plus, they’re so much fun to ride, and way more economical than a car.
The UK bike test is very stringent and expensive, and that’s a lot of what’s putting me off. Written tests, Compulsory Basic Training, then the full test. You need a starter bike to practice on, too, as you can’t ride on anything higher than a 125cc until you pass your test - which would be an added expense. I think I might wait until I am in another foreign country and take the test there, and see if I can convert it to a UK license.
I want to take motorcycle lessons, and at least learn enough that I could get on a buddy’s bike and go for a little spin and be pretty sure I wouldn’t die.
It seems like a lot of fun, but I don’t think it’s terribly practical to primarily ride a bike in North Jersey. I do want to learn *how, however.
I’d strongly consider buying another. I just haven’t seen one that I’ve liked as much as the Yamaha FZR 1000.
The Wife and I went through a pretty heavy consideration for buying a bike. I had a Honda Trail 110 growing up, and we’ve always had Hot fast cars. But a conversation from the kid’s godfather (who is a rider) made it seem like not the hottest idea while they’re as young as they are.
I may or may not get a bike, but there will always be a part of me that’d like the hell out of one.
Another problem is how we’d like to ride. The wife has no desire to drive herself, which means I’d be driving. That’s got two big drawbacks:
That and ‘donorcycles’ is a big drawback. I had this conversation with a teenaged crotchrocket rider at a racetrack once. He was all about ‘if i go out, I wanna go out in a blaze of glory!’. I called over my shoulder to the aforementioned godfather and said:
“Hey Rob, tell him what happens when glory only wings you.”
I’ve thought about getting a motorcycle for a while now. What’s holding me back is a combination of laziness and ignorance. And an oversupply of vehicles.
I want to take a safety course, but it would take an entire weekend, and it’s way down in Ventura. And I don’t have any friends who are motorcyclists, so there’s no one to help me find my first bike, or to go riding with. And, until recently, I was the owner of two cars, two bikes, and a boat (I’m down to one car, now). I only drive about 6,000 miles a year; I really didn’t need to add a motorcycle to that.
Johnny, you will find any excuse to make people talk about motorcycles!
I have a Ninja and I love my bike.
I have mixed feelings about people getting motorcycles “just” because of the gas prices, because I think you really have to WANT to ride. It’s a commitment. While driving cars, I find that most people (myself, included) are kind of in limbo. In process mode. They are “coming from point A” and “not yet to point B” but are not Here Now, in the moment. To be as safe as possible on a motorcycle, you have to Be Here Now. It’s not as anxiety-producing as it sounds. In fact it’s what make riding a bike addictive, at least to me.
In my opinion (not to start a debate or anything), scooters are less safe. The smaller wheels are not as stable and the lack of power makes them harder to accelerate out of trouble. If the accident or death rate is lower for scooter riders than motorcycle riders, it would only be because a smaller percentage of that population is of the hot dog, invincible, macho persuasion compared to bikers. Scooter riders also tend not to wear as much protective gear and are probably often not trained. I’m not any of those, so I don’t count myself in there anyway.
Riding my motorcycle is the best part of my day.
I’ve decided that once I get my first “real job,” that, in theory, will pay me lots of money, I’m getting a bike before a new car. I know next to nothing, however, so I’d have to do some research first, but I like the older-styled Hondas and Yamahas from the 70’s and 80’s, like the CB series (CB-70, maybe? I forget), but I don’t know if any current models look like that.
I also really, really want a bike with a sidecar.
As for me: Hell no. You have no idea how many accidents I’ve seen around here (particularly on 520, in case you know Seattle) where a driver simply plows straight into the rear of the vehicle ahead of them. If that were to happen to me, I’d rather not be on a motorcycle, thankyouverymuch.