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How have motorcycle forums influenced your riding?

How have motorcycle forums influenced your riding?

  • They haven't

    Votes: 12 24.5%

  • A little

    Votes: 18 36.7%

  • A lot

    Votes: 19 38.8%
  • Total voters
    49
klaviator

klaviator

Scooter Trash
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Member Number
431
Posts
3,350
Location
Alabama
People come to motorcycle forums for various reasons. Some come for technical info. Some for ride reports. Some just want to chat with like minded enthusiasts. Some want more info on bikes themselves, maybe to help with a purchasing decision. Then there are those who just come to argue politics.

Regardless of the reason you came, how have motorcycle forums actually influenced you riding? Or maybe they have had no influence?
 
They got me started in it. From there on, I feel as though I'm way better off figuring things out on my own. what works for others does not work for me, and vice versa.

Tech can be hit or miss. Sometimes spot on. Others so wildly off its not even funny.
 
Motorcycle forums have had a huge influence on my riding since I joined ADVr and KLR650.net back in 2008. Most of my riding friends are people I met directly because of the forums. I have researched the bikes I have bought using forums. I started doing a lot more photography and doing ride reports. Most of the group rides and events I have gone to were organized and/or found on forums. Forums have helped we with tech stuff like maintenance and accessories. Forums have given me ideas for rides and helped me plan those rides.

I'm pretty sure my riding would be quite different if not for forums although it's hard to say exactly how. If not for forums maybe I would have gotten some of the same things through social media like FB..........I don't even want to think about that:loco
 
Forum tag games peaked my interest. They gave me a reason to ride, unknown places to ride in my own state and new friends to ride with.
It's import to keep the chitchat at a minimum in the game thread, producing the need for a BS thread for the chat.

Tag games are hard on the tire budget. :D
 
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Some farkling examples and how-tos are helpful, but for the most part the gang I was riding with started the website we used to communicate, so it was just a continuation of our ride discussions. I enjoy seeing some of the places out west and log routes and locations I someday hope to ride, eventually.
 
Going way back

Friends that I made on SBN.net before VS screwed it up
on Triumph675.net there were enough of us in the north east to rent NJMP for a day....before VS screwed up
A similar number on ADVr over the years, and that was like 13 or so, in multiple countries.
 
Motorcycle forums let me live vicariously by going down rabbit trails of research. It gets certain models out of my system without making the plunge! Over the years I've had more bikes than I deserve: MX, off-road, dual sport, street and even a scooter. Most of them were purchased used which absorbed the depreciation, thus turning them every year or two and scratching new itches. The longest I've kept a bike has been five years, a KTM 450 EXC and a Yamaha FZ1.

I don't post much on forums but log in almost daily to read. Retirement has given me more time to interact now. I'm actually riding less and not as far. The digital side of the equation has filled that space, plus having drug home a few basket cases to remind me why newer bikes are the way to go! Always have a newer "Go To" machine to ride when taking on junk projects!:photog
 
I've "met" and reasonably gotten to know many new people in other countries whom I'd never have known without a forum, and that part in itself is pretty cool (as well as having my forum stickers in many places around the world too). In the process I've added to my knowledge of some of the bikes I even worked on for a living while in the bike business when I was younger, by way of getting to know others who also either worked on them or owned them extensively.

But, the one aspect not covered in klaviator's first post is helping others and sharing my own knowledge of vintage Hondas (particularly the twins) and teaching members what I learned during my decades working on bikes. And it's fun to have places to share ride pics and videos with others too. And go to a different bike night gathering once a year that's 600 miles away.
 
Forums were late to the party in my case by the nineteys early 200s i had around 30 years under my motorcycling belt, and not a lot forum offered influenced me worth the mention. i was prety much set in my ways and knew what i wanted and how to go about getting/ doing it and how to achieve it.In fact by then i had partialy in any case moved away fro motorcycle touring certainly with reguards Touring with the wife on the bikes anyway, and as a couple the alps and europe were done by then from kit cars.
bikes were reserved largely for me solo or occasionaly with brother or mates on tours, which were less frequent as we had small kids by then.

I get a lot from bikes and i doubt i will ever stop touring on them to some degree. But as a couple we both long ago took to open kit cars and loved it still do to this day, we get all that sky all that outside in full contact aspect, yet still retain the speed aspect and feel, wilst carying everything we could ever need in an unoticable way re handling, and if tired just stop, you got seats no sat on the grass or laid on the hot pavement knackered at a fuel service halt. 5f it rains heavy, just up with the hoops and hood and side screens your dry, no more rain running down your back to your ar** crack, a sensation i just never took too some how. :lol2
 
The stories detailing the misery of others are always entertaining.

From these tales of woe and pain we can learn from the mistakes of our friends and associates, while also getting a good laugh.

I've found that I take better care while preparing for an excursion, having the trail notes of the community as a guide.

:-)
 
One unintended consequence of forums: The virtual rider. Our New England BMW club has at least twice as many facebook members as it does our actual, paid membership. Yeah, I know, easy fix, not my call. Guess who are the biggest bunch of whiners and woke complainers? I usually end discussions with them along the lines of, "Why don't you join us by the campfire at one of the rallies so we can all talk together?" It is more often than not received as a threat :rolleyes . I'd guess 90% of the online pissing matches would never occur F2F.

In some cases, I think forums have hurt more than helped. In others, there is certainly a lot more information readily available, info I had to the learn the hard way, either from magazines, manuals or OUCH!
 
Oldtrix said:
"Why don't you join us by the campfire at one of the rallies so we can all talk together?" It is more often than not received as a threat :rolleyes .
Click to expand...

Years ago I'd invited a screen/forum identity to join me for a ride and he took it as a threat, complained to a moderator, pm'd me telling me to stop threatening him etc

Bunch of flowers out there
 
I bought my 1150GS in 2002 and found ADVRider soon after. Postings there lead me to cross-country trips to the Stanley Stomp (2002/2005) in Idaho and a trip out to Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada. I have learned a lot there and now I'm enjoying this site (less arguing and lower noise-to-signal ratio).
 
I prefer to travel solo, and always have. Back in the early 2000s when I started to prefer Moto camping to backpacking. Moto travel sites and Moto brand sites helped me to set up my basic gear and travel model. sites like ADV, The Chain gang, TT were Places where I could trade experience and info on gear and routes for much needed mechanical insights.
Now though, I know everything so I no longer need you hooligans. So, GET OFF MY LAWN!!
 
Riding specifically? Not at all. Somehow somewhere I got the notion that the weak part on all bikes, for me, is me. I go to school or hire a coach rather than spend any money on “performance upgrade” parts. I’ve done CLASS scores of times, half dozen tracks. Have done MSF many times. I enjoy tech precision.

Ink on paper is almost gone. All my ‘50-‘60 mags are archaeological curiosities now. Forums provide sort of replacement for news, innovation info, etc.

I’ve got a big flat file cabinet full of usgs et al maps. A bunch of OS paper. The gps culture sort of gets by me. Seven decades of North Up paper is secure here.

Pick up group of three bikes is max. Solo is .95 the norm. No dependents. No relatives in US who will speak. “ Out There “ suits just fine.
 
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