How have motorcycle forums influenced your riding?

[Jo Mo Ma]

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 . 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!

Glad you said this because I was feeling like a curmudgeon for wanting to say it.

The most important part of discussion forums is......wait for it....discussion; something which has waned in recent years.

For example, "The Perfect Line ".

More often than not the problem with forums is personalities staking out territory and planting their flag to defend opinion as irrefutable fact.

IMO, of course.

 

[EGR]

Glad you said this because I was feeling like a curmudgeon for wanting to say it.

The most important part of discussion forums is......wait for it....discussion; something which has waned in recent years.

For example, "The Perfect Line ".

More often than not, the problem with forums is personalities staking out territory and planting their flag to defend opinion as irrefutable fact.

IMO, of course.

Agree. At one time I was certified teacher/coach, teacher instructor ACA NRC BSA AWA. The “One True Cross”, only one way people were hopeless, counter productive with soda straw bandwidth. I dropped it before internet. Don’t even try to imagine what’s going down now.

 

[Oldtrix]

It's gotten so bad, one week my flight school had to issue a warning via group email not to argue with the instructors and follow their instructions while in flight. Seems one student pilot had read something somewhere and was arguing with his instructor, on final approach no less, that "his" way was better...of course, he read it on the internet....

 

[Pdsmith505]

1) tribal knowledge for fixing bikes. The JVB instructions for my 1200gs are life saving (something about roach clips in your kids bedroom...)... The KTM 690 threads are the same.

2) Inspiration for documenting rides... I get more out of the trip when I'm logging the adventure day by day

 

[skibum69]

Yeah tribal knowledge! I ride a few sort of odd and long out of production bikes and the forums are where other owners hang out which makes for a great wealth of knowledge and understanding in one easy place to find.

Funny how certain models invite the same types of personalities.

 

[FLrider]

The tribal knowledge is absolutely influential with regards to technical issues/maintenance. The other aspect are the RR's and what I have subsequently ridden because of them.
Seeing the videos and photos really got me inspired to ride the TAT, CDT, Alaska, UT, CO, WY, MT and other states. One year I actually ended up riding 15K miles in almost 8 weeks.....

 

[south east okie]

They haven't influenced my riding, But have influenced my working on my bikes. I have found a ton of knowledge and help from people on forums.

 

[Bill_M]

The good: They have made me aware of places to ride that I otherwise wouldn't have know about.

The bad: They have made me spend a lot of money on farkles that later were found to be unnecessary.

 

[Oldtrix]

Yeah, the amount of farkling I see is way over the top. It is a good way to determine which accessories are useful and which are not, but most of the gadgetry seems unnecessary.

 

[Roger Ball]

Over twenty years ago I stumbled upon ADVrider it and completely changed my riding focus. Up 'till then, my rides were mostly Texas hill country and side trips to NM and CO and that was about it. At ADVrider, I got hooked up with a group of guys that invaded Mexico full tilt. Since then, most of my trips have been to Mexico, or with my Mexican friends, riding in the US. I am grateful.

 

[GMK999]

Yeah tribal knowledge! I ride a few sort of odd and long out of production bikes and the forums are where other owners hang out which makes for a great wealth of knowledge and understanding in one easy place to find.

Funny how certain models invite the same types of personalities.

Oh.. You can stereotype bike owners for sure!!
It would be a fun thread to start.. but I doubt it would stay lighthearted for long.

Probably because of those damn Guzzi people!!

 

[skibum69]

Funny, if you stop to think on a couple of brands and the types of folks you run into riding them I agree the stereotypes just light right up.

 

[Oldtrix]

Oh.. You can stereotype bike owners for sure!!
It would be a fun thread to start.. but I doubt it would stay lighthearted for long.

Probably because of those damn Guzzi people!!

Oh, do post up in CI, this could be fun!

 

[OIC]

Forums conned me into thinking KTM ownership was for me. After the last one, no way in hell would I own another. And.... hello SMT990

 

[Oldtrix]

Forums conned me into thinking KTM ownership was for me. After the last one, no way in hell would I own another. And.... hello SMT990

Keep Throwing Money!

 

[OIC]

Keep Throwing Money!

Thats the plan! Im in too deep now.

 

[AirbusFlieger]

I would not have known about ADV riding without a certain forum that used to be run by a dude called Baldy 🤣

 

[skibum69]

I love my KTM's, just sayin'

 

[MVI]

I would not have known about ADV riding without a certain forum that used to be run by a dude called Baldy 🤣

This is the book that changed my life

After that , then I found ADV forums

 

[DJ_MI]

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 invited a guy over once to check out how deep of a hole I'd dug in the far corner of my crawl space. I don't think he felt threatened but I can't really say for sure because I never heard back.