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THE OLD & Motorcycling.

matty

Border raider.
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Member Number
139
Posts
627
Location
England Scotish border
Ok lets get this outa the way first. What is OLD?
Not talking year or how many decades its not really just the years it can be health trauma or physical health issues which might flick a guy or gall into that OLD category. Needless to say You/ We know who we are nuff said.. ... PHEW!.
Briskly moving on.
So what does Being OLD Bring to the Motorcycling table? both good and bad and what advice can we draw from perhaps decades of motorcycling experience.
What can we share with other None OLD motorcyclists to ready them for OLd and perhaps help them in the Younger now even.
Well obviously i can only offer my thoughts on this in my current condition at 65 and if everyone does like wise we can perhaps help others and learn from them too.
Ok So i think we can safely assume as oldies our reaction times are a tad slower than a spriteley young 18 year old and if we did the sums the easy one of braking distance/ reaction times etc would probably work out at about 8 or ten foot possibly as much as 20foot for slow Phill from York. :lol2
So we got braking, but its potential much more the feel and interpretation of the feel then how quick we react might potentially put us in harms way.
The counter to this is we,, given our seniority of years could have a cart load of experience on many bikes in many varied situations and scenarios we can draw from and help out with our reaction time shortfall perhaps.
Ok for some of us, But what about chris the welder, he got is first bike a Honda shadow in 2021 at 59 and his Harley fat bob in 2022 He has only a few K miles under his belt what about him you might ask.
Well we can reasonably safely presume Chris has not been shut in a cupboard all these years, he probably drove cars truck rode bicycles etc so has road experience and probably heaps of it.
though not on motorcycles it has some merit and it might be said his age and lack of motorcycling experience and knowledge should pay dividends.
I have heard that motorcycling new comers in their 40s to 50s are more prone to accidents than riders of younger and older ages. I think this might be the sporty 40s are still physicaly in ok condition most of em and feeling that rush of adrenalin it can get them in trouble at times.
Being old brings with it to most of us some degree of Life pain, that ankle the bad knees the hip the shoulder etc. all might slow movement and potentially cause us problems even compromise our safety in some cases.

As for advice, from me at any case. just the obvious realy keep a little more distance thaat will help with th stopping thing, and ride in your comfort zone, i dont like heavily congested high speed highways , i am ok with my ability but compensating for others mistakes and being 8 or ten foot short might pitch Matty into harms way so i avoid it if i can, not sure i would have done as a youngster.
If i crack on on the back or a roads i still feel confident on the raggy edge, i can feel my way like always but i am not sure why but i just can not do that throw caution to the wind thing i did in my younger years. In a way that again is a positive even if its somewhat unconscious in nature.
Anyway thats it for now, please share your thoughts and experiences here and lets learn and teach each other a bit old and Youngish alike.
 
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Grew up on dirt bikes but was in my early thirties before I got my first street bike. I had well over a million miles of road experience driving many different types of 4+ wheeled vehicles. After a couple weeks on a road bike I was surprised how "bad" of a road user I was.

Not killing yourself or others after decades on the road is one thing, but viewing it through the visor of a bike helmet really sheds a whole new light on things.
 
I liked it better when I was young. I could just bounce back up keep going.

Now that I am old, the Last couple of crashes I was karted off the ER and Surgery with 9-12 months of recovery.
 
Agree, any off you seem to land much harder, i know that is not actually the case but it certainly feels like it.
My arthritis in my knees is a big negative to offs or even jolting the joints on step offs in trials its excruciating there is no other word for it.
I am sure the associated pain of such oldie wear tear and injury will slow down any counter balancing reaction times and kick down recovery even on a light trials bike again pitches you firmly into lots of pain.
I am as sure as i can be that i will have to get prosthetic knee joints before much longer, there is a Japanese developed injection procedure that is purportedly a equal to invasive prosthetic knee surgery but its apparently going to be ten years before a chance of it filtering through to us humble NHS Patients.
If you are wore out like me, only advice i can give is exercise build the muscle up around the knee joint to help support it as well as it can. Stay away from sugar and carbs in your diet and drink lots of water and include turmatic in food, it wont cure all but it does help.
Arthritis is a bastard of a condition its painful debilatating and to some extent unavoidable . but you can do bits that help ease it a little.
OH! and remember never give up, its better to burn out than rust. :lol2

.
 
I need a daily slathering of Voltarin on the left Knee, left Elbow, and the back of both hands for Arthritis, if I want to perform any work.
My last ride got pretty painful at 4 hours in, and had to stop due to clutch hand giving up the ghost

I started drinking Bergamot tea to see if that will help
 
Agree, any off you seem to land much harder, i know that is not actually the case but it certainly feels like it.
Landing Much harder is indeed fact for me.

2020 Broke Pelvis, and L1,L2,L3,L4,L5 in the back
2022 Broke Left Leg in two places
 
Landing Much harder is indeed fact for me.

2020 Broke Pelvis, and L1,L2,L3,L4,L5 in the back
2022 Broke Left Leg in two places
See, that's the place I don't want to end up in at age 68. Never broken a bone in my life (though I did have a shoulder separation at age 19), and I already have enough L2 and L3 area pain and degradation and I don't need to add to it by crashing, so I have curbed my cornering fun by about 25% to avoid living on the edge and I gave up off-road long ago for that reason as well as other mostly worn out parts. And my wrists are starting to become less enthusiastic about things too though I just read some less than encouraging things about Voltaren.
 
Landing Much harder is indeed fact for me.

2020 Broke Pelvis, and L1,L2,L3,L4,L5 in the back
2022 Broke Left Leg in two places
Ok acepted, and of course an offf is an off. but having said all that, i have had a strong background in trials and though ofs are not super common rocks hurt if you are on them if you loose it, and often a few feet of elivation is involved. You sort of dare i say Learn to Chill relax you know you lost it the mate hopefully will catch the bike or not as the case may be and then just roll with it and hope you dont come into contact with anything to solid and unforgiving, or indeed sharp ouch. Trees even thin ones are solid imovable unyealding things that are horrible and relaxing you often sort of spin around them much of the time its those square on stunners that thump a bit.
Again relax tensing up is never a good idea when its all over and you are going through the motions just waiting for your world to come to an eventual standstill, and hopefully not too sudenley its the suden bit gets bad hurts or possibly kills depending on velocity blah blah blah.
Let that hiden hippy emerge relax man. :lol2
 
It's been over a decade since my last 'off,' and I'm happy to report that. I've been pretty practical-minded through my riding life, sticking with sport-tourers as they can play in the city or on multi-day touring trips.

Seeing my riding years dwindling, I have an itch to try an engine I've never owned before: a Guzzi, a Desmo Ducati, a legitimate twin (I owned a neglected Suzuki twin a long time ago that I was never able to revive enough to take a true spirited ride on). I still find running through some twisties to be great mental therapy, and sport bikes do that so well. But my tastes have broadened ... for example, I've found the Guzzi California Vintage to be intriguing. Not enough to dig up the money to buy one, but ...
 
It's been over a decade since my last 'off,' and I'm happy to report that. I've been pretty practical-minded through my riding life, sticking with sport-tourers as they can play in the city or on multi-day touring trips.

Seeing my riding years dwindling, I have an itch to try an engine I've never owned before: a Guzzi, a Desmo Ducati, a legitimate twin (I owned a neglected Suzuki twin a long time ago that I was never able to revive enough to take a true spirited ride on). I still find running through some twisties to be great mental therapy, and sport bikes do that so well. But my tastes have broadened ... for example, I've found the Guzzi California Vintage to be intriguing. Not enough to dig up the money to buy one, but ...
Had a hankering after a guzi grizo not so long back i very nearly pulled the trigger on it, but at the Finnish....Nah! Twaz a nice thought but just not right for me. A TL1000 or VTR 1000 Fighter build is moar me.. its just the way i roll. I simply got no class Just low level gutter thats my flavor. :lol2
 
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