Fellow motorcyclists:

I present to you a thread for motorcycle pictures, videos, stories, and aspirations. Use it in good health and when you're done here keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down.

I'll get it started with a little bit of my motorcycle history. I started riding in 2005 or 2006 when my dad got in to it, I used his learner bike (a 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan 800) which he graciously handed down with a nice big dent in the fuel tank from when he dropped it at a walking pace while turning around in a gravel-ey parking lot in front of a biker bar (Cook's Corner, actually a pretty famous place) with my little sister on the back. It was fun hearing about that, everyone got up and ran over to help them, caused a nice commotion. He moved up to a BMW R1200RT and I tried to keep up.


Don't have any actual pictures of the bike but I think it was exactly like this.

In 2007 I got a used R1200RT to match my dad's and held on to that about a year before I went on a weeklong trip up around the North end of California which resulted in my RT losing its life in a shallow, dusty ditch on the side of a single-lane mountain road somewhere west of Reno, NV. A fly of some sort managed to get over my windscreen (on the RTs they're adjustable and mine was way the hell up, so that was a bit of a feat in itself), under my partially-open visor, and under my sunglasses. My predictable reaction was to shut my eyes and take my hands off the bars while I gently drifted over to the right side of the road which featured the aforementioned dusty ditch. The bike immediately slipped out to the right, struck the Boxer engine's cylinder head on the asphalt, and I went sliding face-first down the hill for a couple seconds. It was only at about 20 mph, and but for the cylinder head perforating on the edge of the road, it was a totally mild crash.

Some pictures of the bike and one from I think Yosemite on my bike's final trip:




A couple years later my dad had given up on motorcycles and I bought his RT, seen here down at my cousin's house:


And then 2013 rolled around, I spent a couple years working and built up a little savings, and my eye caught this beauty on BMW's website:


I watched a couple videos with it on Youtube and took a test ride of a K1200S (they didn't have any 13s and it was lucky that they even had the 12, the K12/13S bikes were so underappreciated for so long) and after some short deliberation between the S1000RR and the 30 Year Anniversary Edition K1300S, I took the K. Since then, about 3/4 of the pictures I've taken have been pictures of this bike and my commuting has been a lot more enjoyable.

First picture is from when I first picked up the bike:




And here's a video from a ride I took with my cousin and his car buddies:


Maybe more later, but let's hear from some of you other motorcycle guys.

My CR250 and my brother's R1 in a very cluttered garage. I rebuilt the CR's complete engine and tranny myself which was fun- although I half expected it to never run again lol. Both bikes pull real nice. The R1 was doing about 270 when it clipped a stationary van so that bike is no longer with us




The CR all stripped down



And all back together!



The R1 was mint, too bad I don't have more pictures. The previous owner had installed custom exhaust and even had taken the bike to the factory of said exhaust to have it tuned specifically for it. Very beautiful and very fast. The only faster bike I had the pleasure of riding for any real amount of time was a 07 R1 that was turbocharged and had every other mod under the sun. It belonged to a relative.

This is the thread, man! Checking into the F99th MC, for the moment as "honorary" status as I ain't got a bike right now, as described here .

I got a funny deja vu watching your video, pyro, and not because it looks a bit like the rides I used to take around here on the CBR. It was something else, a proper, deep, multi-layered deja vu, if you know what I mean. It was weird. You're a good, safe rider, noticed you don't push blind corners and some other things. Keep it up, and many more safe, enjoyable miles to you! Great vid, I really enjoyed it.

Tracer, I dig the 2 stroke power band bit. Even my old stripped down Yamaha 125 pictured on the other thread, after the porting, squish band clearance reduction, a 34 mm Mikuni carb, the bronze braised expansion chamber, and a lot of fiddling with sprockets at each meet (all done by yours truly with skinned knuckles under my dad's supervision and guidance) used to snatch at 7,500 rpm and zip up to 13,000 rpm with intent to slip a cervical disc. LOL! Know the feeling well.

Runny, 270 kmh, do you mean? Is the rider still with us, or at least, with all his skin, I dare to ask? Great pics, and indeed; working on bikes is part of the experience.

I'll see what pictures of "projects and possessions" I can locate. I have moved house several times and country twice since my experience began, and some get lost in the process. Fingers crossed.

Yes 270 km/h. He's still with us will all his skin, just missing a finger. He was very very lucky to get away with what he got- which was still substantial. I'd show pictures of the injuries but I know he doesn't like me telling people about it.

The bike is completely finished though. The frame was snapped in 2 spots, both forks broke in half, both sides of the handlebars sheared, fuel tank off, swing arm snapped, seat, fuel tank, battery and power commander all blew right off, the intake and throttle body ripped off the head.. You name it, it was broken. Amazingly, the wheels both still looked good and the radiator was somehow fine.. Go figure lol.

Even the foot pegs and frame sliders were torn right off the frame.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the destroyed bike. Most of it came back in garbage bags anyway because the firemen or whoever collected all the bits.

I'll tell you guys one thing though, since then I bought some high-quality motocross boots and I don't put my bike in gear without them.

Jesus, 270 kmh? I think that's what my bike's top speed is listed as but I seriously doubt I could ever get it there. Absolutely insane. The extent of my ability to maintain my bike pretty much ends with oil changes and checking brake/tire wear and fluids. Eventually I'd like to change my tires myself and stuff like that, but I don't have the experience or equipment for it right now.

I always wanted to try a 2 stroke but I haven't gotten a chance yet. If you guys have seen those documentaries "Faster" and "Fastest" which kinda follow Rossi's rise in MotoGP, you might remember the reverence it had for the 2 stroke bikes and how savage they were. It's stupid but it made it sound awfully appealing. Also haven't been dirt biking yet and I really want to do that.

And thanks Cygon! Glad you enjoyed the video. But we won't have any of this "honorary member" nonsense here. Once a motorcyclist, always a motorcyclist. Hope you can get back on two wheels again soon.

Runny, your friend knows how to fall "properly". It's a talent people afflicted by the Speed Bug are born with, mostly. No seriously...

Agreed!

Here are some snaps. Not half as many pictures as I hoped turned up, but, in more or less chronological order taking up from England 1987 and back to Ecuador again in 1997.


ANY motorcyclist should know that bike at a glance, it is not at all obscure.


Kawasaki 125 in the foreground, Russian built MZ 150 behind. It had Cyrilic writing stamped on the frame, so I don't believe it was an East German MZ. Don't know how it got to England.


All Jerks and Stops 500.


Matchless Rotax engined 500. I believe there was even a belt final drive version of this, though not this one. Whatever, it was very nice!

The next two photos is of one of my friends. It was supposed to be a sequence of four shots. The first two were of me, first riding and holding my crotch like I wanted a leak, the next one of me standing with my back to the camera, helmet on, supposedly taking a leak on the road (I was spilling a bottle of soapy water as a simulation of peeing). Then these two shots, which is supposed to be my friend skidding on my pee and having a serious accident. Unfortunately, the other two pictures aren't showing up.




I don't know what we had in mind as a moral to the story, but we killed ourselves laughing all the way through the episode.



The same friend, demonstrating the riding position on my modded AR 125. This was going to be used in an endurance event. At least we had that idea. But, in practice, Kawasaki two strokes at the time were not very durable. Here are the results...


To prove the point further, the fantabulously advertised Kawasaki KR1 250, that came out around that time, was recalled due to similar problems; piston ring retainer pins were coming out and causing all sorts of internal damage.


Yours truly, with two 90% complete restoration projects; 1939 WD/RE (those bikes were dropped on parachute from Dakotas at Arnhem, I believe, though I don't know if this precise one was), and a classic Honda CB125. Both were rusted, dismantled wrecks when I picked them up, so I was naturally happy with the results thus far. They were a lot of work.

And finally, back in Ecuador with my CBR, 1997. I had lots of pictures of this, but have no idea where they all might be now.



I think that is going to be it, actually, and don't have high hopes of any more pictures turning up. Sadly missing are the following bikes;

Yamaha YB 50, indestructible small commuter bike. BSA (Bloody Sore Arse) Bantam, the bike I rode for the last three weeks in England, loaned by a friend, and one of the most fun bikes I ever did ride.

I imagined Pyro's bike looking more like this:

images.thezooom.com/image.php?src=2013/0...-Pink-Motorcycle.jpg

Actually, that sorta looks like him too...

People who don't even have their cager learner's permit have no business in this thread.

That being said, at least the lady has class. Louis Vuitton pink Hayabusa beats regular pink Hayabusa any day of the week.

Yeah, I'd ride it. It has got two wheels, and engine and moves forward. I never did give much of a damn what impression I was making on the aloof bystander, who's business my experience of the day was not. Screw 'em, the hell.

This was mine pre kiddos, and we built a 600r for my wife

"we built" begs to be elaborated

I can't seem to find a picture of hers but it was a 2006 yzf 600r that was wrecked by a a guy and it bent the front forks but the rest of the bike was fine, we picked it up with a clean title for 2k and went to gown tearing it all the way apart. We powder coated the frame and rims candy apple red, and then painted all the fairings with matte black. It had a full ti akkrapovic exhaust and a pc3 and was mapped.

Mine had a bit more done to it. Had shorttie brake levers, had my gague cluster done with a gear indicator and changed the colors of it. put on frame sliders, and a crank covers. blinker mod and had blinkers in the mirrors. re did the suspension with traxxion valves (basically the drop in without the dropin) setup for my weight. had a penskie double clicker in the rear. Retrofitted a pc5 with auto tune on my 2008 (only supposed to be on a 2009+) had a full TI akkrapovic exhaust. I had the bike mapped and then took that map and split it into a map for each gear and let the auto tune do its thing. It basically had everything done to it but splitting it open for ama race prep on the motor.

Seems like you don't have it anymore, from that, and I was just wondering if that was personal choice for the sake of children or whether it is a law or insurance company pressure for motorcyclists who are also parents in the States.

In England I always had to go through the aggro of the insurance company offering "when you <graduate> (I liked that bit) to a car, you'll get blah blah, etcetera.." whenever I went to insure my bikes. Only used to strengthen my resolve not to "graduate", rain, shine, snow, black ice and frozen streams of snot on the cheeks and blue claw hands in the winter. Who's ridden in sub zero ºC knows what I'm talking about. LOL! It didn't matter.

I seem to remember some sort of "penalty", or something, if you were a parent. Not a clear memory and not sure now, as it didn't apply to me then.

found a pick of hers, you can't tell very well from the picture but the red is a deep red not the bright color it appears due to the flash.

my wife sold her bike when she got preggers, and i sold mine about a year after that. Sold them because we moved from KC to dallas and when we did we no longer had the same riding community, that and dallas drivers are terrible and don't pay attention. So with no community, no racing, no time, it just didn't make sense to keep it, so we got rid of our bikes. Still love riding, i miss it as the weather is great for riding pretty much all year round. Still watch motogp (GO ROSSI), just didn't make sense to keep our bikes here. My brother still has his and is thinking of selling his for the same reasons even though he loves his bike and held out longer than all of us. He has a speed tripple r and that bike is a torque monster, not as fun on the highway but an interesting bike.

Love it. Usually Yamahas strike me as a little on the bland side visually, but you guys built up some properly good looking ones.

And FORZA VALE!

Been having a bit of a laugh reading the content of this site, I imagine at least a couple of you will already know it. First time I am seeing it, though.

A lot of the stuff in this article you pick up yourself with some experience, however the description of why counter-steering (page 2) works is not 100% correct, though it is a passable and easy to understand explanation. In essence, a spinning wheel is a gyroscope, and by steering the opposite way you are causing the precession effect to "bank" you the other "required" way. The technique is old as the hills, my dad taught it to me for negotiating tight chicanes quickly; he used to use it in the '50s with his Norton Manx and Velocette Venom in bike rallys. NOT to be attempted on small wheeled bikes, like Vespas, when maxed out, LOL! But, if you are obstinate and stubborn, go try it if you want to find out why not....

I love this one . So true it had me ROFL & LMAO at the same time!

And then there's this one . I have had the bee and snot (already recounted earlier) experience. And the bit about A to B, well...

Many happy "needless" miles of riding, guys! LOL!

I've seen that RideApart name before.. They had a really good video on Youtube about the benefits of lane splitting and why it shouldn't be stigmatized like it is all across the US. California is still the only US state where it's legal but pretty much the rest of the world has figured out it's a good thing.

Anything on a bike will get you hurt if you do it inappropriately, it's an unforgiving a mode of transportation. But like most things with bikes, if you're responsible about it and properly equipped, I've found lane splitting is perfectly viable and just as safe as anything else you'd be doing on your average ride. The big difference in the US though is the prevalence of this public perception that it's some kind of wildly unsafe and shitty behavior that people get pissed off at us for. The entire rest of the world has and accepts lane splitting, I don't get how 49 US states think they really have some sort of wisdom on the subject that the rest of humanity doesn't.

But again, it all depends on how you do your own lane splitting. I understand having a wide bike and feeling very claustrophobic while lane splitting. The RT I had fit that bill pretty well so really the only time I ever lane split was on a trip passing through a couple of gridlocked miles of freeway, like literally dead standstill for minutes at a time. These days it's more common for me because my bike isn't as wide (the widest point on it is my mirrors so I have a very good visual reference when navigating the gap), and around where I live we have a lot of nicely paved 3 lane streets that leave a lot of extra space between cars. I don't sit there and lane split for miles on end, but if there are a couple of cars clogging up the lanes and going slower than the speed limit, I might go for it to get back out in front with some breathing room. I also like filtering whenever possible. I'll take filtering up and getting stuck in a narrow spot well back from a stoplight between cars over getting rear-ended by some idiot any day. I do get other riders' apprehension though, lane splitting and filtering aren't things a careful and considerate rider gets comfortable with without a good deal of experience.