So there I was today readying by bike to take it for its rolling road, and it got me thinking about my yoof, when I wasn't gasping and out of breath just getting my leather troosers on, or the effort of breathing in to get the back protector on, only to find that you feel like a trussed joint of pork. Or how the dainese sizes fitted me perfectly in proportion to chest vs arm length, whereas now to fit my carcass my jacket has to have arms made for a gorilla. How you could stroll up to your bike and throw a leg over all casual and cool like even in full leathers or a one piece, rather than one of the hippo's out of fantasia wobbling on a tight rope. I remember how I smuggly smirked at the middle aged overweight lardy bloke ungainly parking his saddlebag arse onto a single seat of a 916 and floundering like a walrus getting itself up a a beach over the tank to the bars. Looking back, I now see the twenty something bloke with a shit load of disposable income and a spanky new sportsbike in a one piece and new gear that fits him perfectly and I watch him nimbly climb onto his bike and thumb the starter before he puts his RX7XXXXXX on with its oh so cool irriduim visor. I see him look at me floundering to get off my old gal, smuggly smirked at the middle aged overweight lardy bloke ungainly parking his saddlebag arse onto a single seat of a 900ss and floundering like a walrus getting itself up a a beach over the tank to the bars! Of course, he'll never end up like that... that's what he tells himself, that's what I told myself! To all you people with hair and a waist I say... damn you!!! :biggrin:
Touché! Or should that be toupe ;-) Speak for yourself, I've hit my 40's and started exercising, racing, lusting after young birds (20 plus before someone reports me - I knew Nog I wasn't a mate ;-) ) and flash cars. just got to bump the missus off, get the transplant and book the surgery then I can buy the £1000 a night hookers a man of my age and status clearly deserves
I love a man that speaks my language! - I've started excercising, doing some of that cardio mallarky no less! As for flash cars, two a penny round our way where I work, not allowed to drive any of them though. Racing... now there's a thought, tell me is it all pits stops and blowjobs as one would be led to believe?
50's looming on my horizon - but would I want to go back to riding a LTD1000 in jeans and cowboy boots - no thanks So long as I can keep riding younger men I'm happy - mawah
Dunno about the blowjobs as my pitstops were done by a skinny ginger bloke...altho may explain why the missus refused to attend...she may have learnt something ;-) but can say coming home wih a couple of 1st place pots gave me a glimpse of the benefits Sheene may have got :biggrin: now when I say flash...this is council barro' boy flash so Merc or Bimmer good as it gets..
You lot should think yourselves 'kin lucky........ ......I'm seriously thinking of getting a single seat bobber type bike, so I can just walk onto from the rear end and sit down instead of having to cock my right leg over the grab handle of the SS...... .....I'm that bl**dy stiff in all the gear I even have to stop at Give Way junctions so I can keep my balance and turn my head far enough to see what's coming from the right.......I pretend its the riding position and its the helmet chinguard getting stopped by my shoulder. Getting ready to go out seems to take an eternity now..........used to get geared up and gone in seconds only twenty years ago. AL
I've just bought some kevlar kjeans and started wearing thise instead...next step old 2 stroke. Fuck I feel old right now...
I love my bikes right now, don't get me wrong, but last year I found myself wondering why it seems such a faff just to go out and have a ride round. When I was young I don't recall ever having a problem of choosing between bike or car, like I sometimes do now. But then it dawned on me. Back then I just rode in what I was wearing at the time, just throw on a jacket and lid and get going. Sometimes even the jacket got missed. Normally I was wearing paddock boots, jeans, t-shirt, leather jacket, lid and gloves. There was no armour, gay american footballers wore armour. And I rode like fury in them days, and crashed a lot, broke some bones, picked up some gravel rash, but nothing major. And 99% of the time the crashes were self-inflicted. Nowadays I'm a lot safer. So last year the full leathers went out the window, I bought short boots, kevlar jeans, spent an age trying to find a leather jacket without perforations, short gloves and a quieter helmet. And do you know what..? It made absolutely bugger all difference:frown: Trouble is, as you get older you tend to worry more, and even with all the lightweight gear I'd bought, it was still a conscious decision to put the right stuff on before I went for a ride, so I still had the dressing up period before every ride that I was trying to avoid. Back in the day I rode from Italy to home with my jacket bungee'd to the pillion seat, I couldn't even dream of doing that now. So suck it up, ya saggy old scrotes, dressing like the Special Patrol Group is mandatory for old gits like us cos we're too scared to do what we did when we were young. I wonder if this is why so many coffin-dodgers gravitate towards Harley Davidson..?
Reality slapped me recently when getting a few online quotes. When asked to select age from scroll down menu it was very sobering realising my D.O.B , not only didn,t appear listed, but it was just how far down I had to scroll to find it that hurt.
In under 6 years time I'll be getting a government heating allowance and that's unlikely to encourage me to go out and ride a bike on a cold wet day. I've still got all my hair and I'm not overweight but all those crashes over the years have left me with a lot of aches and pains that seem a lot worse when I try to hide myself on a sports bike :frown:
Well, while l all the above is absolutely true...........................at least we have managed to last this long Think positive.:smile:
We are all at the pinnacle of an unbroken line of evolution going back to slime in some primeval pond. Some are closer than others however.
as a relative youngun (31) who can still mount my bike without groaning i have all this to look forward too. on a related note i met a guy on a trackday last year riding a blade in fast group, he was in his 70's and showing a lot of guys up! you're never too old
Or try this: We are all at the midpoint of an unbroken line of evolution going back to slime in some primeval pond - and forward into the future.
The future is unknown and we have to successfully reproduce to pass on our genes; some of us will not do that and their line will terminate.
Never give in is my view. No paunch, all hair present and correct (but that's just lucky genes). But then I've been a member of my gym for 23 years and although there might be weeks when I never show up, I'm usually doing something - swimming, cycling, intensive gardening for hours, whatever - but something. 53 coming up in a couple of months but bugger it. I still do everything I pretty much did as a student. I just refuse to give in to age. Planning on a visit to the UK on the 999 in August. It will be as it ever was - chuck some stuff in the tail pack, zip up the leathers and head off, with not a Sat Nav in sight. And I will adopt the same attitude as I always did - ride it until the tank runs dry, fill it up and scoot straight off again. I just don't have time for middle age. Mind you, a school mate of mine has been swimming twice a week for years and probably runs twice a week too. He still weighs the same as at university. I tend to be in a competition with him, rather than thinking how well I stack up to the lard-arses. Body fascism (within reason). You know it makes sense.
