[Uss]

I have been going through the thread So Confused with great interest and perhaps so have the other members. A number of us are taking to the saddle again after breaks of many years, decades even and include myself in that category as well. I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where we can share views and thoughts on what is it that brings us back to motorcycles after such long gaps and for many (myself included) after we are in our 50s......and others who come to ride motorcycles for the first time around that or later years......

Perhaps we can all learn and get answers to the rides we want from what is shared here......

Cheers

 

[majorra]

Very interesting topic. I got back to riding at 51 after a 25-30 years break. Back then I had to ride a bike as I couldn't afford a car. But it appears that it developed a passion for riding that was asleep all this time. Now, when kids are grown up, there's more time on hand (and money) - this passion for riding woke up. Another reason for me personally would probably be finding a way to cope with every day stress at work. By the age of 50 most of us are probably close to where we want to be career-wise. I do have a bit of stress at work. I'm finding that certain activities are helping me to deal with it. I'm into handguns/shooting and motorcycles/riding. What's in common? Both activities require full concentration: you-motorcycle-road-environment. Or you-handgun-target-environment. Any mistake/lack of full attention can be deadly to you or the ones around you. Paying full attention requires the mind to focus solely on the one and only task and forget about everything else. At the same time - it's a full relaxation.
Just thoughts.

 

[StoneFree]

Even I went through a "break" where I didn't own and ride a motorcycle but it was short (about 8 years) and it drove me nuts. I just missed the freedom and the beauty of the journey as opposed to the destination that separates being in a cage (car) and on a motorcycle. Cars are predominately about getting somewhere while motorcycles are about experiencing the journey regardless of where you eventually end up. I make plans for "road trips" on my motorcycle but only reach the destinations about 75% of the time and always go places I'd never planned on going to begin with. It was always the "road" that ultimately dictated where I've gone and not any pre-planning on my part.


For many that have been away from riding for a long time I tend to believe this is why they end up riding again. They're tired of "going someplace" and instead long for the feeling of just "going anywhere" down the road and of feeling free in doing that. The experience is so totally different between the two because on a motorcycle you're a component of the journey while in a car your isolated from the actual journey itself.


Just my opinion of course as each of us find our own compelling internal reasons for yearning to ride.

 

[stude]

After riding for 13+years, I took a "break" for about 9-10 years. Then had a bike for few years, and was bikeless again for a few more.
I have always loved riding, but family life put it on hold. It got to the point that I would only get 200-300 miles per year. My kids are all in their teens now and do their own thing most of the time, so I now have time to ride again.
I rarely ever have a destination. When I get to the end of my driveway, I decide which way to go. That is the way it has always been. I am also a classic car hound. Back in the day, I would hop on my bike and ride all day long on the weekends on every back road I could find looking for old cars. Back then I had a few friends who rode, but unfortunately none of them ride any more. Now I ride with my 70+ year old neighbor on occasion. I just wish I lived where I could ride all year round instead of 6-7 months.

 

[javierduke]

A great idea indeed! I haven't yet experienced the feeling of how it feels to get back to riding a motorcycle after decades but I feel that it would be one of the best experiences of life. Getting back to something you love will be a wonderful feeling indeed! I have just bought a new HD bike after marriage, but am having a really tough time convincing my wife to let me ride! I just don't know how to make her understand that I won't die!

 

[Rock270]

A great idea indeed! I haven't yet experienced the feeling of how it feels to get back to riding a motorcycle after decades but I feel that it would be one of the best experiences of life. Getting back to something you love will be a wonderful feeling indeed! I have just bought a new HD bike after marriage, but am having a really tough time convincing my wife to let me ride! I just don't know how to make her understand that I won't die!

if I may suggest, take the advanced riders course that Harley offers.
it also teaches hazard avoidance technics that is very valuable in todays driving environments, that may help calm some of her worry.


best of rides for ya.

 

[Propnut]

I have not had a break or returned to riding. Motorcycles are a part of my DNA and today I enjoy the idea of taking a ride just as much as I did 50 years ago when I got my first motorcycle. What I do miss is the smell of a two-stroke screaming along the highway as you sit in the slipstream. Younger and without fear, that is all that has changed as the years have matured me. A proud day for me was watching my daughter ride to school on her first motorcycle, two days after she got her learners license.

 

[Rock270]

oh yeah, the 'ol two strokes.....a lot of HP from not many cc's
like the old kaw triples, back in the 70's....awesome power!


and the 2 stroke dirt bikes.....I miss them too!
someday, they'll likely ban all combustible engines.

 

[Uss]

Yes ofcourse and the Yamaha Trails the 400s... those 2 strokes were raw power and back then there was nowhere these bikes wouldn't take you! I guess the bikes are still as muscled up it is just the mind set...the current generation must be feeling now what we felt then in the 70s....only I believe we had more freedom!

And that taste for freedom is what brings me back after this long break. Work, family, the safety of 4 wheels pushed back the spirit somewhat till one day I realised the children had become young adults and the urge to break free started making me restless.....

 

[Rock270]

Even I went through a "break" where I didn't own and ride a motorcycle but it was short (about 8 years) and it drove me nuts. I just missed the freedom and the beauty of the journey as opposed to the destination that separates being in a cage (car) and on a motorcycle. Cars are predominately about getting somewhere while motorcycles are about experiencing the journey regardless of where you eventually end up. I make plans for "road trips" on my motorcycle but only reach the destinations about 75% of the time and always go places I'd never planned on going to begin with. It was always the "road" that ultimately dictated where I've gone and not any pre-planning on my part.


For many that have been away from riding for a long time I tend to believe this is why they end up riding again. They're tired of "going someplace" and instead long for the feeling of just "going anywhere" down the road and of feeling free in doing that. The experience is so totally different between the two because on a motorcycle you're a component of the journey while in a car your isolated from the actual journey itself.


Just my opinion of course as each of us find our own compelling internal reasons for yearning to ride.

very well said!




I have had bikes most all my life, since age 7.
I'm now 57 and have never been over a yr without a bike.
yes, it is a great stress release, whether from work, relationships or just day to day struggles. but for me it has always been an adventure, I rarely ever plan a destination, I ride locally mostly now days and never get in any hurry on purpose.


I guess the wandering about is the adventure, sometimes I listen to music, other times I just think out problems, but mostly I simply enjoy the alone time and sightseeing I suppose.


as far as buying this lil Harley....well I wanted a bike that was easy to ride and handle but had plenty of power to boot. hd may have thought they made these for younger/new riders....well, they hit a home run for older riders that want/need something easier to ride.


now I need to get me a luggage rack and attach the pet carrier, so I can take each of our little dogs adventuring with me....they love riding the golf cart too!

 

[16HDStreetRider]

After 30 yrs homeless, moved inside '08 & got my first bike age 56 with VA Pension $$. Sportster 883 was totally fun. Sold it '11 & went to Thailand for a while. Now just got my 750 and that good feeling is back. VA Docs should forget the pills, and just prescribe a Harley ...

 

[CHIMICHANGATIME]

from 2000-2008 i didn't ride because i had joined the Army. and my chain of command up to the Battalion Commander had to sign off on me being able to ride on base (that was around the time when many servicemen were coming back from deployment, getting on bikes and wrecking themselves)

 

[Solo750owner]

My first motorcycle was a 1982 Yamaha MX175. Had so much fun with that bike that I took it with me to Arkansas to ride while visiting my grandma. I no sooner arrived, I rolled the bike off the back of the ranchero and fired it up and decided to puts down the end of grandma's drive way and then back towards the house through her yard. Little did I know that she had a steel cloth's line wire strung tightly between a tree and a bird feeder that I didn't see until it was too late. Good thing I was only in first gear The wire caught me right across the right side of my face and sheared off my top front tooth. Oh I looked pretty for the rest of the week I was there including attending a college football game where people parted and got out of my way when I went to get food and drink at the concession stand. I sold my bike to my brother and didn't ride for almost 35 years until 2011. High gasoline prices got me back in the saddle but this time it was street bikes. No more off road for me. Got a 2004 Suzuki Savage with just 1300 miles and a Helmet. Figured that if it didn't work out for me, I wouldn't be out that much money. Three years later Harley Decided to come out with there 750/500 Streets and the price was right. Indian Scouts were not available here at the time. I've test drove both versions of the Scout (69,60) and I liked both but a bit pricey. I have no intentions of getting ride of my Street 750. Its been a very reliable motorcycle and consistently gets 50-54 mpg with no changes in the fuel map. I can do my own oil/brake fluid/air filter change maintenance myself. I do want to test drive the Victory Octane to compare it to the Scouts. If I had room in my garage and extra money I would have a Harley street 750, a Scout 69 or Victory Octane or all three including the Savage. Yes I'm a dreamer!

 

[SgtTDC]

I started riding in March 1977 my 1st bike was a brand new 1975 Honda XL125 for $550.00 (instead of the CR125 that I wanted) Dad sure caught **** for buying me it but he told Mom "I've bought 1 for the the other kids it's his turn now",I also rode a 1976 Yamaha YZ125C that I paid $175 for I rode the rims off that bike till 1982 when I enlisted in the military.I didn't own any motorcycles while in the military but I did rent a few off post (Honda 450 Nighthawk & Honda XL 250). I didn't own another bike till 1994 when I found a 1980 Honda CR250R for $275.00 I raced it in the Bomber MX Class and I also rode a 1981 Honda CB750 Custom during this time.In 1996 I sold the CB 750 and bought a 1983 Honda CB550 Nighthawk and in 1999 bought a 1977 Suzuki RM 370B for $100.00 I owned these 3 until meth-heads stole the CR250R from a locked shed in 6/2002 while I was at work.I rode until 2008 when I had to sell the CB 550 Nighthawk and didn't own another bike until 12/2016 when I could afford it (after my divorce in 2010) when I bought my 2015 XG 750 Street and my 1st Harley Davidson from Loess Hills H-D. I picked the 750 Street because I just wanted a standard bike and no other bike that Harley-Davidson produced fit my style,I just wish that it was a few inches taller.I have over 700 miles on it as of today and I haven't rode it on the interstate or over 70 MPH as of 30 MAY 2017.

 

[Roorat60]

I'm in the long break crowd. I bought my first bike at 18, a Kawasaki KZ200 in 1978 (new for $800) and rode it to and from work (40 minutes one way from Lompoc to Santa Maria, California) for over a year, moved to Alabama and rode it to and from work from 1979-1983 (only about a 15 minute ride one way), then I moved to another bigger city and learned I was pregnant. So from November 1983 until July 2014 I was out of the saddle (30 + years). I took the MSF course to make sure I was still able to ride and brush up on my skills. I was hooked again and bought a 2014 HD Iron 883n. Unfortunately, I could never really adjust to the way the Iron handled and it spent more time in the garage than out (I only put 445 miles on it in 3 years). I traded the Iron in on a 2017 Street 750 in April 2017 and have loved it. Now if only the weather would cooperate!!! It has been a very rainy late Spring/early Summer so far and I refuse to ride in the rain. Alabama drivers are bad on a sunny and dry day, but totally forget how to drive when moisture hits their windshields. BTW - I'm a 57 year old female rider.

 

[PugslyCat]

Around 1980 my brother came home from college with the little 125cc dual sport that he used to get around campus. I rode one lap around the back yard and couldn't figure out how to get it out of first gear. A couple of years later I bought the CB175 that one of his friends restored. It went up in flames due to an electrical fire on start up. This didn't leave me chomping at the bit to get another bike.


In the fall of 2014 I took the MSF course and got my license thinking that if I bought a maxi scooter or an old, inexpensive motorcycle I could use it for my daily commute and stretch the life of my aging van. I turned around and bought a Ford Fusion instead.


I had wandered into Loess Hills H-D in the spring of 2016 just because they were a few miles from the house. Karl was the first H-D salesman to really listen to my need for a commuter bike and pointed me to the Street 750. I liked the looks of it and it wasn't so large as to be intimidating to a new rider. It wasn't happening, though, because I just wasn't that interested.


Last December I got to thinking of how many miles I was racking up on the Fusion and decided that I needed another vehicle to spread the miles around on. As I walked back into Loess Hills I was greeted by Karl who remembered me and my interest in the Street. I put him off a couple of months, but at the end of January I bought the bike and put it into storage. I didn't think I would be riding it much, but due to a mild end to the winter I was out riding by mid-February.


I split my time between a house in the country in southwest Iowa and an apartment near my office in central Iowa. The bike mainly lives at the apartment. I was just getting comfortable with short stints trips on I-35 when the exit to my office closed for reconstruction. Now I'm taking paved back roads to the office.


This weekend I am making the 200 mile ride down to the dealer for the 1K miles maintenance. Going down is going to be on back roads, but I may try I-80 for a bit on the return trip.

 

[Lloyd Maynard]

A great idea indeed! I haven't yet experienced the feeling of how it feels to get back to riding a motorcycle after decades but I feel that it would be one of the best experiences of life. Getting back to something you love will be a wonderful feeling indeed! I have just bought a new HD bike after marriage, but am having a really tough time convincing my wife to let me ride! I just don't know how to make her understand that I won't die!

I agree with Rock 270, take the safety course then tell your wife that you want to be able to ride together. Take her an a slow easy ride and she should come around. Thats what I did and now she loves riding with me and even suggested that I could get a new touring bike if I wanted.