How many older guys ride VFR?

Discussion in 'General VFR Discussions' started by rexbaum, Nov 22, 2009.

  1. chutta

    chutta New Member

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    Just rolled 66. Took 18 years off from 40 up. Recently thought I really messed up my lower discs working out, but things are coming around as I can set on them. Long miles may be another matter. Still another couple months to riding season up here.
    Tempted to get something like a Gixxer 750/R6 or R1, as I haven't had a full on sports bike yet, only nekkids and the VFR.
    Talked to a kid last week at the gym, him having an older R1, buying mag rims and other pricey mods for it.
    He's paying $150 month for insurance and thinks he's getting a good deal.
    The only kids on sports bikes live in mommy's house still.

    Just flipped the cruiser around to stage it for upcoming new rear tire before spring. Gets heavier every year
     
  2. raYzerman

    raYzerman Member

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    71 on Monday.... not intending to give up riding any time soon.
     
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  3. upwinger

    upwinger New Member

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    The R1 will not be so nice on the ol back or your wrists. I test rode one and no thanks

    Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
     
  4. philois1984

    philois1984 New Member

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    But they do look nice!!! 8C62A300-219C-43B4-8550-C4393EFA20B3.jpeg B4EE1BDB-3895-4943-9F59-5564BA2F9B4F.jpeg
     
  5. bog

    bog New Member

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    Ill keep that in mind, will take the bike out when the snow clears and see if i still have the same problem, hoping it is gone, still have to get two new tires,then the maintenance list is completed.
     
  6. Sp00ks

    Sp00ks New Member

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    51 just getting back in the game. Hopefully riding well into retirement.
     
  7. Gator

    Gator Insider

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    If you use the R1 for what it is designed for I don't think you will be thinking about wrists or back. You will be looking for apexs and braking markers. lol

    I did 3 sessions on a buddies R1M and my lap times by the 3rd session were better than my best times on my track bike, a Honda CBR 1000RR. The electronics on the R1 are amazing!
     
  8. duccmann

    duccmann Member

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    65 in less then a month.
    Been on 2 wheels since 8
    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  9. Dalevf500

    Dalevf500 New Member

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    56 riding a 896 vf500 when it runs but i have a 86 nighthawk as a back up just hit the start button and away it goes 20200208_165642.jpg
     
  10. VFRIRL

    VFRIRL New Member

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    53 just past, I have been riding bikes since about 8 too, can't rem exactly, riding bikes keeps you young and fit, keeps the mind sharp too.
     
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  11. Africord

    Africord New Member

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    I've been subscribed to this thread for over 10 years, so I thought I should update. I'm 62 and still ride the same 6th gen I posted about in 2010. But in truth, I'm giving serious consideration to a 'wing. The roads around here have deteriorated to the point that I need a bike that's not so reactive to the pavement it's on. I'm about the same weight, and my lower back is still holding up, but I'm sore after a long ride.
     
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  12. bog

    bog New Member

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    our minds are still young, just not the body anymore, enjoy every day if possible, just received my two new tires today, dunlop Q3's, will have to get them mounted soon, also installing a voltmeter this week, the bike should be ready to go soon, waiting for the first ride this year, as soon as all the ice melts off the driveway...bog
     
  13. thestumper

    thestumper New Member

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    Hello all - first post here, so I guess it should be LONG :) I’ve recently been thinking a lot about age and riding. I’m coming back to riding after an 8-year ‘break”. At 52, I can assure you I’ve heard every excuse why I shouldn’t get back on a motorcycle. As a cautionary tale, allow me to tell you what happened to me when I STOPPED riding motorcycles:

    - I bought a lawn tractor. There’s nothing wrong with lawn tractors, but I didn’t really NEED a lawn tractor, yet I got one anyway. I still have it. I still don’t need it. There’s a BIG difference between buying a lawn tractor and trading your motorcycle for one. It always felt like I did the latter. It was a bad trade. You can only make those things go so fast, they don’t corner well, and nothing says “old suburban sell-out” quite like a bright orange yard tractor. Once you realize that you’ve start waving to your neighbors every weekend when you’re all out mowing, you die a little inside.

    - Started drinking. In progressively larger quantities. Like, 6-8 drinks per DAY quantities. I never drank when I rode. NEVER. Not even “just one”. I never drank before a ride - I wanted to stay sharp in the saddle. There was no time for “sport drinking” because I was always looking forward to sport riding. Without the riding, I didn’t have an excuse not to drink - In fact, I found more excuses to imbibe. I’ve relegated the drinking to 2-4 per WEEK. It wasn’t even hard - it was a mental crutch. Am I an alcoholic? I don’t know. If I am, did selling my bike make me an alcoholic? I don’t know the answer to that either but there’s certainly anecdotal evidence that it was at least a contributing factor.

    - I started shooting clays. Mostly sporting clays and skeet. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that, but moderation is key (see above). Shooting clays competitively is expensive. How expensive? Good guns are $5K-10K and up, and they are the cheapest part of shooting. Once you start factoring things like ammo, reloading supplies, cost of rounds, tournament entry fees, and travel expenses - all of which re-occur regularly - you find that shooting is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more expensive than riding. Then there is clay shooting culture. These are some of the finest people I’ve ever met, but I fell in with a crowd that likes to have a few drinks after shooting (practice, tournament, whatever). If you shoot 3-4 times a week, it starts to add up (see above). All in all, it became my most expensive excuse to drink. I got pretty good, and made a lot of friends, but in the end it was a costly diversion for me.

    - I got fat and horrifically out of shape. Shooting and riding lawn tractors don’t really require a lot of physical strength or stamina. You can do both (possibly at the same time but I’ve never tried…) and be pretty unfit. You don’t realize how weak you get when you neglect your body. It can really sneak up on you. Sure, I was somehow aware that I was getting larger, and that my clothes weren’t really fitting like they used to, but it was easy to ignore and pass off as a by-product of age. When I recently started back up at the gym, I hit me like a falling safe just how weak and pathetic I had become. I’m two months into the this “”infrastructure rebuild” effort, and I feel better, but am still not close to where I was. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back - I am 8 years or so older now so my peak is what it is. My motivation is the bike. Well, that and not being the poster child for coronary artery disease.

    - I got mentally soft/dull. A part of that was probably the alcohol, but part of it was lack of motivation. I’m kind of “cruising” right now - my kids are older and don’t require constant attention, and my job has been stable, and with nothing to really push me, I just kind of fell into “the routine”. About the only upside of not riding was spending more time with my kids - and I did spend a lot of time with them. You could argue that was a GOOD trade, and in some ways it was, but I became a shell of myself and lost sight of who I was. I wasn’t the person i wanted them to remember me as.

    This is a cautionary tale. I is not meant to insinuate in any way that if you sell your bike/stop riding, the above will happen to you. I depends on your personality, and a list of mental/physical characteristics that are too long to enumerate here. There are valid reasons to stop riding, You have to make your own call. For me it was a mistake. If there’s one bit of advice above all I could give, it would be this:

    “If you have a bike, don’t ever NOT have a bike”. Even if you think you may never ride it again, keep it around if at all possible. Once it’s gone, other “things” take it place, both physically and mentally. Making room for it again (both physically and mentally…) is harder than you think, and it doesn’t get any easier with age. And that’s just YOU. I can assure that my wife, like many other wives, assumed that once the bike was gone, it would logically NEVER return. She compartmentalized it, and when the bike was gone, she flagged it for deletion with no backup on record. If you think convincing your wife/girlfriend/SO that a motorcycle is a good idea the first time is hard, just try doing it a second time, 30 years later. It’s basically the same conversation, except way harder with much more at stake.

    I take delivery of a 2014 “leftover” VFR in 6 weeks. It has 1100 miles on it - It would appear that the dealer used it as a demo bike for a while and then couldn’t it sell it. I have a deposit down, but I have a minor surgery procedure scheduled soon that is a result of my lifestyle choices over the last 8 years (re: consequences). I’m lucky and will only be down for a couple of weeks (hernia repair) - it could have been a lot of more serious things. I supposed it’s a small price to pay. I’m excited - the test ride itself was an almost spiritual experience. Hopefully my second VFR is the best. It might be my last. But it’s not leaving the the garage again under someone else if I can help it.
     
  14. Gator

    Gator Insider

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    That bike is basically new, congrats.
     
  15. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    77 , is that old ?

    902185173_Picture1-12-2020236.jpg.73919c3b7ba7309c5a1b07ea986d83ae.jpg
     
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  16. thestumper

    thestumper New Member

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    I don't know anymore. When I was 18, thought people in their 50's were "old". Now I'm in my 50's, and while I don't feel "young" in the classic definition, I wasn't ready to take on the role of "old". What you have pictured there is the first street bike I ever technically rode. My older cousin was a salesman at a Honda dealership and and avid rider. He brought one home when I was visiting for a few days, and we tooled around on it in the cul-de-sac behind his parent's home. It was not legal - I was 14 - dirt experience (mostly with him) and minibike-in-the-neighborhood experience but clearly lacked a license. But I strapped on some POS dirt helmet and took him up on his dare. I told him I wasn't scared - that was a lie. I never got out of second and rode around in large circle 2-3 times. I had no appreciation for what I had been on. If my mother had seen it I'd probably never have seen him again. Perhaps the seed was planted long ago...

    And congrats, those are insanely beautiful!
     
  17. Edd

    Edd New Member

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    Interesting forum. First post for me, so Hello.
    I had a 25 year span without a bike and last one was a 63 panhead.
    Had a few Honda 750s in the seventies and early eighties till kids came along.
    Didn't think the desire to ride would come back but it did big time.
    I love to work on anything mechanical and gravitate to the not so common.
    Late last year I purchased a 1946 Nimbus, google it, makes a whopping 18 hp out of 750 cc.
    While I was sorting that out, I purchased a 1982 Honda CBX that needed work and I've been riding it the last few months
    after carb rebuilds and a bunch of other stuff.
    I haven't received it yet but I just purchased a 1985 VF1000R.
    This will be, not only the first sport bike I've owned but also the newest.
    I forgot to mention I'm 66 years old and hope I can enjoy the vf like I do the CBX.
    Thanks for reading.
    Ed vf.jpg cbx.jpg vf.jpg cbx.jpg vf.jpg cbx.jpg vf.jpg cbx.jpg
     
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  18. thestumper

    thestumper New Member

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    Those are both fantastic! You've got a nice little time capsule there - bikes you don't see often (ever in my case).
     
  19. Captain 80s

    Captain 80s Member

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    I remember that VF1000R. I think I messaged him regarding the mix of 85 and 86 bodywork and that he might want to adjust his ad from "Completely original" or something like that.

    Looks like a pretty nice example though. I have 3.
    Sweet CBX too.

    Welcome to this forum and back to motorcycles.
     
  20. Waylander

    Waylander New Member

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    60, just got back on a bike after 22years, destroying a Triumph 900 sprint in the side of a van and pins in my knees put me for a while
    Now back on a VF1000F2


    VF1000F2F, in bits
     
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