REVISED POLL - How old are you

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

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How long have you been LEGALLY riding on the road?

  • Under 1 year

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • 2-5 years

    Votes: 13 11.5%
  • 6-10 years

    Votes: 13 11.5%
  • 11-15 years

    Votes: 9 8.0%
  • 16-20 years

    Votes: 10 8.8%
  • 21-25 years

    Votes: 12 10.6%
  • 26-30 years

    Votes: 13 11.5%
  • 31-35 years

    Votes: 11 9.7%
  • 36-40 years (wow)

    Votes: 15 13.3%
  • 41 or more ?

    Votes: 16 14.2%

  • Total voters
    113
69 .... started riding mid-sixties... but had 15 year break after a car wreck and got back on early last year with a Vstar 1100 and got the FJR AE in November....

 
57 years old ,,, been riding 20 plus ,,

started legally riding age 19 .. rode for a few years ,,

got away from riding for about 15 or so years...

Actually never figured I'd get back into riding again,,,

A friend told me he was thinking about getting a bike and wanted me to go take a

look at it for him..

About 6 months later I had a bike,,,, that was 1992,,

Since 1992 I've had 5 different bikes,, been to 30 states ,, and have put about

87,000 miles on the bikes..

 
This poll is a bit more interesting.

From the early returns, it looks like the prior assumption that this forum is full of a bunch of olde pharts is still perfectly valid (on average). But the huge variation in experience level is a big surprise for me. It seems there are two groups of people, those that have been riding forever and those that have just taken it up recently.

 
I have legally had a motorcycle license since I was 18....so legally many years I put 32 years on the poll. However, I took a 20 layoff from riding for various reasons which are too boring to list here.

So my riding experience is from 77-83 and 03 to present. I would say that, due to my Forum friends, I have learned alot more about riding in this latest bit than my earlier years as noine of my friends could afford a touring bike or touring. Neither could I, but I did it anyway.

 
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I am 37 until later this year. I started riding off road at 14, but had a break during that time when I was in college. Finally got on the street in late 01 (without a motorcycle endorsement), but only rode a bit before my first bad off road wreck (I broke my wrist badly). Got my endorsement in 04, after I had already moved on to my 2nd bike (my 04 FJR).

 
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Started riding friends bikes in the late 60's little Hondas and Ducati singles.

The summer of 1970 a friend bought a 650 Triumph and let me ride it, that was my first summer out of high school and it took me till January 0f 1971 to find a old 64 Bonneville cheap enough for me to afford. I rebuilt it, thru the battery away found Aluminum oil and gas tanks to make it lighter and rode the snot out of it. A few years later I moved on to a Trident.

One of those wife units came into my life and I bought a old 65 Harley Panhead so she could go along too and rode that for eighteen years, sold it in 99 due to lay off's to help pay for some of my son's college (good investment bought it for 3,500 and sold it for 18,500).

Went thru some tuff years with out a bike, I new that I didn't want another Harley and started renting, first a ST1100 then a 05 Fjr1300 then a ST1300 I did that for about four years taking four or five day trips every year on the rentals.

Well seven years pasted my son graduated and one day took me down to the local stealer and bought me a new 07A, I'll most likely ride this one for the next eighteen years.

The FJR is a grate platform and I'm certainly grateful to be back in the saddle again!

 
i'm 44 and while i did have my mc endorsement for several years in the 80's and early 90's i let it lapse. so i put down between 6 and 10 cause i'm not really sure how long i've been riding LEGALLY :p

 
Wow! just figured it, this year's the big 50, years riding that is, started with my own bike when I was 14.

 
. . . it took me till January 0f 1971 to find a old 64 Bonneville cheap enough for me to afford.
* * *

I bought a old 65 Harley Panhead . . . and rode that for eighteen years, . . .
HA! I think it was either late January or early February 1971 when I bought my 69 BSA 650 Thunderbolt and chopped/F'ed up/lightened it to the point that everyone was asking me what the heck it was with the polished cases, polished valve cover, molded frame, Sportster tank and wrap around Harley oil tank. Ahhhh -- to have had counterbalancers in a parallel twin back in those days!!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my increasingly suspect recollection tells me that pans were from '49 to '63 and that shovels began in '64. I rode with several friends with all manner of Harleys (and did some wrenching, painting and wiring on them) and know top and lower ends were sometimes interchanged, but have I somehow revised my Harley trivia recollections by 2 years?

And we must be the same age, because I got out of HS in '69, but was barely 17 (a year younger than everyone else since kindergarten).

 
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55 and started riding legally about 6 years ago. I rode a Dual Sport to see if I really wanted to drop the dime and fell back in Love with the wind in my face, bugs in my teeth (metaphorically speaking).

 
exskibum: The Harley-Davidson Panhead went into production as a model year of 1948, same year I was born; still looking for one for my personal motorcycle collection. Panman's 1965 was the last year of production and is highly valued by many collectors due to 1965 being only year a Panhead was manufactured with an electric start. 1966: First year of Shovelhead!!!

Hot hop up trick was to put Shovelhead uppers on Panhead lowers. Ruined any chances of sale as a Panhead collector item!

Graduated from High School in 1966; beat all of the Harley's and Triumphs with my 1964 Norton Atlas 750 with Combat mill!!

 
There's a missing gap in the riding time - below 2 years, longer than 1 year.

I'm 24. When I'm 25, hopefully my insurance premiums will go down...

EDIT: Who's the other guy that clicked 20-25?

 
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exskibum: The Harley-Davidson Panhead went into production as a model year of 1948, same year I was born; still looking for one for my personal motorcycle collection. Panman's 1965 was the last year of production and is highly valued by many collectors due to 1965 being only year a Panhead was manufactured with an electric start. 1966: First year of Shovelhead!!!
Hot hop up trick was to put Shovelhead uppers on Panhead lowers. Ruined any chances of sale as a Panhead collector item!

Graduated from High School in 1966; beat all of the Harley's and Triumphs with my 1964 Norton Atlas 750 with Combat mill!!
The 65 was also the first 5 gallon tank and only 5 gallon tank with the fuel shut off that was build into the top of the tank. It had a battery bigger than most cars and a Delco voltage regulator like a 55 Chev.

I miss that old bike, it didn't really work out ergo wise for me but still cool. I you use to get a laugh at the 1% guys who would tell I had a cool Road King!

Oh well, as I said I think the FJR is a great platform and don't plan on selling. And I still have a cool old Trident as seen in my avitar.

 
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exskibum: The Harley-Davidson Panhead went into production as a model year of 1948, same year I was born; still looking for one for my personal motorcycle collection. Panman's 1965 was the last year of production and is highly valued by many collectors due to 1965 being only year a Panhead was manufactured with an electric start. 1966: First year of Shovelhead!!!
Hot hop up trick was to put Shovelhead uppers on Panhead lowers. Ruined any chances of sale as a Panhead collector item!

Graduated from High School in 1966; beat all of the Harley's and Triumphs with my 1964 Norton Atlas 750 with Combat mill!!
The 65 was also the first 5 gallon tank and only 5 gallon tank with the fuel shut off that was build into the top of the tank. It had a battery bigger than most cars and a Delco voltage regulator like a 55 Chev.

I miss that old bike, it didn't really work out ergo wise for me but still cool. I you use to get a laugh at the 1% guys who would tell I had a cool Road King!
Thanks for the memory correction. One friend built and occasionally rode a show bike that was a '48 80 inch flathead. Never was sure how that fit into the lineup, since another had a '47 knuckle (******* wouldn't trade me rides even for a little while on a long trip when my hands were numb from my British vibrator). And a third (deceased a few years ago but once ran Gary Bang's retail outlet for aftermarket parts) had an 80 inch '49 Pan that was in several magazines -- very trick in all respects. Chico was only about 135 lbs, and with all he'd done to that engine, those of us bigger than him were regularly recruited to kickstart the thing. I saw him get thrown halfway through the pullbacks in his garage on one kick, but with his trademark cursing, it was the two of us watching that hit the ground -- laughing our ***** off. :lol: :clapping:

 
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63....started riding in the early 60's on a BSA. Then a Ducati, Jap bikes, BMW's for 15 yrs, and now the FJR.

 
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