Has Age and/or Maturity Tempered Your Riding Style?

[Mel]

Next I got evolved with the 17 year old daughter of a convicted drug smuggler who didn’t like the idea of a scum rocket rider dating his daughter. (buts that’s another story.)

I don't think I have heard that story yet...you are gonna have to share that one with me

[TheSollyLama]

It isn't age or maturity that makes me think twice.

Actually I ride harder than alot fo the young guys I see around.....

But if anything makes me think about slowing down it was the horrendous crash at Aztec on a KX250 that very nearly cost me a leg and did lead to about two years in and out of hospitals and the torture session therapy just to be able to walk again.

Of course more intelligent folk might have given up altogether. I actually bought a 600R with braces on both my legs just to hold it up.......

So there is a strong argument to be made that I didn't learn a damn thing from all that pain and surgery.

[pilot]

No, I'm dead serious. My vision out of my right is fine, but because of an alignment issue since birth (when I used to be extremely cross-eyed), even after the surgeries, I still really only use my left. I guess I use a different method to get my depth perception. As a result, I basically only use my left when I ride/drive. I guarantee I could smoke anyone here if we were both forced to put a patch over our right eye.

Frank uses the "within' spittin' distance" method". If he spits and it hits the guard rail before the ground then he's at the right point for his late apex. Else, he figures he's turning too early.

[bluedogok]

Given that I have ridden liter bikes for most of the street career, I consider myself lucky to have survived my 20’s.

I can only say as a witness to your 20's, I have to agree

[Ghost]

Holy thread-rezzing. From June 06 to April 07.

Anyway, yes, age/maturity/whatever has turned me into the guys I used to bitch about. I don't necessarily ride *slower* but I tend to ride smarter (which probably is slower most of the time...).

There was always this older guy, Rodney, on a 1993 CBR900RR, Ohlins front and rear, brembos, he'd been riding for, well, I don't know how long. But he had grown up in the same place he lived now, and had been riding since the 70s on the same roads. He knew them so well that no matter how good, hot, fast, you thought you were you couldn't catch him, and he made it all look effortless. He never stepped across the yellow line, he never made a mistake, he never even looked like he was trying. He simply knew his bike, knew his limits, and knew the roads like no one else. He was someone we, at 20-something, thought was a cool OLD rider, but I never realized back then just *how* good he was until I got older. Today, I think he was/is the baddest assed rider I've ever met simply because he was always safe, and always fsat, and still made it look incredibly *easy*, yet I would be draggin knees and sliding to the edge just rying to keep up.

When I first transitioned from a lifetime of dirt riding to street and then to road racing (1992) I thought cars were back-markers and if I could put my bike between any two objects without hitting them, then I was fine.

Passing on double yellows, passing on the right, passing on on/off ramps, everything was justified by my "skill" and my power-to-weight ratio. Plus, at 17-21 yrs old, you think you're invincible and your bike, whatever it is, is the fastest, baddest @ss thing ever to smoke whatever granny you just flew past at triple-digit speeds.

I once had a laminated copy of my "best" citation for doing 133 in a 65 in Alabama, and I had all the paperwork that supported it, including the impound receipt and the various court documents for my night in jail and my license suspension. My friends, at the time, thought it was the coolest, baddest-assed thing ever. And, the only reason I'd gotten stopped was b/c while fleeing my friends and I ended up in construction, in gravel, and Dan put his bike down, taking me with him. Our two other friends kept upright and kept going.

Then, in 1996, my best friend since forever, my racing pit man/mechanic/driver Kenny B. was killed in front of me when we were just driving home after a full day's ride. We'd ridden all Sunday, stayed over at our friend James' to play video games and watch taped AMA racing, and were getting up early Monday morning to head to work.

We weren't screwing around, we'd exhausted our supply of wheelies Sunday, we were simply heading home, tired, and completely sober (neither of us drank, even then) and a woman who *Was* drunk blew a 4-way stop and put Kenny through her windshield. He was riding ahead and to my left, I was staggered back about 10yds and to his right. The woman had a greyish Malibu, no lights on, and neither of us saw her coming.

I won't go into details about the accident, but it was enough to shake me from riding for about 2 years. And, once I came back to riding I was *only* doing track riding and local racing, I would not ride on the street.

Finally, in 1999 I went back to street riding, but it was with a vastly different attitude, more respect, and to be honest, more fear than I'd ever had before. The accident had shown that no matter how "good" you are, shit happens that *you* cannot control, and no amount of "skill" will save your ass, or your friend's.

So now, like an Old Man, I ride quickly without trying to prove anything to anyone--including myself. I won't take the excessice risks I used to, I won't pass "cagers" on the inside of an onramp, or the outside of a turn, and I don't wheelie past hot chicks to "impress" them.

I've quit riding to "win" and just ride to ride.

...And I still miss Kenny.

[Nick_Ninja]

Good read and good points Sorry about your loss.

[Bassil Duwaik]

And anyone really interested in going up in an L39 for jet aerobatics let me know. It will only cost you (discounted) fuel. And they take credit cards @ the FBO. The 3 ships are located at Lancaster Field just south of Dallas. Be prepared to pull 5.5G's sustained.[/quote]

Can I get to pull the ejection seat?

[Oldgreen]

Hello, I 50 and I just started riding again. Got off in 1990. I have tempered my riding just a bit, but still love the twistys. I have a green '06 Kawasaki ZX6R with an "Old Guys Rule" sticker on it and still hammer it once in a while.