tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post8270229480939610309..comments2024-03-22T18:01:20.065-05:00Comments on Geezer with a Grudge: Cheap Bike and Me Part IIT.W. Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-1466088188215998672008-09-29T20:47:00.000-05:002008-09-29T20:47:00.000-05:00Ross,I always appreciate your comments. Feel free ...Ross,<BR/><BR/>I always appreciate your comments. Feel free to fire back either through email on on the blog site (http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/) where others can read your opinion. I'm trying to build the site into a conversation location where I can hear what the magazine's readers' think and where I can write about things I won't find a home for on MMM. The more comments the merrier and maybe I'll learn something. <BR/><BR/>In my geezerdom, I sort of like the idea of a motorcycle being practical transportation, as it is in much of the world. However, if bikes like the BSA 441 Victim, the CB450, and my old "friend" the Harley Sprint were my only choices, I'd have probably quit riding after a few years. Between getting run off of the road by Wild Ones hating Kansans and the unreliability of old street bikes, I wasn't having much fun on a motorcycle until I went off-road. For my first 20 years on two wheels, "practical" wasn't much of the equation. I often rode my bikes to places where I'd race them, but only if I could get there on dirt roads. <BR/><BR/>If I were young enough and tall enough, I'd love the hell out of modern dual purpose bikes. I'm not, so the V-Strom is as close as I'm likely to get until gas gets expensive enough that Japan starts bringing back 125s to the states. I ride a 250 Kawasaki Super Sherpa almost everywhere I'm not carrying gear or passengers or going more than 250 miles. The "big bike" 650 is for really long trips. <BR/><BR/>It's all perspective, experience, opinion, and such. I write because I learn things about me, you, and everyone who bothers to comment on what I write. I would never try to convince you to like/dislike what I like/dislike. I'm just putting opinions out there for the fun of it.T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-73074251101704656442008-09-29T20:32:00.000-05:002008-09-29T20:32:00.000-05:00T.W., I don't know if you are looking for any fee...T.W., I don't know if you are looking for any feed-back or not. But my take on bikes is that the whole matter of what kind of motorcycle turns your crank is completely subjective. If one really analyses ones own ideas on motorcycles you sometimes get to where you don't want to go! So I know that it's just a game I'm playing with my mind, the motorcycle thing. Practically, we'd all probably be better off without a motorcycle. But man does not live by bread alone (yes, I know who said that]. I'd probably be crazier than I am if I didn't have a motorcycle. To fit my idea of a motorcycle, however, it must some semblance of practicality. Thus, I like the looks of bikes back when they were for more than sport, in Europe, and America. When they were (and are) transportation, courier, and law enforcement vehicles. To me they look like "motorcycles." I don't like the idea of a "dry-land snowmobile" motorcycle, the dirt bike, which is made for going nowhere, like a dog chasing his tail. Bikes that sit high like a mosquito bracing to sting you, are not my idea of what a bike should look like. I have three bikes: a '59 Harley FLH, a '70 450 Honda which started out as a CL - so it has the smaller tank, but CB pipes, and a '54 Zuendapp. These bikes are by this time worn out junk. But they look like motorcycles! They have that shape and form. At least for me. And if you want to know, I don't like plastic motorcycles, either. Even though some of my best friends... Well, you know the story. So, to each his own. And maybe we shouldn't analyze. <BR/>---------- Ross G Kiihn, St. Paul, MNAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com