So, how long have you been riding?
#41
08-09-2009, 09:01 AM
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Great thread guys! I don't mind the repost considering all the noobs to the site and the thoughtful replies.
I've been riding for 18 years consistently with one 3 month gap when I had my shoulder worked on. Then I pined for the road ...
If I had to put mileage to the year I'd say conservatively 130,000 miles on two wheels. And I ride year round with many miles freezing my butt off. Coldest ride ever was 47 miles at 13F. There is an amazing amount of HP to be gained when you have 13F air being rammed through a liter of displacement
Guess the thread title is a little ambiguous so you can justify the answer you put down however you like. I've also known the peeps who ride the perfectly kept beasts. Won't ride below 60F or above 90F or in the rain. Most ads in craigslist put "never ridden in rain". Dudes, if you never rode in the rain then you don't REALLY know how to ride. By that I mean if you can handle the rear end kicking out in a corner in the rain without ending up in the ditch then you can handle pretty much anything the road can throw at you. I'll will be completely honest and say that I PREFER riding when it's 70F and dry but any day on 2 wheels is better than being trapped in a cage. With all the days I work and family obligations prolly 90% of my seat time is back and forth to work ... no matter, gives me a good reason to watch the clock
I've been riding for 18 years consistently with one 3 month gap when I had my shoulder worked on. Then I pined for the road ...
If I had to put mileage to the year I'd say conservatively 130,000 miles on two wheels. And I ride year round with many miles freezing my butt off. Coldest ride ever was 47 miles at 13F. There is an amazing amount of HP to be gained when you have 13F air being rammed through a liter of displacement
Guess the thread title is a little ambiguous so you can justify the answer you put down however you like. I've also known the peeps who ride the perfectly kept beasts. Won't ride below 60F or above 90F or in the rain. Most ads in craigslist put "never ridden in rain". Dudes, if you never rode in the rain then you don't REALLY know how to ride. By that I mean if you can handle the rear end kicking out in a corner in the rain without ending up in the ditch then you can handle pretty much anything the road can throw at you. I'll will be completely honest and say that I PREFER riding when it's 70F and dry but any day on 2 wheels is better than being trapped in a cage. With all the days I work and family obligations prolly 90% of my seat time is back and forth to work ... no matter, gives me a good reason to watch the clock
#43
08-09-2009, 09:02 AM
Great thread guys! I don't mind the repost considering all the noobs to the site and the thoughtful replies.
I've been riding for 18 years consistently with one 3 month gap when I had my shoulder worked on. Then I pined for the road ...
If I had to put mileage to the year I'd say conservatively 130,000 miles on two wheels. And I ride year round with many miles freezing my butt off. Coldest ride ever was 47 miles at 13F. There is an amazing amount of HP to be gained when you have 13F air being rammed through a liter of displacement
Guess the thread title is a little ambiguous so you can justify the answer you put down however you like. I've also known the peeps who ride the perfectly kept beasts. Won't ride below 60F or above 90F or in the rain. Most ads in craigslist put "never ridden in rain". Dudes, if you never rode in the rain then you don't REALLY know how to ride. By that I mean if you can handle the rear end kicking out in a corner in the rain without ending up in the ditch then you can handle pretty much anything the road can throw at you. I'll will be completely honest and say that I PREFER riding when it's 70F and dry but any day on 2 wheels is better than being trapped in a cage. With all the days I work and family obligations prolly 90% of my seat time is back and forth to work ... no matter, gives me a good reason to watch the clock
I've been riding for 18 years consistently with one 3 month gap when I had my shoulder worked on. Then I pined for the road ...
If I had to put mileage to the year I'd say conservatively 130,000 miles on two wheels. And I ride year round with many miles freezing my butt off. Coldest ride ever was 47 miles at 13F. There is an amazing amount of HP to be gained when you have 13F air being rammed through a liter of displacement
Guess the thread title is a little ambiguous so you can justify the answer you put down however you like. I've also known the peeps who ride the perfectly kept beasts. Won't ride below 60F or above 90F or in the rain. Most ads in craigslist put "never ridden in rain". Dudes, if you never rode in the rain then you don't REALLY know how to ride. By that I mean if you can handle the rear end kicking out in a corner in the rain without ending up in the ditch then you can handle pretty much anything the road can throw at you. I'll will be completely honest and say that I PREFER riding when it's 70F and dry but any day on 2 wheels is better than being trapped in a cage. With all the days I work and family obligations prolly 90% of my seat time is back and forth to work ... no matter, gives me a good reason to watch the clock
#44
08-09-2009, 09:34 AM
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#45
08-09-2009, 11:53 AM
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Breaking bread
Still as deep as ever I see ... 
nice to hear that you are into boats and 4x4's on the week ends too...
I would never argue against the fact that some saddle hrs are going to help allot of guys ride better ..
but...
I have know many riders that have logged lots and lots of miles and still cant ride for chit ..
You only have to ride regularly? to run into them on the hyways ...they are everywhere !!
and yet I do also personally know and have know over many years, some younger guys that are bloody wicked riders and they have had only a couple of years under here belts .. Those, like prolly many guys here , I have run into many many times on the hyways..
So I do not hold with the idea that just accumulated hrs or miles makes necessarily the better rider..
That assumption is to simple when it is applied to riding bikes, as with many things in life ..
Back to my main point ...
I do not want to turn this into a muscle fest about how validated any particular members riding is seen to be by 3 rd party opinion ...
So can we just stick to the original question without the analysis...because as I said ,... this talk of who is , or what does , or how good , will intimidate some from posting to this ...
thanks
and BTW - my point about the hrs ect is validated by the fact that I happen to have the hrs , the miles and the experience under my belt and guys , I am not too bad in the saddle I might add...and we have a 12 mth riding season....
(not that any of that matters in this thread at all) but it seems we are into qualifying ourselves here ATM...
BUT my point again is that , many younger guys that I run into that are obviously much less experienced than me, can ride better than me :-)
on that note ...its good night from me now though
nice to hear that you are into boats and 4x4's on the week ends too...
I would never argue against the fact that some saddle hrs are going to help allot of guys ride better ..
but...
I have know many riders that have logged lots and lots of miles and still cant ride for chit ..
You only have to ride regularly? to run into them on the hyways ...they are everywhere !!
and yet I do also personally know and have know over many years, some younger guys that are bloody wicked riders and they have had only a couple of years under here belts .. Those, like prolly many guys here , I have run into many many times on the hyways..
So I do not hold with the idea that just accumulated hrs or miles makes necessarily the better rider..
That assumption is to simple when it is applied to riding bikes, as with many things in life ..
Back to my main point ...
I do not want to turn this into a muscle fest about how validated any particular members riding is seen to be by 3 rd party opinion ...
So can we just stick to the original question without the analysis...because as I said ,... this talk of who is , or what does , or how good , will intimidate some from posting to this ...
thanks
and BTW - my point about the hrs ect is validated by the fact that I happen to have the hrs , the miles and the experience under my belt and guys , I am not too bad in the saddle I might add...and we have a 12 mth riding season....
(not that any of that matters in this thread at all) but it seems we are into qualifying ourselves here ATM...
BUT my point again is that , many younger guys that I run into that are obviously much less experienced than me, can ride better than me :-)
on that note ...its good night from me now though
Don't really see anybody turning this into a muscle fest but you mate three or four of us chose to look at the thread in one way and you chose to look at it a different way so just relax in my very first post I conceded that there was no right answer and I understand your viewpoint and will absolutely agree that I have seen some natural born riders and have seen others regardless of years of experience and tons of bragging who do good to maintain their own lane now I hold no grudge and the offer of the book is genuine it's the second edition and is a great read and yours for the asking 
#46
08-09-2009, 02:00 PM
interesting discussion............very
Most interesting discussion going on here : My first wheels were at age 10, 36 years ago. I've been fortunate in so far as despite being away from riding for about 20 years it took maybe 3 days before I found myself back in the same groove I had when riding in my early twenties...........and I continue to progress at finessing my riding skills and will always strive to attain that very elusive goal of complete and absolute perfection.
There are indeed different methodologies individuals experience in becoming a seasoned, finessed and competent rider. Natural born is one , time and experience another, hours in the saddle another, training in an organization another and on and on. In my experience a healthy combination of a few of the above lends itself to what I would term a seasoned, finessed and competent rider ....just my opinion is all. HardCorp you make very valid points as does Classic. To me just looking at the opinions, it really comes down to one mans sense of perspective on what is a competent skilled rider in contrast to anothers opinion of the same. It would be extremely boring if we all saw things the same way...........hence this discussion.
Gregg as for never ridden in the rain and the whole temp thing.........that's just plain...........hysterical........totally screwy.............been baked , frozen, drenched, snowed on, golf ball sized hail..........all fun chit to deal with riding everyday......just calls for different handling input and reaction times that comes from as I said earlier a healthy combination of riding experiences from previously outlined criteria.
That’s the perspective I hold to be true and I respect any other individuals’ perspective no matter how flawed it may be.
There are indeed different methodologies individuals experience in becoming a seasoned, finessed and competent rider. Natural born is one , time and experience another, hours in the saddle another, training in an organization another and on and on. In my experience a healthy combination of a few of the above lends itself to what I would term a seasoned, finessed and competent rider ....just my opinion is all. HardCorp you make very valid points as does Classic. To me just looking at the opinions, it really comes down to one mans sense of perspective on what is a competent skilled rider in contrast to anothers opinion of the same. It would be extremely boring if we all saw things the same way...........hence this discussion.
Gregg as for never ridden in the rain and the whole temp thing.........that's just plain...........hysterical........totally screwy.............been baked , frozen, drenched, snowed on, golf ball sized hail..........all fun chit to deal with riding everyday......just calls for different handling input and reaction times that comes from as I said earlier a healthy combination of riding experiences from previously outlined criteria.
That’s the perspective I hold to be true and I respect any other individuals’ perspective no matter how flawed it may be.
#47
08-09-2009, 10:27 PM
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I hold no grudge and the offer of the book is genuine it's the second edition and is a great read and yours for the asking
Don't really see anybody turning this into a muscle fest but you mate
wouldn't want to be seen to be arguing with you and your 3-4 brothers Corps .. 
Just like the title of your reply ... right and wrong are hard to define and are purely a point of view...
That’s the perspective I hold to be true and I respect any other individuals’ perspective no matter how flawed it may be.
LOL
HardCorp you make very valid points
....
........ will forward the details of my therapist for you Mark ASAP
....
Last edited by CBRclassic; 08-09-2009 at 10:37 PM.
#48
08-09-2009, 11:32 PM
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#49
08-09-2009, 11:40 PM
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Bout 14 years here, that's not counting a hiatus I just took due to injury and circumstance for a few years. So started riding somewhere around 18 years ago. No idea about my "seat time" heh. Some big number that I'd likely be pretty surprised at, I ride pretty much whenever I can.
As for the hours vs years riding thing, it's of limited merit, and as Steve touched on doesn't really say much. After a few years riding experience in which they learned how to ride and became comfortable on a bike most people tend to stop improving, at least in any measurable way. Like anything else, mostly it comes down to the quality of the instruction in your first few formulative years and how well you took to it, and of course, your own personal attitude and aptitude. I don't consider how far you can lean, how fast you can wear down your pucks, how long you can ride a wheelie or any of that crap a measure of riding skill. It's all about your riding attitude, your level of attentiveness, your ability to avoid and/or deal with hazard situations, your level of personal safety and the safety those around you on the road matters more than anything.
The rest is just nooblet window dressing. The L33t kN33 Dr4661n wH33l13 r1d1n6 crap on the street is more an indicator of toolishness than riding skill. I've met 20+ year vets who couldn't outride my dead great grandmother and kids who've only been riding 2 years that I couldn't outride.
With something with this many variables aptitude and attitude coupled with practice, proper training and enough road time to learn road quirks and cager psychology can't be beat. If your missing even one of those qualities then road time doesn't mean squat, just more time to learn bad habits... I'm not saying experience is in any way bad, by the way. Just saying it isn't always an indicator of good either.
p.s. The military pilot/hours of flight time idea isn't as applicable to riding bikes in the same way. With a military pilot, if you do something wrong or start to develop bad habits you're reprimanded, shown what you did wrong and forced to do things the right way. There's no such overseeing group when people ride their bikes to correct mistakes or force proper riding. So in effect a pilot is always learning, from his co-pilots, ground controllers, wingmen, superiors, more experienced pilots, etc. Which makes their hours time spent doing it the right way. Not so for riders, there's no guarantee of improvment with motorcyclists with seat time, could just be more time to reinforce bad habits learned early on.
As for the hours vs years riding thing, it's of limited merit, and as Steve touched on doesn't really say much. After a few years riding experience in which they learned how to ride and became comfortable on a bike most people tend to stop improving, at least in any measurable way. Like anything else, mostly it comes down to the quality of the instruction in your first few formulative years and how well you took to it, and of course, your own personal attitude and aptitude. I don't consider how far you can lean, how fast you can wear down your pucks, how long you can ride a wheelie or any of that crap a measure of riding skill. It's all about your riding attitude, your level of attentiveness, your ability to avoid and/or deal with hazard situations, your level of personal safety and the safety those around you on the road matters more than anything.
The rest is just nooblet window dressing. The L33t kN33 Dr4661n wH33l13 r1d1n6 crap on the street is more an indicator of toolishness than riding skill. I've met 20+ year vets who couldn't outride my dead great grandmother and kids who've only been riding 2 years that I couldn't outride.
With something with this many variables aptitude and attitude coupled with practice, proper training and enough road time to learn road quirks and cager psychology can't be beat. If your missing even one of those qualities then road time doesn't mean squat, just more time to learn bad habits... I'm not saying experience is in any way bad, by the way. Just saying it isn't always an indicator of good either.
p.s. The military pilot/hours of flight time idea isn't as applicable to riding bikes in the same way. With a military pilot, if you do something wrong or start to develop bad habits you're reprimanded, shown what you did wrong and forced to do things the right way. There's no such overseeing group when people ride their bikes to correct mistakes or force proper riding. So in effect a pilot is always learning, from his co-pilots, ground controllers, wingmen, superiors, more experienced pilots, etc. Which makes their hours time spent doing it the right way. Not so for riders, there's no guarantee of improvment with motorcyclists with seat time, could just be more time to reinforce bad habits learned early on.
Last edited by Hangfire; 08-10-2009 at 12:30 AM.
#50
08-10-2009, 12:01 AM
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