Has age changed the way you ride?

[Albert]

I'm allowed out later now.

[ryan_a1982]

I'm a couple months late on this. I just got my '07 RT and I love it. It is my 3rd moto and I have only been riding fo rjust over two years. I have some friends that made fun of me for getting the bike and not getting something more "age appropriate"! What the hell does that mean?! Sure, I'm only 28 and my wife is 26 but comfort and utility is comfort and utility no matter how old you are! I laugh pretty hard when my wife is on the back of the RT in riding appropriate clothing and some guy my age on a "age appropriate" crotch rocket passes me with his girl on with her butt hanging out of her shorts with a tank top and flip-flops on while she is hanging on for dear life! I respect my wife and I don't want her to be in that situation. So, I am sure most of "older people" are a better and faster rider than me. I don't think age has too much to do with it. Like some people have said, " you can't fix stupid". I love my RT and the years of touring and friendships I have to look forward too.

[Gene O]

I'm 67 now and have been riding for 45 years. I've raced dirt bikes and road bikes and love to crowd the limits from time to time. But I know that I'm a lot less agile and I can't move around on the bike well enough to be hanging off from corner to corner. I also realise that I'm processing information a little slower. It takes more time to read the corners and I know my reactions have slowed. Vision, especially at night or in the areas of alternating bright and shadows, has also deteriorated. I still ride fairly fast, but my comfort zone is a few mph slower and I'm quicker to back off when I feel that I'm getting in over my head. But it's a matter of getting close to 'your' limits -- where ever they might be. The point is not to prove how fast you are but to enjoy flirting with your and your bike's limits.

[Peter Parts]

Not much different between Mike O and my thoughts (well, you do have to change "67" to "70").

 

I try to examine closely in what situations am I over my head in risk vis a vis my current declining abilities. Fortunately, that relates to my profession of human factors so I have a leg-up on doing the analysis.

 

Take stuff like lane splitting and driving in the bicycle-sized space alongside parked cars. I ask myself what skills are needed? You need very sharp vision to sense cars moving into your space or doors opening from parked cars. You need quick rebalancing/handling - I call that "Urban ISDT". You need to see ahead if the idling car lane is starting to move and anticipate when that wave will get back to where you are. And so on. I do this less today and am correspondingly more attuned to the benefits of smelling the roses (and ogling the scenery) as I wait in traffic.

 

Some things like go-fast on highways doesn't take much special skill but maybe some judgment. Maybe the "cost" of a high-speed collision is different since your life is worth less (esp. if your insurance is worth more) but your bones are more fragile and mend slower when they do break.

 

Nice to think that seeing if you can scrape your sidestand on curves is the kind of biking fun that takes bikerly cool but you can enjoy despite other kinds of declining skills and there's not much risk if done with care.

 

Very hard to re-think complex skills involved in riding and in terms of declining abilities. As an old rider, I still feel safer on the bike than in a car, but takes some honest assessment to live safely through the last years of riding.

 

Ben

[tlc]

I guess I'm a kid, at 63, but I have noticed that my reaction times are slower. That, however, is not always a bad thing. In the past, with quicker reactions, I frequently would over-react, and make a bad situation worse.

[bayoubengal]

Yes:

 

- As a parent I feel a profund sense of responsibility to be here for my family.

- I'm better trained as a road rider. When younger I was a pretty accomplished motocrosser (AMA Pro), but had no road training at all.

- Experience. As an Air Force and airline pilot my whole life is about risk management and situational awareness which are skills that carriy over to riding. Risk management dictates that I ride differently than I'd like to...

[Silver Surfer/AKAButters]

Whether I want to admit it or not, age changes everything. Less frenetic, if nothing else.

[dhanson]

My riding changes my age.

[Quinn]

My riding changes my age.

 

Nicely put.

 

---

 

 

[Paul Mihalka]

My riding changes my age.

 

Isn't that a fact. When I'm out riding on some nice road is the only time when I don't feel like a really old fart.

[MAT2CHI]

 

It sure has. When I was young and had my whole life ahead of me I rode cautious - but now that I'm fifty-eight and only have so much time left I let it rip. That's me on my 420 special taking a Supermoto class at Infineon Raceway.

 

[Haynes]

My riding changes my age.

 

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[ka5ysy]

 

Now where did I leave my Hodaka Super Rat in 1969.....

[JamesW]

I'm 67 now and have been riding for 45 years. I've raced dirt bikes and road bikes and love to crowd the limits from time to time. But I know that I'm a lot less agile and I can't move around on the bike well enough to be hanging off from corner to corner. I also realise that I'm processing information a little slower. It takes more time to read the corners and I know my reactions have slowed. Vision, especially at night or in the areas of alternating bright and shadows, has also deteriorated. I still ride fairly fast, but my comfort zone is a few mph slower and I'm quicker to back off when I feel that I'm getting in over my head. But it's a matter of getting close to 'your' limits -- where ever they might be. The point is not to prove how fast you are but to enjoy flirting with your and your bike's limits.

 

I turn 67 in a month and I definitely agree with you. I notice that when I am taking a sweeping curve a bit fast with a nice lean angle I get disoriented and even dizzy. Never used to affect me this way. Was thinking about attending next year's MOA rally in PA and then got to thinking about what it would take to get there as in droning across this country (corn and more corn) and I just get tired, real tired. Got a new '11 Mustang GT with heated seats so maybe will just drive the stang and pretend I did it on the '04RT. Or maybe just buy a ticket on Southwest and rent a bike.

[Todd_Z1]

The one thing I have noticed about getting older is that I go faster slower. Go figure.

 

Todd

[Limecreek]

Actually riding has changed the way I age. Slowing it down.

[johngugel]

My blog is committed to discussing and understanding what riders consider a sign they should cut back or quit riding. Most input has come from actual meetings rather than the blog and I don't always post these... I should.

 

I had a very nice conversation one day with a Harley Davidson rider that looked to be over 60 like me and asked that question. His answer was when you can't hold the bike up at a stop! For me it is going to be when I can't see as well as I want while riding.

 

Any thoughts or guidelines for us older riders?

[Paul Mihalka]

A bit reinforcement on Limecreek's post, I am absolutely certain that if I did not have my passion for motorcycle riding (or something similar) I would not be in the shape I am in. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. Like in April 2004 I fell on the stairs in the house and completely tore off the quadriceps tendon in my knee. My plan was to leave to the Cody UN on July 4. Starting PT (pain and torture) I told the therapist that I have to ride my bike on June 15. He said "OK, if you push me, I'll push you". I rode on June 13. I also try to eat right and not too much (tough), move some, walk some even after all the leg/foot troubles I had, etc.

My signature for a while was: You don't stop riding because you get old, you get old because you stop riding. That still holds.

[Paul Mihalka]

I had a very nice conversation one day with a Harley Davidson rider that looked to be over 60 like me and asked that question. His answer was when you can't hold the bike up at a stop! For me it is going to be when I can't see as well as I want while riding.

Obviously I think a lot about this. Critical points are strength and balance, eye sight, and most important, mental condition. The last point is the hardest to judge for yourself, and hard to trust family opinions because not having the passion they just simply want you to stop riding. I have a very good expert rider friend with whom some times we ride together. He has firm instructions that when he thinks it's time for me to stop, he'll tell me and I'll listen. Physical condition there are many things you can adjust to. Get a lighter bike. Some lack of balance and strength, when I stop it is with both feet down. No balancing and no one sided load. To get on the bike it gets harder to swing my leg over (GS is a tall bike), bike on side stand I stand up on the left footpeg and then go over. I'm lucky with my eyes. After cataract surgery on both I see better than 30 years ago. To judge my mind when riding I make mental notes if I seem to have too many oh-$hit moments. That would be my judgement of my awareness and reactions.

I may be going on, but you can imagine that this is a very serious subject for me.

[Haynes]

....when he thinks it's time for me to stop, he'll tell me and I'll listen. ...

 

You cannont understate the importance of having a critical friend that will assess your ability to continue riding/driving safely.

 

It is so often that I witness senior citizens driving and being totally unaware that there are other road users. I regularly see them stopping at green traffic lights. I see them hesitating and turning their heads in confusion when trying to execute a turn at an intersection. I've seen several driving on the wrong side of divided roads. I'm thankful that most other road users make allowances for them.

 

I have a number of family or friends that I hope will let me know when "it's time".

I hope I have the good sense to listen.

[JamesW]

One thing that I worry about or should I say think about is getting in an accident with my wife on board. She loves to ride as a passenger, just loves it. I have tried to talk her into riding solo without success. All I have to do is say let's go for a ride and she has her helmet on in seconds. I am in good physical condition with, I think, good reflexes still I don't think it possible for someone age 67 to be able to think as fast or react as fast as a 25 year old and that bothers me. I'm not so concerned about my own safety but that of my wife. I don't discuss this subject with her, maybe I should?

[ryan_a1982]

JamesW,

 

Yesterday I was driving down the highway at about 70 mph and a guy passed me in a BMW car at about 120 miles an hour and almost clipped my bike. I got pretty shaken up and almost immediately I began to think about that sort of thing happening with my wife on the back. We are 28 and 26 and she just started riding with me. It is a big deal for her to ride on the motorcycle with me. She really loves it now and I fear that an experience like that guy passing me so close and so fast would ruin it for her.

 

I told her about the incident and she said if she gets injured on the bike, she is done with it.

 

Do most of you guys find your wife/pillion feel the same way? I can't get my wife to ride a bike on her own, she loves riding with me though.

 

-Ryan

[Paul Mihalka]

If anybody, rider or passenger, thinks that if getting injured on the bike will make him/her stop riding, better stop right now.

If falling off some stairs or slipping while walking you break a leg, you will never walk again?

[Peter Parts]

Ryan -

 

We had a spill in Washington, DC, about 8 yrs ago and that put a medium-sized dent in her enthusiasm for touring. But my wife is OK on long day trips.

 

Passage of time has helped her.

 

Another thing that helped us was buying protective gear for the wife after a spill - or at least stuff my wife believes is protecting her.

 

Funny, long ago and when much younger, some girlfriends would actually sleep on long, hot afternoons on the bike.

 

Bikes are dangerous. I have a spill about every 30 years.

 

Ben

 

 

[dhanson]

Over the years, I have sold my bike and let my MC endorsement expire, sometimes with several years between MCs. I considered them to be too high a risk, but it was not the bike, it was me and my riding style that needed educating.

 

I love to ride, and really like trips, but I try to manage the risks so the ride will be enjoyable and safe.

 

I think Paul might be the exception to how long you can ride, but he also has tons of experience to draw from in all those miles he has accumulated!

[kmac]

If anybody, rider or passenger, thinks that if getting injured on the bike will make him/her stop riding, better stop right now.

If falling off some stairs or slipping while walking you break a leg, you will never walk again?

 

That is exactly what i feel...I have alot of friends that ask why do i keep doing this since i have had many injuries and surgeries over the years....i accept that there is danger...if i trip over a curb i will not stop walking....

 

the mental clarity i get from riding is worth ANY possible risk...the most dangerous thing any of us do is get in a car every day...yet we do that with out so much as a thought...the air we breath is giving many of us cancer, yet we dont stop breathing...

I know and accept that i am NOT what i used to be in the riding dept at 46 as i was when i was racing MX and RR at 26-36 but i will always ride...EVEN if i DIE doing....i will die HAPPY

[Sailorlite]

FWIW I re-entered motorcycling about five years ago after an absence of 20 years. I'm 68 now and think that I'm a better rider now than I ever was in the past - I ride ATGATT now, pay attention to what I'm doing, and have tried to learn "how to ride". I suppose my reflexes, balance and eyesight must have diminished, but I'm not really sure they have (yet).

 

What I am doing, as a concession to aging, is informally planning that my next BMW will be my final bike. I'm not sure I want to wait 2 or 3 years to see how the K1600's work out. Maybe I should get one of first of them, just to get on with it before I'm too old. Aging to me, so far, means only that my "next bike" plans have a little more urgency.

[dhb]

I'm 66 now and have been riding about 20 yrs. There are well known effects of aging that apply equally to everyone and can be planned for, so I try:

1. dark adaptation time for vision is so predictable that it can be used to determine the age of a person. Change=less time riding at night ?better lighting?

2. slower and less robust healing from injury. Change= hi viz gear, plus more heavily armored gear to reduce severity and chance of.

3. slower CNS processing time. Change=more attention to defensive positioning and slowing down. The last item is so obvious but for me the hardest to do, since my enjoyment of many rides is the sensation of speed, if not actual speed. I'm working on it.

 

dave b