At the ripe old age of 40+ I thought (after nearly a decade) it's time to get that license for motorcycles. Initially the plan was to get a PPL, but when the first kid arrived back in 2014 those plans were postponed indefinitely. Can't see myself having enough time for that in quite some time yet.

However.. getting a license for a two-wheeler, and some time riding off into the sunset is very much feasible at this point in my life.

So, as per the title of the thread, are there any riders in here? What bikes do you own, like, want? Myself, I am a sucker for retro. I do not want one of those plastic rockets. They are uncomfortable, and are likely to get me killed. I will probably never go far beyond 70MPH (which is just about the maximum allowed speed in my neck of the woods). The bike that pushed me over the edge to actually do this was the rather simple but supremely charming Royal Enfield 350cc Classic. An absolute work of art: 

If I get this one I would like to approach motorcycle Zen by doing services and modifications by myself in the garage. This one, having only 20hp, seems to be most comfortable around 50mph though. 

However. I have a significant problem in that the nearest Royal Enfield dealer is some 250kms away from me. This forces me to consider other brands. I've specifically grown more and more attached to Triumph and the Bonneville in particular. Completely different beast, though:

This bike feels made for my behind. Supremely comfortable. Actually not significantly more heavy than the Royal Enfield but 4x the power (not that this really matters, but 50mph is slightly anaemic if I would want to go on a longer trip where speeds are more close to 70. Wouldn't feel all that comfortable, for safety reasons, having semis overtake me tbh).

Notice the 'carburettor'? btw? Obviously it has no such thing but I do believe it hides the electronics of the bike. It's just there for the retro look.

Other than that I've eyed some scramblers from both Triumph and Ducati as well as the Kawasaki z900rs:

This one is a bit of a monster though with it's 100-something HP. Such a looker, though... 🥰

Give me your thoughts!

Only rode in my younger years.  In High School I had a 1967 Yamaha 100 twin jet. And later in life I owned a 
1976 Honda CB500T.  I sold the Yamaha just before I went into the Navy and the Honda before anything
bad was to happen! 

 

 

For a moment I got confused and thought you were talking about these motorcycles. 😁

https://secure.simmarket.com/livtoair-kawasaki-ninja-h2r-msfs.phtml

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

Only rode in my younger years.  In High School I had a 1967 Yamaha 100 twin jet. And later in life I owned a 
1976 Honda CB500T.  I sold the Yamaha just before I went into the Navy and the Honda before anything
bad was to happen! 

Oh, I've seen som rather nice looking café racer builds out of older Honda CBs!

 

1 hour ago, polosim said:

For a moment I got confused and thought you were talking about these motorcycles. 😁

https://secure.simmarket.com/livtoair-kawasaki-ninja-h2r-msfs.phtml

Haha, that would get me in trouble no doubt!

EDIT:

WHOA! Didn't even realise that was for MSFS! 

Edited March 9, 20242 yr by Swe_Richard

Been riding for about 45 years

Still ride an old Honda CB750

I got back in to riding in 2018 after a 20+ year break to raise my son. Currently on a Ducati Supersport 950. Comfy enough for a spirited all day ride but without the insane HP of a V4 Panigale (granted I would really love to have one).

 

Edited March 10, 20242 yr by Dave_YVR

9 hours ago, Dave_YVR said:

I got back in to riding in 2018 after a 20+ year break to raise my son. Currently on a Ducati Supersport 950. Comfy enough for a spirited all day ride but without the insane HP of a V4 Panigale (granted I would really love to have one).

Great looking bike, although I would probably find it uncomfortable to be honest. I sat on the Ducati Scrambler at the store and that felt really nice! 

14 hours ago, SiliconSoldier said:

Still ride an old Honda CB750

A real classic! What year is it?

I was thinking the Royal Enfield range sound like just the thing you are looking for, that new Himalayan looks particularly good, and great pricing too.

Thats why I don’t like the triumph, they claim Britishness then make their bikes in Thailand, but sell them at British made prices, vastly more expensive than the Indian made Enfields.

Royal Enfield poached a lot of design engineers from triumph and set up a  design centre here in the uk. I’ve never actually ridden one but poked and prodded many at shows and I think they’re great, the Himalayan in particular has become very popular here in the U.K. 

Personally I’ve got a collection of rare and limited edition BMW motorcycles, 13 at the last count, but my daily rides for touring are a R1250RT and a 2005 R1150GS adventure special edition.

As spring is now slowly developing my hobby time will move away from my winter hobby of flight simulation and back to motorcycling. I don’t ride bikes here in the U.K. in winter, it’s not so much the weather but the poor quality cheap road salt they spray onto the roads, it just eats away at the bikes and causes awful corrosion.

Edited March 10, 20242 yr by jon b

1 hour ago, jon b said:

I was thinking the Royal Enfield range sound like just the thing you are looking for, that new Himalayan looks particularly good, and great pricing too.

Yeah, that classic 350 might just get me to Motorcycle Zen to be honest. No problems doing regular oil/filter service myself but I do believe it needs valve adjustments pretty soon as well when new. I don't think I'll be doing that honestly. Do fancy the idea of tinkering with it in the garage during the rather long off-season here in the north of Sweden.

 

2 hours ago, jon b said:

Personally I’ve got a collection of rare and limited edition BMW motorcycles, 13 at the last count, but my daily rides for touring are a R1250RT and a 2005 R1150GS adventure special edition.

Whoa! That is an impressive collection, way behind you there... 🤪

Been riding awhile, Mostly on our camping excursions anymore.

 

 

Edited March 10, 20242 yr by Ed_S_Pilot

I ride an Indian Challenger.

There is now a 450cc version of the Enfield. Worth having a look at. Modernized in a good way.

Back in the day, I rode a Kawasaki 500 triple. Never did find out how fast it would go... I chickened at 120 mph, it was starting to float a bit. I had 2000 rpm left, and another gear to go. I started thinking about what one little rock would do, with it floating a bit. My old man rode a 650 BSA, stuffed in a 500 flat tracker frame. He was clocked at over a 100, escaping a traffic stop once. He was crazier than I was... but they didn't catch him.

Over 40 years later it's funny, it wasn't at the time.

 

Edited March 10, 20242 yr by Penzoil3

21 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

Back in the day, I rode a Kawasaki 500 triple.

Great taste, Sue...although, at that time, I'm sure many saw you as a Bada$$ with that ride! To this day, drum brakes on the front of a motorcycle scare the bejesus out of me! Back in the day, I started riding my Kawasaki 350 triple (S2) the day I turned 16. One year later, I graduated to the 750 triple (H2), also referred to as "the Widow Maker"...that was a scary bike...couldn't keep the front wheel on the ground...of course, riding during my "invincible" era, I just didn't know any better. One time, my older brother (on his KZ1000) and I were doing 200 Kph (125 mph) on the freeway. An RCMP cruiser had someone else pulled over on the side...he didn't even try to pursue us...I don't even think he radio'd us in...probably just thought to himself "a couple more organ donors"!

Another time, I recall a middle aged guy (recall, I was in my invincible age!) was on his brand new Honda CBX pulled up beside me at a light. He looked down on me and my "smoking" 750 2 stroke and asked "What is that piece of word not allowed?". OK, let's go! I literally left him behind in a cloud of blue smoke. A few traffic lights later, "what the hell is that?" to which I responded "pretty quick for a piece of word not allowed, isn't it!".

After about 3 years on the 750 triple, I moved to the Kawasaki Z1R. Rode that one for about 4 years...much smoother (and a more predictable rpm band) to ride than the 750 triple. (Somewhere in a moving box, I still have pictures of all those rides.)

Took a long hiatus from riding after a friend lost his leg after being sideswiped by a public transport bus. Moved on to open air Jeep CJ5's...nothing like flipping down the front windshield to get that feeling of wind back in my face...back when I still had a full head of hair!

Over the years, I owned 6 different Jeep CJ5's.

In 2010, I bought a brand new Harley Deluxe. Customized it a little and rode that one for 12 years. Classic bike...IMHO, overpriced, very heavy and cheaply built...only saving grace is that parts are plentiful and (relatively) inexpensive for Harleys.

I'll have to say, I think my favorite ride was the 350 triple...quick enough, very light weight and excellent handling, with the simplicity of a 2 stroke.

Currently toying with the idea of acquiring an older Yamaha RD400 to restore...what can I say...I'm a sucker for kick start two strokes.

PS: My longest serving (22 years so far) knuckle scraper isn't a motorcycle...another open air car that I've been slowly restoring/modifying for most of that time.

On 3/10/2024 at 4:35 PM, dbw1 said:

I ride an Indian Challenger.

There is now a 450cc version of the Enfield. Worth having a look at. Modernized in a good way.

You mean the Himalayan? For a moment there I thought you meant the 'Classic'. I would be all over that if it was true! My (growing) gripe with the Enfields is that recommended valve adjustment on kind of regular intervals. Surely, that can't be standard? That would probably be quite the hefty bill.

 

22 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

Back in the day, I rode a Kawasaki 500 triple. Never did find out how fast it would go... I chickened at 120 mph, it was starting to float a bit. I had 2000 rpm left, and another gear to go. I started thinking about what one little rock would do, with it floating a bit. My old man rode a 650 BSA, stuffed in a 500 flat tracker frame. He was clocked at over a 100, escaping a traffic stop once. He was crazier than I was... but they didn't catch him.

Over 40 years later it's funny, it wasn't at the time.

120 mph is plenty on two wheels, don't see myself doing that ever.. 😅especially at 40+. I was a way more 'spirited' driver when I was younger (that being on four wheels) and loved fast cars enormously, but these days I very rarely go above the legal speeds.

Got one of those 'memento mori'-moments when me and my two sons, aged 8 and 6 at the time, were going home one dark autumn evening. Per usual I had set the cruise control to the legal speed for the current road (50-ish mph) while I scanned the edges of the road and my fellow drivers for potential hazards. Some fifty meters ahead of me I suddenly saw a big moose cross the road.

I said to the kids 'LOOK BOYS! A MOOOSE!!' and we all had a bit of a laugh, but when I'd passed it several what-ifs crossed my mind. Say, If I had driven slightly different things could have got REAL ugly for us all. Kind of shudder a bit when I think about it.