A perspective on riding, life, and when riding is done

Claviger said:

Largely preventable though.

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Haha, wait and see, Son.

I'll be 71 in a couple of days..fcuk it---let's ride..

1olbull said:

I went through this with my old motor cop partner. He was pushing 80 and very unstable on two wheels.
He actually listened and quit . . . until some of his riding buddies talked him into a trike. No stability issues, but he was still a threat with diminished cognitive skills.
I sweated that out for a couple years until he passed from lung cancer. Miss ya, Norm!
Now we got another retired LEO in our Blue Knights, younger than I whose riding is really shaley and sux!
Folks complain to me how dangerous he is to ride either in front of or in back of. i have spoken nicely with him, but he is totally unaware of, and denies there is anything wrong with his riding. He is a real nice guy and a great member to our club. Why must I be the "bad guy"???

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In our late 60's and early 70's most of us in my small riding group, average 5 or 6, ride once a week for 150-200 miles and remain mentally and physically competent enough to continue one of the things we live for.......bike riding. One of us is 88 and he worries the rest of us.....he drifts out into the oncoming lane around mountain curvy roads and flies past the rest of us without warning.....but this behavior is not a constant yet....just from time to time.....which most all bike riders are guilty of once in awhile regardless of skill and capacities. We have discussions about an intervention-like discussion with our buddy, a retired Marine who not only fought in Korea but Vietnam as well. We are all immensely proud to have such a friend but of course we don't want to see him hurt or worse. Bottom line with all our hand-wringing and biker philosophies......we will let him ride with us as long as he wants.......we think his love of biking is probably what has kept him alive this long. We just hope he will realize sooner than later when he is unable physically/mentally to do all the things necessary to meet up with us for our weekly ride. We will miss him terribly when that day comes.......on the other hand he might out-live all of us.

maybe some one needs to slow down and ask him to ride at a slower pace with him.

TURBO200R4 said:

maybe some one needs to slow down and ask him to ride at a slower pace with him.

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Well, at 71 and next oldest in the group that would be me and that is exactly what I do. We don't get in his face but we do comment to him directly about how he could have become a hood ornament on a F150 when he has done something stupid....as we have all been guilty of. We love the guy and none of us has known a man with a better self-deprecating sense of humor. Lately he stays behind me the majority of time because I believe he is starting to realize.... that despite his macho-man life.....time is catching up to him.