Poll... when will you retire from riding?

A playful question that just had to turn serious. We passed the hat at work the other day for a new guy at work his 7yr old daughter has lukiemia and even though none of us had time to get to know him yet those of us with kids dug deep. Don't know you Pete but what your going thru could be any of us any time. Thanks for the inspiration.

When I get to the point that I can't hold the bike up anymore and I need training wheels...

MikeDeY said:

My dying wish will be for someone to set me up on my bike on a long stretch of road and just let me go.

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Like this?

I've recently taken an interest in the carbureted British made Bonnevilles and I've acquired a couple of them. My sense is that some folks collect them, like Hot Wheels. Certainly they're a lot of fun. In the retro bike market, they're hard to beat.

In any event, the one I've most recently acquired was traded toward a Thunderbird by a guy who has not yet fallen off his bike as he died, but who is considerably older than 80.

He bought the Bonneville new, then bought a Thunderbird, and now he's traded the Bonneville on a new Thunderbird, so he's got two Thunderbirds in his garage.

This guy is my new role model. He's 20 years older than me, and he's still riding relatively heavy bikes.

I have a Rocket III Touring, and so my new goal for old person riding is to trade a Bonneville on another R3T when I'm in my 80's.

Sure would be nice if it were possible.

FWIW, at the annual BMW Motorcycle Owners Group Rally, they give an award for the oldest guy who rode to the event. It is not uncommon for that oldest guy to have broken 90.

When I was young, there was a little old guy that used to hang out with the rest of us bike ridin' guys. He looked 100. He rode a Lambretta scooter, but had at one time been associated with the Harley Hummers, and so his nickname was Hum.

I don't know how old he was, but he was surely well into his 70's. He came into some money, and what did he buy? A full dress Harley 74.

So .... we should all be so lucky as to be able to handle a 700+ pound motorcycle well into ancient age. Maybe it keeps you young.

I've got current friends who came to motorcycling late in life as the solution to some mid life crisis. Many of them have already retired from motorcycling. If you didn't love it as a young man, you probably won't love it as an old one ... but if it's in your blood, it's hard to give it up.

CanberraR3 said:

Peter's my hero too. The way he's been able to laugh at his predicament is pretty inspiring. When I popped up to see him a couple of months ago he had us in stitches telling how he'd cornered the market in levers - 'cos his bike had been over so many times he'd started carrying spares in his saddle bag. Takes a lot of guts to ride a Rocket when you struggle to move and arm and a leg, but it takes real character to laugh at it.

Here's a pic from Nabiac last year. TC and Catherine and I had met up there and Peter just breezed in on his way home from one of his characteristic journeys.


Peter epitomises what real riding is. Seeing him appear on here brings a smile to my face every time, tinged with more than a little sadness.

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Well said, Richard.
I'd like to see more pix of peter!!!

TriumPhil said:

Like this?

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Yes. Heathen hordes and catapults included.