Riding with a passenger

[Mel46]

Interestingly enough, I didn't learn to drive until I bought a motorcycle. Good time to learn! At the time I hadn't even thought about driving. I was in the military, very young, and stationed out in West Texas, far from anything. I was an x-ray tech. A patient came in through the emergency room who had been in a motorcycle accident. He stayed in the hospital for several months, so we ended up talking a lot. He had a Triumph he wanted to rebuild after the accident, but he needed funds. He told me he had a Harley Sportster (900cc) that he wanted to sell. I bought it with the promise that he or his friends would teach me how to ride it. After an all day lesson, and another day of riding beside another rider, I was turned loose. After I told my work associates what I had done, one of them decided that it was time to teach me to drive a car, and time that I got a driver's license. Within a month I had my license, with the motorcycle endorsement. I was either 17 or 18 at the time. I am still driving and riding.

[lillypinkjenny]

Interestingly enough, I didn't learn to drive until I bought a motorcycle.

Great account. Sounds like you stumbled into driving like I stumbled into riding.

I was happy being a pillion on my ex's bikes. One day he decided (as he unilaterally decided most things) that he didn't want to carry pillions any longer. It cramped his style.

It was therefore a done deal as far as he was concerned that I would do an intensive riding course and go from scratch to a full licence in a week. After that, I would be able to ride one of his bikes (a CB600 Hornet) enabling me to at least get to a ride destination, even if it was some time behind him and his riding buddies.

Frankly, I was terrified. When the course started, I started to enjoy it and by the time Friday rolled around and I took my final test, I was hooked.

I can't imagine not riding now. My love of bikes survived way longer than that relationship did, but that's another epic-length story in itself, and the final chapter has probably not even been written yet!

[lillypinkjenny]

I am all set and now I just have to wait for the delivery, which is getting harder by the day.

... and we want photos of you and your good lady with the new steed, please.

[Mel46]

To this day I don't know what sparked my interest in motorcycles. I hadn't even thought about them until that day they rolled that guy into the x-ray room, and he had literally hit a brick wall with his motorcycle. Talk about busted up! ...and yet i wanted one for my very own. Maybe it was a secret death wish. Who knows. :-/

[superandyp]

Jenny, Mel, i have found your experiences A lot of fun to read. My intro to riding is very dull in comparison i.e. My Wife stopped work to home ed the kids, couldn't afford to run a second car so bought a scooter. I would say I used it as more of an excuse to get a scooter than a necessity. When I took my driving test the examiner kept on about his motorbikes, going on about them throughout the test not paying any attention to my driving. Mean while I broke the speed limit by 10mph, scrubbed the curb while reversing round the corner, and stalled on take off. I was very surprised when he announced "congratulations you have passed". I must be a good listener.

[gn2]

After that, I would be able to ride one of his bikes (a CB600 Hornet) enabling me to at least get to a ride destination, even if it was some time behind him and his riding buddies.

If he wasn't prepared to ride with you at your pace he ain't worth shit and no great loss.

[WhiteNoise]

Thumbs up (Cheers) to that!

[lillypinkjenny]

To this day I don't know what sparked my interest in motorcycles.

I think it's fate. We'd have found our way to it by a different means if we hadn't taken the paths we had.

Jenny, Mel, i have found your experiences A lot of fun to read. My intro to riding is very dull in comparison

Thank you so much. I love to hear from fellow enthusiasts about their own journeys and inspiration too. It's never dull by any standards. Yours is as cool as anyone else's.

If he wasn't prepared to ride with you at your pace he ain't worth shit and no great loss.

You are, of course, absolutely correct.

What can I say? I was young and naive at the time. Things have changed since then. Some for the worse but a lot more for the better.

[Daguang]

Forza 125 is my dream bike....but only available in Europe...

[gn2]

Forza 125 is my dream bike....

You need to dream bigger

[you you]

Forza 125 is my dream bike....

You need to dream bigger

Honda Jazz?

[Mel46]

Well, my dream of pulling the bikes out of the basement and just riding to the mountains have been put on hold. Yesterday we had thunderstorms come up suddenly as my wife was out at the curb checking our mail. She made a run for the house when the rain started beating down on her. There is a drain spout on the side of our carport that curves inward...don't ask me why. It has been like that for as long as I remember, and we run over the tip every time we enter the carport. In any case, it has built up a lot of green slime around it. My wife stepped in the slime, slipped, her shoe got stuck under the curved spout, and down she went. She broke her wrist in two places. She won't get her cast on until tomorrow, so I am doing everything for her, plus my work, so I don't have a spare minute unless I tell her that I am taking a break. So much for us riding...oh, and tomorrow is suppose to be a really stormy day. Some Spring!

[GeorgeSK]

Just what she didn't need. Express out sympathies and give her my best (even though she doesn't know me from Adam...)

[lillypinkjenny]

Sounds like a short journey to Sucksville, Mel.

I'll also apologise now for my part in taking this thread off-topic.

...albeit in an interesting direction.

[you you]

Just what she didn't need. Express out sympathies and give her my best (even though she doesn't know me from Adam...)

x2

[springer1]

What is your experience riding with the passenger?

I don't. Hey, each to their own but I find it difficult enough to ride defensively solo. But hey, that's just me - each to their own.

[Spaguar]

I am so impressed how my first thread developed, with such interesting side-tracking.
I am also very happy seeing no haters and no bullies. Kudos to the moderator!

To contribute to Lilly's and Mel's interesting stories, I have started my motoring on both 2 and 4 wheels long before the legal age.
My first motored solo ride was when I was 10, on a French Solex 3800 - a bicycle with a funny motor on a front wheel

Solex 3800.png (522.11 KiB) Viewed 1053 times

(could not decide whether to present it by Brigitte Bardot or Steve Mac Queen, so I selected both)

My mother was supportive of my early driving. At the age of 12 she let me drive her sporty FIAT 850 Sport Coupe to school, with her sitting in a passenger seat. At that time the local police were not as strict as today. Check out this beautiful machine with a wooden finished steering wheel.

FIAT 850 Sport Coupe.jpg (154.53 KiB) Viewed 1053 times

At age 14 I won a local 50cc Moto-cross event and my parents learnt about it on the evening TV news. No drama - they were pretty proud of me and used it repeatedly as an anecdote.

I made my moped and car licences as early as legally allowed.
Even though I rode some serious bikes like the mighty 2-beat Kawasaki 500 and, later in Thailand Kawasaki 750 (nobody asks a tourist for a drivers licence in Thailand), I didn't get a full size motorcycle licence until last summer. I took it some 25 years after my last motorbike ride just to check if I still enjoyed it. YES I DID!

I then took my time for a detailed research on what bike, if any at all, would be suitable for my commuting to work, my city rides and weekend excursions and the decision came to Forza 125. Whatever other bikes I checked, I always returned to Forza.

Mel - sorry to hear about your wife's accident. I feel for both of you. Just before last Christmas, my wife tripped and broke her leg. She ended up in a cast for 6 weeks and now is still undergoing physical therapy. We are not youngsters any more and recovery takes more time. I hope she would be pillion-ready by the time my Forza arrives and I get enough confidence to ride with a passenger.

Yes Lilly, the photo will surely follow.

Best regards - Darko

[easyrider]

Well, my dream of pulling the bikes out of the basement and just riding to the mountains have been put on hold. Yesterday we had thunderstorms come up suddenly as my wife was out at the curb checking our mail. She made a run for the house when the rain started beating down on her. There is a drain spout on the side of our carport that curves inward...don't ask me why. It has been like that for as long as I remember, and we run over the tip every time we enter the carport. In any case, it has built up a lot of green slime around it. My wife stepped in the slime, slipped, her shoe got stuck under the curved spout, and down she went. She broke her wrist in two places. She won't get her cast on until tomorrow, so I am doing everything for her, plus my work, so I don't have a spare minute unless I tell her that I am taking a break. So much for us riding...oh, and tomorrow is suppose to be a really stormy day. Some Spring!

That damn spout has to go.. Use some bleach and clean up the algae and reroute the drain another way.If you need to take a photo and we can offer modifications so that will never happen again.

[GeorgeSK]

Gotta love the wandering thread, and I gotta love that Fiat 850 coupe. That never existed here in the states. The Spyder? Yes - my wife bought one new in 73 (at sticker price - it was her first experience with a car dealer and didn't know that the sticker was a starting point for the price discussion) and sold it a few years later during one of our "gas crises" for more than she paid for it since it got 40 mpg.

Bridgette's and Steve's machines are pretty cool, too. Thanks.

[WhiteNoise]

Well, my dream of pulling the bikes out of the basement and just riding to the mountains have been put on hold. Yesterday we had thunderstorms come up suddenly as my wife was out at the curb checking our mail. She made a run for the house when the rain started beating down on her. There is a drain spout on the side of our carport that curves inward...don't ask me why. It has been like that for as long as I remember, and we run over the tip every time we enter the carport. In any case, it has built up a lot of green slime around it. My wife stepped in the slime, slipped, her shoe got stuck under the curved spout, and down she went. She broke her wrist in two places. She won't get her cast on until tomorrow, so I am doing everything for her, plus my work, so I don't have a spare minute unless I tell her that I am taking a break. So much for us riding...oh, and tomorrow is suppose to be a really stormy day. Some Spring!

That damn spout has to go.. Use some bleach and clean up the algae and reroute the drain another way.If you need to take a photo and we can offer modifications so that will never happen again.

+1
Your poor wife. She can't cut a break! What a freakin' accident, just horrible. Please avoid another by moving that damn thing. Photo? Yes, we can help