It Ain't The Tool
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1,900 Posts
Great article. So true. I sold a nice VFR to buy a new 99 R1100GS. I was sure I needed a new "adventure" bike. I rode the same roads at pretty much the same speeds with the same people. I learned I wasn't an "adventure" rider. So I went and got another VFR. The ZRX I had to have is sold as of today. I think it might be time for a nice used R1150R with ABS and a couple of classes. Then read maps instead of supersport shootouts.
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1,538 Posts
Fred / MO
Aw schucks.... Thanks.
I consider myself lucky to know Fred and when he agreed to start doing monthly MO columns, I couldn't shake his hand fast enough
Aw schucks.... Thanks.
I consider myself lucky to know Fred and when he agreed to start doing monthly MO columns, I couldn't shake his hand fast enough
Yes. Not me personally, but there's an H-D dealer here in the UK who issued a challenge a year or so ago to anyone on any stock sportbike of the GSXR/RR/ZX variety to match him around a race circuit when he was riding a Glide. He never lost his money, because what the squids of two years' experience didn't know was that ten years previously he'd been a top-level racer, and knew just how far over you can get things to go, plus how to go through turns with the rear wheel purposely sliding. Thus proving once again that it ain't the tool...
Whatever you're paying Fred for his articles isn't enough. His article was worth the MO subscription on its own. More, please...
Whatever you're paying Fred for his articles isn't enough. His article was worth the MO subscription on its own. More, please...
Absolutely spot on. I've been riding constantly for nearly thirty years (gee, my bum's sore) and there's some things I've learned and others I haven't.
If you can't see 'round that corner you can't be sure it's clear.
If it ain't clear, you're dead.
If in doubt, don't.
Torque is where the fun is.
Chain drives suck.
Fast is fun but smooth is faster.
If you can't see 'round that corner you can't be sure it's clear.
If it ain't clear, you're dead.
If in doubt, don't.
Torque is where the fun is.
Chain drives suck.
Fast is fun but smooth is faster.
I love it! It's always so much easier to fantasize, while leafing through a catalog, than than it is to do the work. The ego demands what our abilities can't deliver, so we turn to UPS (it so shiny, it gotta make me go faster). Just once, I'd like to read an Ad with small-prints that says, "Chances are, you can't ride this thing worth beans, but if you buy a loud pipe you won't hear anyone laughing."
Copywriters never seem to mention that riding a hyper-bike amounts to digging in at the plate against Randy Johnson.
Thanks for the reality check.
Copywriters never seem to mention that riding a hyper-bike amounts to digging in at the plate against Randy Johnson.
Thanks for the reality check.
Fred doesn't have a clue. He's just an old GPTB member that never rode a modern 600. Maybe if he got off his old Harley, he'd realize the inline four is a superior machine.
Okay, for those that haven't been here, I WAS KIDDING.
Truly, it reminds me of people that buy a $1500 set of golf clubs to shoot a 102. They brag more about the clubs than their game. Everybody gets caught up in the hype at times. Motorcycles have surpassed the average guy's ability to ride it anywhere near the limit about 20 years ago. I always laugh when the latest sportbike is deemed "down on power" or the latest squid asks when will Buell make a 'REAL' sportbike. Most bikes don't win the Burger Barn shootout, but they are already way more than we will ever use.
Okay, for those that haven't been here, I WAS KIDDING.
Truly, it reminds me of people that buy a $1500 set of golf clubs to shoot a 102. They brag more about the clubs than their game. Everybody gets caught up in the hype at times. Motorcycles have surpassed the average guy's ability to ride it anywhere near the limit about 20 years ago. I always laugh when the latest sportbike is deemed "down on power" or the latest squid asks when will Buell make a 'REAL' sportbike. Most bikes don't win the Burger Barn shootout, but they are already way more than we will ever use.
While Fred was hearing his Grandfather, as I listened to Fred I was hearing Burns in his prime, Nielson in his, Jennings in his, Egan in the now .....and my own long gone Granddad saying something similar.
In other words, damn good writing! Good work, MO. Welcome Fred! Yet another good reason to stay onboard.
In other words, damn good writing! Good work, MO. Welcome Fred! Yet another good reason to stay onboard.
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67 Posts
It aint the tool IT AINT THE TOOL!!!
Hey MO, be careful! All those advertisers over there on the left of my screen might read this and get upset with you for exposing the truth! I've seen more exampes of this truth at various track days than I can remember. I love it when an instructor passes an entire "expert" class while 2 up on a BMW K bike.
Spend your first thousand dollars on decent safety gear and quality instruction. Then maybe you be able to eeeek out just a little benefit from all those high dollar mods.
Hey MO, be careful! All those advertisers over there on the left of my screen might read this and get upset with you for exposing the truth! I've seen more exampes of this truth at various track days than I can remember. I love it when an instructor passes an entire "expert" class while 2 up on a BMW K bike.
Spend your first thousand dollars on decent safety gear and quality instruction. Then maybe you be able to eeeek out just a little benefit from all those high dollar mods.
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771 Posts
couldn't have said it better..... but I can't resist
Fred don't know beans! I bet he can't even do a block long mono. Back me up on this MR ALLCAPS!!!
You haz to zet thiz brutha straight!
Fred don't know beans! I bet he can't even do a block long mono. Back me up on this MR ALLCAPS!!!
You haz to zet thiz brutha straight!
I was taking Jason Pridmore's course last year - my very first time on a racetrack - and I showed up figuring I'd be the oldest (55 then) and slowest rider on the track. Wrong. First thing I notice is all the people with number plates on their crotch rockets, including an Aprilia, couple of Ducs, CBRs, R1s and R6s, SV 1000, but there were also an VFR800, couple of GS Beemers, Triumph ST, my ZRX-1100 and a 68 year old Geezer on a 650 V-strom. Now I wasn't fastest in our group some guy on a CBR600 was. And the second fastest was the old geezer on the V-strom. (Hah, I was third fastest!) Of course we were all still blown off by the instructors on SV-650s!
It ain't the tool.....
It ain't the tool.....
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