Hey Seniors, This is MAXINE! I've got her Shifters, Brakes, Bars, and Seat adjusted, now I'm ready to cruise the byways of the High Desert! To make it really cushy, I put extra padding in the seatback! Hal
Bill Boggs, you would be bored if you joined me...I ride no more than 3 miles through my neighborhood, and I don't go on the highways. Even when I had motorcycles I never ventured on the highways! Hal
I've even got a hat like yours and two or three miles woiuld be perfect. After all, as someone pointed our recently, I'm not the hoss I used to be.
Maybe it’s just an issue over jargon. A motorbike to most people in the U.S. is just a small moped capable of going no faster than 35 mph. (Legally in most states). They’re really not very good where there is a lot of traffic and higher speeds and quite frankly, an accident looking for a place to happen. A motorcycle on the other hand can handle road speeds and the highways much better with a litttle better safety value. Now, if he’s talking about an off-road motor bike such as one would see on a moto-cross competition, they’re not legally road ready to drive on the streets. Maybe that’s what he is talking about and maybe not but I’m trying to give him a little credit. All around the world, the bike with an engine attached to it is a motorbike no matter what style it is but the citizenry in the U.S. are just a little bit finicky about their cycles and never to be confused with motorbikes.
@Holly, going over 30 MPH on ANY 2-wheeled vehicle just doesn't feel safe to me! 30MPH would not be allowed on the highways anyway, so I was happy riding at 20-25MPH on my residential streets or on the High Desert trails. I loved running my motorcycles at a LOW engine RPM, thumping along the street at 15MPH in 3rd gear, then cranking on the throttle and feeling that big 94mm piston stroking me ahead at an increasing cadence! This beats those bikes running with screaming engines all to hell! Here's that Suzuki "Big Single" motorcycle that I owned until I turned 70; it was my favorite "Thumper". (Single-cylinder motorcycle) I had it at freeway speeds once, and that was enough for me! Here is also my Whizzer Motorbike, which is a bicycle with a small 4-stroke engine, capable of no more than 40-45 MPH. Hal
I had a Yamaha 80 that would do better than eighty miles an hour. It really sucked on the freeway because the freeway surfaces were grooved in a way that made it difficult for small motorcycles, but that's all I drove for a couple of years in Southern California, where it rarely rained and the Yamaha was great for getting through stopped traffic. Plus, that saved me a lot during the gas shortages in the 1970s. I had a Suzuki 650 for a while, at a time when that was the largest motorcycle that I could drive, being short. They weren't making the more powerful ones low enough to the ground for me to handle comfortably. Even the Suzuki was hard to keep up if I had to wait for too long at a light. I didn't worry so much about safety then, and didn't even wear a helmet. Today, I don't know. I still think I'd love to have another motorcycle but I am far more conscious of the fact that it's really easy to die on a motorcycle. Basically, one rock or a substantial piece of trash in the road, and that could be the end of the line. Plus drivers aren't usually conscious of the motorcycles that are driving on the roads. I see that even in myself - although I haven't hit anyone, I have to make an extra effort to acknowledge a motorcycle. Thus, drivers are far more likely to pull out in front of someone on a motorcycle, or to turn into their lane.
It's for Cycling enthusiasts, called "Cycle Chat". It's because I want to chat with those who ride a Recumbent Trike, similar to mine. This Forum has as many categories as the SeniorsOnly forum! Here's my Recumbent: Hal