[tongue in cheek]
Me too :(
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Yippee ! The fair weather bikers are readying their machines to rejoin us ;)
This upset me at first but then I thought about it for a bit.
I rode a bike more-or-less every single day from 1975 until about 1999.
I do mean every day, through snow, sun and shine.
Marriage put paid to that. Somehow, after paying for all the cosmetics and clothing etc, there was never enough money to keep the bike on the road.
I have now been a free man for a few years so I now, once again, have a bike at my beck and call.
I am lucky to be able to walk to work. Why dig the bike out if it is freezing or raining cats and dogs?
On the other hand, when the sun is shining and/or the roads are dry, there is nothing better than riding to work the long way around.
So I have to admit that I am now a fair-weather biker. I am not ashamed of it though.
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Same here. I live too close to my workplace to make a bike commute worthwhile; been riding bikes since 1976 and apart from anything else I don't think it's either big or clever to get cold and wet just going to work if there's a better alternative. I also have nothing to prove, either to myself or anyone else.
I could perhaps walk to work, it's only two miles; however since my job involves delivering 25kg bags of animal feed, much of it offloaded by hand, the health benefits are miniscule and I'm often too tired to drive home let alone walk! Anyway it's uphill going home so stuff it I'll keep using the car!
Edited by Harleyman on 18/02/2009 at 22:49
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Sorry if I caused offence, wasn't meant to, the clue was in the [tongue in cheek] bit.
The only reason I use the bike all year round is because my commute at the moment involves clogged motorways which can take over an hour (sometimes upto 2 hours if I get the timing completely wrong) whereas it's 30 minutes max by bike. No bravado just prefer to use that time with my family rather than sitting going nowhere.
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No offence taken mate. You're using a bike for what it should be used for, respect to you for that.
I happen to dislike commuting anyway; since I drive for a living I prefer to live "over the shop" if I can.
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You did not offend me gmac - just made me think a bit. I used to despise fair-weather bikers
(A friend calls them butterflies because they are all pretty colours and you see them when the sun comes out)
Thinking more, I would like to think that I am not a proper FWB ; I do not need to get the bike out if it is raining so I don't. But if I were to change my job and had to start commuting again then it wouldn't worry me at all. I've done it before, after all. (Better gear now too)
Without wishing to offend Harleyman, the worst example of a FWB was a Harley owner I used to know. We were talking about waterproofs and he said he had never had any.
He never went out in the rain because waterproofs would spoil the look of the bike!
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Without wishing to offend Harleyman the worst example of a FWB was a Harley owner I used to know. We were talking about waterproofs and he said he had never had any. He never went out in the rain because waterproofs would spoil the look of the bike!
There's still a few like that about! Used to be a standing joke about Gold Wings that they were actually solar powered; never saw 'em on the road unless the sun was shining. ;-)
Back in the mid-90's, for a few months my only transport (due to pranging my car) was my old side-valve WLA Harley; I was sent to a job about 20 miles from home and had to commute on the bike, middle of winter and two nights running I rode it home through snow. Bear in mind that it was foot-clutch, hand-change and even then was closer 60 than 50 years old!
Not all us Harley riders are FWB's though; during that horribly wet summer of 2007 I organised an event in Market Harborough for our club, to celebrate 50 years of the Sportster's production. Despite it being the wettest weekend of the year, 115 people turned up, and 107 of them were on bikes.
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Ah yes....... Goldwings. I have been stuck behind the Goldwing Owner's Club many times, even in a car!
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Went out today and didn't have the heated grips turned on - bliss.
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I admit to being a FWB. I also enjoy driving my car as well so I do not feel too guilty.
The springlike weather is tempting me to get on the BMW but consistent double digit low teens temperatures are needed for me to be comfortable. So roll on April?
Edited by Glaikit Wee Scunner {P} on 02/03/2009 at 20:20
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Get the darn thing on the road!
I went out last Sunday on a 30 mile jaunt round some goat-tracks, or minor roads as they're called round here, with that eccentric bunch of loonies, the VMCC. I don't know who was more surprised when the old Harley side-valve went down a green lane without getting stuck (as they anticipated) them or me!
Best fun I've had for ages, especially watching riders on far more modern machinery fail to cope with the conditions.
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