Who rides your bike?

[wilbur-t]

My friend Amy has ridden my R3 quite a bit. She handles it like a pro. We trade bikes and I ride her Magna, which feels like a toy after getting off the Rocket. Her husband, Wout, and my brother-in-law are the only other 2 people to ride it. They are very experianced riders, and I was always riding theirs at the same time. Several co-workers used to ask to ride it, but the answer was always "NO".

 

[Hero Blob]

Just to expound a tad....I only let people I know well ride mine. I let a friend who had only been riding for about a year take my Yamaha 1300 out. What he lacked in overall experience he made up for respect for other's property. I rode his SV650 for a few hours and he rode my bike.

 

[busajack]

HeR3tic

HeR3tic,,I think that would be unsanitary don't you. Mabey change the ice water then you could take it..lol. If I don't let someone ride it how do I take videos and picts. of it in action. I have a video cam. mount on the side of my helmet. Got some really fun videos with the clowns I ride with. Then in Jan. Feb. I watch them to help cut down on cabin fever. Have one with cam. on Busas speedo. at 180 mph on I-25 just to prove to the judge that it would do it..Yes I let close friends that have been riding large bikes for over 40 yrs ride him. Jack

 

[rusty]

Good thread subject!!!

I would guess that a captain's decision would (and could) be based on past experience. I've let a handful of others ride my old Yamaha XS1100E. I let a fellow worker/biker ride it. He blasted down the street toward the main 4 lane highway down the busy part of town. It accelerated so quick (for a bike built in 1978) he could not get her shut down & "slid" clean across 4 lanes of potential traffic & down into a shallow drainage ditch. He returned to the shop kinda sheepish looking & told me the story (I did not see it happen). Before it was 2 years old, my brother nailed a parked car with it. Out of commission for about 2 years (I was a kid with not much income). Bent forks, goose neck, broken front mag. Luckily no deformed sheetmetal. And, during the 2 years it sat in the basement, I did not notice that the mice were eating the insulation off the wiring. Yea, what fun that was. It took a port-a-power, a come-along, chains & a right stiff bar to straighten the frame (goose neck) out. When we finished and put it back together, we were only 1/4" off (short) on the wheel base.
Then, I watched another friend throttle to a speed that he "apparently" was not comfortable with, cause when he came to a curve in the road, he nailed the curb. The front suspension took it well but when the rear tire contacted the curb, the bike was airborne (as well as the rider). Bent handle bars, broken levers & mirrors, etc. Buddy was banged up but "walked away".

I have let other friends ride it since all the caos in the early years (yes, it's still road worthy) and have not had to cringe. Guess my choices of fellow riders got better. During the 28 years I've owned the XS, I've only riden one friends bike, it was a Sportster, about 1983. Then the Rocket came into my life just last year. "How sweet it is" (Jackie Gleson).

I'd think really hard (and then talk myself out of it) if I "ever" allowed someone to straddle this monster. I'm thinking I'll keep ALL THIS FUN to myself, and let them experience the jealousy as I "ride off into the sunset". Who said that guys?

See ya.

OH, I forgot, Vonbonds did let me take his Rocket for a short spin during the Sedalia gathering. Now that's "TRUST". Thanks VB!

 

[Pig9r]

The number one criteria for riding my bike is the ability of the rider to at minimum be able to pay the insurance deductable.

Otherwise only a select few friends, family or another Rocket owner would be granted permission. It seems most of my friends that ride Harley's are scared to ride it and turn down an offer for a spin on it.

And another rule, I never ask to ride someone else's bike, only after they insist and I am comfortable with it will I ride it. Unless of course it belongs to the dealer.

 

[Jamie]

Wtf ?

No one else rides my Green Machine. Dealer principal aside, of course, when he happens to have it in for service and wants to go for a little stroll with it. But I have misgivings about that as well

Jamie

 

[Paul Hyland]

I'm with you Jamie, you don't know how much is necessity and how much is for fun. I had a neighbor who took his Mustang in for custom exhaust and one of the workers decided to take it for lunch and on the way totaled it. It was 3 weeks old. :soapbox:

 

[Toystoretom]

Hey Paul... About the guy coming back for the Harley.... he was an owner, it was his. He only got to ride it about ten feet, but that's his problem. You own it after you sign the papers. He had also signed a document stating that he had full insurance coverage before he took delivery, and that contract is between him and his bank.

We stored it back in the shop for about a month, it had a lot of damage. In addition to what I said before it had a bent front wheel, front fender, damaged mirrors and grips, some of the chrome do dahs down the side of it were scraped up, broken turn signals and on and on and on.

He had a aftermarket Harley shop come and pick it up to do repairs on it. He didn't like our estimate to return it to stock condition. If any of you have ever tried to duplicate Harley paint on a tank you know how hard and costly it is. If I remember right it had some funky anniversary emblems on the gas tank that were damaged and Harley would NOT replace them unless we gave them the VIN of the bike, photos of the VIN plate along with the damage, and we were supposed to return both badges so we couldn't keep them as an extra set. They were paranoid that we might make a counterfeit Anniversay Softtail with the extra badges. Then they called back and said they wouldn't change them out period because we weren't a Harley Shop.

To make a long story short the aftermarket shop just butchered the bike (Hog Wild in Lee's Summit???). Someone told me it looked like a 12 year old tried to design and build a chopper out of it. The owner stilled owed something like 15 bills to the bank and now all he had was a raving turd bucket. He should have let us do it. Piggr has seen our work, we do a good job.

I don't feel sorry for this guy, somewhere along the line he lied to someone, if nothing more he lied to himself. He had no business throwing a leg over that bike. I guess he learned the hard way.

I also learned later that he had no health insurance and for the longest time he didn't have his knee fixed, I guess we'll just call him gimpy....

 

[Hondax]

To all of you, good stories.

Tomo,
A Nissan collision shop would repair a motorcycle? Seems odd to me, but I'm not in the biz.

 

[Toystoretom]

We used to sell Bikes... mostly Harleys. We were selling more bikes than Nissans and Nissan got pissed, made us get rid of them. We should have stuck with the bikes and dumped Nissan .

For a short time we also sold KIA's. The most gawd awful cars ever made. KIA stands for Keep It Away.