Motorcycle-licensed pilots

[Colonel Sanders]

Must stop doing burn-outs

I give up - what else do you do, before you
change the rear tire?

[Beefitarian]

because of the rule changes that came with marriage

Do you suppose it would be appropriate for you
to ask for your testicles back?

I have considered divorce but hear it's really expensive. So, no. I presume the house is hers just in case though. I hear I can have half, so if it ever happened she can buy me out with a new mortgage. After the lawyers fees I should have enough to rent a 172 and a single wide near the airport for several months.

Then I'd probably finally find my calling, become that weird old guy that lives in camp and talks to himself. "I used to have it all..."

It was not all bad. I just should have bought an airplane instead. At the time I had not had a functioning bike for a few years. I had a mortgage and was a four bar hopeful so I thought, what was I going to do with a $60 000 Cessna plus the bike once I was flying Navajos? Had $5000 in the bank from working too much and not flying enough so I ordered a bike. You still had to wait for them then, that was part of why they held their value.

Cest la vie. Pardon my French.

[sidestick stirrer]

" and a 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R"

The greatest little bike; what our kids started out on.
The always-irreverent British biking magazine T.W.O. (two Wheels Only) had a feature on 250-CC bikes called "Starter Motors".
They described the little Ninjette as "having the looks of a lion but the heart of a cuckoo clock."
I happened to read that observation while dining at Jackson's on George, during a layover in SYD and it made me LOL so heartily that patrons around stared...

[pdw]

A good inside joke is great sometimes ... LOL

Was looking for a boat motor and stopped in at the Honda Dealer in Stoney creek ON. I walked up to the main entrance just as 30 new bikes swarmed the place for the annual test event. At the counter was asked which bike i was riding, ... was wearing a black leather jacket.

Before I knew it was asked when the last time was I'd been on a bike. Had just happened to have sat on my cousin's 750K few days earlier ... so that's what I said .. 2 days ago.

"OK you wanna ride the new Goldwing ... here's some gloves and a helmet' ... so for the next hour we went riding through the hills north of Hamilton. Hadn't actually ridden a motorcycle in over twenty years, ... lucky no one noticed me wobbling around in practice on the side parking lot before departure. Thankfully the gears still changed exactly how I remembered from my 1982 two cylinder Honda, or I'd have been screwed. The dash overall had more width than the old Saturn and it was twenty minutes of chasing those other crotchrockets before I finally found the blinker switch. The real piece of good fortune was to have had the presence of mind to really hold on tight when opening up wide on the accelerator handlebar for the first time to catch up to the others ... and catch up it did.

[Rowdy]

Sidestick.. we both know there was a better picture of one of your kidlets on one wheel to post.



My bonnie.. Doesn't look anything like this now though. In a billion pieces on the garage floor. I guess when you push the 865 twin closer to a litre and from 55 at the crank to 85hp at the wheel.. it'll need a better clutch and springs! Whoops.

The 'Rowdy' family is also two wheel inclined. I occasionally borrow the big triple.



There are certainly some neat bikes out there..

[Shiny Side Up]

Must stop doing burn-outs if I have to do this afterwards...

Jeebus, hopefully that's a picture of someone you're paying to change that off the rim. I used to do that myself until I discovered I could get someone else to do it for like 20 bucks.

Keeping this aviation themed...

One must note that guys who are good with planes, tend to be guys who are good with all sorts of other mechanical stuff. In general teaching farmers, mechanics, truck drivers, bull dozer operators, welders and plumbers how to fly is alsmost always an easier task than Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers. You have to wonder is there's a "mechanically apt" gene sometimes that draws people to and makes them have a better "feel" for how they work.

This has become readily apparent in the last while when it has come to the task of removing snow. Some of the volunteers are really hard on the equipment, they seem to exude some sort of mechanical entropy.

[sidestick stirrer]

My youngest, flies a taildragger too:

[DanWEC]

I have no clear recollection of that event.

Oliver's Landing has an interesting story behind it. I
used to live there. Bit of a snobby lot. Unless all four
of your grandparents were born there, you simply
weren't a member of the "in clique". At the time, I
politely refrained from any comments on the hazards
of inbreeding.

PS I think the speed limit under the bridge is 10 kph.

Speed limit on water in Ontario unless otherwise marked is 10km/h 100 feet from shore! Though I think there is an exemption if you can blow by it by a factor of 10. Mostly because there is no way of catching you.

[Shotgun Chuck McCoy]

Much like DanWEC;

I have 2 bikes (through an interesting twist of fate) and I love them both. I love taking long trips on gravel roads into the sunset to find secluded fishing spots and being able to carry all my paraphernalia with me when I go.

[esp803]

Up in the Andes of Eastern Chile last winter! I love motorcycles.... why am I in Canada this winter....

E

[Youngback]

Most of the pilots I know ride bikes. Bikes should be a part of the SARON and SAMRA.

[AirFrame]

Too many toys. I sold the VFR that fall, after only putting 2000km on it that year. Living a 5 minute drive from work and from the airport really isn't conducive to a long engine life on a motorcycle. Especially when i'd rather fly than ride.

[Colonel Sanders]

i'd rather fly than ride

Do both! You're going to regret selling that VFR - fine
motorcycle.

It's funny, I'm renewing a retired Air Canada's 40 year
old instructor rating (really) on his aircraft, and sure
enough, he rides a motorcycle to the airport

You have to wonder is there's a "mechanically apt" gene

Funny you mention that - in my family, we call it the
"math gene" which my sister and oldest daughter lament
that they missed.

I feel sad for kids these days, that have grown up without
wrenches and pliers and screwdrivers and sockets and
oxy-act tanks, that didn't spend their childhood breaking
stuff, taking it apart, fixing it, putting it back together again
and then breaking it again.

Because that's pretty well what I still do, today.

Obligatory motorcycle eye candy: http://i.imgur.com/P6lpj.jpg

I remember, a very very long time ago, as a little kid. I doubt
if I was even 10. Mowing the lawn with a piece of shit electric
lawnmower. I don't even know where. Of course I went over
the cord, and cut it. So I stripped the wires, soldered them back
together again, and taped it up with black electrical tape. That's
just what you did, when I was a kid.

[tractor driver]

Did the dirt bike racing thing as a kid. When I graduated to street bikes, got my instructor / examiner rating as a hobby, and have carried on with that, training literally thousands of riders since. Bought the latest bikes from an U.S. Air force buddy who gets H.D.'s @ cost for serving. They're sitting in the hangar for the winter.
Appears I fit the profile.
g

[Beefitarian]

I remember, a very very long time ago, as a little kid. I doubt
if I was even 10. Mowing the lawn with a piece of shit electric
lawnmower. I don't even know where. Of course I went over
the cord, and cut it. So I stripped the wires, soldered them back
together again, and taped it up with black electrical tape. That's
just what you did, when I was a kid.

Not me, I used to mow away from the cord and move it to the part I already mowed.

[pdw]

Yes, (tractor driver) the profile is showing itself adequately so far. Anyone who's not into motorbike riding of course should be welcomed to post here as well, ... maybe to demonstrate a perspective where the adrenalin rushes aren't quite so dominant ?

You have to wonder is there's a "mechanically apt" gene

Funny you mention that - in my family, we call it the
"math gene" which my sister and oldest daughter lament
that they missed.

And assure them not to worry, they may be more mathematically apt than they are aware.

On a trip to LA for the kids dance lessons, got into a conversation with a retired math teacher who survived a bullet in a school shooting. Her one strong idea was that anyone involved in running a simple household successfully is an expert mathematician, living within their budget constraints in making it work (i think what she meant there is that everything becomes a calculation).

[jump154]

Guess I fit the profile as well...although not right now, and technically only licensed for bikes in the UK as there is no license exchange. Miss my ratty old 400-4, and the GSX750 that I had to sell when emigrating. Never got round to doing the Canadian license thing as bikes here are really a toy - cannot ride to work in -20 and a snowstorm!
Good news is I did say at one point to not get another bike until my girls left home, and they are 18 next year - and there is some very nice machinery in the Triumph catalogue.....hmmm.....

[Beefitarian]

- cannot ride to work in -20 and a snowstorm!

Speaking of which. Why start this thread so long before spring?

[pdw]

Good question ... starting to think maybe 'caus it'll probably take at least until spring for EVERY pilot-with-motorcycle to get the chance to respond. Sure are lots of neat pics out there.

[Colonel Sanders]

technically only licensed for bikes in the UK as there is no license exchange

There sort of is (at least in Ontario, which is the closest thing
to a Nazi state in all of Canada. If you're in a different province,
it's probably easier).

A guy that I did his class 4 instructor rating (meets the profile)
had a Scottish motorcycle licence and wanted to get his Ontario
motorcycle rider's licence.

Not sure if you are aware, but Ontario has this retarded "graduated"
licensing program which is a huge cash grab.

Anyways, you write your M1, then between 60 and 90 days you do
an M2 test than after a number of years you are eligible for another
M test, which is permanent. Like I said, a huge cash grab.

Anyways, because of his Scottish licence, he got credit for all the
experience that retarded people from Ontario need (remember grade 13?)
and he was able to write the M1, do the M2, and do the M test all
as fast as he could book them. Had to pay for all the test, of course -
huge cash grab.

And that, in Ontario, is as good as it gets - when the government isn't
spending a billion dollars to try to buy a seat.

Oh yeah, we need something aviation related. Here's the cockpit of
an airplane:



Two levers, two rudder pedals.