06-21-2014, 11:16 AM
Funny I'm just now seeing this post.......I'm dealing with this very issue right now. In fact both of my bikes are currently up for sale. I'll explain:
Back in like 2008 I woke up one day and said "I want a motorcycle". I'd never ridden before, I only knew how to ride from my buddy telling me one time how to use the clutch and change gears. I went out and bought a cruiser (Honda 750) that day and taught myself to ride. I jumped right in and loved it - I averaged about 1-2k miles/month on the ol' girl and had a BLAST doing it. I wore a turtle shell helmet, no other gear and never EVER considered I'd have a wreck....ahhh ignorance is bliss I suppose. My best friend rode a Screamin' Eagle Deuce so I just NEEDED something faster to ride with him lol, so 1 year and 20k miles later I sold the 750 and got a Yamaha Warrior. Then I realized how much fun it was to go FAST.
Then one Friday afternoon in March 2010 I rode my buddies new CBR600 and said "taking curves while going fast is fun, I'm buying a sport bike". The next day I went and bought a Z1000. I remember while driving it home I couldn't even open the throttle all the way it scared me so bad haha, what a beast. I made more sport bike buddies and was riding A LOT. Me and my buddy started a motorcycle group and it got HUGE fast. My whole life revolved around motorcycles and I was loving every second of it.
Then June 6th 2012 happened. One of my buddies calls and says "lets ride to hooters they have bike nite tonight". I remember I was checking my tire pressure when he called, but I had no plans on riding that night. Long story short, 2 hours later I low sided at about 50mph - thankfully the time I spent riding with my sport bike buddies taught me all about gear, so I was geared up and relatively unhurt. A few cracked ribs and overall soreness, but nothing major - the Z was totally destroyed.
That was the moment it all changed.
I went out the following Saturday (6-13-12) and bought the VFR that I have now. I still had the Warrior but I figured I needed to get right back on the horse after my wreck. I have not been able to get back the joy I used to get from bikes since my wreck. Now when I ride all I think about is a car pulling out in front of me, or getting hit by some drunk a**hole, or hitting gravel, or oil, or a dog, or the million other things that can go wrong while riding. I can't go out and clear my mind like I used to. I have forced myself to do it for 2 years now, but I realized last week that it's getting worse.
The hardest part for me is that my entire life revolves around motorcycles - my friends, my money, my whole life outside of work is bikes. It was nothing for me to go into my bike group, post a last minute dinner ride and have 5 (or maybe 25) buddies all go out and have a great time. Or there would be a large event and we'd have 100 friends show up and we would LOVE it. Now when I ride I'm constantly paranoid about something going wrong, I've always ridden very cautiously, but now it's taking the fun out of the ride for me.
So that leads me to today. Both bikes are up for sale and I have NO CLUE what I'm going to do once they go. I have my sights on a hot rod or muscle car, but I'm afraid that they won't do for me what bikes did. I don't know how to get the old feeling back, or if its even possible?
Well that's my sob story haha. So actually I've not quit riding yet, but I guess I'm in the process of it. I keep hoping that something will click in me and reignite that flame, but so far it just ain't happenin......
Back in like 2008 I woke up one day and said "I want a motorcycle". I'd never ridden before, I only knew how to ride from my buddy telling me one time how to use the clutch and change gears. I went out and bought a cruiser (Honda 750) that day and taught myself to ride. I jumped right in and loved it - I averaged about 1-2k miles/month on the ol' girl and had a BLAST doing it. I wore a turtle shell helmet, no other gear and never EVER considered I'd have a wreck....ahhh ignorance is bliss I suppose. My best friend rode a Screamin' Eagle Deuce so I just NEEDED something faster to ride with him lol, so 1 year and 20k miles later I sold the 750 and got a Yamaha Warrior. Then I realized how much fun it was to go FAST.
Then one Friday afternoon in March 2010 I rode my buddies new CBR600 and said "taking curves while going fast is fun, I'm buying a sport bike". The next day I went and bought a Z1000. I remember while driving it home I couldn't even open the throttle all the way it scared me so bad haha, what a beast. I made more sport bike buddies and was riding A LOT. Me and my buddy started a motorcycle group and it got HUGE fast. My whole life revolved around motorcycles and I was loving every second of it.
Then June 6th 2012 happened. One of my buddies calls and says "lets ride to hooters they have bike nite tonight". I remember I was checking my tire pressure when he called, but I had no plans on riding that night. Long story short, 2 hours later I low sided at about 50mph - thankfully the time I spent riding with my sport bike buddies taught me all about gear, so I was geared up and relatively unhurt. A few cracked ribs and overall soreness, but nothing major - the Z was totally destroyed.
That was the moment it all changed.
I went out the following Saturday (6-13-12) and bought the VFR that I have now. I still had the Warrior but I figured I needed to get right back on the horse after my wreck. I have not been able to get back the joy I used to get from bikes since my wreck. Now when I ride all I think about is a car pulling out in front of me, or getting hit by some drunk a**hole, or hitting gravel, or oil, or a dog, or the million other things that can go wrong while riding. I can't go out and clear my mind like I used to. I have forced myself to do it for 2 years now, but I realized last week that it's getting worse.
The hardest part for me is that my entire life revolves around motorcycles - my friends, my money, my whole life outside of work is bikes. It was nothing for me to go into my bike group, post a last minute dinner ride and have 5 (or maybe 25) buddies all go out and have a great time. Or there would be a large event and we'd have 100 friends show up and we would LOVE it. Now when I ride I'm constantly paranoid about something going wrong, I've always ridden very cautiously, but now it's taking the fun out of the ride for me.
So that leads me to today. Both bikes are up for sale and I have NO CLUE what I'm going to do once they go. I have my sights on a hot rod or muscle car, but I'm afraid that they won't do for me what bikes did. I don't know how to get the old feeling back, or if its even possible?
Well that's my sob story haha. So actually I've not quit riding yet, but I guess I'm in the process of it. I keep hoping that something will click in me and reignite that flame, but so far it just ain't happenin......