How cool can you be with pedals?

H

happyvalley

New Member
There's a guy close to where I live, HonTec trained mechanic, worked for years in Honda dealerships as a motorcycle tech and has a great home shop, semi-retired now but does a little work on the side, has every tool in the book, power or hand tool.

I love to visit his shop, sometimes to borrow a tool or pick his brain, he's a real smart cookie but also he has a collection of vintage of motorcycles he loves to BS about, beautiful canary yellow Norton Commando, 1968 Triumph Bonneville, Honda CB550, Honda CB750, a couple others. The bikes are mint but he and his wife still ride them, they're into it.

Anyway I was riding my MB this morning, he and the wife sitting outside with coffee, I swing over. His wife sees the MB I'm riding and asks: "Why?"
Why what? "Why a bicycle with a motor" she says, lol. My bud speaks up, being polite and says: "Because they're cool, is why". Wifey gets up to get more coffee and on her way to the house I hear her mumble:
"How cool can you be with pedals". laff

I got a good chuckle out of it.
 
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She needs to take a look at the first Harleys and Indians which had pedals. Pretty obvious she knows little about the early days of bicycles morphing into motorcycles... in my opinion some of the coolest to die for bikes ever made were those early motorcycles.
SB
 
Absolutely SB, i agree, early motorcycles IMO are by far the prettiest bikes, earlier the better. And to me theres nothing prettier or cooler then early BTR's and many of them had pedals.
 
It was 1918 before there was a production bike ( that you could actualy buy) that did'nt have pedals, and every boardtrack racer I've seen has pedals. End of coolness debate!
 
Not a debate or meant as one, it was a joke, at least that's the way I took it. The gal is just plain spoken and I'm too old and ornery to let something like get under my skin or be defensive about it, besides I embrace geek status, keeps me under the radar and laughing all the way to the bank, lol.

Sure, hats off to an appreciation for early motorcycles, Messrs Daimler, Harley, Davidson et-al were working with a safety bicycle, a blank page and and a small foundry. And they didn't have a canary yellow Norton Commando sitting in the yard. (^)
 
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I saw it as funny too.

Really, no need to be defensive, motorcycles are motorcycles and motorbikes are motorbikes.

I have both and love both.

A motorcycle is a heavy ponderous thing, very fast and very stable. A motorbike is light as a feather, nimble and quick.

A motorbike is the perfect thing to ride to the farmers market and pick up some nice fruit and vegatables. I can ride right past the closed off street baracades, right into the market.

A motorcycle is good to go 25 miles up the freeway to Stockton to get some nice fried oysters for lunch.

Have fun!
 
At least they are cooler than mopeds which most nowadays dont have pedals...you take a middle aged man and put him on a moped and in the back of your head your thinkin dui conviction right? You put the same guy on a MB and he instantly becomes an ingenious mechanical wizard....
 
I don't know that it's a matter of being defensive, more one of informed and uninformed about the history of bicycles morphing into motorcycles. I also think there's a difference between people with a lot of money who sign a check to have something cool and people without much money who make something cool. Much of this two wheeled business is funny as part of the human comedy show. From the very serious spandexers exercise purists to the guys who are so out of shape they can barely move under their own foot power and who suddenly become dangerous dudes when they put on their black leather costumes with do-rag, manage to climb onto the motorcycle without tipping over... hit the electric start, go vroom and are suddenly dangerous sorta ****'s Angels you doan wanna mess wit, dude! And that's OK, too, I guess, and more stuff to laugh about.
SB
 
Yeah, that's pretty common with the recent cash overload the tech surge created. A lot of people found themselves with dough and went out and got Harleys and the "costumes" They show up at big rallys like Sturgis.

They tow the bikes in a trailer behind the SUV, stop in a motel out of town and dress up and play bad biker for a few days.

Now that's funny.
 
brother john said:
At least they are cooler than mopeds which most nowadays dont have pedals...you take a middle aged man and put him on a moped and in the back of your head your thinkin dui conviction right? You put the same guy on a MB and he instantly becomes an ingenious mechanical wizard....
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lol i been called genius a few times
 
happyvalley said:
There's a guy close to where I live, HonTec trained mechanic, worked for years in Honda dealerships as a motorcycle tech and has a great home shop, semi-retired now but does a little work on the side, has every tool in the book, power or hand tool.

I love to visit his shop, sometimes to borrow a tool or pick his brain, he's a real smart cookie but also he has a collection of vintage of motorcycles he loves to BS about, beautiful canary yellow Norton Commando, 1968 Triumph Bonneville, Honda CB550, Honda CB750, a couple others. The bikes are mint but he and his wife still ride them, they're into it.

Anyway I was riding my MB this morning, he and the wife sitting outside with coffee, I swing over. His wife sees the MB I'm riding and asks: "Why?"
Why what? "Why a bicycle with a motor" she says, lol. My bud speaks up, being polite and says: "Because they're cool, is why". Wifey gets up to get more coffee and on her way to the house I hear her mumble:
"How cool can you be with pedals". laff

I got a good chuckle out of it.
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i would have told her try it ya might like it lol
 
imma agree with SB on the harley deal there. alot of it here in my city.they are posers or wutever. theres been times i park my MB at say the walmart and there be a chromed out harley not far from me and people walking in look at my ride and really dont pay attention to the hawg lol
 
brother john said:
At least they are cooler than mopeds which most nowadays dont have pedals...you take a middle aged man and put him on a moped and in the back of your head your thinkin dui conviction right? You put the same guy on a MB and he instantly becomes an ingenious mechanical wizard....
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, dunno about that, truth be told it might be a bit of sore subject. I've no license problems but the handful of guys I've encountered in the area I live have ALL been license revokes.
 
Cracked me up. Is just classic "get-it/don't get-it" Could be golf or internet hacking or just about any thing. I personally never got midget car racing. (I wanna say "do they put blocks on the pedals?" but that is just wrong) But now sorta understand.

Truth be told, I don't get my own obsession with these things. I really don't. I know a day ridding one is almost as good as a day building one. But then wouldn't changing the oil in my car and going for a ride bring the same sort of joy? It dang sure don't, lol

I just don't get it.

Post Script. I really wanna try and build a car. My better half thinks that's nutz
 
happyvalley said:
Hmmmm, dunno about that, truth be told it might be a bit of sore subject. I've no license problems but the handful of guys I've encountered in the area I live have ALL been license revokes.
Click to expand...

Oh believe me I understand I get my license back tomorrow because of a seatbelt ticket I forgot to pay... automatic 3 month suspension ...impounded my truck and was going to take me to jail but I had my daughter with me.I laugh at myself all the time so I figure its okay to make fun of the knuckleheads just like me.
 
Cyclists riding road bikes with spandex, accountants riding Harleys with do-rags and chaps, motored bikers riding Huffys with ape hangers and Maltese Cross mirrors probably all think they have cool cornered, lol.

Reminds me of an email I got recently from someone that in part said:

What's nice about the limited powered bikes is that you can actually ride them near their limit and not unquestionably die from it because the speeds are low enough. You have to love the limited power bikes to be here.
If you are addicted to power and always need more, people ought to just go up to the motorcycle class and stop bending the rules in this class. Give the class of limited powered bikes respect.

Be proud of our limits, not ashamed or embarrassed...
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I like that. I embrace the uncool, the geek, the contraptionist, lol.
 
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