[Cousin Jack]

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I have been a lot of places and done a lot of things..... after all,I'm sixty-six years old and that is to be expected; but, in all those years, only two things, two activities, have never failed me.... never failed to bring joy to my heart and a smile to my face.... and those two things are riding a bike and alpine skiing. Of course, I'm leavingout my personal relationships from this discussion, the wonderful, irreplaceable people in my life. I do so because they are a given: I need my wife and child and chosen friends like I need air and sun and water and food.No, I'm talking here about what I do, my chosenavocations, and not about the blessings of those around me.

Both activities, both passions, came to me at the relatively advanced age of 19. I first skied on the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon when I was a nineteen year old non-achieving college student... and I first rode a motorbike on the streets around Vancouver, Washington, again when I was nineteen.....Ientered into both activities just months apart... 47 years ago. Both activities I discovered together, and for forty seven years, nearly a half century, the thrill of skiing or the joy of motorcycling have never left me.... never.

There is some sort of connection between the two, some similarity, some relationship thatresonates within my soul..... theyhave always resonated, always, and they always will. The illusion of total freedom; the illusion of unlimited power; the illusion of unlimited speed.... the ability to go where I want,whenever I want. The feeling of unlimited, unending movement... the antithesis of not moving... skiing and motorcycling are the exact opposites of death. Skiing and motorcycling are all to me, other than my people, and theyseem life itself. I will probably die doing one or the other someday, out there in the snow oron some mountain highway, out there in the free air and thesunshine and therain... under an open sky.... out there in the open, where I can be free ... free with my God and His Blessings..... out there somewhere..... I will die as I have tried to live..... moving.... with joy and love in my heart....

 

[flashya2]

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Well said, CJ, well said.

 

[Albino Biker]

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CJ, for me it is archery and bikes, However I started ridding a mini bike at 5 and didn't find archery until 40 but both have the same affect.



And now a question for you all, do you find it interesting that most of us who enjoy bike ridding also enjoy another solitude sport? Is it that we enjoy being singular when we can, or is it just coincidence?

 

[exavid]

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Bikes and skiing are good but sailing a good boat hard on a brisk wind is something sublime. When the rigging is humming and the hull is working hard and throwing spray over the deck and the leeward gunnel is leaving a wake, that's living. Then there's that soul lifting moment when an airplane under your hands lifts its wheels off the earth and becomes a being of the air, sensitive and delicate to your touch, free in three dimensions like nothing else created by man. That is a wonderous moment that never pales.

I've been a lucky fellow to be able to experience them all. As money dwindles in my retirement I do less of these things but my 'Wing never fails to lighten my heart and make me feel young once again.

 

[English Bob]

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I flew some as a young guy, and I know exactly what Exavid means, I don't think anything really beats that. I still remember, as clear as if it were yesterday, banking that Kirby Cadet glider around at the end of the runway at Kenley. 70 knots and it seemed like I was standing still.

I tried to go back to it recently, but the sad truth is that 'authority' no longer deems me fit to grace the skies.

They let me ride any motorbike I want, but I can't fly, doesn't seem right somehow, anyhow, the wife wasn't thrilled at my plans to buy a Challenger.

Then there's sailing, I ran a 17' sloop for fifteen years, loved it, it filled the gap when my ex wouldn't countenance a motorcycle. She didn't like the sailboat either so........

Anyway, I eventually decided to quit sailing, sold the boat to a guy who took it out on Lake Winnipeg, with no experience, and drowned himself and two others a week after he bought it, leaving three kids orphaned.

We often think, when we get on the bike, that we have two small kids, and should we be doing this. We still do it, and look at above, a couple went for a Sunday afternoon sail with a friend and never came back.

If I could change anything, it would be to do more, more flying, more sailing, more riding.

 

[exavid]

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Psst... a Challenger is a lot of fun to fly. I did the first test flights for a friend on his Challenger II with a Rotax 503. It was a neat little airplane. Not up to my 582 powered Avid Flyer but close. Easier to handle on the ground with it's tricycle gear. I've thought about building a Challenger single seater one of these days.

A perfect day would be to ride your bike to the airport and fly a light plane to the coast for a day's sail.

 

[Cousin Jack]

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exavid wrote:

.

A perfect day would be to ride your bike to the airport and fly a light plane to the coast for a day's sail.

Hahahahaha......

"A perfect day would be to ride your bike to the airport and fly a light plane to coast for a day's sail....... with Angelina Jolie!"

now, that..... would be a perfect day!

 

[exavid]

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Nope, that would be a disasterous day.:shock:The woman who hangs around here is a half Indian Texan.

 

[Popeye]

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Albino Biker wrote:

...And now a question for you all, do you find it interesting that most of us who enjoy bike ridding also enjoy another solitude sport? Is it that we enjoy being singular when we can, or is it just coincidence?


For me, it's always been riding & fishing.

I can enjoy either alone, with my wife or with friends.

Don't need Angelina Jolie on my bike, but she'd be welcome to row my boat & clean my fish [if she kept her mouth shut]....I enjoy the tranquility of each endeavor.

 

[Cousin Jack]

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Popeye wrote:

Don't need Angelina Jolie on my bike, but she'd be welcome to row my boat & clean my fish [if she kept her mouth shut]....I enjoy the tranquility of each endeavor.

Hahahahahaha!

I don't think that lady's gonna do any of that!

She might start a "row" with you......

She might "clean your clock".......

And she definitely ain't gonna "keep her mouth shut".......

I personally think spending time with Angelina would be like trying to row a boat in a hurricane! It's gonna probably kill ya, but, man -- what a ride!

:cooldevil:

 

[lostinflorida]

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Yeah, flying has got to be right up there with biking. When I had my Phantom Ultralight, I kept it in the back yard of the house. In less than fifteen minutes, I could be in the pasture next door with the Kawasaki motor hitting the powerband.

Release the brakes and on a grass strip, the ground would leave you in 100 feet.

Man do I miss those days. No license, no brains, nothing but me and that 250lbs of pure pleasure. I sure would like to have one again.

Those days have a few stories too.

 

[Hawker22]

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High FlightOh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.




Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941




Lest we forget

 

[Kit Carson]

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Hi CJ:

You have a way with words huh?

I have always felt this way about riding a motorcycle, really does not matter which one or even where, just to be out in the world and go .............that direction.

If one does like to ride and get out like this one must also pick ones friends carefully. I have a friend or two I ride with some, but normally I go alone or with Sandy. This feeling you speak of other people can take from you. They are late, or I got a flat tire, I knew about it yesterday but I need to fix it today, lets stop at the mall and get this......or it it raining a bit, I might get wet.

I have long felt this way, you just put it into the right words, Like yesterday I took off and went to the mountains in North Carolina, just me, by myself, enjoy the day and the sound of the bike motor purring along. Just a day to enjoy being alive.

You said that one well.

Kit