Author Topic: Motorcycle Quote of the Day  (Read 418987 times)

Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2700 on: December 18, 2018, 09:28:26 AM »
In the States you can't ride a skateboard without some authority looking over your shoulder to make sure you are not hurting yourself or someone else. In Latin America, you can strap a rocket to your skateboard like Wile E. Coyote and go flying down the middle of the highway and nobody will care (except, possibly for a cop that wants a bribe). That freedom is intoxicating and easily exploited to inappropriate levels. Especially when you are already intoxicated. The motto that night was, "You only live once, but not necessarily for very long."
So we went spinning our tires in the dunes and a few Colombians spun over in the sand. We took photos, documenting the night and our naked butts as we mooned the camera. At one point, when all the Japanese bikes were pushing red lines in the dark near 90 mph, a certain unnamed black-robed rider (who's been accused of looking like a fat, generous elf famous for speed) blew past us, doing at least 110 MPH.
We all made it back safely that night, but I don't know if we deserved to. I think more than one of us vowed never to do something that stupid again. Robert's fate was sealed; after that day there was no moral high ground. He'd been debased and pulled down to the level Peter and I frequented, and now he couldn't go back.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  pp208-9
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2701 on: December 19, 2018, 09:37:51 AM »
The following day we made our way to Coroico. The little town was of no interest, except for the fact that the only way there is along the World's Most Dangerous Road. That name, in part, comes from the road's contribution to Bolivia's worst mass transit disaster ever, in which over one hundred people died in a single crash. Carlos Pizarrino-Inti was driving an overloaded collectivo truck that plunged off the narrow dirt path and fell thousands of feet to the jungle floor below. There were no survivors. That accident happened back when the Coroico road was bidirectional. Regulations for traffic have since been changed to make the road less dangerous. The road is now one-way to Coroico for part of the day, and then one-way back to La Paz (the opposite direction) for the rest of the day. Don't be deceived- the road is still profoundly unsafe.
First of all, it's very narrow and fraught with bad drivers. Big trucks and buses careen around the corners, never concerned that a car could be broken down or stopped in their path around the next blind curve. There are no guardrails on the roadside as it weaves along sheer cliff walls. The road is almost entirely dirt and dried clay, which is incredibly slick when wet (only slightly less slippery than an oil patch). Several waterfalls cascade onto the road off the mountain, and wherever they hit, the dirt is washed away to reveal slick rocks and the scary clay mud. Even if you try to be safe and drive in the very centre you're still only two meters and a stifled scream away from the longest (and last) thirty seconds of your life.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  pp239-40
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2702 on: December 20, 2018, 09:57:38 AM »
Efrain was short, caramel skinned, and black haired. He had laughing eyes and a red baseball cap with the Calvin Klein logo on it. He seemed to be making a decent living as a guide- at least a lot more than he made as a miner.
First stop on our tour was for needed supplies. At the market we picked up Argentine and Chilean dynamite (the Bolivian brand is reputedly of poor quality and unpredictable strength), slow-burning fuses, blasting caps, and ammonium nitrate to strengthen the explosions. We also got some chunks of calcium carbide- when mixed with water these small grey rocks give off a gas used to light the miner's headlamps. Then there was the much-needed firewater- supposedly six miners can drink a one-litre bottle of the 190-proof alcohol in a single day and still be productive. (This is a ridiculously potent amount- a average human would require weeks of blacked-out benders to polish off a bottle of the stuff). On top of all that we bought cigarettes, matches, coca leaves, and banana-flavoured coca leaf activator.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  p254
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2703 on: December 21, 2018, 09:46:59 AM »
So there we were, stuck on the edge of an unstable salt lake with no obvious way to reach the road south. Information from a local was imprecise, as was the hand-drawn map given to us by the tour guide that booked our hotel stay. Even Robert's GPS was useless because it had no distinguishing landmarks programmed into it, and the cities it used as references were too far away. We simply couldn't find the road! We were trapped. There was the land, what we needed most, and we couldn't touch it. I felt like a salty Tantalus.
"Damn it, Andrés!" The stress was getting to Peter- he never called me by my real name. "We don't have enough gas to go riding around from one side to the other looking for the road."
"What do you want to do?" I said. "We can't sit around wasting all our daylight either." There were several tense moments as we sat under the blazing sun, debating our options. Peter wanted to go west. I wanted to go east. Robert didn't know what to do and just kept checking his GPS, perhaps hoping he'd somehow misread it, and would now find the answer to all our problems. Finally I convinced the guys that we needed to head southeast, where I was sure we'd cross the road. Fortunately (they would've killed me otherwise), I was correct, and we soon saw a tourist truck. "Sure," the tour driver said, "the road's right over that way." The road was just piled earth, built up like a bridge to cross the mush. So we weren't going to end up dead and salted like six-foot pieces of jerky after all.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  p262
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2704 on: December 22, 2018, 10:02:40 AM »
Nat was originally from England, but he'd lived in Argentina for five years and spoke near-perfect Spanish. He wore a crew cut and stubby five-day beard, and his black suit and yellow moto boots were coated in road dust.
"I almost didn't make it here," Nat said. "I was held up in Quito waiting for the bike." What a coincidence, I thought. He made it sound as though he'd just been there. In fact, he had. He'd run a bit behind schedule and had to bolt down from Ecuador in a matter of weeks to make it to Ushuaia in time for the millennium party. Like the rest of us, Nat heard about the collection of motorcyclists that were going to be there and wanted to be a part of it.
When we'd all finished we stepped outside and saw Nat's bike. He rode an Africa Twin with a monstrous, custom-built, twelve-gallon tank. Nat was of average height, but his bike was stacked up with gear on the tank and tail that, in order to mount it, he had to make a bold, running leap with his right foot forward, throwing himself onto the sheepskin-covered seat as if performing a flying front kick from a bad Kung-fu movie. We all found this tremendously entertaining. I could sense that Gail wanted to adopt him right away.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  pp308-9
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2705 on: December 23, 2018, 12:27:31 PM »
I heard hooting and shouting, greetings for the appearance of my lone headlight. The motorcycling masses came out to welcome me in leather and ballistic nylon jackets, with unshorn faces and filthy boots. They offered cups of hot German wine and warm handshakes. Steam escaped their smiling teeth. People I'd never seen before hugged me hello.
Tents were everywhere. Bikes were everywhere. This was a road warrior convention. Fifty bikers from Denmark, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Scotland, France, Australia, and Japan among other places had gathered together in Laguna Verde campground at the end of the Pan-American Highway. Even Walter and Sandra were there, the two Germans who'd been waiting in San Pedro de Atacama for three weeks to get a box of lightbulbs.
There was an incredible feeling of camaraderie and togetherness. We were the dedicated few, the privileged crazies. We were a group the likes of which had never been formed before. This camaraderie was exactly what I didn't know I was hoping to find. I was a member of a strange and magnificent species of migratory bird that, for some reason, had come to the end of the world only to discover myself surrounded by all my waiting siblings. Welcome to Ushuaia, they said. Have some hot wine, they said.
Odyssey To Ushuaia  Andrés Carlstein  p312
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2706 on: December 24, 2018, 09:18:42 AM »
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
Albert Schweitzer
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p7
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2707 on: December 25, 2018, 01:00:16 PM »
When she, Birgit, said all that time ago in Asia, "Yes I'll come with you to South America, but I want to ride my own bike," I'd said, "OK, but you'll have to maintain it".
She'd taken this comment to heart and had bought a beaten-up old BMW R60/5. With a friend she had ripped the bike to bits, and had rebuilt it, twice. She'd become a really good mechanic and in some areas was far better than I was, even after my four and a bit years on the road. Now, as her bike was to the front, Birgit pulled out her tools and got on with the task of putting it back together.
The crowd of labourers was now about thirty strong and they looked on in stunned silence as a girl got to work doing a man's What made it more confusing for them was that I, as the man, was hanging around, seemingly as a spare part. In actual fact, of course, I was just respecting Birgit for her ability and knew that she'd ask if she needed help. I was also shooting an occasional glowering look at the men as best I could. This was an unspoken, "Stay back and keep your hands off our tools and kit" type of stare. It would have been too easy for something to go missing if we both got our heads down and were focusing on bike mechanics.
The porters' eyes flicked from Birgit with confusion, to me with a mixture of contempt (how could I let a woman do a man's job?) and admiration (Good grief, he's even trained his woman to do this for him. He must be a king!)
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p21
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2708 on: December 26, 2018, 09:19:28 AM »
But solo travel has its down sides too. It can be really lonely. It can mean that you and your belongings are more vulnerable. And I was often conscious that something important in life was missing - something that is quite natural for the vast majority of us - sharing, tenderness, warmth, and a joy that you only find when you are with someone that you really care about.
There had been many times when I would have loved to be able to share a special situation with someone. There can be a sort of glow about something amazing when you can experience it with someone you're 'in tune' with. Sunsets, phenomenal views, and those wacky funny moments that seem to happen all the time when you're on the road, are just a few of the moments that should be shared.
There were also more than a few occasions in my 'solo' past when it would have been very nice to have someone around to help me pick my bike up when I'd dropped it, yet again!
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p32
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2709 on: December 27, 2018, 10:21:57 AM »
I told Birgit that whatever happened, she should always keep her engine running. She might need to make a quick getaway, and an engine that wouldn't start in a panic situation would have been pretty stupid. But I'd also been told that we were far more likely to see game without scaring them off if we kept the engines running. The sound, after initial suspicion, would become the norm, and whatever animal it was would happily carry on going about its business. The plan worked with a small cluster of antelope, but would it work with the large group of elephant that stepped out of the bush into the road in front of us?
The lead elephant was highly suspicious and stood between us and her family. The old cow's big cars were flapping furiously and she kept curling her trunk upwards, before letting out what sounded to me like shrieks of pure rage. I started to look for an escape route. There wasn't one and a three-point turn on this loose stuff wasn't going to be easy. All we could do was to sit there, not moving a muscle, keeping the engines ticking over - we just had to be patient. Around us the bush seemed to have gone deathly still, as if everything was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen next. If I hadn't been so afraid of stalling the bike I'd have had my fingers firmly crossed.
Then, after a magnificent ten minutes of swaying back and forth stamping the ground, snorting and ear-flapping, she simply turned around, trumpeted again and she and her family crashed off into the bush. She left Birgit and me sitting in the silence on our bikes, sweating furiously. I was conscious then that it was no wonder the elephant had been so agitated. The smell of our fear, combined with the scents of hot oil, metal and rubber from the bikes, must have made a really offensive and worrying odour.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  pp78-9
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2710 on: December 28, 2018, 10:15:10 AM »
I was alive and the bike was still in one piece, but there was some damage. The stitching on the panniers had probably rotted - they had been on the bike in all weathers for a long time. The bag had fallen onto one of the BMW's horizontally opposed cylinders and the heat from that had melted a candle that I bunged in the bag at the last minute. I'd forgotten to pack it in one of the aluminium panniers where it usually lived.
The candle had melted through the canvas of the pannier and turned it into a giant wick! As the heat from the engine increased, the bag had caught fire. Inside it were my waterproof trousers and my SLR camera.The good news was that I'd only just put a new film in it. The upside was that this blackened and melted piece of modern art was insured.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p101
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2711 on: December 29, 2018, 09:18:58 AM »
Pitching camp in Patagonia was a two-person job. We'd carefully unpack the tent with one of us making sure that nothing blew away, while the other clipped the tent poles together. Then with one person, usually me because I'm the heavier, holding the inner and fly sheet down, the other, usually Birgit, would scurry round feeding the poles into slots on them both. We would both then hang on for dear life as we erected the tent. This was the critical time. If one of us lost our footing or a handhold then the tent would be gone and we would be facing a very cold night plus the loss of a couple of months' food budget. When Birgit had got as many of our six inch nails into the stony ground as she could, she would leave me sprawled out over the top of the flysheet like some sort of human splat against the fabric, while she collected rocks and used them to weigh down the pegs and the snow-skirts that fringed the flysheet.
Tent secure, we would park the bikes as a sort of windbreak, but in such a way that they would not be blown onto the tent. This happened to a friend's fully-laden BMW! Then we would collapse into the windless, dustless tent, shattered but nice and warm from our efforts.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p128
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2712 on: December 30, 2018, 12:14:54 PM »
Someone once said to me, "There's no point in travelling, it's all been done before." I had a wry grin to myself. Others might have made it to Ushuaia before, but I doubted that anyone would have done it with the collection of events we were having. It was just proving the point that everyone has their own trip made up of a unique mix of jigsaw puzzle pieces. To illustrate that point, I remember a friend telling me that he'd been chatting with someone and discovered that they'd both been to the same city. Yet the things that each had seen and done were so different that their visits might as well have been to completely different places.They'd made a plan to travel back to this city with each showing the other what they had discovered and experienced. I loved the concept.
We were still looking for the pieces of our jigsaw puzzle, or perhaps it was more that they were all there in front of us, but that we hadn't yet worked out how they'd fit together. We'd no idea if we could actually make it down by hitching but felt that it was well worth a try. After all, we'd have our tent and we could carry enough food and water for several days. We could just camp near the roadside if we had to wait for a long time. 
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p136
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2713 on: December 31, 2018, 01:23:56 PM »
The road changed between tarmac and gravel and it began to curve in great swoops along valleys whose slopes were covered in evergreen forests. The Andes stood tall, proud and beautiful to the west of us. Sometimes the tops were clear and at others the snowline seemed to be cloaked in cloud. The bikes were behaving perfectly as if they were glad to have us back and even happier to be on the road again. Riding behind Birgit, I could hear the comfortable growl of Sir Henry the Hybrid. Beneath me Libby ticked and purred. Her load seemed to be in perfect balance and when we were on the gravel sections her dual-purpose tyres seemed to be happily working overtime to keep the bike rolling steadily forward.
We planned to ride short days of just 150 kilometres but with this stunning riding we just wanted to keep going. It was as if all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle had finally fallen into place. Life couldn't possibly get much better. This was why we were out on the road. We were free and at the same time we were part of something amazing. We were in control again, but that didn't matter - we were quite happy for the land and the road to tell us where to go. If a town looked interesting we stopped for a wander round. If a view from a nearby hillside looked as if it might have potential, we climbed it. People waved at us when we passed them, or they passed us in their always overloaded cars, and from time to time truck drivers cheerfully hooted their horns at us.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  pp160-1
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2714 on: January 01, 2019, 11:06:21 AM »
"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from journeys... A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us."
John Steinbeck
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p174
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2715 on: January 02, 2019, 12:03:19 PM »
A glow had been put on this first day back out on the road, at the petrol station. We'd just finished re-fuelling, and paid, when a man came striding over, thrust a bar of chocolate at each of us, smiled, turned and strode off again. I sat on the bike, with her engine turned off, and marvelled at his thoughtfulness. I vowed that one day, when I saw some foreign bikers in a petrol station in my country, I'd do exactly the same thing.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p195
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2716 on: January 03, 2019, 10:18:16 AM »
The long open roads were good for thinking and that's one of the things I enjoy most about travelling on a bike. I never tired of the sound of my tyres on the road. I loved the sound of Libby's engine tapping away beneath me. The feeling of the breeze on exposed skin was a comfort- a reinforcement of the sense of freedom travelling gave me. I loved to smell the changes of the land as we rode and sometimes the difference in temperature between a sunny section of road and a section in the shade was a real attention-grabber. But the opportunity to be so in tune with my bike that I didn't have to think about what I was doing was a fine thing. This left me the chance to think about all sorts of wild and unrelated things.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p202
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2717 on: January 03, 2019, 05:49:19 PM »
 :thumbsup So true.
 

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2718 on: January 04, 2019, 03:52:01 PM »
On the wall was a small blackboard on which the day's offerings were displayed. For a set price you could have a three-course meal. The main course was always a challenge; a voyage of culinary discovery.
There were plenty of things on offer that we simply don't eat any more. Dessert would often be a slab of some sort of cake or other. These cakes didn't taste of much, were incredibly sweet and their colours were grotesquely artificial: strawberries are never that red. The last course would be a cup of mate de coca and it seemed to have a way of settling the stomach very nicely.
You need a stomach-settler when your main course has been a thin vegetable gruel, enhanced with a chicken's greasy yellow claws. (You discover this when your soup's level has dropped far enough to reveal the black tips of the upside-down claws). On other days our soup was enriched with grey chunks of tripe that still had strips of half-digested grass stuck to the follicles.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p237
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2719 on: January 05, 2019, 09:02:33 AM »
In the morning we were woken by the sound of tables and chairs scraping across the floor in the restaurant next door. We stared at each other, bleary-eyed. We didn't need to speak. We automatically fell into our routine, though the sensation of flip-flopping across the sticky floor was an odd one. Birgit took the first shower. Seconds later she yelled out at me. The electrical current was running right into the stream of shower water. If she'd not been wearing her rubber flip-flops she'd have had a nasty shock for sure. As it was, the tingle wasn't even at free perm voltage, thankfully, so a shower was quite manageable, unless you made the mistake of touching one of the pipes. That resulted in a nasty surprise that almost bounced your hand away from the pipe, and left it tingling madly. Time to leave.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p266
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2720 on: January 06, 2019, 02:09:33 PM »
This time we were back up in the mountains and they seemed like old friends. I loved the constantly bending roads and the views were stunning. I like riding above the clouds. It felt quite unnatural and was a delightful thing to be able to do whenever the opportunity arose. It's bizarre to be on a bike looking down at clouds, as if you were doing so from an aeroplane. The downside was that it was much colder at this altitude. Birgit said that the temperature and landscape reminded her of Austria. As we approached the market town of Vilcabamba, Henry's exhaust started to make strange noises, I was riding in my favourite position as 'Tail-end Charlie' and I could hear the tone change and wondered what was going on. It sounded nasty. By the time we stopped for a break, Birgit had noticed it too. It wasn't strange that she hadn't heard it earlier because the slipstream carries a lot of noises away with it - particularly those that are created behind you. It was nothing major but the problem would cause a bit of a tease over the following months. Henry's exhaust was rotting and as holes were appearing the bike was becoming noisier. As a temporary repair we cut open a soft drink can and stuck it over the holes with heatproof tape. It worked for a while.   
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p283
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

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Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2721 on: January 07, 2019, 02:29:01 PM »
For the last few days I'd been suffering with horrendous wind of own. Sometimes it had been quite embarrassing. Once I'd been standing talking to a stranger, trying to understand his Spanish (always harder when crossing into a new country as the accents would change dramatically with each border crossing) and had involuntarily let rip with an enormous blast of methane that equally unhappily smelt as if I'd recently digested a good part of the local sewer system. It was not very gentlemanly... In an enclosed space this was quite a dire happening and I could clear a room in seconds. I wasn't making very many friends and if it was going to continue for much longer then I was probably going to find that Birgit would want a single room! It was time to get myself checked out.
I had amoebas! Foul little beings but at least I hadn't had any vomiting or the squits as a result. Some antibiotics soon had the air smelling fresh again. What had started off as a rather surprised, boyish new talent, rapidly changed to embarrassment and worry, and then to pure relief at its passing.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p296
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

OzSTOC #16  STOC #6135  FarR #509  IBA #54927
 
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Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2722 on: January 08, 2019, 09:32:03 AM »
The cars in front of us started reversing. The air was full of panic and we were quickly swamped by it. There's only just enough room to turn a BMW bike round on these tiny cobbled streets, but that was without the screaming people, and without the clouds of tear gas that were now floating down the street towards us.
A few metres in front of us a local biker fell, and in no time the nearest car had reversed over the bike, thankfully missing the rider. A dark canister sailed lazily through the air trailing a stream of gas behind it. It landed almost unnoticed in the chaos. My eyes by this time were stinging and I wondered if I was going to be able to ride with eyes affected by the gas. This was too bizarre a way to start a new country. Being yelled at by riot police doing spooky gas mask impersonations of 'Darth Vader' didn't help much either. Scare stories? Hmmm maybe this time they were true. Welcome to Colombia!
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p305
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

OzSTOC #16  STOC #6135  FarR #509  IBA #54927
 

Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2723 on: January 09, 2019, 09:39:43 AM »
We were riding through one of the main road towns at 20 kph - it was slow enough to react to just about anything that might happen. My eyes flitted towards the folks standing to the right of the road- was any one going to step out? A pretty girl in a very short skirt caught my eye for one dangerous moment and when I looked forward again I found Birgit right in front of me with her brake light glowing furiously! I jammed on my brakes and pulled to one side, but I was much too slow. My bash bar and pannier whacked Birgit's right box and bent as they concertined her box and threw her bike over. I couldn't hold mine either so within seconds both bikes were on the ground, engines screaming and petrol flowing.
A crowd collected. Neither of us was hurt and we hadn't hit anyone else. Birgit had had to make a split second swerve in front of me to miss a man who had leapt out in front of her to cross the road - she was relying on the fact that I'd be looking where I was going. The man's vacant look led us to suspect that he wasn't all there mentally. We knew that the three of us had just had a very lucky escape. The crowd helped us pick up the bikes and we slipped out of town before the police could arrive to complicate matters.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  pp327-8
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

OzSTOC #16  STOC #6135  FarR #509  IBA #54927
 

Offline Biggles

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Re: Motorcycle Quote of the Day
« Reply #2724 on: January 10, 2019, 10:29:03 AM »
While we waited, Santos and I got talking- twenty words of English from him, a few more of Spanish from me, and a whole load of sign language from both of us.
"Do you like music?" he asked.
"Yes."
"What sort of music? Do you know any songs?" I'd made a mistake, when I'd answered yes. His face had lit up. "Sing me a song Sam ."
"Ah, er, um, OK... Why not?" I replied feeling that actually I had no choice at all. So, there I was, in the middle of organised chaos, singing. I'd never done that at a border before! Soloist and black-suited audience rocked. The audience grew, and I can't sing! Birgit stood to one side with an, 'I'm not with him' expression on her face. Very wise, but I still think that it was my best ever rendition of The Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night!'.
Distant Suns  Sam Manicom  p344
For the modern man who lives in the city, riding a bike might be one of the only ways to escape the humdrum monotony. To take off and ride. To be both at one with nature and one with the bike. To feel masculine. Adam Piggott

OzSTOC #16  STOC #6135  FarR #509  IBA #54927