Gap Year or Twenty from Riding

[802Mike]

Anyone else take time off from riding?
What's you story?

I'd sold my '79 Honda 750K in '81 after returning home and realizing I'd just
done something really stupid. I had a newborn daughter that loved more than
anything and I could've left her without a father to raise her. I sold the bike
and never gave it another thought until the late 90s when both girls were out
of high school.

Oh, the little shit in my avatar is my youngest daughter's son Lincoln Michael.
That's just him being normal. I wouldn't miss it for anything.

[Flyboy]

[802Mike]

So you have maybe half a million miles on bikes !!

[justjoe]

I have at least 250k

[Capnrip]

My gap: Got a street legal Fox 4hp mini bike in the sixth grade. Abused that until about time to get a driver's license and we sold it to someone, don't remember who. I think just before I turned 50 I found a guy that wanted to sell a 99 KRS. So from 4 hp to 130 hp. Luckily I had matured a bit between those times. Met you guys (figurative) and some level of moral decay began.

[BillGsa]

I sold my 79 Honda 750K in 81 too...I remember while telling myself that I needed to slow down a space opened up & I took off plus I
was spending all of my summer weekends at the jersey shore.
Then in 92 many of my customers were rider's, I'd see there're bikes & I got the fever.
I knew that I liked to go FAST I didn't want to go fast so I got back into riding on a Harley.
Well that just wasn't me.

[justjoe]

I owned a '79 Yahama XS11Special in the late 80's. Commuted with the bike for a few years and gave it to a friend of mine who needed transportation for work. I bought my K12RS in 2006 so I had almost twenty years without a bike.

[Loggiebone]

Hmmm...maybe a week or two. Just never stopped excluding a little episode a couple of years ago...?

[aviator]

Had a few years when I came over when I could not afford a bike. Just drooled and drooled, until finally I could but a new Bandit.
I think I was around 12 or 13 when I started riding and have always had one.

[955i]

20 years without a bike? Yikes. I have had one or more bikes continually since 1968. What is that, 51 years? Yikes, again!

The only time without a bike was when one of the POS's or the other just would not run or

[EricM]

Bought my first bike I was 18ys old, was my main means of transportation through my university years and a little more. Sold the bike when I married, that lasted 10yrs, bought a bike the week I signed the divorce papers and have had motorcycles ever since.

[802Mike]

.... and have been making up for lost time by filling the garage!

[EricM]

Yeah, that kind of happened didn't it... oh well I have one less with the R60/5 gone.

[FR4N]

I started with bikes in 1975 but had a 5 year gap from 1991 to 1996. I look back now and I can't remember my life during that time. The reason for my gap was back in the 80s I was living in South Australia and had a dream job working with the company that rebuilt Phillip Island racetrack during 1988, ran the 1989 and 1990 Grand Prix, World Superbikes and Endurance races. During and after the 1989 GP things got very dirty and political with governments, banks and controlling bodies - the company was a pawn in a bigger game. During 1990 we started building Eastern Creek raceway and Shar Alam circuit in Malaysia. We also ran the 1991 Grand Prix in Eastern Creek in April. The company then folded and I was retained until July that year to oversee its shutdown. It affected me badly. I destroyed a lot of memorabilia and all my photos (the only ones I have now are those that people send me). I kept some one-off event management jackets and posters which I locked away. Bikes were sold and for all intents and purposes I shut myself out of everything bike-related. I was hurting. In 1994 we sold our house in the Adelaide hills of South Australia and moved back to Western Australia, bought a house in the hills, and I slowly got my life back together again. During 1996 Waz buys a Yamaha, then a Triumph Speed Triple, then another Triumph Speed Triple (which he gifted to me). One day I grabbed the keys to one of the Speed Triples and went for a ride. That day was the turning point for me and I vowed I'd never, ever be off a bike again for any reason. And I haven't.

[Capnrip]

Cool story Fran!