Europe has granny bikers, America has grampaw trikers:
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — In his nearly 50 years as an avid motorcyclist, Grady Howard has roared down the tobacco roads of North Carolina and through the mountains of old Kentucky, all with his wife, Barbara, tucked behind him. But with a balky left leg and myriad other maladies, he knew the only way to stay wild was to add a wheel.
Mr. Howard is one of a legion of aging bikers — suffering from aching joints and slowing reflexes — who have abandoned their traditional two-wheel motorcycles in favor of three-wheelers, the super-steady and seemingly safer machines commonly known as trikes. Equal parts “Easy Rider” and easy chair, the trikes have grown in popularity in recent years, expanding from a do-it-yourself niche to a potentially lucrative market for major manufacturers.
Industry experts say the sale of tens of thousands of trikes, whose sticker prices can rival an upscale sedan’s — a new three-wheeled Harley starts at $30,999 — has helped buoy a slumping industry and kept a generation of born-to-run riders on the roads….
With two bad knees, Mr. Ross, 71, switched to trikes about a decade ago but says he has seen the Brothers grow quickly in recent years, with about 250 new members, worldwide, every month. The group now counts chapters in 45 states, and not a feud among them. “We have a pact with all the gangs,” he said. “We don’t interfere with them, and they don’t interfere with us.” …
Somebody alert Joe Biden’s Secret Service detail… Seriously, though: I’m a back-end boomer, and I cringe every time I see yet another local news story about an elderly driver endangering themselves or killing someone else because they can’t or won’t give up their land barges. Don’t know what the national statistics are, but if I can think of two local deaths and a close call off the top of my head in just the past week, then I have to argue that any mode of transport — three-wheeled motorcycles, electric-assisted recumbent three-wheelers, souped-up golf carts — that cuts down on the carnage has to be considered a positive development. At least until we get those self-driving robot cars Google promises!
Gin & Tonic
You FP’ers really need to talk to each other about timing.
Ben Franklin
It’s tough to give up your independence, but sometimes it has to go. With bikes or Trikes, I think it’s just denialism. Doctors and Lawyers and such are the main bikers and trikers.
They worked their whole lives to get the spokes a wheelin’ They gave up their yoot for career and bucks. Now they want it back. Too late.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
Assuming they’re not doing it on purpose…
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
I’ve complained about the movie “Ounce of Courage” and its commercials before. Well, they seem to be showing even more frequently, giving me a chance to realize another reason why the movie bothers me so: the lead guy is a dead ringer for Tom Coburn in a wannabe biker gang’s colors.
Chris W
Favorite song in senior communities:
“Keep Away From Hoverround Sue”
PsiFighter37
Second Torpedo open, and Friday night is starting feel like a Friday night should
PF37 +2
ETA: Just for kicks, where do people predict the presidential election to come out? Assuming R-Money doesn’t do anything too stupid in the next 50 days (granted, that’s asking a bit), I think it’s 332-206 in the good guy’s favor, with a 5% popular vote margin.
What about everyone else?
Cap'n Magic
On the first anniversary of OWS, THIS:
lamh35
I’m posting this again, cause I just can’t stop laughing!
They are trying so hard to be like the Obamas it’s ridiculous, though as easy as the Obamas are in entertainment interviews, can you imagine Michelle saying that “Barack wears nothing when going to bed”.
It’s just the Romney trying to be like us measly normal peasant folk
My reaction was first shudder (eww naked Mittens) then laughter (Snooki…really) then shudder again (semi-naked GWB) then laugh again cause I can so see GWB saying what he allegedly said to Ann after “semi-naked GWB).
“Romney Does Daytime TV”
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/09/14/romney_does_daytime_tv.html
“Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, were interviewed on LIVE! with Kelly and Michael for a show airing next Tuesday, Reuters reports.
One of Romney’s revelations: “I’m kind of a Snooki fan. Look how tiny she’s gotten — her spark-plug personality.”
He was also asked what he wore to bed at night and replied, “I think the best answer is as little as possible.”
Meanwhile, Ann Romney confessed what she found while exploring the White House: “It was George Bush having a massage. He was covered up. I was so embarrassed that the next time I saw him I didn’t know what to say. He looked at me and winked and said, ‘I look pretty good, don’t I?’”
The Washington Post reports the interview “brought shudders from some Republicans, who fear the Romney campaign is running aground in its final stretch.”
Dennis SGMM
I drive a Miata. It’s a rare day when I don’t have to flatspot the tires or swerve madly because someone in an SUV “Didn’t see me.” This with halogen headlights on and cautious driving.
JWL
I’ve owned one motorcycle in my life. It was a Laverda 910, and it scared the shit out of me.
Thank god.
Anne Laurie
@Gin & Tonic: I always check the latest posts when I’m planning to publish, but ABL doesn’t compose on this site, so her post popped up after I’d looked. Coincidences happen.
amk
@PsiFighter37: 370+ EV and 10+ PV
Linda Featheringill
@Chris W: #5
LOL!
Brother Maynard
I think I just got push polled by the Virgil Goode campaign. It was kind of interesting.
Linda Featheringill
@PsiFighter37:
330-some-odd EV and 8+ PV.
Although I’ll admit that I like amk’s numbers.
PsiFighter37
@amk: That’s pretty bold. Unless Mittens drops the n-word on live television or starts traipsing around in the sacred magic underwear after his daytime TV excursion, I don’t see how that’s going to happen. He lost 7 EVs from 2008 from redistricting, and I don’t think he’s winning Indiana again.
What I really, truly, honestly cannot wait for is for Texas to become a swing state. Once that happens, the GOP is on its way out as a national party. They have already ceded states like MI and PA that have perennially been contested over the past several presidential elections, and now they are on solidly defensive footing. Tip TX over the edge, and they’re done.
I hope I haven’t drank myself to death by the time it happens in the next 10-15 years.
Cris (without an H)
Count my dad (71, retired DOD) among the legion. He tried a 2-wheeler decades ago, laid it out flat when taking a curve, and swore off motorcycles. But about four years ago he got a Harley trike and it’s now his primary get-around-town vehicle.
hhex65
@Chris W: ha! thumbs up
maye
I was driving around in the reddest of the red neighborhoods this morning in Orange County, Calif. (birthplace of the John Birch Society) and did not see a single Romney-Ryan yard sign. Zero. What can this mean?
amk
@maye:
This
PsiFighter37
Ah yes, one other mental fart (that may not be too popular) that I’d like to express.
I’m beginning to dislike Nate Silver quite a bit.
Not because of his numerology – which I think is generally accurate – but I think he is falling into the horsetrap that the MSM falls into – which is to say that it is in their interest to have a polarized, close election so that they justify their existence. Nate is a statistics whiz, no doubt about it, but his political analysis is possibly even more asinine than some of the MSM commentators. I am sure NYT told him to sterilize the partisan politics when they brought 538 onto their platform, but it is very sad to see the guy I originally first read as ‘poblano’ become absorbed into the Borg that is the MSM. I basically look at his numbers, skip his analysis, and read the comments.
It’s really annoying, too, because he’s definitely smart enough that he should know better. And he should stick to the numbers – either he does not know his way around politics, or he makes himself look stupid trying to be fair and balanced.
Roger Moore
@maye:
The OC isn’t as red as it used to be. Seriously. McCain was barely able to grab 50% of the vote there in 2008. The real crazies are in the Central Valley now.
jl
@efgoldman:
Wikipedia says Indiana gets the honors for John Birch Society.
“The society was established in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 9, 1958”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society#Origins
So, I guess MA is the home of the sugar daddy, Indiana is the birthplace, and OC CA is the incubator.
Ben Franklin
@efgoldman:
Baby, you’re a Rich Man………..
amk
@PsiFighter37: Al Giordano (of The Field) warned him the bw would eat him up and regurgitate a different personality.
jl
@Roger Moore: A lot of Hispanics and Asians in OC, and I think only older Vietnamese predominately GOP among Asians (their kids sure are not a GOP block vote from what I saw down there even ten or twelve years ago).
Ben Franklin
@maye:
What can this mean?
They’re too busy keeping up with the Joneses.
maye
@efgoldman: I stand corrected! However, here are a few of our more illustrious citizens:
redshirt
@jl: The crazy is a shifting, amorphous thing. A dark blob of ignorance and hate that bubbles up all over this mostly sane nation.
Obama 370+ EV, 6% +PV
Ben Franklin
@maye:
General Curtis LeMay
One of the likely conspirators in JFK’s assassination.
Roger Moore
@jl:
Yeah, but it’s hard to give up long-standing stereotypes. Orange County has been the center of so much craziness for so long, it’s hard to believe that things are shifting even a little bit. Similarly, I was surprised to see that the Inland Empire was more liberal than OC. I had thought of it as white flight haven from the coastal counties, but apparently it’s had its own share of minority migration to balance things out.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Fresno.
Home of Free Republic.
Need I say more?
jl
@Roger Moore:
I was going to mention the Inland Empire. There are some scary places out there, in terms of reactionary whites, but I think you are right that there is enough minority presence to keep it sane over all. And a lot of old school moderate conservatives too.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Fresno.
Home of Free Republic.
Need I say more?”
Fresno is diverse, so not sure it can be called super conservative overall.
No love for the Kern Basin and Bakersfield?
That is a little patch of Texas/OK that slid into CA with the oil industry and the cattle.
Though, real old school OK is Democrat progressive, but those people are mostly gone now. (Buck Owens, RIP!)
Yutsano
@redshirt: Not to engender false hope, but I did see a couple of maps this morning that showed MONTANA softening for Willard.
Sorry Mitt, we’re just not that into you.
Dennis SGMM
The Original Stroll from an Idaho TV station in 1958.
zmulls
My 14-year-old really loves Owl City. I am trapped upstairs at the Owl City concert at the TLA in Philly. Help me.
PsiFighter37
@Yutsano: No way Obama wins Montana. Good on you for electing Brian Schweitzer, but I can’t see him coming closer than he did in 2008 (when he was 3% or so back)
PF37 +3
Roger Moore
@jl:
Also, too, the IE is home to a lot of warehouses where goods from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are transshipped. That means a lot of blue collar jobs, including a fair number of unionized ones. I think that tends to work in favor of the Democrats.
raven
Fuckin trikes are unstable as shit in turns.
zmulls
Fresno: Raisins are the reason
PsiFighter37
Oh Jesus, now I think I understand why they call this beer ‘Torpedo’. I think I’ve crossed the ‘lit’ line, the next line to cross is ‘posting incomprehensible jibberish on BJ”.
MikeJ
@PsiFighter37: If I ever do a home brew I’ll name it moko loco with that in mind.
realbtl
@raven:
No way you’ll get me on a trike, agree about the cornering dynamics.
At 63 I’m on the downside of the displacement slope. Current stable is: 250cc Honda Helix scooter; 600cc Honda Silverwing scooter; 650cc Zuk S40 thumper and 250cc Honda CBR. The Helix will probably be the one that is last to leave as I get older. Then it’s convertible time.
PsiFighter37
@efgoldman: I generally get more in the lines of ham-handedly mashing the keyboard so that I understand what I’m typing, and as soon as I hit ‘submit’, I have a vague idea of what I meant, and nobody else has any idea of what I was trying to say.
It’s almost like a mystical form of solipsism, aided by booze.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
It will get lost in the background noise on a site like this.
cathyx
Dr. Laura rides a trike.
Soonergrunt
@raven: You remember back in the 80’s it was all the rage for All Terrain Vehicles which were trikes then? It took a whole bunch of accidents that killed and paralyzed people, mainly kids, before they were banned and reintroduced a couple of years later as the quad-bikes you see today.
? Martin
@jl: My BIL and FIL are from Bakersfield. A more racist, backwater, meth-addled group of white people you’d struggle to find anywhere.
@Roger Moore:
The trend everyone misses, because it’s generally not reported, is that there’s MASSIVE differentiation in ethnic groups by age. Over 50% of babies born in CA are Latino. That’s not minority-majority (whites <50%), that's full-on Latino majority. The trend you see in CA and in Texas (and some other states) is that the death pool is overwhelmingly white, while the birth pool is overwhelmingly Latino. So, there's this tidal wave of young Latinos – many of which aren't yet voting age – while whites in these states are barely replacing their own populations. So that's a big part of what's happening inland empire. You can see it in the universities. Where the big ethnic blocks were whites and then asians, there's now more latinos entering college than whites, and that changed in about 3 years. It was unbelievably fast and it was all age demographics.
CA is farther ahead on that tidal wave than Texas, and the white passive racist voting block is basically broken here, which is why the tea party pretty much doesn't work here. We voted even more blue in 2010 – CA was immune. Hell, we just approved issuing drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. Texas needs a few more years before that tidal wave hits voting age, but they're going to wind up like CA pretty soon.
muddy
@Soonergrunt: I’ve seen some that had 2 wheels in the front and one in back, that would be more stable. I don’t see as many of that kind.
I remember traveling in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 70’s, they had a lot of 3 wheeled vehicles, but they loaded them up like SUVs. Decorated to high heaven, overloaded and going way too fast. They were terrifying, and they were the majority of vehicles in Kabul back then.
BD of MN
@Soonergrunt: The new trikes have a much lower center of gravity and a far greater wheelbase spread, so I think it’s much less of a problem than those old ATV trikes…
muddy
@Roger Moore: Yeah, there lies Victor Davis Hanson, behind his massive wall, jacking his shotgun in the face of the brown hordes.
PsiFighter37
@Roger Moore: I shall not be denied my 15 minutes!
Even if it ends with me praying to the porcelain goddess.
raven
@realbtl: Class of 67. My first bike was a Honda 150 Dream in the summer of 66. Blue with a red seat. Drove that damn thing all over Chicago and up to Lake Geneva, no helmet, glasses, nuttin. I haven’t owned one in a while but I ride my buddies Triumph 900 scrambler and have been known to rent a Heritage Softail now and then. The rest of the time I make do with a 66 chevy longbed fleetside. Almost all new, 350, new tranny, rear end, paint and Smithy’s steel packs.
Dennis SGMM
@raven:
That’s because so many of them don’t have a differential. Think the original Honda 3 wheeler ATVs where you had to throw your weight to the inside to avoid landing on your head when you made a turn.
? Martin
@muddy:
The Can-Am Roadsters are pretty common around here with the >50 set. They have two wheels front. I see them all the time. I never see the two wheel rear ones around here.
raven
@Soonergrunt: Yep. There is a guy here that rides a 74 with a sidecare and he’s really careful but it’s still squirrelly.
You feelin ok? Know how those after-action aches and pains can be.
Yutsano
@muddy: I believe they use those all over south Asia, mostly because they’re inexpensive to purchase and to operate. They drive them like maniacs though.
realbtl
@raven:
Greetings fellow Class of ’67. My first was a CL160. Same thing, no helmet, often rode it 5 miles down to the CA beach in trunks and flip-flops. It’s a wonder we survived.
raven
@Dennis SGMM: I wasn’t really talkin about ATV’s but youse right. Member those mules that the jar heads had? My cousin was with the 1st Marines on the DMZ in 65-66 and he said so many guys got injured on them that they quit using them.
Dennis SGMM
Class of ’66. Went to work in a gas station and bought myself a Suzuki X6 Hustler. That’s how I learned about speed wobble.
Elmo
@? Martin:
I have always told my Southern friends, who can’t believe there’s racism in California – “if you want to see real life Klansmen, don’t go to Birmingham – go to Bakersfield.”
raven
@Dennis SGMM: I was in the class of 67 but went in on my 17th in November 66. Something about the judge giving me a choice, you know what I’m sayin.
Got in a little home town jam
Sent me off. . .
My friend Andy who was killed Nov 22, 68 in Operation Meade River road and X6. I’ll never forget when he snuck his older brother’s Norton 750 Commando out and DROPPED it. We were sittin in the soda fountain drinkin Green Rivers when he came through the door, white as a sheet.
Dennis SGMM
@raven:
We had one that we used as a go kart. It was almost as dangerous as that IRS jeep-kinda-thingie.
raven
@realbtl: Where in SOCAL? My parent split in 62 and I went back to Chicago but spent my summers in Inglewood. Hung at the Manhattan and Hermosa Piers.
raven
@Dennis SGMM: I figured since the Navy is part of the Corps you might have. :)
Eat the Apple!
redshirt
BJ is awesome for many reasons, one of which is the huge age difference in commentators. I was born in 70, and yet feel like a young pup reading Raven and Dennis SGMM comments. And yet at the same time there are 22 year olds here who are young as fuck! Life! What a thing.
realbtl
@raven:
Northern San Diego county, Carlsbad. As a teen musician I made a lot of money playing Camp Pendleton E and O clubs. Rather a busy place in ’64-’67.
raven
@realbtl: Cool, my old man was a reserve officer and he spent a couple of summers in Corando and we lived in La Jolla. Lived in Whittier during the year.
? Martin
Rachel is fucking hilarious with this gay World Net Daily segment.
Dennis SGMM
@raven:
I haven’t thrown a leg over a bike in close to thirty years. You know the saying; “There’s only two kinds of bikers, those who have laid it down and those who are going to.”
I am so tempted, particularly by the new Ducatis, but I don’t think that I have another laydown in me.
PsiFighter37
@redshirt: I’m 26, does that still count as young? Because I feel old as shit…
redshirt
@PsiFighter37: Young. Once you pass 27 – the Dying Age – you can consider yourself “old”.
realbtl
@Dennis SGMM:
True dat, we don’t bounce like we used to. I had a VFR 800 for 6 weeks this summer and decided it would kill me sooner or later. Traded it for the CBR 250. I now like slow(er) bikes.
raven
@Dennis SGMM: Such sweet machines. I don’t get what the point of this 900 cc Trumpet Scrambler? I’m still stuck with a Honda 350 scrambler being quite enough.
KG
I grew up in OC, always found it to be more small-l libertarian than conservative. Mostly a keep my taxes low and leave me alone attitude. I’ve also found the IE to be more socially conservative than the OC, but that could just be because I stereotype the fuck out of that giant cow pasture/methlab (see what I did there?). But anyway, my feel for it is that OC and San Diego is moving toward the rest of the coastal areas and voting bluer (demographics and social issues driving it). I’d honestly be shocked if the IE went that way too
PsiFighter37
@redshirt: 27, the dying age and also the % of crazy in the U.S.
Means I got about half a year to get my partay on before I’m an elderly fogey like most people here.
Dennis SGMM
David Bowie “Young Americans.”
We live for just these twenty years,
Do we have to die for the fifty more?
raven
@redshirt: I was in a wreck when I was 27. Broke my back and had harrington rods installed T-6. Shoulda died, should been a quad. Didn’t and wansn’t. Don’t mean nuthin
raven
@PsiFighter37:
Speed on brother, hell’s only half full.
? Martin
@PsiFighter37: You’re 26? I’ve been seeing you online for ages. I thought you were older. I’d give a nut to feel like 26 again (not like I need it any more). I’m 43. I’ve dropped my extra weight and am getting in better shape, but man, it’s hard. This shit used to be so much easier. And I don’t even want to frighten you with what kind of shit breaks down at 43.
And no, Dennis, raven, I DO NOT want to hear what’s coming. I’ve had a miserably painful week. I can’t cope with worse right now.
realbtl
@raven:
You some kinda commie or sumthin? This is America and “quite enough” just doesn’t cut it. We need More! Bigger! Excessive!
raven
@? Martin: Fuck that. I swim a mile a day, walk a couple with the critters before dawn and caught a hundred and thirty dam pound yellowfin in Maui this summer.
Dennis SGMM
@raven:
Way back when I rode a Ducati Diana Mk 3 for a while. A 250. After that, every other bike I tried seemed like a blunt instrument. My last was a Beezer 650.
raven
@realbtl: But a scrambler?
raven
@Dennis SGMM: My Yamaha RD 350 would rock my world, god that thing was fast.
raven
Well goddamn it. I’m sitting here watching the Braves and I forgot I was watching the DVR. Went to epsn to check the other scores and saw that we won! Shit.
KG
Just saw something rather interesting while waiting for a table… Clicked over the Hewitt’s blog to see his take on whatever the latest GOP talking points are. He’s got a transcript up with a pollster where he’s trying to discredit the Obama + 7 Ohio poll, and the pollster very clearly explains, like four times, why his model is right and why Rassmussan is wrong. I think Hugh lost control of it like Hannity did the other day with McCain. Most interesting thing was about the live vs robocalls and inclusion of cell phones… I still think this is going to be an Obama landslide, I’m saying 340 + on the EV, and 7+ on the PV
PsiFighter37
@? Martin: I started posting on dKos in 2004…so yeah, I’ve been around the general liberal Internets for a while. I scaled back a lot of the political activism since I graduated, but I still pop up every now and then to voice my opinion, requested or (generally) otherwise, more frequently.
Mainly it’s because I’m stuck in an industry (financial services) that is blindly and stupidly in the thrall of Republicanism. I cannot stand the idiocy of people who think that because they make a good pay, they know everything.
They don’t.
They know a hell of a lot less.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven:
I’ve ridden one of those. My uncle had it. He always bought fast bikes and rode slowly. Same with sports cars. I have never understood that.
amorphous
I just noticed MMonides is not listed in the authors tab and all (both?) his posts are deleted. What gives?
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Dennis SGMM:
Jesus. That was wonderful, hypnotic and fucking terrifying all at the same time.
ETA: It makes a strong argument for the imposition of dancing permits for straight, white people.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: I’ll admit that, while sober, even that dance is beyond me. Okay, I will also admit that it is beyond me when I am not sober as well, but I tend to care less.
Steeplejack
@jl:
Friday night! Music! I need only the smallest of hooks.
Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens, “Streets of Bakersfield.”
PsiFighter37
Has anyone here listened to the new Offspring album? Probably the best one they’ve put out in more than a decade. It doesn’t match their really old stuff, but a level above their past few efforts, IMO.
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: I have not, but the Offspring were never my thing.
? Martin
@PsiFighter37: 2004 is about when I found that place too. Sounds about right.
@raven: Good on you, man. I walk about 4-5 miles a day most days, run another mile. It’s made a big difference. Still hurts, though. Didn’t used to.
Anya
@PsiFighter37: I am going to be 26 in November but I’ve started saying I am 26 just to get used to it. I feel old as fuck. I happened to be around Columbia U during orientation week and I was like, fuck that used to be me. I am having a quarter-life crisis.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: Bicycle. I’ve lost about 8 pounds since the beginning of July, and I was running regularly for years.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m bicycling again. The only thing it doesn’t do is the gut.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Sweet victory for the Bravos. Is there such a thing as a walk-off error?
? Martin
@PsiFighter37: Only two songs. I like them both though. Much more polished. Reminds me of Green Day American Idiot, how it was much better composed than their previous work.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Depends on what kind of bike. I have one of those girly, goofy upright Dutch-style bikes and it does seem to help the core a bit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Other people may disagree with this, but from my mid-20s until now (48), I really haven’t felt that different. I’ve been in better and worse shape; I’ve been happier and sadder, etc., but fundamentally I have been the same. I think it is possible to go a long time with relative youthfulness if you are either lucky or careful. I’ve been lucky.
Anya
Did anyone watch Tammy Duckworth and Joe Walsh (nutcase) debate?
gbear
Whenever I pass a trike going in the opposite direction, I try to give them a three-wheels-down sign, but it’s hard to do. The pinkie wants to point down too.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Link?
ETA: I have been out of touch since I came home from work with a new book. I didn’t even hear that a judge had struck down the WI collective bargaining law until I got on B-J an hour ago.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mnemosyne: Well, it certainly helps with losing weight (racing road bike here), and that helps, but the slight “overhang,” for lack of a better word, still needs something more along the lines of sit-ups for me.
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: I am probably feeling this way because I am just bumming around these days. For the first time in my life I am not working or going to school. I feel a bit aimless.
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: There are few one stop shops. I love that my resting heart rate is around 50 again.
PsiFighter37
@? Martin: For sure. Green Day has lost their way a bit after American Idiot (I didn’t like 21st Century, and the new trilogy sounds like the goofy old Green Day from ‘Warning’ – in other words, not very inspired music).
But when I started playing the new Offspring album – it’s pretty much guaranteed they’ll lay a few stinkers nowadays, but outside of those, the rest of the songs are really, REALLY good stuff.
That said, my most consistent punk bands nowadays are Rise Against and Strung out. RA has slowed down a bit (Siren Song of the Counterculture is always going to be my favorite album of theirs – that is an album that has maybe 1 mediocre song and the rest are outstanding), but both of them are incredible.
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: Here
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Thanks, but Fox?
Anya
“this is the worst recovery since the great depression.” Joe Walsh is an idiot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Yeah, I felt like getting in my car and finding him. The guy really cries out to be punched in the junk.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s the trade-off between a road bike and a city bike — you can go a lot faster on a road bike and really get your heart rate up because the posture lets you do most of the work with your legs, but it doesn’t do much for the core.
On my city bike, I can’t go nearly as fast (though I can get my heart rate up pretty well) because it’s not quite as efficient, but the upright posture makes my core work more than on a road bike.
Plus I have bad carpal tunnels from way too many years on computers, so the city bike works better for me that way, too. On my old hybrid bike, the leaning-forward thing kept making my hands numb.
PsiFighter37
@Anya: Don’t tell me about it. Every day I pull my ass out of bed reminds me of when it didn’t feel like such a chore to face another day.
Mnemosyne
I was hoping to ride my bike to the cycling class I’m going to tomorrow (Confident City Cycling) but it’s going to be ONE HUNDRED AND FUCKING FOUR DEGREES here in the Valley tomorrow. (In fact, it’ll probably be even hotter — today was predicted to be 102 and it was actually 106.)
Nope. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
Anya
Tammy is not as informed as she should be. Why is she agreeing that the country is broke? Also, that idiocy about regulations preventing banks from lending.
Ash Can
@amorphous:
I’ve wondered the same thing. Anyone?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne:
I get that, but I just move my hands or shake them out one at a time.
Anya
@PsiFighter37: My dad thinks I am being self-indulgent.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sadly, just shaking them out doesn’t make it go away. I have official Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my left hand and official tendonitis in my right, so it’s not just the occasional numbness that’s normal with riding.
The upright posture also helps a lot with the pain in my neck/arms/shoulders that goes along with the CTS. Riding my hybrid was literally painful sometimes.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes Omnibus: @Mnemosyne: I get numbness sometimes too, but I don’t have an official stamp or anything for CTS.
I’ll check out the city bike sometime. I really don’t have room in my apt. for two bikes, though.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Jesus, you’re in your 20s; it is your last chance to be self-indulgent without people judging you. Wallow away; just don’t take yourself too seriously – mirrors help.
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: I think the appropriate response is, no matter what, you’ll be fine and you’ll crush it.
PF37 +5
Heeeeeeeeeeeey sexay ladays #gangnam_style
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: Hey, I am old and only +4. Cut me some slack.
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: I cut slack for no one!
Chuck Butcher
Well cripes, I should have known the prudery of FYWP would object to my link. So, speaking of bikes this one is now 3y4m and is past 61,000 miles and I bought it new with Harley’s original 50 miles. If you’d like to see good pics of it search the site for “Harley Po*n” with the “r”.
Since it is a moderately hot rodded (by Harley) 110 CID (1800CC) with 6 speed you can go ahead and figure it is fast. It has been a few places and I’ve experienced a few drivers. It gets ridden, the front pegs have high speed grinds on them, that’s over quite a bit.
I don’t care what the day has been, it gets better up on two. This will miss most…
It is well balanced at rest but it does weigh 725 pounds and no, there is no reverse.
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: Okay, I see where this is going. I will cut to the chase. Fuck you, you fucking fuck. There, don’t we all feel better?
BTW does this work?
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: I think that’s a bit harsh. I’m 5 deep and getting cursed out? Come on!
And in response to your blockquote…I haven’t tried it. The life of an engaged man is less exciting than PSY.
Chuck Butcher
@Anya:
heh, I’m 59 and I don’t look a day younger but every morning when I look in the mirror to put my contacts in I wonder what old guy stuck his skin on me ’cause I sure the hell ain’t that old.
Might be the bike, might be just plain cussedness but I’ll get old when I’m dead.
PsiFighter37
Nate Silver’s forecast went down for Obama today. I really think that he’s been converted partially to the dark side. He should be giving no weight to clearly bullshit polls that come from known hucksters (Rasmussen) or new outfits that are shilling for one side (Gravitas).
I am angry, and I am drunk, and that makes me an angry drunk, and Silver should stop giving credit to those who have been previously discredited.
Chuck Butcher
@PsiFighter37:
Read the analysis of the poll and interpretation mechanism. Short version, a larger convention bump was anticipated so a minor down grade.
dance around in your bones
@Dennis SGMM:
I’m always hours late to threads, but this is so great – everybody looks so nerdy and so serious.
It is also apparent that some folks just don’t have rhythm.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chuck Butcher: Bikes shouldn’t have reverse.
At heart, I am an English bike guy, but there are different bikes for different people. I think it is great that you really are getting pleasure out of yours.
@PsiFighter37: I thought that’s where we were heading and it would be easier to just save time and typing. FWIW one of my best friends and I became friends in a similar shortcut. We both were good friends with someone but never got along. one night at a party we got in an argument that resulted in the standard “Step outside” thing. As we were walking out, I said to him, “Look, you are an asshole”; he said “You are arrogant and condescending.” We both paused and said that the other person was right. Then, we paused again and said “Why were we going to fight?” At that point, we went back into the party and got a drink.
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: And clearly this means if there is ever a BJ meetup that we both attend, shots are in order!
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
May have been something he did in his youth? My father-in-law flew P-38s during the Korean War; once he came home & started a family, he insisted on seatbelts even when they were an exotic after-market item. And he instilled the “every passenger, every time” rule so strongly in his offspring (in the early 60s this was considered somewhere between wussy and demented) that they’ve enforced it even for dates, spouses, and the next generation.
Chuck Butcher
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, not in my opinion but then I ride a Harley for my reasons and others ride other stuff for their reasons. I will say this, in a drag race to 80mph that bike has shown a lot of “fast” bikes its tail-light, after that… well it is a big Harley V-Twin… a lot of rotating mass.
Chuck Butcher
@Anne Laurie:
You know the Chinese curse – may you have an interesting life? I’ve already had two and now working on #3. I don’t quite ride the bike like I stole it, not quite. Some people react differently.
I use a seat belt, despite almost getting killed because of one. (that was a matter of a fraction of an inch, not inches)
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: I’ve got the first round.
@Anne Laurie: No. That is the weird thing about him. He always was cautious, per Dad – the older brother. Okay, he seemed to break legs and wreck knees even while being careful. But, my god, the fun of reckless speed… The Ohhhhmyyyygooooodddd of pegging out on a turn. Or knowing that you need to lay down NOW or you will be hurt very badly while skiing. Fine, I have a bit of adrenalin junkie in me. Family trait and it is missing from this uncle.
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack:
Jesu Christo, that’s like white dude Norteño.
Dwight Yoakum has a cute butt, though ;)
Chuck Butcher
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh I like the rush, but I’ve gotten a bit shy about the broken parts part of it.
going to see about the night life now, may be back pretty soon…
This is a small town and all…
Karen in GA
Ugh. Very late to this, but I’m 44 so I’m not as quick as I used to be. Yamaha V-Star 1300. I love my bike.
Steeplejack
@dance around in your bones:
That is white dude Norteño. That’s why I like it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chuck Butcher: A fair point.
I know I will ride a bike or drive a car as fast as it can go at some point. I don’t have confidence in my reaction time on a bike at much above 100 mph. As a result, I won’t throw a leg over a bike that will exceed that. If I am on a Hayabusa, I will open it up. I also will die. My next bike will probably be a Triumph Bonneville T100. Fast enough to give me thrills, but not cause me to kill myself.
ETA: My Saab is supposed to have a 143 top speed, but I have never topped 120. I might need to go west to get a long road with no cops.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Anya: I remember 26. It was a bigger shock than 30. Once you hit the downslope of your 20s …
Omnes Omnibus
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Whiner.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Anya: I quit my high-pay career-building engineering job at 25, backpacked through Europe, did two laps of the US, and finally went back to work after 18 months of “retirement”. Screwed my income and resume for a number of years but I never regretted it.
Do what you want in your 20s, once you have a mortgage you’re stuck.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I withdraw the whiner comment.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Omnes Omnibus: Duly noted. And since someone’s listening, I enjoyed the SoCal thread up above. I was out there around that time. With a 200cc Triumph Tiger Cub. 15 thrashing HP.
I gave it up the second time I ended up on the pavement and went back to 2-seat ragtop sports cars – Bugeye Sprite, Alfa Duetto, TR-3. The 23-year old Miata in the driveway now has 215,000 miles on it.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s more that it’s kind of an interesting debate going on right now between people who bike mostly for transportation and people who are more of the weekend warrior types who like to travel 20 or 50 miles at a go. A road bike is scary in urban traffic, but a city bike isn’t going to be able to take you up and over a mountain (or even a really big hill).
You’re probably fine sticking with your current bike and some situps unless you decide you want to start commuting and/or running errands by bike like I do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: How was the Duetto? It is on my to drive list.
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack:
Of course you know about Nortec Collective
Also, Tijuana Makes Me Happy
You know about everything musico fantastico;)
suzanne
Well, I’m a 1980 baby, and those of y’all in my age cohort will probably find this hilarious.
I have gray hairs now. And I’m finding it much more difficult to lose weight. BLAR.
Omnes Omnibus
@suzanne: I bet you have more gray than I do unless you dye. Pffflllbbbttt!
/Bill the Cat
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I have dyed nonstop since I was 16. I’ve been most shades of the rainbow.
Steeplejack
@dance around in your bones:
Not everything, but I have heard some of the Nortec Collective stuff.
Dialin’ it down late-night with the Tigres del Norte.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Omnes Omnibus: The Duetto was a ’67, Dustin Hoffman’s car in The Graduate. My least favorite of the list above. The controls were set so I had to stretch my left leg to engage the clutch, but the right knee was bent ’cause the gas pedal was much closer. Opposite for the arms. Stretch for the gearshift, steering wheel was right on top of me.
Added to that, it was no more reliable than a Brit, but the parts cost four times as much. I swapped it with an Alfa mechanic for his TR-3.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I got to drive in Montana when there was no speed limit on highways. It was kinda reckless but still kinda fun too. Not sure I wanna peg out the Malibu though.
Steeplejack
I’m off to bed. One of the things I had forgotten about being a cat owner is how, even though they don’t have eyelids, they can puff up their eyes and look so sleepy because you won’t get off the computer and go to bed. The guilt induced is unshakable.
There’s also a beetling brow involved.
Omnes Omnibus
@suzanne: Honestly, I don’t understand that concern people have about chrono age. Especially, the people who are bothered by 30, 40, etc. The numbers have never bothered me.
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not bothered by them, either, but that may be because I have been relatively accomplished thus far. I can imagine feeling less comfortable with it if I’d made less stuff happen so far.
I am bothered by my ass, though. I miss being a size 6. I’m a 10 now, and the double digit upsets me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I still want to drive one.
TR3 or TR3A?
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack:
I remember looking at a CD rack in my local tienda in Mexico and going “Oh! Los Tigres del Norte!” and the owner said disgustedly “Why do you listen to that drug music?”
But I still love Los Tigres.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
He probably tells people he gets all the adrenalin rushes he needs watching family members attempt to kill themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@suzanne: Yeah, well, I weighed 150 when I graduated from high school. I am about 180 now. Of course, I grew nearly 2″ while I was in college. But I should be no more than 170, so I feel your pain.
@Anne Laurie: You’re just mean.
Mnemosyne
@suzanne:
Since you have a fairly recent kidlet, you may want to have them check your thyroid at your next physical. Pregnancy can really screw with your thyroid.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m about a month from 40, so I appreciate the sentiment. The fact that I shock my co-workers with my chronological age is just gravy. I get pegged for mid-20s all the time.
suzanne
@Mnemosyne: I have epilepsy, and one of the side effects of most anti-seizure drugs is about ten pounds of weight gain. I also get next to no exercise, because I have a desk job and children. But I used to be able to not eat for a few days and drop weight pronto. BLAR.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I get mid-30s all the time from people. I assume they want to borrow money.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Yutsano: So did I. Until I turned 41. Then my age decided to show up with a vengeance. Tick tick tick
cmorenc
Elderly driver joke:
An 84 year-old man was driving home on the freeway when his wife Marge called him on his cell phone to alert him to a traffic news report of a wrong-way driver on the eastbound lane of the freeway. The man replied: “Marge, there’s not just one, there’s hundreds of them!”
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve annoyed quite a few people from college about it. I’m actually (somewhat, post-surgery weight is still hanging about) thinner than I was then too, so that helps.
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace: My mom does not look old enough for Social Security by a long shot. And if my dad still had his black hair you’d think he was maybe 40. I got really good genes in that department.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: @Or something like that.Suffern Ace: Blah, Blah, Blah. Age is individual.
Death Panel Truck
I don’t know what the law is in other states but in Washington you have to have a separate endorsement for trikes. I have a two-wheel motorcycle endorsement, and my wife and I are enjoying our ’09 Suzuki Boulevard M109 very much. I like riding a cruiser; it’s a great way to see the countryside.
On a trip to southern Oregon last year, I stopped on the way at a rest stop west of Boardman. A 73-year-old guy came up to me, and as a conversation starter he said I had the prettiest bike he’d ever seen (I don’t really think he thought that; he just wanted to talk to me about bikes). He proceeded to tell me about all the bikes he’d owned over 60 years of riding. His first bike was a 1936 Harley; his next bike was an Indian that he hated. After a series of Harleys, in the seventies he bought a Honda Gold Wing. He said he and his wife had two of them before he stopped riding at the age of 70 because of arthritis.
I told him that I’d considered buying a Harley, and he stopped me right there. He said, “When you buy a Harley-Davidson, you’re buying a name. Stick to Japanese bikes. They’re better designed, better engineered, better built, better all around.” Then he emphatically stated “Don’t you EVER buy a Harley.” I assured him I wouldn’t. Ten thousand miles on the M109 have convinced me the Japanese bikes are superior.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Omnes Omnibus: 1961 TR3A, wide mouth grill. Might have been a “B” if there was such a thing because it had disk brakes in front.
ThresherK
@raven: There is a guy here that rides a 74 with a sidecare and he’s really careful but it’s still squirrelly.
But squirrelly, or at least a little squirrelly, is a good thing.
The arms race in motorcycling retailing has made a 600 repli-racer a “beginner’s bike”, and with their tractability, tires, brakes, handling and chassis, the unknowing rider can go from feeling “completely in control” to in the bushes in three seconds. (And that’s not even while accelerating to 60 in 4 seconds.)
Many older bikes (since about the wave of first Hondas) are secure enough to ride in a bit of sporting manner, but give the rider warning when the limits are being pushed.
PS Like many here I now wear all the protective stuff but chuckle at what I wore riding while I was younger.
Jay in Oregon
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
Marshall Teague has shown up in a lot of sci-fi stuff: Babylon 5, Sliders, Stargate SG-1, and Armageddon, among others. He typically plays military types.
I’d hoped that he took this project because it’s just a paycheck to him and not out of loyalty to political ideology. But I just looked him up on IMDB and his bio lists him as a friend of Chuck Norris, so…
The trailer for Last Ounce of Courage is just cringe-inducing and full of wingnut fantasy, like when Teague’s character is told that he is violating the Constitution and he replies “That is a lie and you know it!”
If only we had a stargate to open a wormhole to Wingnut World and give these guys an all-expenses-paid trip through. Then close the iris and bury the sucker in a volcano…
spencer neal
I am a 64 year old lawyer. I started riding motorcycles in 1971 when I bought a 1967 Triumph 650. I have been riding all these years, putting up with idiots in cages (automobiles). Riding a motorcycle is not easy and when my balance starts to go, I will think about a trike.