.....This was sent to me by an old friend the other day, more relates to spending a lifetime on bikes of various sorts, but on reading it, I found it also has a striking credence with Zed ownership. read and enjoy... Wear Leather The benefits of leather have been proven over many highways and many years. Wearing something unreliable like shorts and thongs means you will soon experience a trip to the emergency room: there, uncaring Nurses will scrub gravel out of your wounds and doctors will dispense ineffective painkillers and offer meaningless advice... like telling you to trade that murdercycle in for a nice safe Camry. Crap! I will dispense for you, some real advice, right now: Enjoy the power and beauty of your ride; If you don't already; you can fully enjoy it by doing long smokey burnouts in front of middle aged parents and wide eyed children in the parking lot at the local shopping mall. Trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at the photos of you and your pals on your bikes and recall in a way you can't grasp now; how much fun you had and how fabulous you really looked hauling down the highway dressed in leather. Leather is as sexy as you can imagine. Don't worry about what your Mom thinks; or worry yourself; but know that worrying about what other people think is as effective as trying to scratch your nose in a blinding hailstorm with a full-face helmet and winter gloves on. The real troubles in your life are apt to be Volvo cars and Volvo drivers; the kind that blindside you on some urban roadway and then claim you crashed into THEM!. Do one thing everyday that scares other drivers... Lanesplit. Sing into your helmet. Use mouthwash first. Don't be reckless with other people's bikes, especially if you don't have insurance. Don't put up with people who mess with yours.... Ride Fast.... Don't waste your money on chrome or fancy paintjobs; spend it on racing or partying. Sometimes you're fast, sometimes you're slow. Sometimes you're hungover, sometimes your not. When the ride is long, in the end, a cold beer tastes pretty damn good. Remember the good rides you've had, forget the cuts and bruises; Try to wear out the sides of your tires before the middle.... if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your oil changed. Throw away old traffic citations. Take chances. Don't feel guilty if you ride faster than the posted limit ...the most interesting people I know, didn't know at 22 how to ride conservatively, all the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't. Get plenty of saddle time. Be kind to your passengers; you'll miss them if they fall off. Maybe you'll crash, maybe you won't; Maybe you'll have surgery, maybe you won't; Maybe you'll ride a cruiser off a twisty road doing 40, maybe you'll get a new motocrosser for your 75th birthday ... whatever you ride, don't congratulate yourself too much - your choices are 90% foreign,10% domestic, like everyone else's. Enjoy your bike, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it; it's the greatest instrument of pleasure you'll ever own. Wrench... even if you have nowhere to do it but in your hotel room. Read the owner's manual, even though you won't remember any of it. Do not read American motorcycle magazines, they will only make you wish you'd bought an Australian one instead. Get to know your brake pads, you never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your tires; they are your link to the bitumen and the only things most likely to save your butt from a nasty highside. Understand that mechanics come and mechanics go but for a precious talented few, you should pay them well and buy them sixpacks. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older your bike gets, the more you'll need the mechanic who worked on it when it was young and still not paid off. Ride in Sydney once, but leave before you get killed; Ride in Queensland whenever possible, but leave a plausible excuse when calling in sick for work. Do lurid wheelies and roolling stoppies!. Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise; Traffic will get worse; You too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young: - petrol was cheap; - the highway patrol couldn't catch you; and - Harley owners weren't all yuppies. Respect your rev-limiter. Don't expect anyone else to see your bike unless it has really loud pipes Maybe your bike has a big gas tank, maybe a small one; but remember: either way you'll still have to make bathroom stops. Don't mess too much with your carburetors, or by the time your done you'll be walking home. Be careful whose advice you buy, save your receipts. Don't take advice from those who supply it for free, especially if they own a Britbike. Motorcycle restoration is a form of self-torture. Doing it is a way of pulling the past from the dustbin, degreasing it, painting over the rusty parts and dumping way more money into it than it's worth. But trust me on the leather... Regards GT:thumbsup:
