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kleinbl00  ·  3736 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: David's Last Ride

I bought a ZX1000 Ninja when I was 17. The tachometer went to 17k and the speedo to 230.

I never rode it, though.

The idea was to fix it up and sell it; I got a killer deal on it from a friend who had rode it hard and put it away wet. I tootled it around a little and realized that if I learned to ride at 17 on a bike with a speedo that went to 230, I'd likely not see 18.

When I finally got a bike, I was 32. It was a KLR-650. That'll get you in plenty of trouble. The Benelli weighs 75 lbs more and has roughly 3 times the horsepower; it is a truly fast bike. But at 37, I have a lot more ability to regard its power rationally than I would have at 17.

You can't eliminate the risks, but you can minimize them. Part of that starts with recognizing that you are mortal, that you can't stop as fast as you can go and that the consequences for miscalculation are dire.