Please look twice for motorcycles

[Opsimath]

Also.... Please.... Watch out for bicycles!

I ride both road and mountain bikes. Much more dangerous on the road. At intersections I always try to catch eye contact with drivers before crossing.

Re. windsurfing and balance. I used to windsurf and I remember if I had just 1 beer it would throw my balance off enough that I fell quite a lot. Skiing and snowboarding I can do half in the bag. Windsurfing not so much.

Ah, a fellow (former) windsurfer! I miss it. Still have my gear. Always meant to get back to it but seems there became too many demands on my time so it never happened. Then again it was a whole day commitment. Had to load up the Bronco and drive at least 30 to 45 minutes to get to the windsurfing beach. Then that beach got developed. Private property, no parking, basically windsurfers no longer welcome. So drive became 1 1/2 hours, if I recall correctly, to get to an accessible beach with parking.

It really was a blast, though. I like to think I could still do it fairly well, but I am not sure I remember exactly how to rig the sails. There's probably a youtube video.

Edit: Lots of windsurfing videos, and yeah, they look like they're having fun!

 

[geoguy]

I only tried windsurfing one day, and wasn't very successful . . . seemed like it would be a good workout on a windy day, if I could only get the hang of balancing against the pull of the sail. I kept getting pulled over forwards into the water, again & again. Had many faceplants in the water that day.

Several years ago I met an older fellow who used to own a performance-oriented motorcycle shop in New Hampshire. He said he still enjoyed riding at speed on a road-race track, but would NOT ride on public roads ever again.

 

[Opsimath]

I only tried windsurfing one day, and wasn't very successful . . . seemed like it would be a good workout on a windy day, if I could only get the hang of balancing against the pull of the sail. I kept getting pulled over forwards into the water, again & again. Had many faceplants in the water that day.

Several years ago I met an older fellow who used to own a performance-oriented motorcycle shop in New Hampshire. He said he still enjoyed riding at speed on a road-race track, but would NOT ride on public roads ever again.

Maybe your sail was too big. Smaller sail for windy days, larger sail for low wind days. Beginning windsurfing on a high wind day would be pretty difficult. I'm sorry you weren't successful because it really is a lot of fun. I took a 2-hour class from the shop where I bought my boards and sails, which helped a whole lot since I had no clue about sailing, just that it looked like fun. An understanding of how it works can go a long way in making it work.

 

[geoguy]

Maybe . . . the folks who loaned me the sailboard only had one sail available, and provided only nominal verbal instruction before I got in the water. Pretty much left it up to me to figure out how to sink or swim.

I swam . . . a lot more than I sailed!

 

[crank]

I got rid of all my windsurfing gear 10 years ago. I learned on some very light wind days. I was already a sailor. First time I tried it in a good blow It took a good hour of falling before I got the hang of it. You really have to lean back and let your body weight take the pull of the sail. Now I would be afraid of doing some rotator cuff damage. Will stick with sailing on boats and paddling on boards.

Riding motorcycles is not something I ever did much of. Kind of scared me and 2 high school friends died on bikes. Good friend who had a Triumph scared himself so badly he sold the bike and never rode again.

 

[Opsimath]

I usually sailed across the wind. My tacking skills were limited, and I was too impatient to take that long to get back, so I never went downwind. We generally had a nice breeze blowing out from shore so I just went up and down the beach. Ahhh. I remember once sailing with dolphins that had come in close to shore. That was pretty neat.

 

[Opsimath]

Maybe . . . the folks who loaned me the sailboard only had one sail available, and provided only nominal verbal instruction before I got in the water. Pretty much left it up to me to figure out how to sink or swim.

I swam . . . a lot more than I sailed!

The discussion is jogging my memory. Let's see. On the boom, the hand closest to the mast was the steering (tilting the mast would push either the front or the back of the board around) and the hand farther out on the boom was the gas (pulling it in put more wind in the sails and made you go faster), was the way it was explained to me. If the wind was too strong hold the mast and let go of the boom. I think that might be called sheeting out. No wind in the sail, the board will stop. Then hold the boom again and pull the sail in with the far hand to get the board going but not so far that you're "blown away".

Ready to try it again???

 

[F312]

Love the concept.
Call me cycnical, because I am, but it will never happen.
Too many idiots behind the wheel, completely oblivious to their surroundings for whatever reason, (on meds, on the phone, senile, drunk, high or simply just plain incompetent) are enough reasons why I would never even entertain the thought of bicycling on urban or suburban roads with car traffic.
A country road with one car passing by every 5mns ok.

Cell phone texting should be outlawed, and these onboard computer screens are no better.

Ralph

 

[geoguy]

Ready to try it again???

I would give it another go, if the opportunity arose.

 

[bluesypicky]

Cell phone texting should be outlawed, and these onboard computer screens are no better.
Ralph

It is, mostly, but not enforced, like the pretty universal "slow traffic keep right" rule...

 

[F312]

Ralph

 

[Rayk]

NO!
But thank you anyway.

I had my Ninja 1,000 up to 160 -170
So my Speedo said . Not much tire contact with the rd at those speeds .

 

[Opsimath]

I had my Ninja 1,000 up to 160 -170
So my Speedo said . Not much tire contact with the rd at those speeds .

When you said "Speedo" I thought ... never mind.

160? 170? It's not 175, which I have already turned down, and again,

NO!
But thank you anyway.

 

[Rayk]

When you said "Speedo" I thought ... never mind.

160? 170? It's not 175, which I have already turned down, and again,

NO!
But thank you anyway.

Lmao geez that’s funny . It’s the meds ! I swear !

 

[Opsimath]

It's not a motorcycle. As far as visibility in traffic it's probably worse - a go-kart - on the roads. Kind of a long (10 minutes) and monotonous video, but at about 8:48 he meets a police car and then takes off. Watch his move when he gets behind a truck with another vehicle approaching in the oncoming lane at just about 9 minutes!



Pretty scary!