Old Blokes: They make you smile...

(warning - post of little substance... )

So I was just finishing getting a feed down the road, and a rather eclectic group was also there and finished up at the same time. I say eclectic.. because.. well.. There was a large gentleman of Northern African Appearance, who was getting around with one leg, a woman in her late-late-autumn years who was of the era where one rolled in foundation and didn't merly apply it, and finally her (i'm assuming) partner of similar vintage.


As I wandered over to my bike, they also bundled into their car parked just a few metres from my bike. It transpires the One-Legged Man was their Chauffeur (so to speak ). By this stage my helmets on, and I've just thumbed the starter on the bike and start to walk it backwards when the old bloke stops getting into the car and walks over to me.

What the ? I'm thinking, he wants to say something - so I kill the bike.

"Mate.. Tell me.. What size is the bike?"
"Its a 1000..."
"Oh right...."

The rest of his party are now in their car and waiting eagerly, so I assume with the above factoid exchanged he'd be on his way.

Nope.

"I was out at Lanyon, you know, down South the other day..." He begins..
"Uhuh ?" I ask with a quizzical look, however safely hidden behind my helmet still..
"Yeah.. the guys were out on their bikes - something about the Governor General.. You know they ride 1300's now? The BMW's are gone.. their bloody big Kawasaki things..."
By now I've twigged he must be talking about "they" being the VIP escort guys.. And since he seemed like a nice enough bloke I just went with it...
"Yeah.. they are impressive bikes"
"When they all left they really gave it some up the road. Sounded Great. Hows the fuel economy? good?" was his next question, as he now seemed to have settled into a conversation...

Now - just as a side note - Whenever I get sucked into these 'old timey' conversations (of which the chances of occuring are inversely proportional to the towns population you are stopped in... ) I always find myself wondering 'Should I convert this into Imperial - or do you reckon they are good with Metric by now?' - the end result of which is bizzare conversations such as "Yeah - I get about 2.5 Gallons per 100Km's...." Anyway - after more or less giving that answer he continues on...


"So tell me - what speed you get this thing up to" he asks now, with the rest of his party now starting to look impatient... "300 if you wanted to I'm betting?"
To which I of course diplomatically replied "Oh only on the race track you know... gotta be sensible these days..." ( )
"That would be a lot of fun..." he said with almost a look of longing in his eyes... "So they go round corners all right - not too heavy ?"
"Well modern bikes, they try and put the Centre of Gravity down low, so you don't really notice it"
"Hmmm... they really have..." TOOOOOT comes the AirHorns from the waiting party in the Falcon.. "Well.. Guess I've been told... Have a lovely night mate"

And with that, he wandered back to the car.

It always makes me smile when this sort of thing happens... Sometimes it feels tedious because they invariably catch you as you are gearing up... but.. I always leave those sorts of conversations with a warm fuzzy feeling.

Except this time around... I am left with the vague impression some 80 year bloke is going to wander into Mitchell CMC and ask to test ride an '09 R1...

 

Made me chuckle (That ain't easy)

 

Aaaaawwww.... I love those conversations. I tend to attract whole bus loads of the lovely, female blue-rinse set. They pile out, totter over and say, 'so, do you give it to the boys?'. 'Every time' is their favourite answer.

I'm hoping one day when I'm old and looking with longing at whatever the fastest bike is of the day, someone will be nice to me and take the time to talk to me for a moment.

Then of course I will roar off on my big bore mobility scooter with the air horn!! WHOO HOO! I intend being a terror.

 

So you're sticking with the Busa then?

 

Oh you are a brave man. You'll do a great job of leading the parade this year, nice and sparkly!

 

Should have warned him about the 50% looking and 75% touching fees then

 

haha nice guy, I get random old beemer guys striking up convos like this, I always enjoy a good chinwag with these guys

 

I actually LOL'd. Mad call.

Good story Bro.

 

So old guys with no idea like R1s? Explains a lot

 

I'm often amazed at the mixed reactions I get. I was out at the small shops in Lyneham a few months ago and the average age of the people having coffee there looked to be about 70. I had long hair, a goatee and a few days of stubble so when I pulled up on a v-twin I was completely bewildered by the friendly smiles from the women at the table inside and the pleasant conversation from the old man helping his wife out of the car where I was gearing up. I'm always happy to say hello to anyone so hopefully I perpetuated the nice biker image but it does seem to come from the oddest places. It's nice to see that not everyone is scared off due to the bikey panic in the media.

 

I LOL'd . IRL.

I had a long talk with an old bloke in Dungog last time I went to bris....ended up letting him take the katoom for a test blat around the block. Bit of a risk, but hell, the smile on his face when he got off.... worth it.

 

apparently if you're over 85 and on L's you are exempt from the cone weave on the most :laugh:

 

good deed adr1an ; offer the keys next time - see what happens

 

Yeah, you're pretty safe in Dungog.. If anything happened, just rock up to the Royal Hotel or the Bank Hotel and give his description - $10 says someone'll know where he lives!

 

Epic! Thats hilarious!

I am not surprised AT ALL. Race you?

I've only got Ado's Old timer-itis a couple of times. One old guy stalked me from Belco mall to Goodberries, then came inside and sat down at my table!! "i used to have one of these, but mine wasn't quite as flash, i didn't know they made the 600 for girls?" made me "what the..."

 

You should have said yeah but it's really only a 250, that would've gotten the knowing nod Workmates now looking at me strangely for laughing so much ^_^

 

At the other end of the spectrum...

I rode down the shops one day to get some bread. I was standing in line at the supermarket in my riding gear. The little kid with his Dad in front of me pulls on his Dad's sleeve and (sort of) whispers, "Daddy, is he going to kill us?". I couldn't look scary even if I wanted to. What do they teach kids?

Sorry, back to old timer stories again....

 

Back in the CRRC days we used to regularly do displays of race and road bikes in Belconnen Mall, Woden Plaza and the Hyperdome. We'd always get old-timers who'd stop by, marvel at the modern bikes and then regale us with stories of the BSA Gold Star or the AJS that they used to ride back in the day. We took to getting one of the Dunster brothers' Post Classic bikes in as part of the display; was always a winner. Couldn't even begin to say how many times I've been stopped for similar chats while I've been on the road. I love it, actually. It's a perfect opportunity to do some positive PR for motorcycling.

 

Can't say I've had more than 1 or 2 of the friendly old guys, I always get young guys watching me gear up then pretty much always follows the exact same conversation, nice bike, whats the fuel economy like? I get about 5L to the 100km round town, is it fast? does 0-100 in about 3.2 seconds, was that bike expensive? I paid $5000, then invariably oh . . .umm how do you get a motorbike licence?

 

Miz, did you explain that girls ride the bike side-saddle - and that makes it a "ladies bike"