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What would it take to get you to stop riding?

Death or a big enough payday that once said non riding requirement is satisfied I could retire and ride off into the sunset.
 
Like most people, it would have to be health related or maybe not physically able to safely control a bike.

At that point? Buy an Ariel Atom :cool:
 
Probably a serious injury that prohibited me from riding. I've had a number of offs over the years. Luckily the most injured thing was my ego. Those crashes (street and track) never shook my confidence. The most serious injury I've ever had is a really bruised shoulder where I couldn't lift my arm past a horizontal level. Didn't really hinder the majority of my everyday things.

On a tangent, I've had a couple girlfriends over the years that wanted me to stop riding. It's always a situation where their cousin's best friend's brother or whatever got into a serious accident that left them seriously injured and it's only when they have a personal understanding of how dangerous motorcycles can be, then they want me to stop because they don't want anything like that to happen to me. Compromise is important in any relationship but riding is something I'll never compromise on. It's unfair to ask me to stop riding when I was a rider when you met me. One point of advice I always give to friends that want my help getting into riding is that if you don't accept that anytime you leave home on your bike, there's a chance you might not make it back home, whether that be the hospital or in a coffin.
 
ucmgrad said:
Like most people, it would have to be health related or maybe not physically able to safely control a bike.

At that point? Buy an Ariel Atom :cool:
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Kurosaki said:
It's unfair to ask me to stop riding when I was a rider when you met me.
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Solid point here.
I've known a few guys that stopped riding in their early 30's because "Kids, the wife, etc." only to re-enter riding in their 50's. Some pretty horrific things happened to some of them early into their "next chapter".
I feel there's a lot going on there. One thing I've noticed over the past 50 years of riding is that I'm constantly adapting to my new limitations...even if only subconsciously. The guys that took breaks seemed to want to pick right up where they'd left off, unaware of how much their landscape had changed.
 
There could be a number attached to a pause. Like for a year or two. I wouldn't be able to say what that number is without it being real, though.

I'm my mind it's at least 7 figures, but if I were actually looking at the zeros on a check with my name on it, it could conceivably be much less.

I don't think there is a number though to give it up for the rest of my life.
 
N4teTheGreat said:
Death or a big enough payday that once said non riding requirement is satisfied I could retire and ride off into the sunset.
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That's a good point about a job that had a stipulation of no motorcycles. A few of my friends are professional fighters and the contracts they signed said motorcycles are off limits. I think it's unfair because those contracts are written by people that don't ride.

It would take a LOT of money to take a job that told me no motorcycles. Even then, what do they know what I'm doing in my free time? Kinda the same as taking a drug test for a job. I only drink beer and vodka which has nothing to do with a drug test but if I was a regular weed smoker or did other drugs, after you pass the initial drug, it would be game time in my free time whenever I want after that, as long as I show up and get my shit done. They don't need to know.
 
I have been riding since I was 15. That's more than 55 years. I still ride for utility purposes, as I have not owned a car in over 30 years. But my pleasure riding has dwindled to a trickle over the past 10 years, which is , not coincidentally, when I met the woman I have been married to now for seven years. Of course she never tried to give me an ultimatum, but I know she doesn't like me riding. She had to nurse me through my only major collision, when I got T-boned by a red light runner.

Anyway, like I said, I still ride. But after 40 years, I am planning on leaving the Bay Area. I'm not taking my 27 year old VFR to Chicago with me, and I don't plan on getting a newer bike there. What would be the point anyway?
So yeah, I guess that's what it would take.
 
Maybe a major near-miss crash might get me thinking that my reflexes aren't what they once were.

FWIW, I'm in my mid-50's, and if my wife (She Who Must Be Obeyed) said she didn't want me to ride any more, I'd probably stop. But luckily she is absolutely fine with me riding.
 
What it took was looking down at my foot peg and realizing that the pavement passing beneath was the equivalent of a belt sander. As a young athlete, I valued sports more than riding, due to the possibility of a debilitating motorcycle crash. If I was going to get mangled, football or baseball should be the cause, not my less expensive form of transportation.

Then years later, got married, had a kid and--unlike most--returned to riding. Have had a bike ever since around 34 or so. What would it take to get me off a bike?

When I cannot wrestle the bike any longer. I am not gonna ride a three-wheeler. Would buy a convertible again if I want the wind through my follicle-challenged blonde locks.
 
First.. really cool to see @SlideSF and @redtail chime in.

Wish you the best best in the Windy City Slide and Mr Redtail and I have the same expectations and years of living this wonderful two wheel experience.

To follow on Kuro’s tangent it is way more likely a rider has to face the choice from their life partner than $$ so that feels real.

My wife first met me shortly after seeing me doing wheelies on my RD when I was 16. She was the hot younger girl living next to my best friend.

She kinda has known who I am since. She still tried on and off after I wadded in front of her and my daughters at Laguna.

T11. She has pics. :laughing

Ten year effort. Respect to her for never demanding. Strong requests met appropriately.

The returning rider group is statistically as high as teens / young adults to have crashes. I have reasons I believe to be the case but don’t want to bore anyone with those here. :laughing
 
The very first date I had with my wife was on my 1981 650G Suzuki. We rode over to Aldo’s at the Santa Cruz yacht harbor. She taught me how to play Cribbage but incorrectly. She didn’t like me commuting but I did anyway.

What really slowed up my riding was the convertible I bought. It was a 2006 Mini convertible in full John Cooper Works trim. I found that convertible to be irresistible. And very fast.
 
Jbella said:
Often it’s part of a contractual obligation. For example, NFL players , movie stars, etc. probably have clauses in their contracts that forbid risky activities.
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That's why Steve McQueen raced as Harvey Mushman.
 
I gather the OP is asking because he is faced with a real life situation and they are dangling a carrot out there with a major bag alert sign on it.

My thought would be why stop with controlling your motorcycle habits? I feel like its a slippery slope because projects never go to plan and then new discoveries are made and now its a 5 year project and they control what you eat/drink/smoke, where/when you sleep, where you go on your free time. My personal freedom to choose is worth a lot more than money, especially as I get older and time becomes the most valuable commodity.
 
Why would anyone pay an easily replaceable worker anything to NOT ride a motorcycle?

On the other hand, for those in job critical, irreplaceable positions, e.g., the captain of a navy ship, the lead actor in the middle of a project, an astronaut slated to go on a mission - those guys know what they're in for, and they wouldn't give a second thought about giving up riding a motorcycle, or anything else, if that's what it takes. It's more about grabbing a precious opportunity at all personal costs than the money.
 
jbawden said:
I gather the OP is asking because he is faced with a real life situation and they are dangling a carrot out there with a major bag alert sign on it.

My thought would be why stop with controlling your motorcycle habits? I feel like its a slippery slope because projects never go to plan and then new discoveries are made and now its a 5 year project and they control what you eat/drink/smoke, where/when you sleep, where you go on your free time. My personal freedom to choose is worth a lot more than money, especially as I get older and time becomes the most valuable commodity.
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Well, freedom to choose is not being given up. It's an incentive like any other corporate incentive. The worst that could happen is that you don't achieve the goal, of staying off the bike for the year, and do not receive the incentive payout.
 
Gary856 said:
Why would anyone pay an easily replaceable worker anything to NOT ride a motorcycle?
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Well, I mean, we aint talking about me :toothless

Gary856 said:
On the other hand, for those in job critical, irreplaceable positions, e.g., the captain of a navy ship, the lead actor in the middle of a project, an astronaut slated to go on a mission - those guys know what they're in for, and they wouldn't give a second thought about giving up riding a motorcycle, or anything else, if that's what it takes. It's more about grabbing a precious opportunity at all personal costs than the money.
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Yeah, like that. The lead scientist, engineer, or even programmer...

Or anyone like you's.
 
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