There comes a time…or does there?

A wise man once said there comes a time in every man’s life when he decides to hang it up…his riding days are over.  Ignoring the sexist tone of that gender-specific comment, I guess the follow-on comment has to be:  Or does there?

I turned 71 a few months ago.  To a lot of folks, that’s old.  The funny part of it is, though, I don’t feel old.  A little earlier today I was putzing around in the garage and my Royal Enfield was making me feel guilty.  I hadn’t had the 650 twin out on the road in the last few weeks, a character deficiency I promptly corrected.  The old girl and I had a nice ride around the neighborhood, I got the oil circulating again (in the Enfield and in yours truly), and I snapped that great photo you see at the top of this blog.   That’s snow-covered Big Bear you see off in the distance, a destination I’ve visited many times on a motorcycle.

But to get back on topic:  At what age should we think about hanging up our riding gear?   Now that I’m a septuagenarian (I had to look it up, so you can, too) I’m wondering about things like that.   But then I think about the guys I’ve ridden with and maybe I’ll continue riding for another 20 years or so.  Take a look.

You know, the funny thing is the tone of the conversations during and after a good ride hasn’t changed at all over the nearly six decades I’ve been riding.  The topics have changed a bit, but not really that much.  We still mostly talk bikes and good roads.  But instead of bragging how drunk we were the previous night and who we spent the night with (which was mostly bullshit, anyway) the topics today address different specs.   Instead of 0 to 60 times, quarter mile performance, and top ends, now it’s things like our A1C, PSA, and HDL numbers.  You fellow geezers know what I’m talking about.  But the discussions are just as lively, I think a little more interesting, and probably a bit more truthful.  We’ll touch on politics on occasion, but if the conversation gets too heated or goes too far in that direction, I can always get us back on track (and get a good laugh) when I weigh in with a single question:

You guys know what the problem is in politics today?   All the guys who really know how to run the country are out screwing around riding their motorcycles.

So, at what age should you hang it up?  I’m finding that’s hard to say and most guys my age and older seem to just keep on going.  I’ve ridden with guys well into their 70s, 80s, and sometimes even more.   Good buddy Dan is heading down to Baja next month to camp on the beach near Gonzaga Bay, and he’s a little older than me.  Sim0n Gandolfi, the British novelist and adventure travel writer, rode to Cabo San Lucas and back with us on 150cc CSC Mustangs about a dozen years ago, and he’s about to leave on another epic moto trip at age 90.   James from Texas bought a new motorcycle and rode one of the Baja trips with us.  He spun off somewhere about halfway down the length of the Baja peninsula to take the ferry across to mainland Mexico, and he was going to ride home to Texas through Mexico.  And Willie, another most interesting man in the world, rides every chance he gets when he’s not doing Dos Equis commercials.  Like me, all of these guys qualify for that 89-cent cup of coffee at McDonald’s.

Yeah, I think I’m going to stay at it for a while.  I think you should, too.

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The best riding in the world?   In my opinion, it’s unquestionably Baja.  Take a look!