We've all got one of those friends...

[paulom]

Originally Posted by JimVonBaden

Hey Paulo,

Can I take my wife for a ride on your bike next time we are in Portugal?

Jim

PS My wife is from Portugal, the North near Braga, and has a place in Lisbon.

DAMN! No quick and witty comeback right now. But I guess sure, why not, that is if she's into BMWs (it's a F800R, BTW).

PS I live not far from Braga, near Porto.

[JimVonBaden]

Originally Posted by paulom

DAMN! No quick and witty comeback right now. But I guess sure, why not, that is if she's into BMWs (it's a F800R, BTW).

PS I live not far from Braga, near Porto.

She is from Covas in Terras de Bouro (sp).

Of course BMWs, what else?

Jim

[paulom]

Ah! I know Terras de Bouro, very nice place!

Also, please excuse me for my poor smiley selection, the original should have been a

[paulom]

Oh, and back to topic...

I had a small incident with a friend (erm... make it an acquaintance) some days ago, while I was riding a small rental bike. Eager to impress everybody around and without even asking, he just hopped onto the bike, manly kicked the sidestand and...

Luckily no harm done... except for his ego.

[i_isntreal]

Well, here's a story with a happy ending for a change.

I work out of town two weeks out of the month, so while I'm gone I was storing my bike in my buddies garage who lives down the street. He is very trustworthy friend who at the time couldn't afford two-wheels, but had a lot of biking experienced (pre-married days). So I let him put a few miles on my bike in exchange for the storage. I figured if he could own a V65 Magna at age 18 and still be alive, 10 years older and wiser now, he could handle my R1200GS.

Up at work one shift a year ago I get an e-mail from him saying that on a stop, while out on my bike, this girl he knew walked up to him and said 'nice bike, can I take it for a ride'. His response was 'it's not mine but I can introduce you to it's owner'. I pictured a tall butch leather clad 'lady' in my head reading this. Well, finally a month later after constantly bugging me, he drags me over to her place (on the sly) for a surprise introduction. She was not tall, butch, or leather cald. Just the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

A year later we are happily married. She finally explained that the reason she (jokingly) asked to drive a motorcycle that is 6x the size of her was that she admired the well made piece of German engineering. (and she is a well made German Engineer if I may brag)

The second happy ending was that my buddy finally convinced his wife to go for a ride on my bike and she is now not only okay with him buying a bike but looking forward to it.

[falcn]

Originally Posted by i_isntreal

Well, here's a story with a happy ending for a change.

Good story!

[Gooch]

Originally Posted by dwoodward

I know I'm from Oregon, where I'm too dumb to pump my own gas, but I thought the other no-self-serve state was Maine.

Naw, they pump their own there (especially if they're from the County).

This thread has been an education. I'm not surprised to hear that people fuck with bikes, but I am surprised that for so many of them that means actually sitting on them. I'd be incredulous and angry -- even among my buddies, we ask first.

[Tuna Helper]

Years ago when I had first started riding I had an 80-something KZ440. I was at a friend's house with another friend, and we were standing on the sidewalk by the driveway when friend #2 asks to ride my bike. He's one of those bullshit experts who has a story for everything, but I didn't really have a reason to not believe he knew how to ride. He gets on the bike and starts it, and proceeds to take off a bit fast. Right there where the driveway dumps out into the street was a hole in the dirt. He hit that square and went down. I remember a turn signal was broken and the headlight. Didn't ever ask again.

I don't loan bikes out unless it's a good friend who I know can ride.

[Ceri JC]

Best "messing with someone's bike" incident I've seen was on a pushbike way back when "quick release" was a new thing and most people didn't know what it was or how to operate it. A family friend, who was already a competitive road racer got a new bike for his 18th birthday which featured quick release wheel. He took it to school to show it off and his mates were swarming around it playing with the levers, gears, etc. and, as it transpired the front wheel's quick release. All was well and good until he popped a wheelie on the way home, the front wheel dropped out and his forks dug into the road on the way down, throwing him off the bike and putting him a coma.

For a while, it looked like he was going to be a vegetable. Fortunately, he made a full recovery and is now a chopper pilot in the navy, so it hasn't affected him too badly.

Nonetheless, it demonstrates there's a reason you shouldn't mess with other people's property and it's not just that they'll get angry or that you might scratch it.

[Ceri JC]

Originally Posted by Tuna Helper

Years ago when I had first started riding I had an 80-something KZ440. I was at a friend's house with another friend, and we were standing on the sidewalk by the driveway when friend #2 asks to ride my bike. He's one of those bullshit experts who has a story for everything, but I didn't really have a reason to not believe he knew how to ride. He gets on the bike and starts it, and proceeds to take off a bit fast. Right there where the driveway dumps out into the street was a hole in the dirt. He hit that square and went down. I remember a turn signal was broken and the headlight. Didn't ever ask again.

I don't loan bikes out unless it's a good friend who I know can ride.

Sounds like this guy!

[Long Gone]

I learned, twice, in college not to lend bikes to those one doesn't absolutely know can ride. One guy ran my CL350 to the end of a parking lot and dumped it. The other came back after a ride and told me the knob on the shift lever "just came off." I found dirt and grass under the engine later. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

[Donkey Hotey]

Originally Posted by Veteran Noob

That is very risky. Mid eighties, some friends and I are standing outside my car after leaving a restaurant (one of my friends having a post meal smoke; no smoking in my car). Couple spots over is a guy sitting on a 650 Nighthawk twisting on the throttle and talking to a small group of people standing around him. Up walks this kid, on the smaller side, couldn't have been more than 18 (he looked about 15). Kid takes the helmet off the bar and stands there looking at the guy. Laughing, the guy gets off the bike and says something like "oh, this is yours, nice bike, here, you can have it back." Without preamble or any other indication, kid smashes helmet in to guys face. He followed that up with 3 or 4 more shots while the guy is on the ground. One of my buddies on the passenger side of my car stepped in when it looked like one of the guys buddies was going to intervene. Kid gets done and says "get your own F*****g bike, a**hole." Guy's head and face are a gory mess, he's sobbing and one of the girls with him runs in to the restaurant to call the police (uh, what about an ambulance?). We tell the kid to beat it and it couldn't have been more than two minutes after the he's gone that the first squad car pulled up. Guy had four friends with him and none of them thought to get the kid's plate. I don't think the cops believed us when we told them it looked like the guy was trying to make off with the bike, but they didn't have much sympathy for the guy when they found out he was dickin' around on some strangers bike. One of them asked the guy's friends what they would do if they were to find some stranger sitting in their car playing with the buttons. We gave our names and contact info, left and never heard anything else about it.

Good for that guy.

[kamikazekyle]

I haven't had anything like that *yet*, but came close. I have a V7 Stone on order, and one of my coworkers asked if he could ride it. I knew he didn't have any motos, so I jokingly said "sure, if you have a class M." (Here in VA that means you're legal to ride a motorcycle). He pipes back with "oh yea, I think I do," and whips out his drivers license to check. Sure enough he has a class M but doesn't remember how he got it. I managed to save myself by pointing out I didn't think I had any helmets that would fit him (yay my small head). On a followup, he used to ride a very long time ago, and has always renewed or transfered his license with a class M without paying attention.

If anyone has actually messed with my motos or sat on them, I haven't been privvy to it. My Ninja is alarmed and sounds if you so much as touch a tank bag, but the closest I've seen are just people looking. Most people ignore my CBR when they see it's just a 250, and the Multi hasn't seen the light of day for months (ugh I hate that thing).

I guess it probably helps that most of my riding is during the weekdays while most people are at work, or very late at night, so I encounter very few people that have much interest. Actually, the only times I've even been approached for an actual conversation while riding a motorcycle were from older gentlemen in their 50s that weren't riding at the time, but had motorcycles at home. Ironically, they've all owned Kawaski's from the 80's or 2000s.

That's a little creepy, when I think about it.

[sloweddy]

The name didn't ring a bell, so I had to look it up. What a beautiful bike. If it rides as good as it looks, it should be great bike.

[250senuf]

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

Sounds like this guy!

Translation please!! I think they're speaking English but I can't be sure.