XSive age

[blkryno]

I'll be 57 in couple of months bought my 81 special for my 26th birthday glad to say I still have it. There are other bikes I'd like to have but I'll never let this one go.

To quote Dick Cavett (you old guys will know who that is.) : I don't feel like an old man. I feel like a young man with something wrong.

[Laptop_geek]

I'll be turning 42...in 20 years and three months.

At 21 I feel like I'm the youngest one here, but I've been told that I've always acted like an old man, so I guess I fit in.

[ddragon63]

I'll be turning 42...in 20 years and three months.

At 21 I feel like I'm the youngest one here, but I've been told that I've always acted like an old man, so I guess I fit in.

I always tell people what Indiana Jones taught me "its not the years... its the miles!"

[Rickabie]

XSive age

I think the numbers speak for themselves. The majority of us seem to be in our 40s and 50s, we were YOUNG when our XS's were NEW. We read the reviews in the cycle rags, we left trails of drool in the local Yammy shop, we worked three jobs trying to earn enough to score an XS (or I am ashamed to admit, a Z1).

Now we are better employed, better heeled and still know what a rush the XS is. So we enshrine them in our garages, exalt them in the streets and sing their praises to anyone who will listen. We are older, wiser and savy to the ways of the world. We shun the naysayers and taunt the Milwaukee Drones with a golden exhaust note and a blur of metric poetry in motion.

We slave over warm exhausts, sacrifice pounds of knuckle skin and trickle blood on the altar of classic performance, all for the ear to ear grin that comes with full throttle roll on.

We are comfortable in our skins, though they may be a little wider, a little grayer and in many cases, a little less (okay, a lot less) hairy. We mostly do the 9 to 5 (though some of us have the luck to do what we really love) and dream of the days on the open road, (well, about 110 miles of it until the Special tank runs dry) the blue sky and rush of wind trying to drown out 1100 cc of FREAKING ADRENALINE!

God, I truly love being me, xsive that I am!!! Thank you for Shaft Drive, In Line 4s, 36 MM Mikunis, 4 into 2s, dual front discs and an exhaust note that surely must echo Your Hosts!!! Oh yeah, Thank You for SWMBO (just in case she reads this thread)

Could not have said it better... You must be a philosopher. 53 july 24th and still rocking (well less). I can still remember my first brand new 78 XS 1100E ride... I was 19 for God's sake. Partly owned by me and the bank!!! Had two 500 single; 76 XT and 78 SR (actually my dad's) and a 73 Norton 750 Commando before that. What a difference; sooooo smooth! Never had to d-shift with the Norton in a hill or a curve but not much with the XS either except when I HAD to slow down. Too bad that it had to finish head on in a truck who did not see there was a stop sign... Hope I keep this one till I die.

[REFFI]

Age is a state of mind...

...Or a mindless state. I turned 72 this past April. By now I thought I'd be finished working, but I'm still at it. As my father-in-law said to my brother-in-law when he (at age 46) and his wife announced her pregnancy, "You just screwed yourself out of early retirement."

Though my XS is gone, I still miss it. The forum keeps me in touch.

[EricHa]

Fall 1980, a classmate and I were at school waiting to head out on a drivers ed cruise, and a '78 grad on a Black/Gold '79 SF came tooling by. I gave him the throttle tug sign, and he duely ablidged. 3 gear power wheelie left our sight at 80 plus, and though I cringe at that stuff now, then I wondered if a KZ900 was really what I needed when I got out of school. Shovels, Ducatis and other rides have come and gone, but those two bikes have always captivated me.

I own both now, though the KZ restoration sits while I get the SF finished.

[Special Ed]

Ok, you got me...

"...Or a mindless state. I turned 72 this past April. By now I thought I'd be finished working, but I'm still at it. As my father-in-law said to my brother-in-law when he (at age 46) and his wife announced her pregnancy, 'You just screwed yourself out of early retirement'."
Trumps my mere 66 years!
Special Ed
P.S. This thread is pretty old. I went back to see if I had already posted. I had. When I was 62!

[BA80]

Age is relative..........

You can either die young or you can die old.....................I will always be young. I have made MY choice.

[Old Red]

65 and holding
The other Earl

[conquest87tsi]

At 25 I'm another one of the younger bucks. Even at my age I have days that my knees feel like they're 40. I'm not really sure how old my mentality is. I am 25 and listen to MPR daily, hate modern music, and think "kids" nowadays have a piss poor work ethic.

My XS is a bit older than I, but my other love is a 1987 Chrysler Conquest(Connie) a.k.a. Mitsubishi Starion and we are the same age. I will have her until I die, or die in her.

[adam79]

29 for another month

[adam79]

Even at my age I have days that my knees feel like they're 40.

On your knees alot?

[jwhughes3]

I am 49. Just a bit younger than Tom Cruise. When Top Gun came out 27 years ago I had just joined the Navy and later in my whites figured I looked like him in my aviators.

As Top Gun gets re-released in 3D this week our paper did a Top Gun pictorial, Then and Now. Showing Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan.

Everybody got old like I did....except Tom Cruise.

He is The Devil I think.

John

[ernie elmore]

Getting older at 76 yrs old .. where did the time fly .... soon be 80, Riding only 40 yrs.

I bought my 80 XS1100G new in 83 as a left over model @ $3000 out the door. New 84 XS1100 specials were $4500.
I was doing a lot of Commuting on LA freeways .. white lining, and the XS1100 would wander at speeds below 5 mph. I think Problem was groved tires.
So like any Biker visiting the Dealer for parts, I would visit the Showroom. I saw a 83 XV920 Virago in 85, left over model, bought out door for $2500.
Virago was great for LA Freeway commuting, XS1100 great for trips.

I still have both bikes but only ride them 2000-3000 mi ea/yr now, no long trips.

I rode dirt bikes in the Mojave Desert for 40 yrs, but had to sell my last two bikes last year, a 86 XR600 and 89 CR500. I got a 93 XR650L to replace them, It's OK on the road, probably ride only on a few drit roads.

All you Younger Studs enjoy your bikes while Y'all can ... Time will sooner or later seem to Fly