Motorbike Quotes

[Stretch]

Some of my favorite quotes concerning (mostly!) motorcycles.

What else do you have to add to the list?

                                      -Stretch



To go fast on two wheels was the point. To go fast on two wheels is the point of life, isn’t it? – Frederick Seidel (Harper’s magazine – November, 2009)

'Motorcycle riders are optimists as no pessimist would ride a motorcycle.'

"Some people will tell you that slow is good-and it may be, on some days...but I'm here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles ..."
-Hunter S. Thompson

"Motorcycle racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty." Peter Egan - Columnist

"Sure, nine out of ten people would want a Harley if you asked them,
but then again, nine of ten people don't know *** about bikes."
-JGullato

"Hey, Is that a Harley?"... by ignoramus...

"If you have a bike-go for a ride. If you need a bike-buy one. Sooner is better than later."    Peter Egan, Leanings

Everything looks a bit better and your problems don't seem quite so bad from the saddle of a bike! - Jack Conrad

"Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."
Hunter S. Thompson - Author


"Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't. Some can't."
Unknown


"That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel."
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


"You're the guy that'll be sneaking out of your bedroom at three o'clock in the morning to look at your bike."
Paul Teutul, Sr.- Orange County Choppers


"Remember folks, street lights timed for 35 mph are also timed for 70 mph"
Jim Samuels - Comedian


"Calling upon my years of experience, I froze at the controls."
Stirling Moss - Race Driver

"A zest for living must include a willingness to die."
R.A. Heinlein - Author


"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older."
Larry McMurtry - Author


"That is the Curse of Speed which has plagued me all my life. I am a slave to it. On my tombstone they will carve, "IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME."
Hunter S. Thompson - Gonzo Journalist

'Old bikes do not flatter you, they educate you.'

'Fixing old bikes and getting it right demands that you be attentive in the way of conversation rather than assertive in the way of a demonstration.'

Another Burt Munro motto was ‘fix it and try again’

“Offerings To the God of Speed” – Burt Munro’s documentary film.

“2013 should be a great riding year, a happy year, a year of clear, winding roads and endless blue skies. Let's make it so.”    -Frank Westworth

 More than anything else, then, the art of motorcycle maintenance concerns mastering the right mental attitude: "Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts, right thoughts produce right actions." With the right frame of mind, maintenance is nothing more than an engaging puzzle, and working the puzzle gives motorcycling another deeply satisfying dimension. Ultimately-and here's the part where the art of motorcycle maintenance finds transcendental significance, it's Zen, so to speak-you'll come to understand that the mechanical condition of a motorcycle reflects the metaphysical harmony of the pilgrim who turned the wrenches.
            -Alan Pratt about Robert M. Pirsig’s, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

"Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts, right thoughts produce right actions."
            -Alan Pratt about Robert M. Pirsig’s, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called "yourself." -Robert Pirsig

"Not one slightest percent of me is interested in anything but motorbikes."          -John McGuiness

 
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” That quote, often attributed to German poet Johann von Goethe, could easily apply to Massimo Laverda.

“In speed we hurl ourselves beyond the body.”   - T.E. Lawrence


And I suppose that is what motorcycles do best. They eliminate the dangerous tendency to sit perfectly still, stare out the window from your air-conditioned house, and contemplate the meaning of life. Which we all know to be meaningless without motorcycles.

                                                                                    -Peter Egan


"Just keep breathing and riding motorcycles."
                     
                   -the late Fred Marsh at 100 years old

[bmc5733946]

Some writer whose name escapes me, maybe Brock Yates, called the shape of these exhaust pipes as they leave the cylinder head "The sexiest shape in motorcycledom.".



Brian

[John Croucher]

Who makes that?

What is that?

I new an Old Guy that had one of those bikes, he cold fix it with anything.

[LowRyter]

Even though I've read most of these many times before, it's still the best stuff I've read on this board is many months.  I hope it gets a sticky.

 "IT NEVER GOT FAST weird ENOUGH FOR ME."
Hunter S. Thompson - Gonzo Journalist

[rschrum]

I always say, adrenalin is my drug of choice.

[sdcr]

It’s more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than to ride a fast bike slow.
Anonymous

[SmithSwede]

I’m sure everyone has heard this a million times from concerned non-motorcyclists:

“Aren’t you worried that motorcycle is going to kill you one day?”

I always say:  “You don’t understand.  Motorcycles have saved my life many times.”  And I’m totally sincere about that.

That response does seem to make them think. 

[aklawok]

"You do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle, any kind of motorcycle!"
 Dan Aykroyd


“Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.”
― Anonymous

[CT Dharma]

When I'm riding my motorcycle, I'm glad to be alive. When I stop riding my motorcycle, I'm glad to be alive - Neil Peart 1952-2020

[tazio]

I’m sure everyone has heard this a million times from concerned non-motorcyclists:

“Aren’t you worried that motorcycle is going to kill you one day?”

I always say:  “You don’t understand.  Motorcycles have saved my life many times.”  And I’m totally sincere about that.

That response does seem to make them think.

+1

[twowheeladdict]

On a photo collage of my bikes, created by my loving wife.

 "I soar away into speed's breeze, the engine's power between my knees."

From a poem by  Debbie Scharibone "My Cycle, My Self"

I soar away into speed's breeze,
the engine's power
between my knees.

The throttle trembles in my hand-
at my control,
at my command!

In the droning rumble
of the motor's sound
my problems, troubles
and cares are drowned.

Nothing keeps me
from the sky,
and I can ride
where eagles fly!

1 dig my heels
into the pegs,
tune every muscle
'till my legs are synchronized
with my machine,
to feel the curves
and with it lean,
to live the thrills
of sudden hills,
the heart-quickening
panic of would-be spills.

Don't call me back
to earth again
where 1 must walk
like other men.

[mechanicsavant]

Another Dr. Thompson Jem  “Don’t be the sausage creature”

[fotoguzzi]

Ran when parked..

[Don G]

The most natural position for an Motorcycle is on its side. DonG

[Tkelly]

What are you rebelling againstJohnny?What have you got?

[Scout63]

“I don’t want a nickel I just want to ride my  motorsickel.” - Arlo Guthrie

Everytime I start thinkin’ the world is all bad, then I start seeing some people out having a good time on motorcycles and it makes me take another look.” - Steve McQueen in On Any Sunday

[Gliderjohn]

A late uncle when he first saw me on a bike..."You are riding one of those murdercycles. If I was crawling on my hands and knees dying of thirst in the desert and you came by on one of those murdercycles I would just wave you on."
GliderJohn

[QuattroValvole]

“the wise steeds carried the chariot wherever I wished to go, the axle blazing in the socket, for it was urged round by well turned wheels at each end.”

Parmenides of Elea
450 BC

[chuck peterson]

There are two kinds of bikers..

Those that have crashed..

And those that haven’t yet..

[chuck peterson]

[chuck peterson]

“If it’s not broken don’t fix it..”

[geoff in almonte]

Oil is good.  Put some in.  =  Pete Roper

[Rochey42]

“I have a self-aggrandizing theory that a simple willingness to get on a motorcycle and head out into the world separates us from that part of the population that is…how shall we say it?…just a little too careful.”
-Peter Egan

[1down5up]

"If its not raining where you've been.....its probably raining where your goin......"

[john fish]

MOTORCYCLES

By GEORGE FITCH

Author of "At Good Old Siwash"

A MOTORCYCLE is a bicycle with a pandemonium attachment, and is designed for the special use of mechanical geniuses, daredevils and lunatics. The motorcycle is equipped with a motor small enough to be put in a large pocket and loud enough to fill a coliseum comfortably. This motor is connected with the rear wheels of the bicycle, and when it is in the mood will revolve the wheel with tremendous speed, thus causing the bicycle to proceed from hither and yon over buggies, pedestrians, fences and small outbuildings.

A motorcycle is really a miniature automobile with full sized noise, smell and dirt output. It is not started by cranking, however, but by pedaling the whole machine along the road until the motor emerges from its coma and gets on the job. An automobilist can be detected by his vast overhanging shoulders and calloused hands. A motorcyclist, however, may have arms

like pipestems, but his legs are seven sizes too large for him.

A motorcycle is not as comfortable as a camel or a lumber wagon, but it is very swift, and there is nothing that feels more like flying than to ride a large barytone motorcycle over the country roads at 50 miles an hour, leaping lightly from bump to bump— except to leave the machine when it has struck a rock and to soar swiftly through the unstable atmosphere until some jagged section of the United States interferes with further progress.

Motorcycles are very useful and have almost annihilated distance and cheap clothes. They should be ridden in costume, except by very wealthy and careless men. A pair of leather pants with asbestos lining and a two bushel hip pocket for tools, a padded vest, heavy gloves, a pair of goggles, and nose and shin guards make a tasty and useful rig for the cyclist. Dressed in this fashion the enthusiast can enjoy himself to the full as he caroms from tree to tree and gorges himself with dust, oil and excitement.

Motorcycles are not as fatal to pedestrians as automobiles, because they can only run over him with two wheels. But they should be treated with respect at all times and should not be interfered with when in a hurry.

Marvelous records are made by intrepid mahouts who have driven large double barreled motorcycles 90 miles on a board track, and most of the way up the golden stairs in one hour by the clock.

Motorcycles are much cheaper than automobiles, and there seems to be no practical remedy for this, and the industry is unfortunately not in the hands of a trust. A good machine can be purchased for $150. However, if the devotee does not possess $150 he can get almost as good results by drinking a little lubricating oil, inhaling a vacuum cleaner and setting off two bushels of firecrackers between his legs. (Copyright, 1912, by George Matthew Adams)

[wymple]

When riding, one single drink is too many

You NEVER have the right of way. They can put that sh*t on your headstone

You lose all collisions.

[jrt]

Here, hold my beer.


but seriously- these are great-  thank you for starting this thread.

[sdcr]

My next door neighbor, has more than once, said this;

“ I’d be in divorce court if I got one of those.”

[QuattroValvole]

“If the time should ever come that you must decide between injuring some innocent person, or charging a stone wall at speed. Be a man and take the wall.

Hints and tips for motorcyclists
1917 edition

[Hasaf]

“If it’s not broken don’t fix it..”

Many years ago I work on office equipment (copiers, duplicators, high-volume printers and the like). We frequently got service calls to machines that were working within specs, but the customer wanted us to "do something" to it. In that case, we had a simple plan/policy:

"Fix it 'till it's broke, then fix that."