Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

the other day i was at this gathering and i suppose, because there was something of a lull in conversation, this rather middle class woman weighs in with a load of stuff that she's picked up off radio 4 about gender. I vaguely recall hearing a bit of it when i was fiddling about with my bikes in the garage.

Anyway the gist is, if i have understood properly, is that society bends little kids into roles with blue and pink whereas presumably the right on bbc feel that this isn't PC, quite frankly, who cares.

However, contrary to the point, there is most definitely a difference, I have been following a facebook conversation about a bloke trying to hide a 'new' bike he bought in bits from his mrs but, over the years, she has wised up to his tricks and finds out.

just wondered about you, my mrs pretty much draws the line at two bikes (even though there is most of a third hidden in the rafters of the garage), she says, if you want another sell one of the ones you have got, naturally i can't part with my old mates so there is an impasse.

It's OK for females to have thousands of shoes and handbags though haha.

So long as I can pay the bills I can have as many bikes as and when I like. Sadly I've got very limited space so it's only two. My wife doesn't mind what I buy for the bikes or how often I change them.

I do tend to bring a demo bike home to show her if I'm thinking of buying one. But to be fair to her, she's really not that interested in bikes. So this year my wife has seen at our house:-

z1000sx (2014)
z1000sx (2017)
Tiger 800
Triumph Street Cup
2015 Street Triple RX
2017 Street Triple 675 r
2017 Street Triple 765 RS
KTM 1090 Adventure
2 x Versys 650
zx10r

So it's no wonder she struggles to keep up

What she does get pissed off with is the kit. I've got 4 lids, 2 textile jackets, one leather jacket, 1 pair of textile trousers, a 1 piece race suit, God knows how many visors and several pairs of gloves. Then there's a utility room full of cleaning and polishing products, bike parts, panniers, a top box, paddock stands, et6c.

That is my house

And I forgot the 3 pairs of motorbike boots. Plus the 3 rucksacks, the tank bags (x2) the tail packs (x2) and the waterproof overlayers for the leathers.

I need a house just for my kit.

I'm only "allowed" one bike, not that that makes any difference to my reality. I haven't got the time or the money for more than one bike at the moment.

Long term though, when I do get some time freed up I'm planning on doing a cafe racer.

I would like another bike, but funds won't allow it. The wife would be ok for me to have as many as I wanted if I had the money.

Theoretically I’ve had 5 bikes at one point, but I’m back down to just the two at the moment, and come next spring probably down to one.
SWMBO is fine with as many bikes as I want, however I only have room for one now, so that’s the deciding factor and shortening the garage space was my idea so I can’t complain!

sir thomas blanchard wrote:

If I've used both bikes in the week then cleaning can be a PITA if the roads have been covered in crap.

anyhow males and females are, by and large, interested in different things - my office was almost entirely female by the time i left, 'great' you might say but it wasn't for me, a manager who was scared of women, stuff about babies, babies beig brought in to work, crying over upsets, silly fall outs, long discussions about clothes/shopping and 'strictly', general gossip...

one girl talked about getting a new car, in the course of conversation it became apparent that the one she had for the last two years hadn't been serviced and i did wonder whether the tyres had ever been checked

Dunno. When the wife & I were still together she also had a bike...we'd even do trackdays together, although we very seldom rode together on the road.
But that's just L.A. - you see a lot of lasses riding bikes out here, and they're every bit as capable as the guys for the most part. And even if they often aren't quite as fast, they definitely don't seem to crash as much, so it evens out.

I don’t have a wife anymore and my girlfriend doesn’t live with me and itsn’t financially dependant/connected with me. So it’s all up to me now! But saying that Jess is just as keen on biking as me and wants me to buy her a bike to learn on and I showed her a thruxton a few days ago and she said “ so when are you buying one?”

well sorry to hear about marriages ending - all the stuff i'm on about tends to come later in life imo

actually, in my case, it isn't so much the mrs, more me feeling guilty because the 'kids' need a bit of financial help so that means i've got to not indulge too much.

still think females have a totally different take - maybe i'm a sexist type, not sure. too late now for me.

*Dreadful Analogy Alert!*

I think that much like riding a bike, life is all about finding the right balance....what suits one may not suit another, & everyone's circumstances are unique. There's no right answer, there really isn't.

I have two bikes in my shed/workshop, one is mine and the other belongs to the wife, both are reasonably new, my wife rides more than I do as she is semi retired and unfortunately I still work full time, in theory we could fit another one in. I like the idea of an old "classic" but would get bored with the reality of it, although a friend of mine has just rebuilt an old Vincent that was left to him by an old racing chum, it's hard work when he goes out on it.
Like Kwacky, we do have an awful lot of kit, wet weather, dry weather, intermediate weather, boots galore, three helmets apiece
Not to sure where that lot is going to live at Christmas when my Mum comes to stay for a few days...........

Ask her to look after the bikes

I always remember a bmw sales lady confusingly asking me at the nec bike show why did I have 2 bikes.

My answer was I haven't got room for 3.

I don't have that excuse anymore

Kwacky wrote:Ask her to look after the bikes

Room for thought there..........

I limit myself to 2 bikes these days.... Anymore and I find the maintenance and up keep starts to get expensive .

A project bike as a third is always nice but since moving into my partner's house a lack of space and shed/garage has stopped that

this threat went slightly off course - seems like you lot have. by and large. got hooked up with either tolerant or biker females

as for multiple bikes, maintenance and running costs are a factor as well as storage - not good to leave bikes outside if it can be helped