Would off road, dirt track motorbiking as a novice be ridiculous/foolhardy?

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  • Lat-Literal
    Guest
    • Aug 2015
    • 6983

    Would off road, dirt track motorbiking as a novice be ridiculous/foolhardy?

    It sort of goes like this.

    I am the least physical person on earth other than in terms of walking. My fitness which was never great is currently worse. I have huge fears. I get worried about being in crowded rooms or trains. I am deeply afraid - timid - of attitudes - that sort of "he has a no right to be here" - especially where the experienced are concerned and chavs and the young and the holier than thou. Almost anybody. I've never been too concerned about throwing physical caution to the winds. That is partially because it isn't socially demanding, on paper, and also for as long as it is concept only I can drive myself along. God forbid that I start thinking about bodies - especially mine. And it is a remarkable thing. It was precisely that ethereal concept which got me into gliders and kayaks last year. Any ideas of the physicality would not have done. I had no concept of what those would entail but having got there felt that I had to go through with them. Ego. Well, I got the kayaking cert but largely I was a disgrace. Only just managed not to pull all the greats and goods down but alright enough to achieve.

    And it was eight hours intensive over two days which I managed. So then I rang up Dorking on motorbikes. He sounded militaristic. Didn't want to take me on board because there had been serious injuries with novices at a well known firm and the whole idea of it in his view was ridiculous. But now I'm being offered a course in Sussex. It's one day and it's pricy. It's for people who have no experience on bikes whatsoever which seems wild but most are probably ultra sport and aged 21. The videos show people who say that they ached in every part of themselves after just five minutes and had to pick mud out of every orifice. So should I go through with this and I admit it is a kind of vehement rage against nothing of relevance* plus conceptually expansive or try to acquire an "I've lost it not that I ever had it" dignity? My individuality now is not such a huge social issue for me - like it or lump it to a degree with its myriad of complexities - but I don't want to do myself a major injury or muck things up on the day for other people to whom I feel more responsibility and have always overly done.

    *Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gently etc - but I would be the only one there for poetry.

    (I don't go at all for dare devilment,and in these days that is increasingly corporate, speed, power or attitudinal conflict which is inevitably the case with such things but I am taken to armoured layers, often felt necessary, concepts of more engine and freedom and new experience - I don't fit into any category identifiably but the age and state will raise questions)
    Last edited by Lat-Literal; 06-08-18, 19:29.
  • Serial_Apologist
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 37995

    #2
    I certainly wouldn't go on one of these activities were it to mean wreaking ecological devastation on biodiverse sites. Why take it out on them? You wouldn't feel any better at the end of it.

    Comment

    • Beef Oven!
      Ex-member
      • Sep 2013
      • 18147

      #3
      Go for it Lat. Go as fast as you can, especially downhill. Try 'no-hands' early on too. You'll be fine.

      Comment

      • Eine Alpensinfonie
        Host
        • Nov 2010
        • 20578

        #4
        Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
        I certainly wouldn't go on one of these activities were it to mean wreaking ecological devastation on biodiverse sites. Why take it out on them? You wouldn't feel any better at the end of it.


        If you want to enjoy the great outdoors, you are much better off without a noisy, dirty and unnecessary engine.

        Comment

        • Lat-Literal
          Guest
          • Aug 2015
          • 6983

          #5
          Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
          Go for it Lat. Go as fast as you can, especially downhill. Try 'no-hands' early on too. You'll be fine.


          I have just had an e-mail from a loyal friend who has known me for 35 years and yet still struggles with me.

          It was quite to the point. It said "go for it". It has now been said twice. It's either exasperation or an omen.

          (I'm reminded of the undelightful Samantha at a defensive point for her - "he's all one way or the other" - she could have lost me my job in '05 but I didn't pull the diversity card on her: 1. She was too young to be so blighted although overly aggressive when wrong and over-promoted; 2. There is no diversity category which would have helped - it's individuality)

          Last edited by Lat-Literal; 06-08-18, 21:37.

          Comment

          • DracoM
            Host
            • Mar 2007
            • 13005

            #6
            Absolutely NOT. Seriously, don't.
            I live in an area where there are great flocks of bikers / cyclists / off-roaders every weekend, and when the ambulances reach them - and there are more than a few to be reached along the ways - many are fifties or older on machines of motor or pedal variety way beyond what they have ever known/used, and many of them apparently are attempting to re-live their carefree youth.
            For a very short time.

            Comment

            • teamsaint
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 25251

              #7
              another way to look at it would be to consider how you might feel if it ( along withe the associated percentage chance of injury) was handed down as a sentence by a quirky beak.
              I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

              I am not a number, I am a free man.

              Comment

              • Lat-Literal
                Guest
                • Aug 2015
                • 6983

                #8
                Originally posted by DracoM View Post
                Absolutely NOT. Seriously, don't.
                I live in an area where there are great flocks of bikers / cyclists / off-roaders every weekend, and when the ambulances reach them - and there are more than a few to be reached along the ways - many are fifties or older on machines of motor or pedal variety way beyond what they have ever known/used, and many of them apparently are attempting to re-live their carefree youth.
                For a very short time.
                Thanks for the thoughtful post. It would not be reliving carefree youth which is, if anything, an added challenge. Freedom was in others visually. I loved the kayaking but can't quite work out why the effort that involved didn't feel like freedom as seen. It feels like a blind spot or a disconnect that started off in observations of young guys playing football in caged off areas around the tower blocks in SE17. Were they more free than I was? Probably no. But there was personal achievement. And I didn't speak to anyone about this but when there was the sunset over water while we paddled it felt like a huge endorsement of life romance. Contrast the great Ventura Highway which is free in sound but in actuality incarceration. Hotel California in a traffic jam. I can't square it. I'm Sagittarius which loves freedom with an ascendant in eccentric Aquarius and the moon is in angsty but dogmatic to a fault in Virgo. That all might well be bunk but the combination is uncannily right. Plus with a Capricorn in Mercury, that ain't bad for communication. There's a choice. I'm thinking of a 250cc. Thoughts?
                Last edited by Lat-Literal; 06-08-18, 22:04.

                Comment

                • Serial_Apologist
                  Full Member
                  • Dec 2010
                  • 37995

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
                  Go for it Lat. Go as fast as you can, especially downhill. Try 'no-hands' early on too. You'll be fine.
                  Fairly typical message from the "everything will be all right in the end" brigade!

                  Comment

                  • gradus
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 5644

                    #10
                    The answer to your initial question is yes. Within 5 days of buying a motorbike (20 yrs ago)I broke my collar bone when I fell over at about 5mph, having mistakenly thought that riding on two wheels from the age of 16 with a hiatus of 30 years meant I knew what I was doing! By all means ride on the roads after tuition but don't try motor cross or anything that necessitates advanced riding skills on tracks or rough land.

                    Comment

                    • Lat-Literal
                      Guest
                      • Aug 2015
                      • 6983

                      #11
                      Originally posted by gradus View Post
                      The answer to your initial question is yes. Within 5 days of buying a motorbike (20 yrs ago)I broke my collar bone when I fell over at about 5mph, having mistakenly thought that riding on two wheels from the age of 16 with a hiatus of 30 years meant I knew what I was doing! By all means ride on the roads after tuition but don't try motor cross or anything that necessitates advanced riding skills on tracks or rough land.
                      I just don't know what to do now.

                      I didn't know whether with the comment "we have a place for you Mr H" - and I had fully explained the position - whether the enclosed videos were a goading to putting me off. I have thought yes and no and yes and now think a no and yes. Apparently you have to stand up. I don't have any of the usual problems that I hear many people experience at 55 but it has always been a curious arrangement other than in sleep when it is a nuisance. In socially interactive situations it is all irrelevant and one feels full of drive in a presumably everyday way.

                      Comment

                      • richardfinegold
                        Full Member
                        • Sep 2012
                        • 7823

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
                        It sort of goes like this.

                        I am the least physical person on earth other than in terms of walking. My fitness which was never great is currently worse. I have huge fears. I get worried about being in crowded rooms or trains. I am deeply afraid - timid - of attitudes - that sort of "he has a no right to be here" - especially where the experienced are concerned and chavs and the young and the holier than thou. Almost anybody. I've never been too concerned about throwing physical caution to the winds. That is partially because it isn't socially demanding, on paper, and also for as long as it is concept only I can drive myself along. God forbid that I start thinking about bodies - especially mine. And it is a remarkable thing. It was precisely that ethereal concept which got me into gliders and kayaks last year. Any ideas of the physicality would not have done. I had no concept of what those would entail but having got there felt that I had to go through with them. Ego. Well, I got the kayaking cert but largely I was a disgrace. Only just managed not to pull all the greats and goods down but alright enough to achieve.

                        And it was eight hours intensive over two days which I managed. So then I rang up Dorking on motorbikes. He sounded militaristic. Didn't want to take me on board because there had been serious injuries with novices at a well known firm and the whole idea of it in his view was ridiculous. But now I'm being offered a course in Sussex. It's one day and it's pricy. It's for people who have no experience on bikes whatsoever which seems wild but most are probably ultra sport and aged 21. The videos show people who say that they ached in every part of themselves after just five minutes and had to pick mud out of every orifice. So should I go through with this and I admit it is a kind of vehement rage against nothing of relevance* plus conceptually expansive or try to acquire an "I've lost it not that I ever had it" dignity? My individuality now is not such a huge social issue for me - like it or lump it to a degree with its myriad of complexities - but I don't want to do myself a major injury or muck things up on the day for other people to whom I feel more responsibility and have always overly done.

                        *Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gently etc - but I would be the only one there for poetry.

                        (I don't go at all for dare devilment,and in these days that is increasingly corporate, speed, power or attitudinal conflict which is inevitably the case with such things but I am taken to armoured layers, often felt necessary, concepts of more engine and freedom and new experience - I don't fit into any category identifiably but the age and state will raise questions)
                        It sounds extremely likely that you will mangle yourself, beyond recognition, or perhaps fatally. So the question becomes: Who will inherit your CD collection? Can you inventory it before you do this and post it so that forumites can get their requests in?

                        Comment

                        • Lat-Literal
                          Guest
                          • Aug 2015
                          • 6983

                          #13
                          Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
                          It sounds extremely likely that you will mangle yourself, beyond recognition, or perhaps fatally. So the question becomes: Who will inherit your CD collection? Can you inventory it before you do this and post it so that forumites can get their requests in?
                          What an interesting question. Without wishing to draw undue attention to myself, my record collection is not a record collection but me. When not walking or on a bike. It was going to go to Ray, my pop quiz captain, but on his one occasion here last year he cooled because I was saying "folk, jazz, world, classical". This is all CDs. I am anticipating giving my interests to people who shared my interests so by all means. The money question is more difficult. Such as it exists, it's fort the natural world - almost certainly British or English - or a KLF style torching in front of the world's media. I have nothing but contempt for money or its leeches and hobbyists and it means absolutely nothing to me. People think I joke. Not here folks. I am more anti money than sex. People don't know what they were dealing with. Once I was seen as suspicious, wrongly. Now anything is possible. No partner, no kids, parents lost.

                          But I am as cute as can be if the world plays ball.

                          How, Newton, is your reply to me coming on, if at all.....I am potentially a total loose cannon under the intimidation you are putting me through? - that negates any childish clout!
                          Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-08-18, 00:21.

                          Comment

                          • Quarky
                            Full Member
                            • Dec 2010
                            • 2677

                            #14
                            I ride a great deal on motorbikes and scooters - -in fact in this hot weather, it's the only way to keep cool. But I have spent my whole life in activity / keep-fit pursuits.

                            Would you know how to fall off a bike? Even at slow speeds, it can be very painful when unexpected.

                            I can't see any benefit for you, but a lot of potential risk of injury.

                            Try something with less risk, like abseiling, bunjee jumping, or paint-balling!

                            Comment

                            • Beef Oven!
                              Ex-member
                              • Sep 2013
                              • 18147

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                              Fairly typical message from the "everything will be all right in the end" brigade!
                              We must have a chat about irony.

                              Comment

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