Quote Originally Posted by euphonius View Post
Wrangler, I am very glad you were able to spare the old man in a wheelchair! (But who the hell does he think he is driving his rig out there in traffic!)
Hey! That was ME in the chair!!!! It was the only wheels I could get in Shanghai.

You damn young whippersnappers! Scaring us old folks! You're lucky I didn't whack you with my cane!

Quote Originally Posted by euphonius
Set your own pace, enjoy the ride, and live to tell the tale!
We come into life, and leave life ... chubby, with no hair, in diapers, and being spoon fed ... the stuff in the middle is, at first, unknown; and thereafter, forgotten.

But I do remember a few things ...

Back in my wild days (early 1970s), one of my first bikes was a 2-stroke Kawasaki 750 triple, aka the "widow-maker". I was a completely insane rider with gallons of testosterone pumping through my body (and perhaps a few illegal substances), and unlike the misfortune of some people I rode with, managed to live to tell the tale. I then upgraded to one of the first superbikes - a Kawasaki Z1-900 - and rode it tip to tip, North / South America, learning "adventure riding" as I went (we used to call it "hippy discovery").

Dozens of bikes later, still alive, and with only Viagra pumping through my veins, I've learned the one truth that Mr Euph espouses ...

"set your own pace & enjoy the ride" and always ride with buddies who keep an eye out for each other. So true, so true, so true! That is really soooooo damn true!

These days, I'm certainly the slowest rider in my group (damn hard to get a wheelchair through the mountains), but I'm always smiling when I get wherever I end up. Yeah, I could probably still blow many riders off the road, but I'd be risking my dentures flying out of my mouth ... and then I wouldn't have such a charming smile!

If you ain't smiling, you ain't riding.

If you're ever in Beijing, we'll go for a nice leisurely ride.