You never know when you’re going to hear a good story to pass along. We took the household critters to the vet two days ago and in talking with Doug, our vet, he had this one.

Doug is from Wyoming and he has always ridden motorcycles, mostly dirt bikes. Some time ago he picked up an old 350cc Honda dirt bike cheap. His partner at the vet clinic, whose name is Jeff, I believe, had never ridden so he came out to Doug’s one day to give it a try.

Doug went through the controls with Jeff, showing him the clutch, the gearshift, the brake, and explained one down, four up. Jeff responded, “Where’s my clutch?” That was probably a hint.

He turned Jeff loose in the pasture and Jeff putted around a bit, getting the hang of it. After awhile, Doug was standing up on the bank of a dry pond and motioned to Jeff to come over there. Doug figured he’d pull up and stop. Wrong.

As Jeff picked up speed coming up the embankment Doug signaled to him to slow down but Jeff launched over the bank into the air. “I could see him in mid-air pushing away from the bike.”

They both hit and slid, and the bike’s throttle did not disengage, so it ended up doing circles on its side in the dirt. I don’t recall how Doug said the bike got back upright, maybe a bump that lifted it up, but it hit the fence and with that for support it just kept going down the fence line until it hit a telephone pole. That finally put an end to its ramblings.

The old bike wasn’t in very good shape to begin with but it was in a lot worse shape after all this. Doug didn’t say whether Jeff has any more inclination to ride. But hey, you know, it’s all about the stories.

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Biker Quote for Today

Dennis just traded his Gold Wing for a Harley and a couple days later another email came from Johnathon: He bought a new bike.

That’s it in the picture. It’s a little small by OFMC standards, but then so is his wife, Felicia. That’s her on this Honda Rebel 250.

Johnathon said it was his bike, but gosh, it’s just too small for him, “so I guess my wife can have it.” That makes Felicia the first of the OFMC wives to ride her own. But I don’t guess she’ll be joining us on our summer trips, so does that make her OFMC Auxiliary? If women find that concept offensive these days don’t tell her I said it.

Felicia is a good one to have her own bike. She likes taking trips with Johnathon, but more than that, she’s a gutsy rider. The two of them went to Costa Rica and on their return we heard from Johnathon how they rented ATVs for a day and she smoked him blasting down the jungle paths. He’s an experienced biker but she rode that thing like she was born to it.

So good for you Felicia. Come join us on the next day ride, but even though I’d like to take the Rebel for a test ride I don’t think I’ll be offering to swap bikes. She’s only about 5 feet tall, you know. I don’t think I’d want her on my very tall Concours.

Biker Quote for Today

My favorite ride? Tomorrow’s!

Man oh man! Gas for $4 a gallon! Sure would be nice to get, oh, about 80 miles per gallon. Well, some people do. But you can bet they don’t do it in a Hummer.

On the other hand, take that little scooter next to that green Kawasaki in the photo below. That person is getting around 80 MPG. And probably having more fun getting to and from work than they ever have before.

Even better than that, Yamaha claims that their Vino 125 gets 96 MPG, and the Yamaha C3 is rated at 115 MPG. Now you’re talking saving real money!

Of course, there are some trade-offs. Those two little Yamahas don’t have much speed and you can’t take them on the highway. However, some bigger scooters don’t cost a lot more than those and can hit top speeds of 75 or more. It’s always a matter of trade-offs.

So, what kind of gas mileage does that Kawi guy get? On a sportbike like his (or hers, you never know) he’s surely in the 40-50 MPG range. The fact is, most motorcycles will get mileage in that approximate range, even the bigger ones. For example, I get around 45 MPG on both my Honda CB750 Custom and my Kawasaki Concours. A Honda Goldwing, one of the biggest bikes on the road, can get up to 40 MPG, although it does have six cylinders and therefore is not as efficient as the more common one-, two-, three- or four-cylinder bikes.

Another big road bike, the Harley-Davidson Road King, is rated at 54 MPG on the highway and 35 in the city. The Yamaha FJR1300A delivers around 40. Honda’s Shadow Spirit 1100 is rated at about 48 MPG on the highway and 38 in the city. (Sorry I don’t have city/highway splits for all these bikes.)

The mileage you get on a bike generally depends on the same three things that determines a car’s fuel efficiency: weight, your driving habits, and engine size. The big six-cylinder bikes eat more gas than a V-twin, but any bike with six cylinders is also a heavy bike. For a smaller bike, around 1,000 cc’s, you’ll get pretty much the same mileage with a V-twin or an inline four.

And then, as the city/highway splits show, speed matters. While I normally expect 45 MPG from my 1,000-cc Concours, riding easily on curvy mountain roads has at times given me as much as 55 MPG from the beast.

Do the math. A lot of other people already have. There are a lot more people joining us on the roads on two wheels. Welcome to the club.

Biker Quote for Today

Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul.