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I like the smell of a good pipe tobacco but never took up the habit, I just don't desire even a remotely compromised end to my life that's almost inevitable.

My mother and father were outliers in the 1960's and they didn't smoke and didn't allow it in their home. That was a difficult decision in that era and they lost a few friends or the ability to host neighborhood parties over it. My Mother tells a story of a neighbor asking for an ashtray and telling her she didn't have any in the house. "That's OK, I'll just use the saucer of your nice china". Uh-oh....she left in a huff.

My wife has controlled asthma and he own Mother came to our house for the first time. Repeat scene; she asked for an ashtray and I said we didn't own one since it aggravated her daughter's breathing but very *tactfully* suggested she might enjoy the porch. This would have been 1988 and she didn't return to that house once in 7 years 

As for me, I've lost too many friends and family members to various cancers (breast, throat, bone) to ever take up a habit that might add me to the list.

My Beck Speedster smoked a little if I really got on it.

Good recovery from that marvelous thread drift. It's easy to drift when you get excited thinking about life's experiences we all have and want to share those with others. I'm sorry I got off course, but reading Michaels post made me think of my Dad and that lead to a story. On track, I look far and wide for a nice used Beck just because they built their own frames. I sat in one and it did have more room as well. Went I was ready to buy a speedster Beck was 3 years out on builds. I'm in my 70's so I ended up ordering a pan based car here in California because its closer (5 hours drive) and I could drop in as it was being built. I got in with a 12 month wait time. I talked to Greg today and he is still on schedule for my build. I hope to drive it to the 2022 SLO run. We will see ...........

I never smoked either  lol

@Butcher Boy posted:

Good recovery from that marvelous thread drift. It's easy to drift when you get excited thinking about life's experiences we all have and want to share those with others. I'm sorry I got off course, but reading Michaels post made me think of my Dad and that lead to a story. On track, I look far and wide for a nice used Beck just because they built their own frames. I sat in one and it did have more room as well. Went I was ready to buy a speedster Beck was 3 years out on builds. I'm in my 70's so I ended up ordering a pan based car here in California because its closer (5 hours drive) and I could drop in as it was being built. I got in with a 12 month wait time. I talked to Greg today and he is still on schedule for my build. I hope to drive it to the 2022 SLO run. We will see ...........

I never smoked either  lol

Well I am sure it will Pan Out for you  

Being close to Greg is a no brainer! Choosing your local buider, is a win win all around.

@Butcher Boy, you can have great fun in a properly built pan-based car, and Greg is the guy to go to for one of those.  Keep us posted on colors, mechanical specs, etc.  We love following build threads.

What I have ordered is a speedster powered by Subaru, a built Rancho trans with independent and 3:44 gear. All the usual Greg touches for gearing,  4 wheel disc, under dash E brake, Heat and AC, 12 gal gas tank filler cap in the front hood. I went with the GT bumpers, GT deck lid, hard  toneau cover with dual helmet farings. also ordered a half and full toneau for variety. I choose Slate Gray with Baseball glove colored interior and gray square loop carpet with Baseball vinyl trim to match. I went with the Rudge style wheels ( as they say, " only cry once! " I had the seats made 1 inch wider so I have a little room to move. also asked for little touches like bringing the dash cover all the way to the end of the dash alined with the door rail. I plan to drive the wheels off this thing so don't be surprised if I pull into your run back east someday to meet you guys.

Last edited by Butcher Boy

I smoked from the mid 70’s to the mid 90’s. I got sober in 89. It took 7 more years, and being deathly ill and hucking up a half pint of lung butter in an Atlanta hotel room, to finally quit smoking.  

The Urgent Care doc that treated my walking pneumonia was only too happy to write me an Rx for the patch and I haven’t had a cigarette since that morning.

By far the hardest of my vices to put behind me.

Last edited by dlearl476

I love the idea of a pipe. I love the smell, and think the old-school, Father-Knows-Best vibe is a completely different thing than cigarettes. My wife grew up with a smoker (her dad) - and while she can't stand the smell of cigarettes, she loves the smell of a pipe.

None of that was enough to make me hate my lungs enough to take it up as a habit.

But my current plan (at 58) is to start living as dangerously as possible on or about my 75th birthday (should I make it that long). My people are not especially long-lived, nor do they age well. We tend to be strong and robust, then fall off a proverbial cliff. Other people have golden years. We don't really.

As such, I'm absolutely buying the fastest motorcycle I can manage, which I plan to ride like I stole. Perhaps a pipe at that point in time might prove to be a good move as well.

@Butcher Boy posted:

What I have ordered is a speedster powered by Subaru, a built Rancho trans with independent and 3:44 gear. All the usual Greg touches for gearing,  4 wheel disc, under dash E brake, Heat and AC, 12 gal gas tank filler cap in the front hood. I went with the GT bumpers, GT deck lid, hard  toneau cover with dual helmet farings. also ordered a half and full toneau for variety. I choose Slate Gray with Baseball glove colored interior and gray square loop carpet with Baseball vinyl trim to match. I went with the Rudge style wheels ( as they say, " only cry once! " I had the seats made 1 inch wider so I have a little room to move. also asked for little touches like bringing the dash cover all the way to the end of the dash alined with the door rail. I plan to drive the wheels off this thing so don't be surprised if I pull into your run back east someday to meet you guys.

It's going to be extraordinary.

@Stan Galat On behalf of your loved ones I hope you won't view 75 or any other number as your sell-by date. You're always going to be worth more to society for your comments than for your corneas.

When I taught Web Developer classes I used http://deathclock.com/ as an example of how to implement website cookies in Javascript. This summer I hope to prove the site's calculations unreliable as it has me down for then. Whenever I go I want it to surprise people, so they say "Gee, he wasn't acting very dead at all this morning."

I know it's not what you intended, but I checked that deathclock, @wrkinprogress. I found out my sell-by is Aug 18, 2036 - which would make me 72. This is a few years ahead of when my dad tapped out, but a good 10 or so after my grandfather did. It's probably not that far off.

Maybe I'll buy that Triumph Thruxton and take up the pipe a bit before 75.

Everybody thinks their gonna' beat the odds, but the last time I checked: the reaper still bats 1.000.

Far be it for me to tell anyone how to live their life. If Stan wants a motorcycle and a pipe when he's 75 that's up to him.

I had a response posted about the weather thread, and deleted it. It simply would have done no good for anyone.

Live and let live.

Buy a bike. Smoke a pipe. Have a glass of Scotch.

Just don't buy a 359 or a Perry D Spyder. That peeves me big-time!

Get off my lawn, while you're at it.

@Joe Fortino posted:

Screen Shot 2022-01-29 at 7.35.32 AM

We all tend to take the big risks when we're young and have the most to lose, which is backwards of how it should be.

Of course, nobody sees it that way - when you're 20 and broke (with no dependents), it doesn't seem like you are risking all that much to generate the stories you'll be telling for the rest of your life. But the reality we gain with perspective is that we have almost everything to lose when we're young. Actuaries know it when calculating the value of a person's life for insurance purposes. There's less to lose the older one gets.

My kids are grown, my house paid for, my retirement funds are... funded, I guess (if not to my satisfaction, then at least to a much greater degree than I thought possible as a young man). I've got projects I'm in the middle of, but my house is in order.

My health is still "OK", and I'm not being unduly negative - but the meter is running for all of us, gentlemen. None of us makes it out without crossing over to the other side. I've got no intention of curling up in a fetal position and sucking my thumb under the bed in an effort to avoid what is inevitable. It really pisses my doctor off when I say it, but if I can't really LIVE my life, then I'm wondering what the point of extending it indefinitely really is?

Old men tend to become timid and just start taking up space. I understand the desire to take it easy and enjoy the fruits of 40 or 50 years of working - but I know that when I'm left to my own inclinations, I spend a lot of time laying on the couch, watching Netflix, and eating Skittles.

I'm still every bit the adrenaline junkie I've always been, and I'm grateful for that. But these days, my ability to generate adrenaline through sheer physicality is limited. My brain keeps writing checks my body can no longer cash.

It's a fine thing, then, that we live in the age of the internal combustion engine - a device which serves as an adrenaline dosing system as well as being useful in other (more practical) ways. Things with engines provide the kind of dopamine rush old men struggle to get through other avenues.

As such, I really am planning on deliberately hanging it out in ways that were imprudent for too much of my life the further along I get. Rather than going slower and slower, I'm hoping to get faster and faster. The trick is to not put other people in danger while doing it.

A murdercycle or overpowered clown-car seems weighted pretty closely to the center of the risk/reward equation.

Last edited by Stan Galat

I’m 63, a dude and a non-smoker.  According to my height and weight, Deathclock puts me at their lowest (best) rating.  The only other variable is ‘mode’, which is what I assume describes one’s general outlook on life.  If I select ‘sadistic’, I’m already dead, which tells me an occasional really bad joke doesn’t hurt you.  Same result if I choose ‘pessimistic’, so at least I now have an argument (backed by science) the next time my wife stops me for pointing out the negative in things.

That leaves ‘normal’ and ‘optimistic’.  If I choose normal, I live for 10 more years and expire in early summer at the young age of 73.  If I call myself optimistic, we’ll then I get 17 more glorious years and make it to 90.

Today is going to be a great day.  My dogs will behave on their walks, my back will feel fantastic, and the the lights will all be green.  I will get my chores, exercises and stretches done without incident or distraction, and I will still have plenty of time to play.  And my low BMI arse will be sitting in my new speedster, with my lovely wife sitting in the right seat encouraging me to make some upgrades, wind in her hair and over my scalp, youge smiles on our faces, before the end of February.  

@Stan Galat posted:

Thruxton-R_LHS_Promo_955x537

I was actually thinking something like this.

1200 cc, about 100 hp (which is pretty pedestrian these days, but plenty for a senior citizen), inverted fork, Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes. It's about 450 lbs, so I'd still be able to man-handle it. I'd probably add a 2/1 pipe, but otherwise - it looks pretty much perfect right out of the crate.

Triumph still makes classic looking bikes. I love the cafe racer look.

TFC-Genre-Thruxton-MY20-1410x793-image17-MC

The wife says, no motorcycle for you. BUT if I could, I surely would. They take up less space in the garage to boot.

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4ED04DC5-AEF8-4106-9492-4D08C46DF1D933E6D861-DCF1-4E85-8210-FDE36F7610EAMy Ducati ST4 and Ducati 750 Monster in 2013. Almost met my maker on the black Monster coming off the Cherohala Skyway in September of 2013. Had bikes constantly from 1967 to 2013. Owned a Honda 360 in college when I met my future wife. Went out to the  New River on it right after graduation then over to the 18th green of the college golf course that night to properly say goodbye to Virginia Tech. Bikes were always part of my life. My wife refused to ride with me after the birth of our first child. Took 2.5 years for my wife to nurse me back to health after the crash. She told me she would divorce me if I got another bike. So I got an intermeccanica and kept off bikes. But if the worst ever happened and somehow my beautiful bride was taken from me I’d get that Ducati sport classic 1000 that I always wanted. It would obviously be used but a more beautiful better sounding machine has not been built.

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Last edited by 550 Phil

Death Clock has me living another 30 years which puts me dying at a younger age than my dad who, as I said earlier, smoked cigarettes and a pipe for 25+ years. I've never smoked and I have a positive outlook on life. Even when I was dealing with the worst people society had to offer up. I guess my BMI is what is holding me back. I'm 5'9" and 240lbs and solid as they come. BMI is a lie and does not take into account many factors but I'm fine with it. The orthopedist said I had the strongest most dense bones he's ever tried to cut through with a bone saw. It took 5 blades to cut each tibia for my knee replacements. he said I would likely NEVER suffer from osteoporosis. Arthritis yes, osteoporosis, no. I've been given a second chance at lie more than a few times so I just keep living the way I always have.

"BMI is a lie and does not take into account many factors..."

My wife and I were once talking to the proprietor of a supplement store who was built like Chris Hemsworth, and he told us that he couldn't get life insurance because of his BMI.  It didn't matter that he was healthier that 99.9% of the folks on the planet, his BMI wasn't in insurance companies' preferred range.

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