We did a little tour on our own into Germany one spring, about 20 years ago. It was only a few days, we didn’t have much money and we absolutely didn’t know what we were doing. We rented a car and just started wandering. It was just at the point of technology where GPS was still new. We didn’t have any so we just started driving with a shitty map and no clue.

We had done some traveling in other countries before and we had met several famously obnoxious German tourists. We had partly expected to meet equally arrogant Germans in their home country.

Instead we met the most open, kind hearted, brilliant people ever. Everywhere we stopped, we’d meet three or four locals who were more than happy to give directions, recommend restaurants, bars, tea shops and sites to see.

At one point we met a truck driver who gave us a ton of information and showed us a driving route on a big format ringed binder map book. When he was done talking, he left the book. We told him he was forgetting his book and he said we could have it as it had detailed updated map info of the entire country. It was an expensive book and I knew it, so I told him not to give it away. He insisted and said he didn’t mind.

I still have that map book on my shelf and whenever I see it, I think of that trip and all those people we met.

Totally loved Germany after that.

People like me between the ages of about 40 - 55 are at a great period for riding motorcycles. There are a lot of people selling amazing old bikes that young people either don’t or can’t buy. We’re at a good age for insurance (if we have years of experience). I love biking and I’ve accumulated 6 old motorcycles with 3 on the road and 3 as project bikes. I don’t think this period will last tho … as those old bikes will start to become too expensive to maintain and mechanics no longer want to service old bikes. And everyone will be switching to powerful electric bikes that will look like full sized motorcycles.

What all this means in terms of your noisy neighbour is that there is a 50/50 chance that he won’t be riding for very long.

Sometimes these old guys just enjoy riding and continue riding for a long time.

Or they give up on it because they end up scaring themselves with a near accident or their bike breaks down because they don’t know all the ways of taking care of a bike (it’s all dependent on the make, model, age, type and little details of the bike) … they often end up with a mechanical problem and they either don’t want to fix it, it’s too expensive or they just don’t know how and just give up on the bike and biking.

There’s a big change happening in motorcycling these days. A lot of older people (50+) are buying motorcycles because they always wanted to ride but they couldn’t afford it when they were younger. Mix in the fact that many old riders are now giving up their bikes and selling them … but young riders are not buying them because a young new rider can’t afford the insurance for the bike. Younger riders will go for new smaller engine bikes and many of them are now migrating towards electric bikes … it’s getting to the point where small engine bikes are as powerful, fast and economical as a good sized electric bike. Plus its easier for a young new rider to insure an electric bike than a gas powered one.

The danger with all those old riders is that many of them didn’t grow up riding a motorcycle … they always wanted to but never had the chance. But now that they’re older, have a bit money and have a bit of time, they want to ride but they’re old now … which means, they don’t have the reflexes, they don’t have the strength and they don’t have the awareness of what it feels like to get hurt on a bike. Most riders like myself learned to ride as kids on dirt bikes and ATVs … it’s a great training ground because you ride fast and do all sorts of stupid things … and most importantly, you fall and hurt yourself … so you learn from a young age what it feels like to fall on a bike a low speed and that it hurts a lot … you realize that if you go faster on a paved highway, you’re really going to get hurt.

Being an older rider you don’t get that experience and those guys usually only have one accident … and it either severely hurts them for life and they give up riding … or it kills them.

Slowing down and avoid high traffic areas … and don’t ride during peak hours.

Riding a motorcycle was fun up until about 20 years ago. There were a lot fewer vehicles and the driving was slower. Now you have many more vehicles, modern designed wide lane straightened highways and modern vehicles with more acceleration and speed to the point that everyone thinks it’s normal to drive 20kph faster than the posted speed limit (I’m in Canada so we measure in kilometers)

Those are some really meth looking teeth

I ride motorcycle and I always love that argument. I have stock pipes on my bike and I prefer them to be as quiet as possible so that I hear as much of the road as possible, as well as other vehicles.

Yes loud motorcycles do make others aware of your presence … especially if they are very loud pipes.

What no one ever wants to admit is that you usually hear the loud pipes AFTER the bike/vehicle has passed you or is moving away. You seldom hear a loud motorcycle coming at you, especially if you are in a car with sound proofing or sound dampening. You definitely hear the big loud motorcycle pipes as the idiot is driving away from you.

The other thing I love about morons that enjoy big loud motorcycle pipes is that they are the same idiots that want an open air sound system for their motorcycle. So they get the loud pipes and then get a really powerful sound system so that they can listen to their muffled music over the sound of loud pipes, the highway and the buffeting winds as they drive down the highway. Usually, these are the same idiots that lose their hearing by the time they’re 50.

They try harder the more money you use … just like the other system.

The difference between the Justice System and the Legal System

One tries to provide social equality … the other is a rich man’s game

Do it as a group … get several parents together and get all the kids to huddle together like penguins … if penguins can survive -60 degree weather as a group, kids can do the same

Either that or just teach the kids how to smoke.

I thought the second photo was John Wick twisting the hand of the guy next to him to keep him quiet

If he was murdered because they thought what he said was too much … the world will now hear everything he had to say because they killed him.

I think God would want to meet them just to see the look on their face when he told them they were going to hell.

When American Christians get to the afterlife and meet god …

Republicans? … they were to blame a decade or two ago.

Ever since then, all of America is to blame.

When you sit in your seat and during take off or landing you can literally smell the fuel or its exhaust in the cabin, you have to be pretty dumb to think that the corporation that designed the aircraft has your best interests at heart … or that the airline company that now owns the aircraft will say anything about it.

Some airlines are better about it than others but I’ve been on some smaller aircraft and it’s amazing the sense of the air quality when you’re in your seat inside a sealed air compartment and you can still smell the engines.

Scully … you do know we live in America right?

… and yet again America just looks over their shoulder, shrugs, calls it another day and keeps scrolling on Tik Tok or whatever social media feed they were looking at.

If you’re not part of the staff, you’re part of the entertainment … and if you’re not part of the entertainment, you’re part of the zoo.

They know that everyone will use AI to remix all their products into lucrative viral content. Just look at all the AI slop that so many channels on YouTube where they just recreate Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, actors into all kinds of videos, remixes and music.

I think Disney sees all this and they’ll jump ahead and remix everything with AI with all the products they own.

Expect to see Star Wars Episode XX starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing

Or Star Trek XXX starring the entire original cast for the 60s