Moto Snips & Quotes

[G.Irish]

I've come across some good and funny quotes and passages while reading various motorcycling periodicals and books and thought we can have a thread for it. Unlike the MM quotes thread this can include magazine quotes and quotes from anywhere else that is relevant.

"People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs."

"If you ride like there's no tomorrow, there won't be."

"Life may begin at 30, but it doesn't get real interesting until about 150."

ÔÇ£Calling upon my years of experience, I froze at the controls.ÔÇØ
ÔÇô Stirling Moss

ÔÇ£ThereÔÇÖs the V-4 thing: thereÔÇÖs just something about it that inline 4s donÔÇÖt have, and V-twins have too much of.ÔÇØ
ÔÇô Murray Duncan

ÔÇ£You start the game with a full pot oÔÇÖ luck and an empty pot oÔÇÖ experience... The object is to fill the pot of experience before you empty the pot of luck.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£Why are motorcycle dealers closed on Sundays? Because Sunday is for worship... Catholics go to church, Motorcyclists go to the track.ÔÇØ
ÔÇô Justin Skalka

[G.Irish]

Bike Magazine (UK)
Speaking of the K6 GSX-R 1000

A rocker switch on the right-hand bar lets you toggle between three maps. One gives full power (186 hp), a second map offers less power (156 bhp) but, rather interestingly, more torque. However if the ECU detects full throttle in this second map it'll automatically revert tot hte more powerful setting. The third setting creates an easygoing 120bhp engine for wet weather, town riding, and mortals.

Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear) talking about why he doesn't like bikes

Speaking of co-host James May who likes old bikes:

I was thinking about this the other day, while following a man up the A44 on a motorbicycle of a type I'm sure James would literally get his cock out over - it was a K-reg, so it was a 1972 bike -- and I just couldn't get it. I mean, I just couldn't get it...it's like having the opportunity to buy a plasma TV and saying "No, no old chap, I"ll get a black and white one - and if I want to change channels I'll get up and walk across."

So I just never had any experience of the power. The first time I ever rode a bike was at Silverstone in the mid-Nineties...and I did 100 yards and fell off it. Well, I didn't fall off it - I rode into a metal railing that I couldn't see because the sun was setting in front of me. And that really hurt - I mean properly hurt. So I just thought, "Sorry, I"m really not interested in this at all. I've spent 20 years in a car; never fallen off once. So I'll go back to cars."

And the last reason I don't like bikes is because I really, really like my kidneys and I don't want someone else to have them.

Staff writer talking about his experience racing a supermoto at Pike's Peak:

In the rider's meeting, we get the previous day's injury report - one concussion and another guy with about 10 broken bones, including a compound fracture of the femur. These were classified as minor injuries. Pikes Peak uses Isle of Man standards - which is to say, if you're ever going to move your arms and legs again, you weren't really hurt.

'Don't look down,' says a veteran. No shit. My one consolation is my brand-new pair of Alpinestars Tec 6 moto boots. They make the road racing boots I've always worn seem like ballet slippers and I love the feeling of protection. In the worst-cae scenario, I could still have an open cakset funeral, as long as the undertaker turned my body around under the shroud to show off my perfectly preserved shins and feet.

[ScottyB]

haha, Clarkson can be a huge asshole sometimes but his comments on bikes will always make me laugh

[Ginger]

In an October 10, 2006 interview with Ben Bostrom Road Racer X asked about training for the sport. Ben made it clear that he's not a rat race, gym member, type guy, and concluded with this gem:

But if youÔÇÖre stuck in your little office cubicle all day, and then you go get stuck in the little gym, then you go to your house and get stuck in your house, then youÔÇÖre stuck in your bedroom and you sleep, then you wake up and get stuck in your little car on the way to do the same thing all over againÔÇöthatÔÇÖs your day. ThatÔÇÖs no good.

[Ginger]

The Soup on the FX rule interpretation that allowed Buell to race a questionably legal bike:

If I were American Honda I would take the RC51 superbikes out of mothballs, drain the water out of the engines, and fill it back up with engine oil. Use the cylinder blocks as oil reservoirs like Buell uses the swingarms as oil reservoirs. Change the name of the radiator to oil cooler. Issue a press release and say that it is an air/oil cooled engine. And for good measure, I would then call HRC and commission an engine kit to bump the displacement from 1000cc to 1340cc.

If I were Yamaha I would probably boycott the class.

There was something so pure, so noble, about risking one's life for the fleeting and intangible reward of being faster around a racetrack than the next guy. While others were obsessed with the vulgar pursuits of wealth or pleasure, we were ready to sacrifice everything, for nothing. Surely there is no greater idealism than that?

Writing for motorcycle-usa.com on the Jamie James R6 - and 'that guy'

Riding an out of date sportbike with more duct tape than a Homeland Security safety kit, the spray-bombed side panels and zip ties a clear indicator of the yards this bike has traveled on its side, or upside down. With the rider possessing a set of spuds the size of grapefruits and no concept of the word tomorrow, all you can do is watch the rear end disappear into the distance.

I'd rather eat my own feces than ride for Carl Fogarty!

[Feersty]

If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.

[PGK]

If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.

+1!

[Evan]

ÔÇ£Calling upon my years of experience, I froze at the controls.ÔÇØ
ÔÇô Stirling Moss

AFAIK this quote was actually said by one of the GT40 drivers in 24 hours of Lemans in the 60s (as quoted by Carrol Smith)

[PGK]

"Nervous energy is your most priceless earthly asset. Save it. Accumulate it. Replenish your zip tank every day with a spin in the country on a motorcycle. Get out in the open where there is no boundary. Enlarge your horizon. Its radius is all up to you. "

"With a motorcycle you can stick to your job till the dayÔÇÖs work is finished, and then in fifteen minutes put yourself out in the wide open. An hour on the road will blow the clinkers out of your lungs. See the fields once every twenty-four hours - and all day every Sunday and on vacation. A motorcycle will make this possible. You can beat it out to some heretofore distant stream, and fish for a while before breakfast - if you own a motorcycle. "

"You can be at the ballpark, root with the bunch almost instantly after you have climbed out of your overalls or closed your roll top - if you have a motorcycle. Air spray your brain by using a motorcycle. Come down to work clean and fresh on a motorcycle, and you will attack it with a vim born of fresh air and red blood. A motorcycle gives you snap."

"Men with motorcycles are live wires. They do things. They are well, and they do their work well. Their competitors fear them, because they are effective, powerful, healthy chaps. And this effectiveness is operative over a wide field, because the man with the motorcycle has no mile. He lives everywhere. His zone is practically unlimited. "

"The horse has received half his setback into the ranks of the obsolete at the hands of the motorcycle. The first cost of a good horse exceeds that of a motorcycle, and its maintenance is decidedly higher. The horse must be fed and cared for. Give the motorcycle a bit of gasoline and a mite of oil and it is at your service for a mile or a hundred miles. The horse is slow, the motorcycle is swift. The horse has a mind of his own - you are the motorcycleÔÇÖs. The horse must be shielded - it is subject to exhaustion and you feel for it, and half the pleasure of your drive is spoiled through consideration for the brute which pulls you."

"Not so with the motorcycle. It has no nerves, it never falters, it is as willing at the dayÔÇÖs end as it was in the early hours of the morning. The horse stops on the bad hills - the motorcycle eats them alive. Gasoline is CupidÔÇÖs best friend, and the motorcycle is the little GodÔÇÖs choice of gasoline gigs. The twentieth century has heard the call of the motorcycle and answered it."

"Even the automobile has been forced to admit that it has a real peer in its agile little contemporary. Here is a little schedule for you - not that it is the best. It is simply given to suggest to you what can be done with a motorcycle. Up at six thirty. A five mile spin in the country before breakfast. Back in twenty minutes, allowing time for dressing, etc. You have two big healthy lungs under your shirt, both full of ozone; color in your cheeks that wasnÔÇÖt there yesterday, red blood in your veins, and an appetite like a horse. Seven thirty - you are off for work with fight in your eyes - ready to meet the old world on his homeground and make him say ÔÇ£Uncle.ÔÇØ You feel fresh and clean - for there are motorcycles as clean as enclosed coupes."

"Eight oÔÇÖclock - you are on the job like a glutton. Let them bring on their perplexities, their trying moments. You are equal to anything, you have absorbed enough horse power to talk you over any hill that the boss can take in his big limousine. All day long you go ahead cutting and slashing. At five oÔÇÖclock you have a hundred percent day on you back track with a song in your heart."

"That is satisfaction. The other fellow wonders what has gotten into you. Let him wonder. Home to dinner, on your motorcycle, then an hour or two in the wide open, and then to bed where you will sleep like a six month old child. The next day you repeat the dose - put another dent in old Nemesis. Now multiply this one hundred percent work day of yours by six, just to get an idea of what you can do for yourself in a week, after you have taken to the motorcycle. Multiply this day by twenty-eight. Figure out where you will stand at the end of the month, and then multiply it by twelve. This gives you a line on your first big motorcycle year. It means success - a roll top and push buttons, if you care for those things. The other fellow has been lost in your dust. For the sake of your health, your chances, your balance at the bank, your tomorrow - get a motorcycle."

"A motorcycle will take you up on Easy Street. "

-Excerpts from "You and the Motorcycle; Excelsior Henderson", circa 1914

[G.Irish]

A few months ago former WSBK champion Neil Hodgson said

I'd rather eat my own feces than ride for Foggy'

in response to the question of whether he would be willing to ride on Carl Fogarty's (4 time WSBK champ and now a team manager) team next season.

But due to machinations in the racing world Foggy is Neil's last hope for a decent ride in 07. Foggy said he's willing to put aside his differences because he recognizes that Hodgson is a great rider but...

If he wants to ride for me we'll sit down for a nice meal, I'll put dog shit on a plate, coat it in the Kentucky Fried Chicken stuff so it tastes a bit better, watch him eat it, then he can come ride for me.

[.RJ]

I'm really going to work on my beer fitness - Neil Hodgson, on his offseason plans with no ride for 2007

[Ginger]

Hodgson's goals for 2006:

My goals are to 1) get my knee down
2) finally complete a proper wheelie and
3) stay standing after four Coronas.

[.RJ]

I don't know too much about Red Bull, but boy, they're up to their ass in alligators in that Formula One thing - Kenny Roberts (Sr)

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[G.Irish]

Quotes from Dr. Claudio Costs, head doctor of the Moto GP Clinica Mobile in last month's PB

The common trait I see in all racers is a great soul. A man's soul is the wonderful instrument enabling us to face the fact that, while we are chasing a dream, we can encounter tragedy.

Mick Doohan is my all-time favorite rider. Not only his leg but his very life were at risk, yet he raised from his bed of pain to face the unkown. Luckily, an angel took him by the hand and led him to win five world titles.

Riders have different tolerances to pain. But almost all riders withstand pain well. Riders give a meaning to the pain they feel and prevent pain from limiting their existence.