HELP! What to do?

[bcfricharde]

I've reached a point in my riding lifetime where I've got to make a decision.

Fast road rider, qualified advanced, done some track days and loved them but can't afford time or money involved in doing it much...however every time I go out I'm riding way too quickly. I'm going to get caught and locked up or make a mistake and die! I'm a responsible working family man, so I have a lot to lose.

As soon as I'm out I must overtake everything and the road turns into my own racetrack.

I feel guilty when I get back but that doesn't stop me the next time.

It's worse when I'm out with my buddies.

I don't want to quit riding, can't afford to switch to track riding only or switch to a slower bike.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to feel like this. Anyone got any advice??

[Itchy]

Offroad riding? Even though you're typically riding slower because of the proximity of the bushes and sharp objects it feels quite fast.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[MahatmaAndhi]

If killing someone, or leaving your children without a father isn't a deterrent enough, then there's no hope really.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[Snowdonia Rider]

[ThatDippyTwat]

As someone who has had 3 bans, the last a 3yr one...

Switch to something slower, saner. Find a different riding style, different bike.

For me, this was no more Supermoto's (back wheel everywhere), Supersports (ton plus everywhere) or drag bikes with plates on (back wheel, ton plus everywhere). I'm looking at an XJR1300 for the next bike, enough poke to be fun, but the upright position doesn't make me instinctively want to cane it like a superbike, and it's not high up like a supermoto so no instinctive back wheel antics.

Going back to a 125 is a fucking ballache of immense proportions, and frustrating as all hell

[andyscooter]

I changed how I rode after I had a broken leg
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[pepperami]

If you cant control yourself on a bike, get another hobby and give up bikes.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[blue_painted]

Go for a sit-up naked bike ... either you end up with neck/shoulder muscles like a gorilla or you do keep it under the ton.

Open face helmet helps too - even quite small insects and grit particles sting much over 80.
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GP-100 -> CB250RS -> CBX550F2 (pause) KR1S -> RD350YPVS -> ZX6-R (pause) CD200 ->Mash 400 -> T100 (current) & (R1100RT scrapped pile o' shite) (CB250 Nighthawk - SORN in shed) Meteor 350 (current)

[bcfricharde]

[M.C]

Get a slower bike. Under 50bhp and you can still have fun without going stupidly fast.

[Ste]

What bike have you got?

[andys675]

Get some life insurance, carry on.
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Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

[bcfricharde]

[carpe_diem]

[Ste]

What help were you expecting from a 150+ bhp bike?

[Diggs]

Sounds like time for an older 'classic'. You'll spend more time fettling it than you will riding, plus you won't want to thrash the knackers for fear of bits dropping off. Probably more fun to ride than a modern sportsbike too, in a 'less is more' kind of way...
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Now - Speed Triple, old ratty GS550, GSXR750M
Gone (in order of ownership) - Raleigh Runabout, AP50, KH125, GP125, KH250, CBX550, Z400, CB750FII, 250LC, GS550, ZXR750H1, Guzzi Targa, GSX750F, KH250 x2, Bimota SB6R and counting...

[stevo as b4]

Either a classic with poor handling and crap brakes for scaring yourself at less than 1/2 the speed you'd normally ride at. Once you ride a bike with poor brakes, and outbrake yourself a few times you'll soon slow down IMO. Also if you get a classic you might get the bug for tinkering and restos, taking up most of your would be riding time. Also classic bikes generally go up in value not down, so it's money well spent.

Or like others said get into off roading. If you ride too fast in dirt your coming off and though it's much more likey more often, the chances of having a fatal injury as opposed to knocks and bruises are much much lower in most cases.

[gorillaonabik...]

[Alpineandy]

[Teflon-Mike]

[Banana_B1]

[MahatmaAndhi]

[Old Git Racing]

I've got some bad news for you, if you're like me it never goes away, it's a mental thing.
I'm just coming up to 60 now and what you describe is exactly like me. I've done all the things mentioned above - classic bikes, supermoto, tourers, racing, track days, threats from the wife, got 2 kids and grandchildren, even had some pretty bad offs. None of it matters a jot if you put someone on a sportsbike in front of me on the road.
In real life I am seen as a sensible responsible bloke who rides bikes, put me on a bike and I am not.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to kill myself or others and I don't do it all the time now like I used to, but it is still there.
Threats of injury and fines/bans don't work. I never think of kids/wife/grandkids when doing it.
I won't tell you you have to do this or that because it doesn't work, I'll just tell you what I do to reign it in.
Realise you are doing it, which you obviously do and determine to really do something about it.
I started riding socially with a group of people of varying abilities, mainly on a Sunday where any of the above shenanigans will make me look like a knobhead apart from being pointless because they don't want to race. I found I enjoyed it.
I changed my bike from a sportsbike to a 02 plate BMW R1150R. I've been on a Tuono v4, even considered one. In reality its a sportsbike without a fairing. The BMW is surprisingly capable and satisfying to ride, good enough to be at the front of inters on a track day but also satisfying to ride in the manner it was designed for. For me a sportsbike could only be ridden one way.
Nowadays I pick and choose when to do 'it'. Usually on my own where I concentrate more on riding well rather than racing someone. Doing it on the Beemer is exactly the same as on a sportsbike but at a relatively lower speed, not low enough to prevent dead though.
Even so the occasion still pops up when you come up behind someone, they look in the mirror and speed up a bit, so do you. Difference now is I wack them through the corners, then they fuck off on the straights and I go back to trundling along.
This realisation that I can enjoy bikes without being flat out all the time has only come in the last 2-3 years and the more I realise the less I feel inclined to do 'it'.
I hope you find a way because if you just ride one way for one reason you are missing out on quite a bit.

OGR
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2022 Tiger Sport 660 2019 Street Twin 2003 K3 gixxer 1000 1998 Srad 600 track hack

[Rogerborg]