Did I buy an "Old Man Bike"??

Nightmare

Nightmare

Joined
Oct 10, 2025
Messages
84
Location
Calgary
Bike
2008 ST1300
So I was out for a ride enjoying some beautiful weather on some spectacular roads which took me to the Banff National Park pass booth. The lady at the booth asked if I had looked at the rates sign and if I was a Senior (55+ years old) or an Adult.

A few things to keep in mind here... I'm 43, I was wear full gear with a full face helmet and sunglasses on so very little of my face/body was actually visible and I've ridden through this road a number of times on my ZX14 but this is the first time I've been asked AND the first time while riding a ST1300...

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For clarity, I love the bike, I don't care what stereotypes people associate with my vehicles, this post is just to give you a laugh.
 
To the uninitiated, the ST and a Goldwing are interchangeable because of all the plastic and how it is placed on the bike. The same could probably be said about an RT and K1600. The GW and 1600 are usually ridden by "older" folks so you can't really blame her for the question.
 
As a young(er) whipper-snapper I confidently overtook a guy on an ST1300 whilst on my superiorly-sporty VTR1000F as we hit a favourite twisty section, assuming he would be a receding dot in my mirrors after the first bend. Turns out...not quite right, and he was a large and threatening mass on my back wheel for most of the road. So not necessarily an old man's bike, and much more sporty than it looks. That said, if someone offered me a senior's discount I wouldn't turn that down either.
 
Nightmare said:
So I was out for a ride enjoying some beautiful weather on some spectacular roads which took me to the Banff National Park pass booth. The lady at the booth asked if I had looked at the rates sign and if I was a Senior (55+ years old) or an Adult.

A few things to keep in mind here... I'm 43, I was wear full gear with a full face helmet and sunglasses on so very little of my face/body was actually visible and I've ridden through this road a number of times on my ZX14 but this is the first time I've been asked AND the first time while riding a ST1300...

1777910645922.png

For clarity, I love the bike, I don't care what stereotypes people associate with my vehicles, this post is just to give you a laugh.
Click to expand...
They told me mine was a cop bike, I said so’s your mom!
 
When I live in WF (Wichita Falls) Tx. there was a bike night every Saturday in the fall (When It was cooler) at the Local "What a Burger" I would take my ST1300 to it and survey the sights. Most of the riders there were young kids in there 20's and 30's. They were always bragging how fast their sport bikes could go and not saying nice things about my ST. So I challenged them to a race. Of course they would laugh at that Idea and tell me I had no chance. "But " I said "I get to pick the race course." They laughed again and agreed, until I said " Highway 287 From Wichita Fall to Denver " Never had any takers. I use to make that run, 650 miles, on two and a half tanks of gas. Two gas stops. In 10.5 hours. My best time was 9.5 hours on my ST1100, before the New Mexico State patrol started to patrol their section of 287 between Clayton NM and Raton NM. Of course I was 23 years younger then. Today if I had to ride it I would make a two day trip out of it. :giggle:
 
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TerryS said:
As a young(er) whipper-snapper I confidently overtook a guy on an ST1300 whilst on my superiorly-sporty VTR1000F as we hit a favourite twisty section, assuming he would be a receding dot in my mirrors after the first bend. Turns out...not quite right, and he was a large and threatening mass on my back wheel for most of the road. So not necessarily an old man's bike, and much more sporty than it looks. That said, if someone offered me a senior's discount I wouldn't turn that down either.
Click to expand...

In 2005, I met up with a nephew for a ride in Arizona. I was riding a 84 V65 Sabre, he was on a Kawasaki Ninja 900. From my ride report:

"...The rest of us took off up the 77 and were soon in bike heaven. Nice long sweeping curves mixed in with nice sharp curves. Mike and I decided to stick with a slower crowd, Pete (if Pete could ever be slow), but since Pete was on his Magna, I didn’t think we would have any problems keeping up with him. After a number of miles, Mike sees a real nice sweeper coming up and decides to jump on it. I see this green flash go by me and realize it’s Mike and he wants to play with the big boys! So, I kick the V65 Sabre down a notch and I’m right on his tail, the whole way. There wasn’t a curve that he was on, that I wasn’t right there. His Kaw 900 Ninja couldn’t have out run me if he tried! ;-) He later told me that he couldn’t believe how we could lean those big Sabres into the curves like we were. And he was watching the couple (Randy and Marty) in front of us on their V65 Sabre. What Mike didn’t realize, they were actually slowing us down a bit. Randy needs to put radials on that thing, then Randy and Marty will be hard to catch and will know what these Sabres can do on corners! (-:"

This was a few months before picking up my first ST1300. ;)
 
As soon as you abandon sports bikes, roadsters, or adventure bikes, you're considered old !
The worst is when you switch to a BMW or Harley; then you're really, really old.:laugh-2x:

But with a Honda, even a Pan-European, you're still considered young and dynamic.:)
 
seanners said:
They told me mine was a cop bike, I said so’s your mom!
Click to expand...
To be fair, it is.
To add to the fun, my 2007 is the same color as the Ohio State Patrol, even though they use different motorcycles. When I used to wear a black jacket and white helmet on that, it led to some colorful encounters in the inner city where I work.
 
I had someone on facebook call my ST an old man's bike and I didn't know what I was talking about when I was making fun of harley for moving production of sportsters and pan americans to Thailand.. Sure enough checked out his page and he is a diehard harleytard extremist.. No reason to get angry at fools.
 
I was thinking about the discount unlocked comment and maybe I should lean into this. I could strap one of those walkers with tennis balls on the feet to the back and put on some bumper stickers like this:
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