Drinking & Riding

[James O]

After responding to BradfordBenns poll on favorite drinks, it made me think of something that I see all the time.

Do you guys: 1. Refuse to drink and ride? 2. Think its OK to have a beer or two (very moderate drinking)? 3. Party like its 1999?

I ask this because one of my favorite destinations on the weekend is Helen GA where I like to sit outside and have lunch at a restaurant that caters to motorcyclist (motorcycle only parking in front). I usually am the only guy I see there with a soft drink. 6'4" 240lbs of biker wimp drinking a diet coke.

This March will be my first full year riding and I see my skills improving everytime I go for a ride. Should I cut myself some slack and have a beer or two with lunch, or continue with my current rule of no alcohol whatsoever when two wheeling it?

Be honest if you choose to reply.

[BradfordBenn]

Two wheels = tea toting

[Cliffy777]

IF I drink at all when riding my bike, it is limited to one with a meal. I can think of three times last year when I had a toddy.
But mostly I don't drink when riding (or driving for that matter).

[riderR1150GSAdv]

Hi James,
It is an interesting question since you are like myself a fairly big person (Me 6'2" 215#) and could probably stand to handle a beer or two while having lunch.:dunno
However if you ,or anyone else, has any doubts about drinking and riding/driving I think you should not. If ,god forbid, you get into a scrape and had one or two drinks, you still have to live with what happened. Your reaction times are going to be somewhat slower.
Even if you are not legally drunk it is still a matter of being smart about your safety and that of other too. Better to be safe than sorry. Besides that , why give in to peer pressure?? :p

[BMWRich58]

Do you guys: 1. Refuse to drink and ride? 2. Think its OK to have a beer or two (very moderate drinking)? 3. Party like its 1999?

"Drink n Drive" Nope!! Never have never will...not even one.

I like my share alcohol as much as anyone else. And I'm not against the use alcohol at all.
But,my reasons for not drinking and driving were "reinforced"
Feb 6, 2003. My sister-in-law was tragically killed by a drunk driver.
Please,don't drink and drive.

[kbasa]

I don't drink and ride. If I do have a beer, my wait period before riding is a couple hours.

Besides, when you're done for the day, that beer tastes that much better.

[kbasa]

Originally posted by Blue Knight
And that's the way it should be. A single drink may put you under the 0.08, but why chance it?

Mike

Got that right, Mike. Besides, I can't think of a riding situation where I can get by without all of my abilities.

[chasman]

I say no until the end of the riding for the day.....then it's "Let's have one!" 8>P

Riding Like the Wind (in a few more weeks)...

CHASMAN
'02 BLACK K12RS

[Jim Shaw]

When I was a bit younger, I used to have a one beer rule:
1 beer + 1 hour = be careful + go straight home.

Today, I mostly drink something safer if I ride. Since I like single malt, I found a 'drink-a-round' solution that you might like. It's a great ploy at parties, too, because only the bartender knows you're on low octane. It's called a Jim Dandy, but it isn't in any bar book:

1 glass club soda + a little ice + 5 big dashes of Angostura bitters = a nice, dry drink you can take to a MADD meeting. It looks like a mixed drink, tastes good (takes a little time to learn), and you can drink them all night long. Very hydrating, too.

Caveat drinker: Make sure your bartender understands that his bar cost is probably less than a diet coke. I had one lady friend, several years ago, get charged $5.50 for one. Here in MI, a friendly barkeep will charge the same as for a Coke; maybe free refills
:p

Jim

[James O]

I agree with everyones responses. I guess I wanted confirmation of what I already believed.

My brother in law, very often with my sister on back, pretty much considers his ride as a tool for social contact with other riders of the same brand. That's great, I feel the same regarding my ride. However most of their get togethers are held at bars and he freely admits that he always has a few at these outings. I've tried to discourage this without sounding holier than thou but I don't think he understands the dangers inherent in alcohol and riding.

Ever notice all the things that we, as BMW riders, share regarding the ride: The bike itself, the gear we use, the training we take. I'm not saying this makes us better than any other rider on the road, but I find it interesting that our similar attitudes regarding the ride (including drinking and riding) led us to BMW as the bike that best suits our riding philosophy.

[BMWRider]

It ain't easy sometimes, but I wait 'til the ride is over to quaff a cold one or three. I will occasionally have one beer with a meal but that's rare. I just don't combine the two.
I'm no goody two-shoes tee-totaller, either. My liver should be donated to science.
But I wait until the ride is done. :brow

[ian408]

no drinking and riding.

something else to ponder is the morning after. on a tour, you
need to take it easy too.

ian

[DesertRider]

I have a couple of friends who ride Harleys, and at their invitation I sometimes attend a Harley-oriented "bike night" at a nearby Mexican restaurant. I don't drink at all anymore, and even when I did I would never touch any alcohol at all when riding or flying (as pilot). So I was amazed to see that at the bike night virtually everyone had a beer in hand, many looked like they put down multiple beers.

I've also noticed that at least around here (Phoenix, Arizona), most of the Harley-crowd hangouts are bars of one form or another. That doesn't mean everyone there is drinking alcohol, but bars aren't in business to sell soft drinks, and they wouldn't be sponsoring bike nights if everyone was only drinking fizzy water.

It all made me wonder if anyone has ever counted how many crashes occur after biker affairs where alcohol was served. Riding a bike is a challenge in itself, doing it in urban traffic more so, at night yet more, and doing it with a few shots in you can only make it much worse. Seems monumentally stupid to me.

It also made me wonder what the maximum Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) should be for riding a motorcycle. For driving a car it's typically 0.8%, and by extension that applies to motorcycles as well. But I suspect that if proper measurements were done we'd find that 0.8% is too high for riding a motorcycle, which requires much more alertness and coordination than driving a car. If proper study were to indicate a lower BAC for motorcycling, I for one would not be opposed to lowering the legal limit, even to near-zero if so indicated, as has long been the case for pilots. The skills and mental acuity required to ride a bike are much more akin to flying an airplane than driving a car, so perhaps the alcohol standards for motorcyclists should be more like those of a pilot. (I write as someone who is both a rider and a licensed pilot.)

Pilots, even of small single-seat private aircraft, have long had to live by the 8-hour rule: After your last drink you must wait 8 hours before you can step into the cockpit of an airplane. Considering the significant percentage of motorcyclist fatalities who are found to have alcohol in their blood, I suspect an 8-hour rule for motorcyclists would have a very significant effect on motorcycle crashes and fatalities.

[Rad]

When I'm do'n an epic kinda day in the Southwest, I can taste that Corona 100 miles before I get to it.

I stop, shower, find a Long Neck...and just relax.........No more ride'n for me that day.

Drink'n.....At the end of the day for me:clap

[fish]

Formalized James O's poll.


sorry kids...could you go back and vote?

[fish]

Originally posted by BradfordBenn
Two wheels = tea toting


I think that's "tea totalling"

[fish]

Originally posted by KBasa
Got that right, Mike. Besides, I can't think of a riding situation where I can get by without all of my abilities.

http://fish.smugmug.com/photos/503538-M-1.jpg

http://fish.smugmug.com/photos/503520-M-1.jpg

[lancew]

If you think you're "ok" after "a few".... next time you have two beers try a couple of slow parking-lot u-turns. The difference just one or two make (I weigh 230) scared the poo out of me.

Like some others, I firmly believe that my liver is inherently bad and must be punished, but I always wait until I'm done for the day. Kbasa is right, it just makes that first one of the evening (or morning) taste that much better.

[trmptrmrk]

The Hurt Report stats on drinking and riding are just scary (who cares how long ago the study was done or whatever... the drinking connection is scary). :cry

[kbasa]

Originally posted by fish
http://fish.smugmug.com/photos/503538-M-1.jpg

http://fish.smugmug.com/photos/503520-M-1.jpg

Jeez, that was a fun weekend...

[mgraced]

I wait until I am done with the ride. It's just plan stupid. Sort of like Howard Dean thinking he could ever win the democratic nomination. Plain Stupid.

[BMWRider]

Originally posted by fish
Formalized James O's poll.


sorry kids...could you go back and vote?

Lord, Fish ... you exhaust me. :rolleyes

:bliss

[BMWRider]

Originally posted by gsgirl
I wait until I am done with the ride. It's just plan stupid. Sort of like Howard Dean thinking he could ever win the democratic nomination. Plain Stupid.

When push came to shove, Dean went over like a fart in church. :D :fart

[mgraced]

:bliss

Not that I really want to get back into this. BTW Hi Rider buddy :wave.

I am still trying to figure out how he pissed away the $41 mil. That's some serious ****. It would be interesting to find out where it all went.

The guy was an idiot, I recognized it from day one - no depth to him at all. What scares me is that he took it as far as he did.

So Rider, what is the next subject we will be finding ourselves agreeing upon?

Pretty scary - both have black GS's, both hate Howard Dean. Uncanny!

[RebeccaV]

I agree with Rad - there is nothing like a beer after a long day of riding! I'm scared to drink and ride - I feel a bit buzzed after just one beer. Heck, have to limit my N/A beer drinking if I'm riding because they have a small amount of alcohol.

Confession time though, once at a club function I did have half a glass of some creamy dark lager just because it was something that I hadn't tried before.

Can't wait to have a loooooong ride and then a cold one,
BG

[lorazepam]

It was 50 and sunny here today, but I am too dang sick to ride :cry I can barely get my leg over the saddle and make whining noises as I look out the garage door.

[The_Veg]

I agree with you all. The beer will have to wait until the end of the ride.

Hey Boxergrrrlie, it's nice and warm here now- come on down for a good ride and I know plenty of places with good cold tasty refreshing BEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR for afterward!

:beer

[PeoriaMac]

Two comments...or maybe three.

A. I don't drink. Period. Because I used to -- a lot.

B. The last time I drank lunch was 1979, and I destroyed a
perfectly good Kawasaki 650 by taking into a curb because I couldn't think fast enough.

C. A friend invited me on a Poker Run last year. Not to make a blanket judgement, but it was mainly HD riders. In eight hours, riding with my friend, we had traveled 90-miles and visited seven taverns. And, it wasn't over!
One fellow said that his club liked riding in that county, because you could drink and drive there, and the police didn't care.
Case in point: my friend is a cop.

Mac

[Kenny2]

I like TEN but minimum is EIGHT Hours between bottle and throttle. :snore

[crvalley]

I've paid the price with four wheels and do not care to pay the price with two...

Life is too short...

There is nothing better than a drink after a ride, though...period.

[amiles]

Here in the Myrtle Beach area we have two HD "bike weeks". The consumption of Beer seems to be done in "mass quantities" I am always astonished that the death toll is somewhere around only five or six or so.

When I go for a local jaunt on a weekend or evening during normal (non bike week times) I am amazed at the number of bikes I see parked at the saloons. I can only wonder at the alcohol consumption that this must in some way represent.

I also wonder why the operators of these machines would prefer a bar stool in a smokey tavern to riding their machine.

I get such great enjoyment out of riding my motorcycle that I am surprised that it is not illegal.

[JimVonBaden1]

Nope, never, not going to do it!

[MarkF]

One drink = One 5 oz glass of wine, 12 oz beer, shot of liquor or mixed drink.

The average person with a full stomach generally takes 3 drinks in the first hour to get up to a BAC of 0.10 % then one drink each hour after that to stay there.

That said if your smaller, larger, empty stomach, etc you might be different. Also, some people hold their liquor better than others.

Now for my experience - I was once at a rally in Canada and was staying at a B&B 1/4 mile down the road. I had never drank and rode before. On the last night there I was drinking beer. I don't know how many I had, cause I wasn't counting but if I had to guess I'd say maybe 6 over 4 or 5 hours. I know I should have walked but felt fine to ride. Except when I started riding down that gravel road in 2nd gear I knew I was in over my head. I made it there but will never drink and ride again.

MarkF

[MarkF]

Originally posted by fish
http://fish.smugmug.com/photos/503520-M-1.jpg

I wish I could go to rallies and see ladies like this NOT with some other rider! Don't single girls go to rallies?

MarkF

[kbasa]

Originally posted by MarkF
I wish I could go to rallies and see ladies like this NOT with some other rider! Don't single girls go to rallies?

MarkF

Not on BMWs......

:p

[RebeccaV]

Originally posted by KBasa
Not on BMWs......

Ahem.......:stick
Some of us ride BMWs.:wave

[kbasa]

Originally posted by boxergrrlie
Ahem.......:stick
Some of us ride BMWs.:wave

My bad. My bad.

And a quite nice BMW at that.....

starts groveling and kneeling toward Milwaukee...

[RebeccaV]

Originally posted by KBasa
starts groveling and kneeling toward Milwaukee...
Duly noted. I will condescend to let you buy me a beer at the National. After I'm done riding for the day, of course!

[kbasa]

In.

[magwa]

The Poll, that is.

Here's the way I see it:

Who is going to write in and say, "I love to slug 'em down and then ride in all three lanes of a two lane road"?

You guys have responded appropriately and, I'm sure, honestly. It's the folks that don't write in that are coming across the double yellow.

Hopefully, our clan has a lower ride-drive/drink equation than the norm. Hopefully motorcycle enthuisasts *as a whole* have the same lower rates of drinking/riding.

I'm an alkie, so I don't drink. 1981. And booze wasn't my first choice of chemical flogging. However, I have nothing against slurping 'em down. For people that want to party and walk, that is. And for folks that don't **** up their whole familiy's lives over the juice (or whatever). Oh, and not for *me*. 8^)

Hell, I've been a designated driver for 23 years.

[James O]

Magwa's right about the poll of course. There is no doubt, in my opinion, that as far as the motorcycling population goes, that its probably about 50/50.

I'll be at Bike week in Daytona this weekend and my guess would probably be 60/40 in favor of those folks drinking and riding. I hope I'm wrong.

I just wanted to confirm, as a relatively new rider, that other folks that I listen to on this forum felt as I did regarding drinking and riding.

I've read enough to know that many of the forum members feel as I do. Good enough for me. I personally don't feel "peer pressure" as I did 20 years ago and the ride really is enough on its own. The "high" I get going over Unicoi Gap, which is less than a mile from my subdivsion, is much better than a beer buzz anyway.

Good job on the 23 years Magwa.

[Weasel]

Know your limit...don't get sloppy...drive meekly...eat food...be ever diligent...if in doubt, toss the keys in some dark place...live to ride another day...really, it's no difference than with a car...I say this because "there are those times", but, really, I much prefer driving straight and sober (or buzzed up on coffee)...

[JimVonBaden1]

My favorite riding and drinking story found me taking my bike home so some friends and I could hit some bars. I didn't want to take a chance.

While waiting at a stop sign I was rear ended on my nearly new 1983 Yamaha 650 Turbo. I did a backflip and landed on my A$$ with the guy's front bumper slamming into my helmet.

As you may have guessed, he was not only drunk, but on parole, no insurance in a borrowed car that was not registered.

My friends in the car behind him jumped out and held him down till the cops came. Needless to say, he went back to prison, my bike went to the junkyard, and my head required MANY drinks to forget the pain, and loss of my bike.

Jim:beer :1drink :mad

[oldcarkook]

I limit my drinking to times when I am operating heavy equipment. There's nothing like putting on a good buzz and getting in the seat of an excavator or tractor loader backhoe and then showing off how macho I am!

I'm with the others here who ask who would admit it even if they did.

When I'm on the bike, it's like I'm flying a 747 full of passengers and all my senses are on hyper alert and I like it that way. That's why I ride.

Nah, for me, riding is like meditation. I won't sip any alcohol or inhale any latin lettuce if I'm getting back on the saddle. The potential adverse consequences outweigh the benefits.

[BMWBeauty]

My So is a ER Physician, Take my word for it, you don't want to hear the stories he has come home and told me. He also rides a bike, It is just not worth it, even in full gear like the one last night. It is not worth it. Please don't drink and drive. There is nothing there but you and the pavement or the car that comes left and center and hits you like the one that did last night. He didn't make it sorry to say. Save the drinking after the ride.

[BMWBeauty]

Blue Knight, In a lot of cases it does not hit home. They always think it will never happen to them , that they are control of the situation, not always true. The guy last night WAS drinking, but the driver of the car was more drunk. Unless it happens to a good friend I don't think it hits home. The moral of the story is DON'T drink and drive period.It's NOT worth it.:cry

[deilenberger]

1 beer = key away until tomorrow.

BTDT once. Scared the crap outta me when I realized how quickly I'd gotten home. That was about 30 years ago.

Once you accept the rule - it's easy to live with - especially with a crowd of BMW riders (another reason to love our group).. about everyone *understands* exactly where you're coming from.

Ride Sober :p

[Motorad]

Always use Your best judgement, and everyone knows that you think better sober. Hell every test I took in college while drunk I flunked. (just kidding)
The barley therapy is always better after the bike is put away and the bs starts to roll out around a campfire.

Cheers,