Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Drink & Ride?

Do you drink and then ride?

Last summer I particapated in a benefit ride for a sick child.

About 200 motorcycles met near a local bar and after registering were escorted out of town by our police. Driving through country roads they hurried to the first bar.

They had a few and then headed to the second bar and so on.

That night two cycles and their passengers were seriously injured when their bikes touched while they were cranking it on a four-lane open road with no traffic.

They were all in the hospital, but survived, which was a miracle without helmets.

I left after the first stop, my money was donated.

While I like my drinks, I just do not ride a cycle if I have had a drink. I guess I am not much of a real motorcycle rider.

What do you think or do?

well I haven't had a drink in 22 years,so I guess I don't. I would say not a good idea to drink and ride since the risk is multiplied by the subtraction of 2 wheels.

No.

Never.

Not even a shandy.

It's not worth the risk.

I did 150 miles with a group today. Had a beer at lunch then one at about 3:00.

Very rare for me but I agree that more than a few is bad and none is best.

Good for you, Ed! I'm glad you made it!

(I was gonna use that little dude with the beer in his hand to salute you, but it seemed a little inappropiate)

So what was it that drove you to drink in the first place, dude?

(was it maybe being disowned by that part of your family who became famous for turning Triumph into the hallowed marque it was to become back in the 1930's, '40s and '50s, big guy???!!!)

I don't make a point of it, but If I stop somewhere for lunch or whatever and beer is served, I'll have 1 or maybe 2.

It's not a good idea to ride or drive under any influence at all. I will occasionally have a beer with lunch or dinner, but I make sure to hang around for an hour or so to dissipate its effects before riding on. Also, strong coffee doesn't help. If you feed a heavy dose of caffeine to someone who has over endulged, you wind up with a wide awake nervous drunk.

I do not drink at all . Didn't quit on a whim either. However, even when I did, I would never drink and ride. I'm not proud to say that I drank and drove plenty. But never on two wheels. Otherwise, I surely wouldn't be here today.
To those who can have just one or two: good for you. Just remember the direct relationship between alcohol intake and % throttle open. And above all else ,Ride Safe

I don't drink so I don't have to worry about it.

I dont know If I could ever risk it. To much at stake. I might have a beer and then drive my car home, but never ever my motorcycle.

I quit drinking last night.

Well, there's still a few hours left in THIS night, ya know.

(yeah...and that darn cigarette I just crushed to death outside on my patio is my last one too....riiiiight!)

Every great journey starts with a step or a stumble

Guilty as charged...

But I have shown vast improvement in the last two years....
It used to be real bad.... I can't walk but I can ride bad...

Sad thing is that with both bikes I totaled I was greater then 95% sober.. last one (1 beer) and first one 100% sober (0 beers).....

gb

I only have a couple of drinks in any given calendar year, but will not ride after any of them.

I wouldn't wish what I did in my past on anyone. Drink, drug, drive, you name it. I put all that behind me, now I only drink, at home. I remember pushing my 87 honda enduro home after being pulled over s faced. Never again.

No, and don't plan to. An accident is usually a result of factors, so why add to the pile.

Drink ...... YES
Ride ....... YES

But never on the same day. I will admit to drinking 1 beer, 2 absolute max over dinner if im out in the car, but never on the bike.

I drank/drugged and drove for 18 years, always aware that I was impaired, therefore being cool behind the wheel in order to avoid an accident. There were times on my 73 bonnie that I was so stoned or drunk or both that I had no business trying to walk much less ride. But I always got home safe. That is until I started drinking blended whiskey and blacking out. The result was a fractured back that reminds me every day of my stupidity and ignorance. They say the Lord takes care of children and fools. In those days I guess I was both. The wreck and broke back got me off booze. Nine months later (1-31-91) it was the Good Lord that got me off dope and changed a whole lot of my thinkin. I've been clean and sober ever since 91. I even quit cigarettes two years lster. I've got no use for alcohol or dope anymore.

Nowadays I ride because of the purity of ridin' and not because I got a good buzz and ridin' makes the buzz better. Drinkin and ridin bikes or drivin ain't cool or wise. Especially in todays society where the DUI/DWI laws and penalties are so harsh. The legal limits have been lowered in most states, and if you kill someone, the result of an accident and just bareley over the limit or s-faced, it is vehicular homicide and 10 to 20 years in the state penitentury in Mississippi.

Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up! Happy Trails!

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It's always beer, and never more than 3. With food. Depends on the ride to follow.

I know of a few organized rides around here that are really nothing more than bar hopping - never been on one and never will be....

Never touch the stuff, while on the bike and very rarely when off it. I do like the odd glass of red wine or two with a meal..

But I think one is too many when you are on a bike

2 months after I turned 21, I was out with my buddy puttin away pitchers and shots. He drove me from a place we met up at so I had to drive a little ways. I was plowed, and got kicked out of the bar. So he took me to my truck and we bid fair well. I jump in and drive to steak and shake, get me some food cuz I'm too drunk to drive. Unfortunantly I blacked out. 2 hours after leaving the bar on my way home I've got cherries in my rearview and I get a DWI, lane violation, and speeding 80 in a 65. See I thought I was keeping it cool behind the wheel. I didn't think I was that bad. I knew I swerved because I saw him coming up from behind and I was reaching for my seatbelt. I wasn't OK at all. You can go to the cop shop and get the dash cam of the whole thing and thats what I did. I was horribly all over the road, couldn't walk a straight line, and I only remembered half of it. .172 is what I blew after not drinking for 2.5 hours and eating between that.

So now I bought a bike. During the summer I drive it to the bar. Its my own personal way to make myself more responsible when drinkin and driving. I have 3 beers max, all depending on when I start getting that first sense of a buzz. When that happens I'm done. All I ask to the dudes that do drink and ride. Play it safe, cuz if you don't know how bad you are I don't want you to have to see it from a dash cam of what happened.

A law in Missouri that I didn't know about and you guys should. It states if there is an accident involving 2 parties and one of the parties has a .03 BAC or higher. They are automatically the person at fault. I learned this at one of the 3 classes I had to take for the above DWI. Scary isn't it. Check your states for that same law I'll bet you got it.

No! Never!

How ironic that a ride for a "sick kid" may have exponentially beget further benefit rides for all of the wrecked and wounded drunk riders and the collaterally damaged . Ouch . Senseless .

Well, I guess compared to most of the people here, I'm a heavy drinker. A day doesn't go buy when I don't have at least a couple of drinks (or beers). On weekends or parties - lots more.

As far as bike riding, the group I ride with (all HD riders) are also heavy drinkers, but when bike riding we have rules we all voluntarily stick to. If we stop and eat and have not been drinking, we might have one or two beers with a meal. From that point on, the rule is no more than one beer per hour. So, we might ride an hour or more, stop and have another beer. Everyone has been very responsible with this and I don't see it being a problem with my group. We are always careful riding with no hot dogging or cutting up. Personally, I enjoy a beer or two when I'm out riding and don't intend to stop.

I have also been on many large rides where participants have had way too much to drink and some accidents occurred. I've never seen them as our group usually breaks off early from the large group for the ride home. We're all between 58 and 64 and are always home before dark.

one morning i woke up with my bike under me laying on my side in a ditch with a high bank on the back side, one night i remember lmao because i pulled up to a stop sign and the bike just fell down, i was still standing but the bike was laying down, many nights i dont remember how i got home at all, and then there was the time i was going around a curve and tried to straighten it out and ended up airborn rideing down a hillside that led to a community park and when i picked up the bike and started it back up i had to ride it home with a broken handlebar (oh that was exciteing) then on the christmas day of 1989 i quit drinking and after spending a yr getting sober i realize just how stupid crazy and lucky i had been for many yrs. i would never consider rideing today after haveing more than maybe a glass of wine (and that aint happened, i just leave that option open hahahahaha) i have lost several friends that thought they would get to their next destination ok, but didnt. i used to think it was sooo cool to get a good buzz on and ride, i look back now and scratch my head in wonder at some of the crazy stuff i did as a younger man. some here know that several yrs ago i rode a Triumph around the perimeter of the lower 48, i dont recall ever being sober on that trip, but for that trip i was so full of booze i felt sober hahahahahaha i was a sucker for scotch, takillya, and of course beer P.B.R, BUD, Ole Milwak, Mic, it didnt matter much what brand i wasnt to particular. I am sometimes amazed that i am still here, but someone once said, good Lord takes care of those to stupid to take care of themselves hahahahahaha i tell people all the time, rideing and drinking are like alligator wrestling, you'll probably be ok but there will come a time when that gator is gonna bite you

Not for the last 25years, 9months, 18days.

Both legs were the same length back then.

Honestly? Well, we went to the Thunder on the mountain, in the valley, on the river...something like that last spring, myself, my cuz, and her husband, and met a couple I went to high school with, and needless to say, we drank into the wee hours, then rode from Dawsonville, Georgia to Rome, Georgia at about 1:00 am...I remember seein LOTS of deer. I guess had we been pulled over, it would have been mighty close, but I would never get on my bike if I did'nt feel composed enough to ride it safely...I know, I know...I was really lucky to make it in one piece, but I was following Mikes VTX1800 tail light, made it to Rome, simply exhausted...Won't happen again...will take tent...

is this a trick question,, or what?? do we not encourage each other regularily to "wear all the gear, all the time",, and then get on our bikes imbibed??? i'll drink a beer with you,,, in my yard,,, not out riding....

I have drank, drinked, drunked and driven more times than i can remember on bikes and in the cage...even blacked out (driving a cage though). I never had a mishap....i had the angel on my shoulder.
In my older age, i don't do that anymore...at least not as much. After awhile, i think your chances grow thin. I was lucky.
Not recommended!

Just a ton??? thats for sissies!

come on JR I dont know the guy I dont wana make him nervous. ring ring ring

I was a very heavy drinker, drugs too. I had a drink driving accident on my bike many years ago. I went into a 15 mph corner at about 60 from what the cops said. I came out of my black out as I was going into the corner. Skidded out with a passenger. Passenger had road rash and a couple compressed vertabre. I had no skin on one side of my body and the bike hit a cement wall that I just barely missed. It clipped a curb them up in the air and off the wall. My friend and I drank 3 5ths of JD and 2 cases of pounders (Budwiser 16 oz) just between the 2 of us. I was about 4 times the legal limit. I got the drunk driving , assaulting an officer, and resisting arrest. They dropped everything but the DWI and I got ARD for that so there was no record , short probation,lost lic for a short time, and had to take classes for either a week or 2 weeks I forget since I wasn't old enough to drink yet. Thing is that wasn't an unusual amount for me to drink back then. I beat someone up really bad and didn't remember doing it and I quit right then. Haven't had a drop since. The fight was a different night.

EDIT: When I got out I paid the impound fee and the only damage to my bike was scraped foot peg rubber,broken clutch lever,and a small crease in the one frame tube under the engine. I swapped the front break lever for the clutch and rode it home.