tackelhappy wrote:
Dion wrote: Hi to california
with regards To Kawboy comments, I have never been part of a forum before.
i joined your forum thinking it may be a good way to get information and learn about others and their 1300 experiences
i have no comparison as to how other sites run, however it has surprised me the depth of anonymity most on this site stick to.
you mentioned where people live! having lived and traveled the world i find it quite fascinating at times talking to people who may have come from my points of travel or living.
it seems people on here for the most part may primarily have joined to get tech support and cling to their privacy as so many do these days.
it is sad but i believe a reality of how the world is swinging now days, people do not wish to engage with others they don't have a deep personal experience (friendship) unless they have to.
i have no idea who most of the peoples names are on your site as they don't even put up that.
this is by no means a dig at anyone, purely an observation.
i bought a sticker kit for my Husky ride on from a American seller a year ago and we ended up talking about many other things which i believe enlightened both of us, will probably never meet, but was as always to me fascinating to have that interaction.
maybe the fact we are all withdrawing privately inward is whats sending the world potty
I can only respond from my own point of view, but it is basically this. Most of us gents on this forum were born before there was any inter web- most of us are probably in our fifties and sixties - I'm a pensioner and still working. I still have suspicions of social media in general and how willing many people are, at putting way too much stuff about themselves "out there", having no idea where that information may end up.
For instance . We now have over a 1000 members on this forum and it would difficult to understand that there are a 10000 of these bikes still in existence, let alone in a usable or restorable condition. There is probably/ maybe 20 or 30 active members and maybe 70 others. Bill, you correct me on this okay. What are the other 900 "members". People trolling ? Anyone with kz 1300 who wants info on the bike doesn't have join to access all the postings and what ever - it's available to anyone -they just can't post/ reply. So if they don't want to engage with other members verbally , why even join . But they do. Personally, I'm rather cautious . I bought my first i-phone last week because my previous 10 year old phone's net work is closing in july.
I certainly don't want to highjack this thread but it's such an interesting and thought provoking couple of statments.
I am what I believe is a typical Canadian. Born in Stouffville Ontario 1956. Grew up in Aurora Ontario (10 miles from Stouffville) got my first job (full time) in Markham Ontario (10 miles south of Stouffville) Found my fulltime career in Pickering Ontario at the Nuclear Power Staion. Spent 30 years at that plant and lived in Stouffville Ontario for 22 of those 30 years. Retired and made a big move to Grand Bend Ontario (almost 5 hour drive from Stouffville) The purpose was to get out of the rat race and live in a quiet suburban. That didn't work out. Found all of our family and friends were back in the Markham /Toronto area along with the doctors, dentists, medical specialists. The last year in Grand Bend the wife and I had 58 planned trips back to the Toronto area in 1 year. It became obvious that we were living in the Toronto area and sleeping in Grand bend. So we moved to Bobcaygeon Ontario. In a nutshell, I'll probably live my entire life within 50 miles of where I was born and likely die right here.
Ont the other hand, most of the Americans I've spoken to were born in one part of the country, raised in a completely different end of the country or in many parts of the country, worked in a different part of their country or abroad, retired somewhere else than where they worked. And as a rule the big holiday for Americans is Thanksgiving when all of the siblings and grandparents return "home" to see the relatives.
As far as "putting it out there", my story isn't that interesting but for some people some it might be. Working in a nuclear power plant is different and usually stirs up a lot of conversation. For the most part, there's not much that would come out of my mouth that could cause me any grief so talking about anything on the internet shouldn't cause me any grief. Sure we all have opinions and as long as we respect each other why not discuss openly any topic controversial or otherwise. We all differ probably because we are products of our environments. But maybe sharing experiences we can help each other.
I used to be a member of the Kawasaki Triples of Canada forum back when I had 3 triple 2 strokes. We had a couple of different topic tabs.
1 tab was called "Ask Walms" Walms was one of the members that knew all things triple and was the sight Guru.
Another tab was called "Grumpy Old Men" and that's where all of the old farts could bitch about anything on the face of the earth but usually dedicated themselves to bitching about our political leaders, Federal mostly but also Provincial. The stuff that would come up would curl your hair, but it was all fun. For the most part it was a form of letting off steam.
I guess where I'm going with this is, we come together with a common interest- the Mighty KZ 1300 and we talk all things KZ1300 but maybe that should be a stepping off point for other things which greatly affect our lives and I would welcome "other topics" to share with our bretheren around the world. One of the greatest things I find about this "internet" is the ability to speak openly and get a better understanding of life from all of the corners of this wonderous Earth.
Maybe this should be a topic of its own. Bill???
, we make a meat and bone meal and edible tallow just in my little section. Nothing is wasted except for the grass the cattle ate in it's last meal. I've had 2 Z1300's in my life, both with DJP sidecars, the first one I had for many years as a daily ride back in the 80's, ended up selling it cause when we start having kids the toys have to go to afford to live, my current 13 is a mates old bike, he died of cancer a while ago now, and I bought it from his daughter, fixed it up and have been riding it ever since, it's my daily ride to and from work, I did a bit of a re-build on her a while ago because of a secondary shaft bearing failure, luckly I have a second bike for parts so I used the cases from that one. I'm 62 years young this year, my wife passed away from cancer in 2005, so i'm a widower, retirement can't come quick enough, not that I have plenty of money to retire but i'm just sick of work and the idiots I have to work with, we won't get into the slack work ethics of younger people here, i'd fill the page. Anyway just thought i'd introduce myself, and yes your right, we really don't get to know people better these days, but heck i'd talk the bark off a tree given half a chance, cheers Pete. 
