ChrisL

Welcome back James! For myself, if I ever leave this sport I want it to be by my own carefully considered conscious choice. Not because an injury took me out without my say-so. __ My mighty steed

Yep. A fad thats been going on for literally thousands of years and shows no signs of stopping. Thats one hell of a fad I have 6. My most recent (just finished a few weeks ago) is a dragon wreathed in flames that takes up my entire right upper arm from elbow to shoulder and completely encircles the arm. I'll post pictures tonite if anyone wants to see... __ My mighty steed

Rereading my post I cant seem to find any attempts to in there justify anything. I merely refuted the point that its irresponsible for a new rider to get anything larger than a 750cc bike. I offered my own experience as an example, not a justification. I still have yet to see anyone offer anything concrete that supports a limit on what a newbie should ride based on the displacement of the motor. __ My mighty steed

Hi Bill. I consider you to be an authority on skydiving and I highly respect your opinion on all things skydiving (and many other areas as well) so please dont take my response as disrespectful. These two activities arent even remotely similar and cannot be fairly compared this way. Not at all. Swapping out my points with skydiving related terms just doesnt translate. A motorcycle can be ridden slowly and carefully by a novice in a highly controlled environment until the rider becomes accustomed to how it handles and performs in a wide variety of circumstances. A high performance elliptical loaded very heavily really cant. Miles ridden dont equate to jump numbers You really didnt make a point either. You swapped motorcycle terms with skydiving terms and made my statements look absurd. I stand by what I said though, and so do a LOT of people whose opinions I respect in motorcycling every bit as much as I respect your opinion with regard to skydiving. You could drop in all kinds of different activities and make it look sane or crazy, but none of them translate 1 to 1. They are different activities with different levels of risk, different environments, different consequenses, different equipment, and different learning curves. Making a direct comparison the way you have is inaccurate and unrealistic. I stand by my comments. I was not making any recomendations nor was I encouraging new riders to buy 88 cubic inch fat boys. I was refuting the point that its irresponsible for a new rider to get anything larger than a 750cc. I still disagree with this statement. __ My mighty steed

Irresponsible??? My first bike is a 1450cc Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. Never sat on a motorcycle until I bought this bike 4 months ago. I've got 3500 miles on it now, love to ride, I have no problem handling the size/weight. I took a motorcycle safety class and I'm as good a rider as anyone with my experience. A smaller bike wouldnt have made me any safer. Safety and responsibility are in the rider, not the bike. Irresponsible? I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. This isnt at all like a newbie jumper getting a high performance elliptical. Edited to add: By the way, I'm not recommending my bike to the rider that started this thread, merely responding to the comment that anything over a 750cc would be irresponsible for a new rider. If bigger bikes intimidate that person, then they should definitely not get one. __ My mighty steed

Keanu aint got nuthin on you Was freefall the name of the building you were in?

Not at all. I asked his opinion and he gave it to me. Irresponsible would be if I were to take that opinion without question. Thanks for all the input! Someone that is respected enough to have people asking their advice and opinions should be more careful of what they say. If this rigger really implied that Sabre2's are dangerous or unsafe and shouldnt be used, then he was being irresponsible. There is little or no evidence to suggest that the deaths were the direct result of the fact that the canopies were Sabre2's. Thats a coincidence and is likely the result of the fact that there are a LOT of Sabre2's being jumped out there so the odds were good that when one of these fatal openings came along the odds were better that they were under a Sabre2 than another, less popular canopy. If things turn out that there are more Javelins being jumped than any other type of container, its probable that the majority of fatal malfunctions will happen with Javelins. Does that mean they are more dangerous? __ My mighty steed

What attitude? So you advocate never pointing out mistakes for fear of harming someones self esteem? Why is it that we can all handle having spelling errors pointed out when we are children, but once we are grown up its taboo? I prefer to be told about my mistakes (and I'm 40!) , thats how I learn. Even now. Still. __ My mighty steed

I hope I die long before anyone ever accuses me of being lovely. __ My mighty steed

I'm curious about the way you repeatedly emphasized the "instructor" part of tandem instructor Was this to tell the low timers that the tandem instructors know what they are taking about, was it meant to point out to the tandem instructors that they are supposed to be providing guidance to the low timers, or was it meant to illustrate that the word "master" has been replaced with a better term with different implications? __ My mighty steed

Of his money? Sure thing! I admit it. Of his looks? mmmmmmmnope

No offense taken. I dont agree with you though. I am not claiming that its not possible to have a hard opeining, but I do feel that 160 jumps without a single hard opening is enough to provide a general idea of the opening characteristics of my canopy

I think the rigger is being irresponsible by making comments like that. A couple fatalities occured as a result of extremely hard opening, and it HAPPENS that they were jumping Sabre2's. I'd be willing to bet that there have been more fatalities than that due to hard openings and that they happened under other types of canopies as well. Hard openings are not a "common" characteristic of the Sabre2 in my experience. I have 160 jumps on Sabre2's equally split among a 210 and a 190. I've never been slammed by either of them. I definitely havent been killed If hard openings were a common characteristic of these canopies I think I would have had at LEAST one hard opening in 160 jumps. __ My mighty steed

Confidents? Is that anything like condiments? I think "Confidence" is the word you are looking for

I'm sorry, are we talking about the same Keanu Reeves? I know. LMAO, can we say "MANSCAPE"? NSFW at all btw... Best looking guy in the world if you like stick figures

I believe he has passed the 24k mark or thereabouts. There's also Don Kellner in east Pennsylvania at Skydive The Poconos, I think, who has about the same jump numbers as Bill, give or take a thousand... Those two are easily and by far the top two in the world. Nobody else is closer than several thousand. I heard they have a little rivalry (maybe unofficially) going for top dog....with Bill managing to stay just ahead of the Penn guy. You have that backwards. Don has more than Bill by several thousand. I do believe that Bill may have more freefall time, though but I'm uncertain of that. Don is in the Guinness book of World Records for the most jumps and currently has in the neighborhood of 36,000 jumps. I made my first tandems hooked up to Don back in 1989. He was number 1 back then too but was only (har har) around 12 or 13,000. Got my license there and still go up there from time to time although CK is closer to me. Don is the energizer bunny of jumping. He's still going... __ My mighty steed

You left "pasty looking" out of your description Dark skin? Keanu Reeves? What have you been taking? They dont get much more pale than Keanu. (Michael Jackson perhaps) Like I said, "pasty" __ My mighty steed

Corn on the Cob is right up there with watermelon as PURE CRAP! __ My mighty steed

I'm sorry, are we talking about the same Keanu Reeves? Yeah. The one that can freefall for 5 minutes from 4000 ft. __ My mighty steed

If I had known about the Rubby Slippers I would have stolen them, cuz I know my wife would love a nice foot rub

I'm gonna have to call bullshit on that rumour. That he would date any 60 year old strikes me as bizarre, but Diane Keaton?!? YAAAKKKK! Bleah! __ My mighty steed

You could cut pictures of tattoo's out of skin art mags and staple them onto all the places you might want one. That would give you a good idea of what the real thing will look like. It would bea great trial run

A pack of know-it-alls collectively hit the "Post reply" button 111111 times __ My mighty steed

An old Indian would never refer to himself or his people as "Indians" __ My mighty steed

Lets not and say we did __ My mighty steed