Why I Ride

A couple of weeks ago, while stopped at a long red light in heavy traffic, the guy next to me on his chromed-out, shiny Harley Davidson Road King was giving my bike an up-and-down, trying to figure out what it was (my bike is de-badged of all corporate logos).

The previous few days had been rainy and overcast, and I hadn’t taken the time to wash off and polish up my bike after riding in the foul weather the last several days.

The guy finally asks, “What year is that?”. When I tell him it’s an ’05, he looks at it almost distastefully and says, “Looks like you must ride everyday.” I respond, “Yeah, I do — just over 18K miles in the last 16 months.”

He laughs and says, “Mine’s an ’05. too. But I just hit 2000 miles on mine.” Then the light changed and he roared off ahead, sun shining off all that polished chrome.

Ah, one of the those, I snobbishly said to myself.

_________

There are all sorts of bikers. And an infinite number of reasons why each one of us rides when, how, and what we do.

Noah W. Gorin at Juked has tried to sort out and classify the different types of bikers — and for the most part did a miserable job of doing so.

But he did write one exceptionally insightful and well-crafted statement about riding:

I started to forget that I have distinguished myself by my willingness to take greater risks for a greater reward. I became distanced from a crucial fact: I am willing to sacrifice things others take for granted, in favor of pleasures whose existence others are unaware of.

And for me, that’s the essence of why I ride everyday.

What do I sacrifice for the freedom of riding?

As Noah points out:

• I’m always freezing or sweating — the temperature is seldom (if ever) “just right”.
• I’m late to work every time it rains, I get wet every time it rains.
• If I make a mistake on the road, odds are pretty good I’m going to wind up maimed, paraplegic, or dead.

Also:

• Windshield wiper fluid and bugs. Neither tastes as good as you imagine.
• I haven’t listened to the radio while driving in a long, long, time.
• I can’t take or make a phone call on my morning commute.

But I actually consider those last two to be pluses to riding. Other advantages to riding everyday:

• I have a great tan. Year round.
• Parking is almost never an issue — there’s always room to park a bike somewhere up near the front.
• 45-50 mpg
• I can do all the maintenance myself in my own garage using a set of socket and allen wrenches.
• Writing one check a year for about $180 for insurance.
• Able to use HOV lanes even when riding one-up.