Trying to spread a little motorcycle goodwill
I’ve been riding my motorcycle a lot more recently. Logically I can attribute this to the rising gas prices, but I don’t want to complain about that. Honestly, it is lot a more about the enjoyment I get from riding it. Riding the bike is so much unlike driving a car that it’s hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. You’re not just traveling along through the landscape, you are part of it. The weather affects you directly (there’s no avoiding it), and the road is just mere inches away from your feet.
In the car, the transportation is something you participate in. In the motorcycle, you are the vehicle. In the car turns and bumps jolt throw you around, but on the motorcycle you and the machine move as one over the bumps and through the turns as if you are a single entity. It’s easy to step outside and look at the entire endeavor as simple thrill-seeking, but it’s not as simple as that. It’s liberation, it’s power, and it’s wonderful. Riding a motorcycle through the countryside through the turns and hills, it must be like what a bird feels.
Commuting on a bike isn’t quite as nice as all of that, but it’s still a lot better than driving a car. Even in the oppressively hot summer, the drenching cold rain, the deluge of dusk-released bugs, and the occasional fear-inspiring lightening blasts, I’d rather be on the bike. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges…
Take, for example, transportation of items other than yourself. Space on my bike is very limited. This morning, I wanted bagels. I had to resort to desperate measures.
People are often offended by motorcyclists. The few bad apples are remembered, and so people resent all of us. Perhaps there’s a twinge of jealousy behind the resentment as well. This arrangement at least gives me an opportunity to spread good will. Maybe I will toss bagels at people who give me cross grumpy morning stares… I will NOT attempt to spread cream cheese, though - that would be unsafe.
I really need a better luggage situation. Laptop, clothes, climbing gear, and a five pound bag of rice stress the limits of that Nelson Rigg bag…
Yesterday I rode to lunch without anything on the back for the first time in a while. If you commute daily, unload sometime and just go have fun. It really is a different beast without the load. I don’t know how people enjoy riding with a backpack - especially the long distance - and especially in the twisties:
(thanks to Killboy.com for the picture)
I just feel so restricted like that.