I have been thinking about why I ride. The easy answer is it’s fun, a recreational moment away from the noise of work and responsibility. The past couple days I have been reading why other people ride their motorcycles and scooters and have focused on a post on the “Musings of an Intrepid Commuter” blog site that suggests riding can be a path towards a wider understanding of one’s life. I find myself asking if a spirit of contemplation exists for me while I ride, something akin to the Buddhist idea of a meditative walk. There are common elements. I ride alone. I seek out empty stretches of landscape, places where I feel alone. Solitude.
I can’t always find the time to engage this sort of ride, but when I do the results are worth the effort. The temperature by morning will be in the teens but I plan to ride. It won’t be fun or recreational under those circumstances, but it will be positive. And I will feel better for doing it.
Steve,
The ride is about being IN the world, rather than just watching it pass by in a windshield or on a television screen.
It is also a time for what I call “structured meditation”: or contemplation on our dynamic relationship with the world around us while taking care not to interact too violently with that world.
Riding leaves you more vulnerable to the mistakes of others, so you have to improve your physical reactions and reflexes to survive.
Oh hell, it just occurred to me…
Comparing riding to driving is like comparing raw sex to “safe” sex. Cars are condoms for travel.
Ride well,
=gc=
Gary,
I agree that riding is about being in the world and not watching it. I remember driving through the desert in Utah. I would drive a mile or so and would have to stop the car and get out to look around to see things. Something about the cage filters too much out. Riding a scooter does not filter much away.
Maybe the raw sex vs. safe sex analogy is missing one element—trust. You need to trust someone to have unprotected sex. You need to trust in your abilities and skills to ride rather than drive.
steve
Steve,
I am honored that some of my writing has opened up channels of thinking for you. It was my hope to touch ohter riders in some meaningful way.
In one of your comments you mentioned weighing what you get out of riding versus the cost to your wife. I have always had this same consideration. It’s a “cost analysis” process. Experiencing personsal growth is important. I believe it is a sin against life to waste it. It is also important to be there for family.
Through the years I have included family on motorcycle related activities. Katie and I have spent many happy hours on a bike. Two of my boys ride. We would go to bike shows and races, etc. as a family. Sometimes we would do things that were not bike related. As impossible as it seems there ARE other things. So I have tried to balance the time spent with family versus solo ventures.
AS far as the risk side goes, it’s definitely more risky on a bike than a car. I guess it’s what you do with it. Risk can be managed. We all have the obligation to keep our skills up to dealing with it. Like Gary says here, you have to improve your skills and reactions. You owe it to your family, as well. There is risk in a lot of things. The question, though, is what happens if you take the opposite, or “safe” route. What price do you pay then?
A man could be an accountant, live in a house with a white picket fence, never do anything riskier than talking back to his mother, and then get killed in a car wreck. Enough people die on the roads due to an error on the part of someone else that this is not an idle question. Is it worth missing out on the journey you could have had?
I weigh the risk against the gain. I do everything I can to lower the risk. For me, and by extension, my family, the gain is worth far more. My relationships with the humans in my family are greatly enhanced. Again, like Gary said, ( damn this is getting old, isn’t it? ) contemplation and meditation is vital to growth. I really feel that the lives of my family members have been enriched by what I bring home from bike rides. I have developed much of my leadership skills through bike rides. I have gained much patience through bike rides that has improved my family atmosphere. Successfully meeting the challenges I face in riding make be feel better about myself. If I feel better about “me” I am better able to help others feel good about themselves. Do you see a pattern, here?
Even if I do die on a bike it will have been worth the journey. I hope it will not happen that way but I will die anyway, somehow. Everyone dies but not everyone lives. I carry life insurance and medical insurance just in case. Katie may be without me but she will be taken care of. The same is true no matter HOW I expire.
I know this is long and I apologize for taking space on your blog but it took this long to try to express why I ride and accept the risk.
The sex analogy is too much for my hot blooded male mind. I think the answer to why cars are safer than bikes is summed up well in the analogy, though. My bike only had two “rubbers” while my truck has four. Simple math!!
Dan,
I’m glad I found your blog and your writing has helped me think about things beyond riding. Thanks for the great comments and insights you’ve triggered.
Like all things there is a point of balance that I have to find. Kim doesn’t ride yet, perhaps someday she will, but for now I have to weigh time on the scooter against time with her, the family, work, chores, etc.
A friend stopped by today and asked me if I wanted to ride the scooter to New Mexico with him this spring. 2000 miles on a scooter, that’s a long trip. I found myself becoming irritated and I’m not sure why. maybe because I just can’t get the kind of time I would need to do such a trip—20 or more days? maybe it is the recognition that I’m not getting younger and my chances to do this diminish with each passing year.
I don’t want to die and never live. Riding is a step in the direction of living, of waking up. As you and Gary have both expressed it forces a conditioning of mind, body and spirit. LIke you, I accept the risk in order to receive the conditioning because it is not merely important, it is essential.
Anyways, thanks again for the comments, I really do appreciate them.
steve