Why we ride

[redclfco]

Plain and simple, I just like to ride motorcycles. I always have. I started when I was 13. I took a 19 year break between 21 and 40, and now I've been at it 10 years again.

I like BMW's, Hondas, Yamahas, you name it, I'll ride it. My favorite is my '77 RS, but I like all motorcycles.

Great post Brad! There are many rides for me where it is impossible to add to what it means to ride a fast machine like a BMW!

I just got back from a ride to Faribault on the back roads from Nerstrand;empty country roads long and straight going into sweeping big turns, no houses, just 25 miles of great pavement and soybean fields on both sides. Some great rises between 5 mile stretches of bottom land with an occasional abandoned homestead house and tipped up old red barns surrounded by overgrown trees that add interest to the ride; a safe road with no traffic making triple digits a reality.

I had a great fast ride, and have no comment but wow! a simple wow. Nothing flowery, nothing to add to, nothing profound. I got back home, and my 15 yr old son asked me how the ride was, and all I could muster was "Wow!". He understood perfectly.


Dale

 

[bubbagazoo]

I started riding in '82 because one of the guys I worked with suggested a trade -- my POS Fiat 128 for his KZ400. The car wasn't running well and he couldn't (or wouldn't) take the bike to Spain (US Navy guy with posting order to Rota, Spain). I initially rode it because I needed transportation. Along the way (and I don't know where or when), riding became a huge part of who I am.

Can I answer the question? I try but can never find the right words. I ride because I ride. It's part of me.

 

[JAMESDUNN]

I rode eight miles last evening to purchase a cheap American beer. (Yes one beer, but a whole quart.) Brought it home and swilled it down. Could've ridden two blocks down the road (or walked), but I wanted to ride a little further than the two blocks. So, I guess I ride to get cheap beer.... except I ride a little further than is necessary.

 

[Rod Sheridan]

Because I'm selfish.


That wasn't the reason I was going to use, however I started thinking about why I've been riding for 35 years.

I started riding when I was young and single.

Later, with two young kids, I almost gave it up, however my spouse who rides, encouraged me to continue.

Years later, we all rode, now it's just Diann and I.

We ride together when on shared vacations, alone at other times, we both don't like riding with other people except for a very few, very special friends.

I realized that it's a hobby I mostly do while alone, like making furniture, or gardening, my two other hobbies.

The more I thought about it, I garden to bring pleasure to myself and others who may enjoy looking at my garden.

I make furniture, keeping some, giving some away to people who appreciate craftmanship.

I volunteer in the community because I believe in helping people, so another hobby that's not just for me.

However I only ride for me, just me, no one else. It's my one sole selfish passion that I alone obtain any benefit from.

So that's it, I ride because I'm selfish...............Rod.

 

[redclfco]

Because I'm selfish.


That wasn't the reason I was going to use, however I started thinking about why I've been riding for 35 years.

I started riding when I was young and single.

Later, with two young kids, I almost gave it up, however my spouse who rides, encouraged me to continue.

Years later, we all rode, now it's just Diann and I.

We ride together when on shared vacations, alone at other times, we both don't like riding with other people except for a very few, very special friends.

I realized that it's a hobby I mostly do while alone, like making furniture, or gardening, my two other hobbies.

The more I thought about it, I garden to bring pleasure to myself and others who may enjoy looking at my garden.

I make furniture, keeping some, giving some away to people who appreciate craftmanship.

I volunteer in the community because I believe in helping people, so another hobby that's not just for me.

However I only ride for me, just me, no one else. It's my one sole selfish passion that I alone obtain any benefit from.

So that's it, I ride because I'm selfish...............Rod.

Rod,

Thank you for your response!

Having followed your threads and posts both here in "the camp"and elswhere on this forum, I have looked up to you and envied your rides and your expertise on so mamuy things bike related.

I started this thread because I wanted to get a picture of motorcycle riders like a great tapestry with so many variations, themes and reasons of why they rode. Our community is so rich and varied, yet when tied together like a tapestry, it produces such a great picture, I think IMHO lend somthing back to the universe that can be read and heard in and outside our community. If you look at the many non-members who browse this forum, you know many of the words "spoken" in our community travels across the world on this electronic medium called the BMWMOA.

If we all rode for the same thing, for that matter all rode the same bike, it would not be a very rich community to say the least. Varied responses from our members from "I ride to ride" to lengthy explanations like yours is why I belong to this wonderful community.

Thank you, and thanks to all who bother to let all of us know "Why You Ride" by posting to this thread.

Red

.

 

[Rapid_Roy]

"I ride to play the "Bo Derrick riding down the slab game"; this game involves rating women cage drivers, since youre so high up in a GS you can see right down in the car."

Excellent, I didn't know there was a name for this...and it's exclusive to GS's...

I ride because everything about motorcycles and the motorcycle experience is so frigging cool....and always has been...since I was a kid

How did I miss this?

This makes me both want and not want a GS, for different reasons.

 

[184480]

I work in downtown Denver. When I have to unload some cash from an ATM I wait until lunchtime the get on my bike and ride about 20 miles west into the foothills to an ATM up there. I never do that with my car, I just go to the ATM 2 blocks away! I've always just loved bikes and riding. It never goes away either, the love for this. It's been almost 40 years now too...

 

[kgadley01]

"I ride to play the "Bo Derrick riding down the slab game"; this game involves rating women cage drivers, since youre so high up in a GS you can see right down in the car."

Excellent, I didn't know there was a name for this...and it's exclusive to GS's...

I ride because everything about motorcycles and the motorcycle experience is so frigging cool....and always has been...since I was a kid

I had never heard that name for it...but as a retired Truck driver, I know all about checking out seatcovers.

 

[hlothery]

This has been a great, refreshing post to read. I have little to contribute that has not already been said. Riding is a very individual thing. I love the solitude, the thrill, the sounds and feel of a fine machine. But I love just as much the closeness with my wife when we ride two-up, and the destinations and journeys to those destinations. It's just not the same as in a car, where she tends to read and I tend to listen to Sirius radio. On the bike, our focus is each other, the bike, and our surroundings. Maybe better focus is the reason...........

 

[AZ-J]

I started riding on the back of Dad's bike in 1966 at age 9. I still ride, because I still love to. 'Nuff said.

 

[MOTOR31]

I ride because I like it, enjoy it and because I want to. I pay a "price" for every ride but for the time being it is worth it. Much the same when I was flying. I had no real world "justification" for it. I just wanted to. I could afford it and need no ones permission nor approval to do either activity. It is my life and my decision to do what I do.

 

[erickson9502]

I started riding at 7yrs old. I do not know anything else so i have no reason.

 

[bigalsmith101]

Why???

I can't ever seem to find the right words for people when they ask me why I ride. Instead, I ask them a few questions in return.
<br></br><br></br>
"What gets you going? What drives you to do the things you do? What is your motivation in the morning? If there was one thing to do, and you could chose, what would it be?"
<br></br><br></br>
Motorcycling is the answer to all of those questions for me.

 

[beckgr]

In the end, after thinking about my own multitude of reasons, it comes down to the same thing every time: It makes me happy.

 

[haughty]

I ride because there is so little time
There is so much sky
There is so much sunshine
There are so many trees
There are so many good people I havent met yet
there is a piece of pie waiting for me when I get there
I ride because I can
I have been allowed to this day
I only have this day
I ride to see the ocean
I ride to see the rivers
I feel inertia
I feel fluidity
I feel the machine
I feel alive

I failed at Haiku

I guess that makes me selfish too

 

[Manfred]

I ride a motorcycle because I can't fly a fighter jet. I like leaning over in turns - same as on a mono-hull sailboat, which is another ride I love.

 

[criminaldesign]

I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had those moments where ya scream like an indian at the top of your lungs cos all is good, your on a bike, and who knows where you are.

I've had a few to say the least.

 

[carlos caggiani]

Easy question...

I think it is an easy question to answer...

I was born in Uruguay and with two wheels between my legs. I started when I was 12 years old with a motorized bicycle, followed with a Motobecane 125 cc, then a Velocette 350 cc and then I was race with Norton 500.

In 1964 with 24 years I decided to travel the world in an old Indian Chief, 1947 with no money touring 26 countries without any money that result in my book: "Tracks and Horizons - 26 countries on a motorcycle"
See: www.tracksandhorizons.com

Today with 70 years I still enjoy the feeling of freedom that gives me my BMW R1200C Phoenix...
See you in Daytona...

Carlos.

carlos@caggiani.com

 

[ch2ous]

I ride a motorcycle because I can't fly a fighter jet. I like leaning over in turns - same as on a mono-hull sailboat, which is another ride I love.

Ditto.....
I could never afford any of my interests before turning 40. I had a hard enough time buying subway tokens to get to work. ( yeah, i rode the token subway )
Now, I enjoy the solitude when riding and sailing. Its a personalized focus that reaps grand rewards of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment with every turn and tack. I am so high on the boost of self confidence after a tour through the mountains on my GT or harnessing the power of the wind by flying my spinnaker that I have to meditate afterwards for 15 minutes just to return to the rest of my life... sort of like a post coital coma followed by an adrenaline shot to the heart.

 

[Brettendress]

I ride to keep from going insane. It's cheaper than a therapist, well maybe not?