If I have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand.

That’s the easy answer when someone asks you why you ride a motorcycle.  But some people really don’t get it, and want to understand so I’ll to do my best to explain it.

Imagine you’re looking at a puppy behind a pane of glass.  Now imagine actually holding that puppy, the way a puppy smells, how soft it’s fur is, it’s little feet in your hand, etc.  That’s the difference between driving a car and riding a motorcycle.  Sometimes it’s like the difference between looking at or actually holding a pissed off six foot long rattle snake – but that doesn’t happen very often and most of the time, the situation could have been avoided by using better judgement.

“Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.”     – Will Rodgers –

Performance is definitely a factor when riding any kind of modern motorcycle.  Knowing that you have enough power right there at your wrist to accelerate to over 100 mph very quickly can be intoxicating and is a temptation that some riders are unable to resist.  However, as the speed goes up, so does the danger factor, so you’d better be careful.  Not to mention those speeding tickets and reckless driving charges.

Your involvement in a car amounts to pushing a pedal and turning the wheel.  On a motorcycle you are an integral part of the equation.  And if you screw it up, you are going to have to pay – directly, personally and immediately.  So there is an element of danger and thrill there.  But it’s also a great sense of accomplishment when you get it right.  There’s no feeling like leaning that bike hard into a corner and accelerating as you come out of it.  It’s like a death defying (or at least injury defying) dance – just you and the bike; take it easy or challenge yourself; you pick.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  Motorcycle riding is  exactly like that – until you get up on the slab.  The slab. for those of you who don’t know, is the interstate (a slab of concrete).  On the interstate you’re mixing it up with a bunch of people who are mostly only interested in their destination.  If you’re riding a motorcycle on the interstate you need to be sharply focused on staying alive!!  And whether or not you’re successful at that, depends largely on factors that are out of your control; the actions of other drivers.  There are LOTS of idiots out there; one of them very nearly cost me my left foot on May 2, 2000, and I’ll walk with a limp for the rest of my life because of it.  Riding a motorcycle up on the slab a necessary evil at times, but it takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Riding at night is likewise less enjoyable and more dangerous since your vision (and everyone else’s) is limited.  Not to mention all the critters that come out after dark.  Almost all the road kill you see happens at night.  And if you and your motorcycle hit a deer – that’s going to be a very bad day for all three of you.  That being said, a late night ride through the middle of the desert when the moon is full is one of the coolest things ever.

Perhaps Robert Pirsig said it best in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”