yobech505

Up on Two Wheels

My least favorite sentences:  I hate motorcycles.  They’re so dangerous.

What?  It’s a machine, controlled by a human being, and is only as dangerous as the skill of the rider.  It’s the car that is dangerous, not the motorcycle, especially if the two collide.

The pure acceleration kicks the heartbeat up numerous notches.  It’s a thrill to get to the speed limit faster than a $50 K automobile.  Much faster.  At cruising speed, there is an open wind that massages the body, making the rider feel one with the machine as it cuts its way through the atmosphere.  Everything, the scenery, the road itself, the sky, all seem like part of you.  You’re right there with it, open, euphoric and in a mode of freedom that nothing else provides.

Two up?  Safer than riding alone sometimes.  You don’t take the chances you might when riding solo.  And it has another big advantage, especially if the other rider is your significant other.  She’ll hold on tight, as close as she can get, and squeezes you through the turns.  It is as warm a feeling as two fully dressed people can have towards each other. 

I miss that part of it.  My last few rides have been one up.  Not my ideal but a necessary format for now.  Saddest part of the whole thing was that my last co-pilot was just starting to get the feel of the back seat.  Scooting along as one, especially when two, is a fun way to ride.  Experience makes a passenger good at it. She was so close.  It was one shoe print away from perfection.

Solo again. 

And back to a little bit on the nutty side.  Pushing a little harder in the turns, Accelerating out of them with the bike leaned over to what some would critique as too far.  Punching away from the stop light so fast that the Corvette driver beside you is staring in a ‘what the hell was that’ coma.

Two up.  The freedom of the American Highway!  Wheels, wind and wishes that the ride could go on forever.

Keep us out there, keep us riding, be safe, be smart,  Put a muffler on it.  An idiot in a Chevy does not condemn every Chevrolet driver.  An idiot on a motorcycle condemns every motorcyclist.  We don’t have the political numbers to sway the vote.  A sad state of affairs but the truth none the less.  Motorcyclists have to be the good guys.  Think about it.