May 16, 2012 10:32 AM PDT
The bit I REALLY enjoy is when riding along ANY 3 or 4 lane blacktop and you get the "Regular Family" on a day out ...Mom, Dad and 2 or 3 young kids in the family saloon and the 'Adults' have glanced and seen "BIKERS" alongside...they aint going to make eye contact...lol...Terrified Paranoid People...lol...
And then theres the kids waving and you pull a face at them and they do the same back, then you end up poking your tongue out and making faces at them, and they are wiggling the hands-thumbs in ears at you...hahahahahaha, the kids are loving it and I have never seen a Biker yet who wasn't laughing and joining in...lol...you can see the parents trying to discreetly tell the kids not to attract attention and to be quiet and behave...hahahahahaha, makes me laugh even more...I reckon its one of the great things when riding anywhere...kinda makes the day even better...kids have had some fun, Bikers have had some fun...always the happy friendly faces that wave as you go off and continue the ride.....
And then give the paranoid people a glare as you ride away...hahahahahahahaha.....
May 16, 2012 10:48 AM PDT
I personally get the "thumbs up" and smiles from woman drivers as I ride.
Along those lines...
I'm in my mid- to late 40s, and it amazes me the reaction (for lack of a better word) I get from other people when I'm riding. I was overnight in a town about three hours from home a few weeks back. I rolled into town about a half-hour after sunset, and just as I was getting ready to hit the off-ramp, two early twenty-something women passed me on the interstate. Both of them turned and waved at me with big smiles on their faces. I promise you that doesn't happen to me when I'm rattling along in my pickup truck.
The next morning, it was cold as hell but I had to be at the local H-D dealership early, so I was on the streets at about 7:30-8:00, head to toe in leather. At the first light, an old guy pulled up in his truck next to me in the right-hand lane, and when I glanced at him, he gave me a "thumbs up".
So I'm still not sure what it is, really, but people sure treat me differently on the road when I'm on my bike. Evidently there's still some kind of mystique to riding a motorcycle. I would have thought we'd be beyond all that, but I guess not. Either way, it's kind of fun.
May 16, 2012 11:02 AM PDT
I've had moms point me out and tell their kids to wave. I have to wonder how those moms ended up in mini vans.
.
Riding under the moon is a big reason I own a motorcycle. I particularly enjoy getting out in the country after the fields have been harvested and plowed, smelling the earth and sometimes the crops.. I doubt many cagers get to experience that with their A/C blowing past their air freshener.
May 16, 2012 11:08 AM PDT
the thrill of having a bee or wasp fly down your shirt at 60 mph
May 16, 2012 11:17 AM PDT
Only someone on a bike would know... why there is no hurry to get anywhere and when you arrive you wished it would have taken longer to get there.
Only someone on a bike would know that there's no such thing as being lost if you still have gas in the tank.
Only someone on a bike would know why it doesn't matter where you're going, if you see someone on the side of the road in need... you have time to stop and help.
and...
Only someone on a bike would know.... that feeling you get from seeing the smiles on the kids faces when a few hundred bikes draped in toys roll up to a Children's Hospital on Christmas Eve.
May 16, 2012 11:48 AM PDT
Finding the perfect everything going thru some twisties.
You could throw more coal on but that would be tempting fate, you could throttle back a tad but it would loose all its challenge, you could swing wider & go faster but you restricted yourself to your side of the road only. - You simultaneously want it to be over with as fast as possible and to last forever (one other thing goes like that).
But don't forget the smell of the dead woodchuck on the shoulder that was hit two days ago.
May 16, 2012 12:19 PM PDT
Hey, we don't smell dead skunks......We get the full taste from the air.....
Only someone on a bike could sense water from miles away be it a stream ,creek ,or river.its in the wind & on the air, if its the ocean the smell of it is unmistakable. Only someone on a bike could taste rain on the wind long before it arrives.
Back seat prospective...
Only someone on the back of the bike would know: After 200+ miles on a hot day, the back of her Ol mans neck, mixed with the many different smells along the way, smells like ambrosia...
Why crack seal repair on a highway sucks, just fix the road already! I hate those things!!
the smell you get coming from the plains, over the mountains to the coast....something cagers never get cause they have the windows up and the air on...
the stick on the road ahead, turns out to be a bloody snake and its pissed off and you up next...and you got no place to go but over it.
Having to local dog run alongside of you as you make the run up to the house. Not running at ya, but running with ya!
- the sting of a pebble on your collar bone after being kicked up by a cager in front of you on the highway (no windsheild)
- the oh sh*t moment when your tires catch a deep groove in the graded section of the highway
- hugging the tank on my crotch rocket for a little warmth on the ride home because the temps plummeted when the sun went down
- the purrrrrr my baby made
- the pleasant vibration felt when riding certain roads
- the first time I went without a helmet
- tailwinds from big rigs on the highway
- the fraction of a second my heart dropped when the passing rigs blew their air horn to acknowledge the woman rider. Followed by a laugh at myself for being startled and them for being so enthusiastic as they passed.
- the feeling of distrust that builds every time I look at a cager approaching a stop sign at a cross road
- how hot it is to wear full safety gear during the heat of the summer in the southern states.
- discovering new things because you chose to get on the bike and ride
Only a biker can know the relaxation of the outdoor camp after a long day on the road to a remote destination and know that the night is going to get even better while drinking a cold beer and watching his woman carefully arranging the bedroll!
the thrill of having a bee or wasp fly down your shirt at 60 mph
I hate that when that happens.
Peace
The feeling you get when you are riding with a close friend and are totally in synch through the corners and can almost read each others mind.
The sigh of relief that you feel when you come out OK after making a stupid mistake (too fast into the corner or losing concentration), because you're not paying attention to the bike, conditions, or surroundings.
Oh yeah. First comes pullin' over relatively quickly (depending on how shook up you are...) then comes the sigh of relief. Then the Hail Mary, or the Crossing of one'self. (Even for the "less than spiritual"). Then the requisite "pants" check!
AND IF, you can slow your heartbeat, down to a semi-normal rate, THEN, you can proceed.
Whether it's someone else's SFM (stupid f**king mistake), or our own, the results are a definite WAKE -UP CALL!!!
Ride Safe, Ride Hard, Ride Free
Tweek
