Motorcycle Philosophy 101

Ok, let's get philosophical. One of the quotes that someone here is using as their signature here is "four wheels moves the body, two wheels move the soul." I agree totally, but why is that? I'm a big Robert Pirsig/Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance fan and I would tell you that I feel most alive when I'm riding my motorcycle....or taking a great ride on my guitar. But why is that? What is it about two wheels that makes me feel so connected to the Infinite? I'm not that religious, though I would say I'm very spiritual. What is it about a simple motorcycle ride that feels so right, so in tune with the cosmic energy that I would purposefully ride the long way home just to prolong my ride, prolong my contact with that something indescribable?

For me, it's the way you ride into a low spot and you instantly feel the chill, smell the dampness. Then you ride into the sun and feel a warmth, a delicious warmth made all the better by the chill that preceded it. You don't get that in a car. The motorcycle lets you experience the reality of the moment. A car traps you in an illusion of the moment...a "packaged" slice of reality...temperature-controlled, pre-packaged audio, and even controlled smell. The motorcycle immerses you in the moment, the car insulates you.

But that's just my opinion. What's yours?

Dean

 

Being on it and not in it is what sets you free LOL

 

If this site didn't have a poet laureate, it's got one now.
way to go, ddibling.

 

For me, riding a bike is something that requires all my senses. I need to be aware of ALL things around me.

I have to listen to the sounds of my bike to see if anything is wrong. And for that screeching sound as the car behind me locks up his brakes.

I have to see the cars as they pull up to the stop lights to make sure that they actually do. The same for that car that thinks I am invisibile when they attempt to pull into the lane that I am in.

Smell is another big thing. The smell the bike makes when it is a bit off. The smell of that big rig hauling big cows.

Another way I feel about has to do with the overall experience. I much prefer to drive to a vacation spot than fly there. I get a better sense of the world. When I ride my bike instead of driving, that world is much easier to perceive.

 

It's like riding a horse, but with brakes!

 

I think it's the fact that this could be the last ride.
You're out there with the wind, bugs and pavement in your face.
On the edge, on your way to work.

I love the smells too.
Someone cooking steaks, the cows before they're steaks.
:lol:
I definetly get off on the smells.
I'm no poet just a biker.

 

I agree, you're much more aware. There's no dozing off or zoning out when you're riding! Also, no distracting cell phone. And you're definitely more in touch with your environment than you are when you're IN a vehicle.

mikeg

 

+2 for this one.

nothing like being up close and personal with the road kill!! 8)

 

You know, you can actually drive a cage with the same awareness and concentration. Just open the windows and pay attention.



In that regard my convertible is a good substitute for the bike in dire situations. And it is nice feeling the wind over my bald scalp without a helmet every once in a while.

As for the allure of the bike, part of it for me is how fluid the experience is. In a cage, the kids could be jumping on the back seat (in the good ol' days before car seats) with little to no affect on the direction of the ride. On a bike, every little movement does SOMETHING. Take an ignorant pillion if you don't believe that. You can flow like water on a bike. Sometimes that water is quiet and still, other times it's a rushing, burbling torrent.

Riding (well) is all about the flow. Yoga for the road.

 

Yep, I never knew how many dead animals there we laying in the ditch rotting until I started riding. You can definitely smell them as you go by on the bike whereas in a car you generally don't. Oh, and ewwww!!!

 

Yeah. Half a bottle of Febreeze later and my jacket still smells lightly of that dead skunk I passed.

 

These three hit home for me.

My favorite two smells on the bike are, fresh cut grass, and passing by a famous daves and smelling that grill.

I also quite enjoy riding horses. It's so surprising how similar riding a bike and horse are. Each have their own personalities, their own needs. And if you don't treat them right or know how to handle them you will be on the ground and in pain in no time.

 

To further the comparison of Bikes and Axes...
Riding or Playing is what you need it to be at the moment...

Raw and visceral, mellow and sublime or anything in between.

No matter how, where or when you ride or play, you can mold the experience into your flavor of Zen.

A well tuned machine begs to be used to it's utmost. Six strings or four cylinders. The more that you have to do with the tuning of the machine, the more you get out of pushing it's limits.

:twisted: Besides, going fast kicks ass!

Shred 'til yer dead!

 

Simple,
You are WITH the road, not just ON the road.

 

WoW!
This forum is so much deeper then I thought.
I'm off to contemplate the grain of sand that hit me in the eye on the way in tonight.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
J/K
Keep it coming.

 

Motorcycles are like airplanes - you travel in 3 dimensions. Lean a bike over 45 degrees or more from vertical in a turn and to fully understand what I mean.

Car, even convertibles, are limited to two dimensions. Cars are just transportation, motorcycles are a thrill ride.

"I don't ride fast, I fly slow."

 

We are like members of a Secret Society that is unknown to all who have never known the joy of not having to pedal their two-wheeler.

We knew there was another dimension; preparing for it with playing cards clothes-pinned on the fender to flap against the spokes.
A partially inflated penny balloon tied to the fender stay and tucked-up under without bursting mimicked engine noise.

Later on, we needed "something" that was self-propelled.
Something to drive.
Something to ride.

Taking a chainsaw engine and bolting it onto a four-wheeled frame fashioned out of a stolen supermarket shopping cart, following the plans laid-out in Popular Mechanics, was my first death-defying ride.

From the moment I was seated and pushed on the gas enough to get the centrifugal clutch to grab ... I was hooked.
People like us have a need for speed.

There's a wide variety of conveyances available to allow us that opportunity.
Some come very neatly packaged and have all the latest bells and whistles.
That ain't our style.
What we need is personal relationship with the machine that's going to deliver the chills and thrills of riding the thing.

That's why we bike!
That's why we build them our way.
That is why we push ourselves to the limits of psychological endurance to do some of the things we do to bring our rides to the point where we are personally satisfied with what we present to the world as "Our Ride!"

Each one a carbon copy of the thousands built for the masses.
Until one gets passed-on to us.
Then, it gets its new unique life shaped and formed in our imaginations.
Your bike.
My bike.

All the work you do making it look just right and run better than the next guys while wearing two sweatshirts and toiling away in the unheated shop during the off-season pays-off in spades when you are motoring down the highway getting a blistering sunburn no amount of Noxema will chill!

 

Its all for the ride and most people don't understand the motorcycle thing.

 

"Playing cards clothes-pinned on the fender to flap against the spokes"
That is a look back in time LMAO

 

For me it started off being just the rawness of it all. Even though I always ride with complete gear, there is a "nakedness" in the fact that there is no cage around me on the motorcycle. I'm more aware of the road, the sides of the road, ect. There are no sounds other than the wind and the sound of my engine as I'm motoring along. I'm alway completey suprised that I can ride through the smell of some previous drivers cigerette smoke or the smell of someone's campfire cooking. This is stuff I never experienced in the sedan. Oh, and one more mystery that keeps me riding.....the fact that when I zip up my riding jacket, the exess pounds melt away and and I become Angelina Jolie's body double while riding down the road. I am light, I am beautiful and I am NOT to be messed with. Then I park the bike and gear off and meld back into Eddie Izzard...but I'm not really as entertaining as he is . I tell ya, it's a good thing I'm married. lol

 

There's nothing like your first time. You know she's been used but it's OK because she's all yours now. You take her where you wanna go and you get on top of her and run your hands down the her side, feeling every curve of her body. reach between your legs and make sure she's ready to get turned on. And it's cool because you brought protection. You grab a hold and suddenly she's screaming as you ride her. You know it won't be long till you get where your going, but still she begs for more. so you give it to her and go all night long. After you get off and have a smoke you realize there will never be anything like the first time you drove a motorcycle.

 

No matter how much I ride, I don't foresee my bike changing my gender :wink:

 

Untill you wrote at the end "drove a motorcycle" I thought you were talking about your first hot date. LOL

 

Can't put it into words it's just an elemental part of me.
I can take putting it off for a while but if it was taken away from me for ever I wouldn't be living I would just be killing time.
In a different time I would be probably be into horses or pushbikes I just enjoy that individual push a little bit harder factor the horse would add a bit to that,nothing like a mate to share it with after all a horse is a dog you can ride isn't it.
And there's the electric bikes of the future.
http://www.vectrix.com/portal/index.php
May not be my ideal but it is a future.And look how far we have come in the last 50 years god bless engineers.

 

Hey Ron,

He WAS talking about his first hot date.

Dang, those pipes are sometimes WAY too hot.

 

I didn't realize how much I missed riding until I test rode my XJ. I had a 20+ year gap in riding. The old feelings took over and I had to take her home.

I get asked a lot about gas savings making me get back to riding. I have to admit it was a consideration but the reality is the payback is very long for a bike when you include insurance, gear and maintenance. So my answer is always - partially but mostly it is the thrill of the ride.

Those who ride or have ridden nod knowingly, the rest are left confused...

 

When my old '76 Camaro failed inspection for frame rot ... I only had my 900 for a daily driver to and from work.

I had to gear up with a complete set of riding gear because it can get chilly at night getting out of work at midnight or later.

I would practice taking a racing line all the way home, hitting the apex of turns and getting way over in a tight sweeper on the cloverleaf entering the highway.

Once you take command of the bike and develop the confidence to not fear the tight turns and sweepers ... its a thrill ride.
On weekends, I run the 900 and go run with the kids on their plastic wrapped bullets.
I love getting in the groove and hanging-over in the turns.

I'm still too gun-shy to do any serious knee-dragging ... but, I manage to get through the tight ones without losing too much speed any more.

 

Definately First Hot Date, Always make sure you have some good rubbers before you start. ;-)

 

This comment popped into my mind on the way to work the other day....I was 2 vehicles behind a dump truck, which had apparently been making it's yearly visit to Thai restaraunts.

After not riding for so many years, on Monday's ride home, I had my first zen experiece with this Seca. Everything was perfect, I was one with the bike, the road, the sunshine and the air...absolutely perfect...then some idiot stopped in a 40mph zone to let the cars on the side streets (with stop signs) pull out. No accidents or anything, but the idiocy of the move just got to me and took away my zen.

 

^^^ I find it very annoying and extremely dangerous when other drivers make up their own traffic rules like the guy you mentioned stopping to let others in. How is anyone else going to know that he's now decided that the new rule is to stop and let waiting traffic in? Definitely a Zen killer.

 

before it was "a jeep thing" it was A MOTORCYCLE THING!

PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLIER ON A BIKE FOR THE MOST PART WE STILL WAVE AT EACH OTHER. we all know the ones that don't wave

IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT THE GUY/GAL NEXT TO YOU IS TALKING ABOUT DON'T STOP NEXT TO THEM AT THE NEXT LIGHT!

IF I WANT TO SLALOM THE DOTED LINES I CAN!

 

actually....'SHE' (don't it figure)





Now I'll be in trouble with our lady friends

 

In a car, your feet never touch the ground until you park and get out. On a motorcycle, you connect with the road, not just while riding, but stopped at an intersection as well.
Driving a car just cannot gratify like riding a motorcycle can. I can't explain it any better than any of you already have.


And Don, please tell your wife she's much more like Angelina than Eddie!

 

WHAT???!!! You're not supposed to slalom the dotty lines?!? I know it gets to be a bit difficult above 65mph, but...I agree on the smell factor, from steaks to wood stoves to dead animals. I ride a lot in the very early am, the differences in air DENSITY and humidity (in pockets) are another of the things you just can't get in a car. This gets "in your blood" and it won't go away. Some people can give it up after a year or a wreck, but for some of us it is a lifelong pursuit and being forced to do without for a couple of years makes it all that much more rewarding. My eight year old son went for his first (2) street-bike rides on this past weekend, and I fear he is hooked as well...

 

:lol: Done!

 

I can describe motorcycle riding when compared to car is:

BIOMECHANICAL HARMONY

That is body and machine becomes one.

 

like the buddhist said to the hot dog vendor "make me one with everything"

 

Ate a hotdog, tasted real good.
F. Zappa

 

It hit me this morning as I shaved. This summer I took up the sport of straight razor shaving. And yes, I have the scars to prove it. But straight razor shaving is alot like motorcycle riding. You've got to pay attention. It only takes a seconds' worth of distraction before you're bleeding. It's a challenge and it demands focus. Just like motorcycling. Yes, I can tool down an open road and daydream a little. But when you pick up the pace or the traffic picks up the pace for you, all those extraneous thoughts vanish and there's nothing but me, the bike, the road, and all those trying to run me down. Get distracted for a second and you're bleeding.

But for both pursuits, the challenge has its rewards. When I finally put down my razor and there's no blood running down my face, the feeling of satisfaction is sooooo much greater than when I shaved with a safety razor. Same with a bike. When you can navigate through the 5 O'Clock 500 gridlock and make it home in one unbleeding piece, there's a feeling of accomplishment that just doesn't come from a car.

Ride to Work, Work to Ride,

Dean