I ran across this great article recently. Not much to say about it, other than I agree with every word. Thank you, Kevin Cameron.
Why We Ride Motorcycles
Skill, passion, talent, danger, identity: Why do you ride a motorcycle?
By Kevin Cameron
June 9, 2021
Selected quotes:
"For some, the wind and the 360-degree view of the world provided by motorcycles remind us that life is not a video game. For others, it’s the practice of skills in an unforgiving environment. For still others, it’s the rush of acceleration and cornering."
"What happens to us during our first six months on a motorcycle? We either learn the alert vigilance of squirrels, mountain climbers, and combat soldiers, or we quit. ... There is no right of way for the motorcyclist. We alone can assure our own security. So many motorists just don’t see motorcycles at all, and others are barely conscious, texting. Constant alert vigilance is the only security. Just as the horse takes delight in running up and down, so we are refreshed by exercising this high state of awareness that is so underused in our daily lives."
I completely relate to this next quote, that riding clears the mind like nothing else precisely because you need full attention. It's counter-intuitive, in a way, but being forced to concentrate on something can actually clear and refresh the mind.
"Riding a motorcycle can drain life’s pond of distractions, revealing with clarity the bare bones. A BMW rider I knew was a chemist. When confronted with a problem he wasn’t able to solve in his office chair or by awakening at 4 a.m. in where-am-I confusion, he would just get on his bike and ride, heading out of town and onto some go-anywhere rural roads. Over a period of three hours, the concentration riding required would gradually push aside the mess in his mind and shake the problem down to essentials. A solution would appear. And it worked over and over."
"More of the clarifying power of the motorcycle was revealed by a friend who is a published poet. His written words said to me that when his mind was distressed and stopped by the problem of finding sense in life, he rode his motorcycle. It combed the nonessentials, the do-loops from his mind, streamlining his thought process. It left him in alert vigilance, aware of everything around him, safe, clear-headed, and alive. That, and more, is why we ride."
