Why I ride

[Motu]

I don't know if I even finished the Zen book,it was just total crap.But Illusions just encompasses my whole concept of life.Like bugs on the windscreen - in your recent thread on cutting corners you got all sorts of shit from the nay sayers.....they are the types that always get bugs on their screen.However,if you don't expect bugs to hit your screen,they don't.But to try and tell someone stuff like that is impossible.That's why I like bikes,they are very zen.....but only people like Richard Bach can write it down.The other dude couldn't.

[Ixion]

You guys done too many shrooms back in the day. Me, I ride cos its the only way to make the voices stop. They can't come along on a bike, cos they ainb't got helmets.

[Kickaha]

You've nailed it exactly I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and that struck a familiar chord but it was his Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah which really drove it home - fantastic.

There's No Such Place As Far Away did it for me

I don't know if I even finished the Zen book,it was just total crap.

Fuck knows why so many people wank on about that book I thought it was total crap to

[Blackbird]

There's No Such Place As Far Away did it for me

Fuck knows why so many people wank on about that book I thought it was total crap to

Cheers Warwick, I'll try and grab a copy.

Yeah, Robert Pirsig is the literary equivalent of Leonard Cohen without the ability to hold a decent tune

[Edbear]

I've just revisited this old thread and was pondering Buelbabe's comment. If there is a gene or predisposition that makes a person addicted to motorcycling, it's probably the same thing that makes people passionate about flying or sailing. I know there are quite a few people on KB who fly and/or sail. I've only flown a glider once but sailed competitively and all 3 seem to require pretty much the same mental and physical skill set to get the best out of them. They also give the same pleasure levels when done properly. Food for thought

Hard to believe it was 3 years ago!

Interesting about individual predispositions. I have been interested in mechanical things ever since I can remember. If it had an engine I was fascinated by it. Both my mother and father were pretty good bush mechanics, in those days you had to fix stuff with the old "No.8 wire" method and I learnt mechanics watching and helping my father fix stuff, like the lawnmower.

I can't remember exactly how old I was when Mum got her BSA Bantam 125, but I was awestruck with the shiny black beast with the shiny chrome muffler! She let me learn to ride it when I was 12, and I loved that bike! (I know where it is now, but the owner won't ever part with it).

I love cars, bikes, boats, planes and although I can't fly a plane, I love to ride, drive and sail. I like speed and I like cruising.

My wife, both daughters and my step-son have no interest in things mechanical, and I wonder sometimes if I'd had a natural son, whether he would have inherited my interest.

My eldest daughter is a very good driver, my youngest daughter is a bit nervous. My wife is a speed-freak, whether in a car, on a bike or a boat. Our son is an okay driver but not really "into" driving. Likes my bike but not really wanting one himself.

Would be an interesting study to see if there is anything genetic which predisposes one to certain interests.

[bogan]

I don't know if I even finished the Zen book,it was just total crap.

I didnt think it was too bad, a little depressing, and it was more a what is quality than motorbikes. Think ill have to give this Reluctant Messiah one a go, and There's No Such Place As Far Away.
Its interesting what makes us ride, something addictive, and a synergy of man and machine that you dont get with anything else, well nothing ive tried anyway.
Also the experience is far different between road and dirt bikes i find, road seems a more civilised where dirt is a more primal way of losing yourself in the moment.

[Blackbird]

Would be an interesting study to see if there is anything genetic which predisposes one to certain interests.

Yep, it would be interesting Ed. In my case, I think it was the "nurture" side of the "nature vs.nurture proposition". My Dad was the only close rellie with a passing interest in bikes. I certainly got my love of aircraft from Dad as he was a scientist with the Royal Aeronautical Establishment in the UK and he used to drag me off to air shows. However, both sets of grandparents and my parents too seemed to have an insatiable curiosity about things in general and I'm guessing that interest in a wide range of things rubbed off on me to a large extent. I've tried to pass that on to our kids and whatever passion develops from it is fine by us. Funnily enough and like you, our daughter is the complete petrolhead of the family although our eldest son loves bikes and sailing. Our younger son has minimal interest in anything automotive.

[caseye]

Hey BB, you wrote this some time ago, but it's as relevant to day as it was then.
My dad is 5 foot nothing, was a Bren gunner in the army, you know makes sense to give the shortest fella in the squad the biggest bit of kit and those heavy boses of ammo.
But he's never liked guns.
I do!
he's never liked boats either, but he has medals for saving lives in the Wairarapa surf beaches, the bugger will still swim out behind the breakers at times, just to be there?(as close as it gets to being as one with something, I reckon)
I love boats, especially the fast big ones.
He hates bikes and the one time he came on the back of mine he was in his late 40's, I picked him up from his building site and took him home for lunch.
When we got there he asked me to take him to the local pub, I did.
We had a liquid lunch as he settled his nerves.
He told me later that day that'd he'd ever gone so fast(exagerating, I only got her up to about 140K's, no one around and quite safe so i thought) In all his life and he never wanted to again.
I've been riding for a damn long time now and though I don't do the stupid suff nearly as much as I used to , I still like to pick up the old girls skirts and fang her a long for a bit every now and then.As always just me an the road, no traffic either way.
But thanks for the thoughts, though not identical, I beleive most of us who have and do ride for any length of time come to appreciate most of what you have written, cheers.

[Edbear]

Yep, it would be interesting Ed. In my case, I think it was the "nurture" side of the "nature vs.nurture proposition". My Dad was the only close rellie with a passing interest in bikes. I certainly got my love of aircraft from Dad as he was a scientist with the Royal Aeronautical Establishment in the UK and he used to drag me off to air shows. However, both sets of grandparents and my parents too seemed to have an insatiable curiosity about things in general and I'm guessing that interest in a wide range of things rubbed off on me to a large extent. I've tried to pass that on to our kids and whatever passion develops from it is fine by us. Funnily enough and like you, our daughter is the complete petrolhead of the family although our eldest son loves bikes and sailing. Our younger son has minimal interest in anything automotive.

I think my interest in science and my curiosity about stuff comes from my mother's side. Lord Earnest Rutherford is, (was), a cousin for example.

Dad's side were agricultural, farmers, blacksmiths and farriers.

So despite trying to get my son into mechanics he wasn't very interested. He's grown up to be a metal-polisher and welder, though, so go figure! He can weld pretty much anything and was a very good polisher until he concentrated on welding.

[sondela]

You guys done too many shrooms back in the day. Me, I ride cos its the only way to make the voices stop. They can't come along on a bike, cos they ainb't got helmets.

Hah! mine would come along helmets or no helmets, but they don't, cause they can't keep up!!!

[Kickaha]

Cheers Warwick, I'll try and grab a copy.

Think ill have to give this Reluctant Messiah one a go, and There's No Such Place As Far Away.

There's No Such Place As Far Away is a far simpler book than his others but I like the message that it has

[Thani-B]

Enjoyable read. I cant really say why I got into riding. My parents both rode before I was born, but my bike was the first my mother had been on in over 20 years and my father disapproves of me riding. Im the only one in my family that does now, my sister might be following my footsteps soon though. Its just something I always wanted to do, and hopefully, will keep on doing for the rest of my life. I just like it. Its a part of me now.

[Motu]

Richard Bach's earlier books were about flying,the soul searching stuff came later.They were still inspiring books - if you struggle to put your riding experience into words (most of us) then these books will say what your heart feels.

[NordieBoy]

The Reluctant Messiah struck a chord with me being a mechanic - to read a book written from that perspective had never been done before....authors and their heros are not quite so hands on.I got my Bantam from a cousin who got me interested in bikes....he later got to sail around the world a few times on famous boats,go to San Diego,stuff like that.

Neville Shute - Slide Rule.

Good stuff about working on the British airships.

[NordieBoy]

I don't know if I even finished the Zen book,it was just total crap.But Illusions just encompasses my whole concept of life.Like bugs on the windscreen - in your recent thread on cutting corners you got all sorts of shit from the nay sayers.....they are the types that always get bugs on their screen.However,if you don't expect bugs to hit your screen,they don't.But to try and tell someone stuff like that is impossible.That's why I like bikes,they are very zen.....but only people like Richard Bach can write it down.The other dude couldn't.

Oh yeah.

Riding with an openface helmet and after an hour you lift your hand to scratch your nose. The bee hits your hand.

20 mins later the same thing happens.

I stopped scratching my nose after that.

Still got all the Richard Bach books.