The Idea of Owning/Riding

It's no secret that I am a bit of a motorcycle geek. In the past few years have transformed my view of varying types of motorcycles more-so than ever before. Between having children, getting older and having a lot fewer resources at my disposal I now have to look at practicality. That word in itself makes me cringe!

To the outside world (cagers) the words "practical" and "motorcycle" have no business being used together. They don't get it. Now, to my motorcycling friends, you are probably thinking, "What's not to 'get'?".  My point is that in having to take a practical approach to motorcycling I have started to view them in an entirely different light. The problem here for me is that practical is not always synonymous with cool or fun and it's tough to find good compromises. Furthermore, I've come to realize that many fall in love with the idea of owning/riding a particular motorcycle but don't think things through entirely, myself included.

Case in point; a friend of mine, a non-motorcyclist, told me recently that he would like to own and ride a motorcycle. Frankly, I hear this so often from people that until they say some key words or phrases indicating they are serious I really don't give the conversation much merit. In this situation I was in a setting where there wasn't any more intriguing subject matter to be had so I decide to engage him.  My response, "What did you have in mind?" He proceeds to tell me that he wants to basically spend peanuts and get a vintage bike, possibly British, that he could tinker on himself. My response, "Oh yeah, you and everyone else." Yes, this was an asinine response as I intended it to be to start my "coming to Jesus" conversation with him if he was serious about bringing his dream to reality.

The rest of the conversation with him included some key points such as; vintage bikes are popular now which means you can rarely buy them for peanuts anymore, they are also typically unreliable compared to modern motorcycles so you will be able to realize that dream of "tinkering" probably more than you care too, you don't know anything about motorcycles or general automotive repair so you will likely be paying somebody else to "tinker" on yours when things break and if you obtain the old British bike that you really want then you will need to invest in a whole set of tools specific to that bike because many old British bikes use the Whitworth system of measurement so your basic standard & metric wrenches and sockets will not fit. Before you judge me and think I was being an total a-hole to this guy let me explain. I promise I took more informative approach to conveying my points versus a condescending one. My goal was to simply bring awareness to his thoughts of motorcycle ownership and steer him in a better direction. My suggestion to him at the end of the convo was simply this; it would probably be better suited for him to pursue a 10 year-oldish Japanese motorcycle. These bikes are new enough that they are reliable but old enough that they can be obtained for minimal amounts of money, relatively speaking. First, buy this, find out if motorcycling is for you, discover what your comfort level is with doing your own maintenance, then pursue your dream of the vintage (perhaps British) motorcycle that you are envisioning.

A couple of years ago Suzuki completely redesigned their V-Strom adventure bike. They decided to make it a better road bike by making it less of an off-road bike because they found that 90% of adventure bike riders never leave paved roads. So, Why do people buy adventure bikes? Clearly, these bikes are designed and engineered in a way that can conquer almost any terrain. If you never leave paved roads there are certainly much better motorcycles out there. The answer is simple; generally speaking people like the idea of the "adventure" and ability to go wherever, whenever. They buy the motorcycle with visions of crossing creeks, riding through a foot of mud and going where no motorcycle has gone before.  The reality is that 90% of the people that buy these bikes ride a solid 5 months out of the year, when it's dry and the temperature is between 60-90 degrees. The idea drives the purchase.

Even I, an experienced motorcyclist, get caught up in the idea of owning/riding a certain bike when I see it.  At times I will go as far to convince myself that I can live without amenities like a respectable amount horsepower, comfort and reliability to get what I want because that bike is so cool! After a while reality sets in, the fog clears and I begin to start looking at the bigger picture of what owning that bike would really be like and I slowly come back down to earth. The solution is clear and easy, just own a lot of different types of bikes. Done and done! Now, I just need money and a large warehouse.