I've been doing some traveling, up in
the northern parts of the US which led me to use a cage versus the
bike. Yea, I know, some people would say a real biker would ride the
bike no matter what. That is not what makes a biker a real biker. A
biker knows when to ride and when not to ride, when the option is
available.
It is like driving in the south when
the weather is bad, you hear all the time (last year here in Atlanta)
about how those from the north know how to drive in the bad weather.
The only real truth about that is that those of us raised with snow
in the winters know to slow down and take it easy in the bad weather.
More importantly, those of us raised where it snows realize when to
drive and when not to drive because it just isn't worth it.
So, I am up north traveling and see
bikes on the road a little bit here and there. It does make one a
little envious when traveling via cage and you see a bike or two go
by. This goes back to the days before you had your first bike.
Remember those days, usually when you are a kid traveling with the
family on vacation. Cruisin down the highway in the back seat with
not much to do except watching the other vehicles go by and wondering
what it would be like to be in that situation. Those of us with
unknown ambitions to be on a bike paid particular attention to the
bikes we saw. Don't get me wrong, those big trucks hauling goods
with their bright paint jobs, loud deep horns and massive size were
impressive as well. The bikes however had some special kind of awe.
Day dreaming what it would be like to be on that bike riding down the
highway. I never really wondered where the rider was going, just how
cool it would be to be doing that myself. I would dream of going to
the same place as we were just on a bike.
When living up in the north I would
ride at least once per month, I didn't care if it was a 10 mile
around the town putt. As long as the roads were dry I could get out,
extra gear kept me warm enough. I believe in the 10 years there was
one month I couldn't get out due to weather. What a nasty winter
that was :-) One day I was riding the bike to someones house to do
some work on it, a somewhat normal spring day (for the Great Lakes
region a normal spring day is 40s and clear). I as just about 5
miles from the house and the skies grew dark like a dark grey wool
blanket was pulled up over the horizon. A little bit of rain started
to fall, so of course I slowed down my pace for safety. I crested a
hill and was looking at a downgrade of about 5% into the housing
development where my destination laid. I started down the hill and
started to feel little pieces of sand like objects hitting me ( I had
no windshield on that bike). The objects started to get larger and
faster as they hit me. Holy crap, I am riding a motorcycle in a hail
storm, even though the hail was just under pea sized it hurt a little
bit. Luckily being the time of year and having the gear on I did the
only exposed area was parts of the face. Bikers are a rare group, I
pulled up to the house and the guys are already in the garage, they
see me pull up the driveway in the hail. Since I am not seriously
injured or on the ground they all bust out in some hearty laughter
and can't stop for at least 5 minutes. Bikers love to laugh at each
other if they can, it makes for some good times to be able to pick on
your brothers.
A little lesson here, if you see a
group of bikers don't pick on them, they will stick together and take
care of what they need to. A certain rule if you see they have club
patches and especially if you see a patch that says 1% on it. The
clubs who deem themselves as 1%ers are those clubs which run just
outside the conventional main stream USA. They like to do what they
want, when they want and where they want. If you leave them alone
they will leave you alone is a good basic rule. I can go into this
more but that will be another entry.
Ride Free / Ride Hard
