12-20-2017, 04:25 AM
The obsession with motorcycles is not transient. No one who really has it ever gets "cured" of it.
It is expressed in different ways depending on the personality.
It's not about money; some riders with plenty still only have one bike.
Others with limited finances spend themselves into the poorhouse with multiple bikes, tons of accessories, and so on.
So the motorcycles themselves may be transient in the life of an individual rider, but they remain a motorcycle to whomever is riding them.
When I had much more limited finances, and could only own one or perhaps two bikes at once, I really believe I had a lot more real fun.
That one bike would serve every purpose: touring, sport riding, commuting, you name it. I got to know that one bike and it was attuned to my riding styles.
Now I have a bunch of bikes. I ride a lot but it's hard to find the time to put equal miles on them. It's also, frankly, a pain to move them around in the garage, to make sure those in storage are properly maintained with fully-charged batteries and fuel preservative so they'll start and run properly. And where I could get a bike set up and working for me within a few months (usually takes about 10,000 miles) it now takes about two to three years to get that kind of comfort on any given bike.
Sure, it's great to have several machines but you can only ride one at a time.
Next year I'm going to cut the fleet back and may yet buy another CB1100 (EX this time) because the darn thing just does everything pretty darn well.
And no darn farkles necessary.
It is expressed in different ways depending on the personality.
It's not about money; some riders with plenty still only have one bike.
Others with limited finances spend themselves into the poorhouse with multiple bikes, tons of accessories, and so on.
So the motorcycles themselves may be transient in the life of an individual rider, but they remain a motorcycle to whomever is riding them.
When I had much more limited finances, and could only own one or perhaps two bikes at once, I really believe I had a lot more real fun.
That one bike would serve every purpose: touring, sport riding, commuting, you name it. I got to know that one bike and it was attuned to my riding styles.
Now I have a bunch of bikes. I ride a lot but it's hard to find the time to put equal miles on them. It's also, frankly, a pain to move them around in the garage, to make sure those in storage are properly maintained with fully-charged batteries and fuel preservative so they'll start and run properly. And where I could get a bike set up and working for me within a few months (usually takes about 10,000 miles) it now takes about two to three years to get that kind of comfort on any given bike.
Sure, it's great to have several machines but you can only ride one at a time.
Next year I'm going to cut the fleet back and may yet buy another CB1100 (EX this time) because the darn thing just does everything pretty darn well.
And no darn farkles necessary.