Motorcycle? You’re crazy, man!

On Wednesday, I went to visit some former co-workers and shoot the shit and share some chocolate and pick something up. Of course, since I’m currently deep in the throes of this whole motorcycle obsession, it came up pretty quickly when people asked what I’ve been up to lately. I talked about buying the bike, and getting the gear, etc. And I told them that I’m planning to take trips on the bike. The majority of the office was fairly receptive. Two of them just gave me that “I think you’re crazy but I won’t tell you so” look that I’m growing all too familiar with, and one of them was actually envious of me and the bike. (I told her she should get one, but she said her fiance wouldn’t let her. I say that fiance is full of fail.)

Then, however, the former boss got involved. Did I mention he’s a personal injury lawyer? He just sees motorcycles as rolling death machines (or maybe he sees dollar signs about the motorcycle cases he might land) and he was quick to tell me about the dangers of bikes. The joke was on him – I’ve already written all about motorcycle accidents for another personal injury attorney, so I’m fully up to date on the most recent data and statistics. And I live with someone whose pet project is Gear Up! to promote motorcycle safety by wearing proper gear, and she’s more than happy to quote statistics at me. So I’m well aware of the dangers of motorcycling, but the knowledge of potential injury or death couldn’t stop me at this point. It’s too much in my blood. It’s almost like a compulsion.

But his generic motorcycle complaints amused me. And I knew how he’d react if I told him the rest of it, so I burst out with: “Masukomi and I are thinking of riding down to Mexico later this year – maybe even as far as the tip of Central America!”

This prompted a meltdown of a whole new magnitude. He spent probably 20 minutes telling me how crazy I was and how foolhardy the whole adventure sounded. He told me over and over again how dangerous Mexico is, and how I was likely to get kidnapped, raped and killed. (Oddly, I don’t worry too much about the raped and killed part. There is protection in being a big girl – I’ve never felt myself a particularly likely candidate for that kind of treatment.) So I just shrugged it off, and started telling him about the places we were pondering.

The entire conversation was peppered with incredulity, and his attempts to inject some ‘logic’ into my ‘faulty’ brain. The more I unfolded my plan for him, the more crazy he thought I’d become. I remember being amused at him saying things like:

“You plan to ride all day, every day? Wouldn’t that be tiring? I’d think you wouldn’t have any energy to enjoy yourself when you get where you’re going.”

“Isn’t it a lot more taxing, physically, to ride a motorcycle than to drive? Wouldn’t you rather fly or drive than ride that far?”

“People get killed in Mexico all the time! It’s way too dangerous! Why don’t you just ride to upstate New York?”

I was really amused with his reactions. I’ve been getting so wrapped up in this whole world of adventure motorcycling – living with someone who is totally into it, reading forums about it, watching stuff on TV about it and now reading books about it. I hadn’t really heard a ‘normal’ person’s reaction to all this since I started getting sucked into it. And it highlighted for me again a conversation that I had with Masukomi a few weeks ago.

He really didn’t understand why I’d want to ride a motorcycle all day, every day for an entire month. For him, traveling is about getting where you’re going as quickly as possible and enjoying yourself at the end. He admitted that he’s a coward, and I know he enjoys luxury, so his idea of an ‘exotic’ vacation would be to stay in a resort somewhere like Puerto Rico.

That’s not why I want a bike. That’s not why I want to travel on a motorcycle. I don’t want a bike to get me from Point A to Point B. Yeah, it’ll be handy, but a bike isn’t ideally suited to that purpose. If all I wanted was a vehicle, I’d be better off getting a car so I could drive the dog around, go shopping and do other practical things with it. So a bike isn’t a vehicle for me.

And yes, traveling on a motorcycle is harder. It requires more concentration than just driving along in a car. But I’ve done plenty of long car drives – done two separate trips that took me 19 hours each way and 26 hours each way, respectively. Drove it straight through, myself, and didn’t particularly enjoy it. It was nice to see some of the scenery, but driving doesn’t do that much for me. It’s always fun to start out, but then I get bored after an hour or two and it becomes just a grind.

Being on the road, though… that does a lot for me. Going someplace. Seeing things along the way. That’s what a motorcycle is about for me. It’s about going places I haven’t been before, and experiencing them in a way that you simply can’t when a car is separating you from the outside world. It’s about really being exposed and vulnerable and seeing what places have to offer you. And it’s not about getting there – it’s about the going. The traveling. The riding.

We’re not pondering going to Mexico because we want to go to a specific destination (or at least, I’m not – I shouldn’t speak for Masukomi). I’m pondering Mexico because it’s a place to go that’s different than where I live. It’s a different culture, a different language, a different way of life. There will be pretty things to see along the way. We’ll go as far as we can go in the allotted time and then come back. That’s what motorcycle trips are about for me. The traveling, the trip itself, the seeing what you see and who you meet – not the getting to your destination as quickly as possible and then sitting around for a week.

It was sort of gratifying to have this conversation. I’d been getting so sucked into this whole motorcycle world that I was beginning to forget that most people don’t think this way. Most people are content to stay where they’re put, or to take ‘small’ adventures – and I definitely think a small adventure is better than no adventure at all. But I also think it’s a shame that so many people stay put and don’t see the world – don’t see things that are different from their way of life – because how are they supposed to grow?

A motorcycle adventure represents a lot more to me than just getting to a destination, and seeing a few things along the way. And it was gratifying to have that conversation, and be confronted with the reality of how crazy people are going to think I am – and to know that it didn’t matter one bit to me. I’m no less determined to do this now than I was before that conversation. And now I realize that this isn’t about proving something to someone (or myself) – it’s literally something I have to do. Just like writing. It’s a part of who I am, somehow, in a way that I simply hadn’t recognized before.

And most people will never understand that. And that’s ok.