Well it's about darn time I wrote a post about motorcycles right? I've only been riding myself since late July of 2010 so consider myself a rank amateur, but I am really excited to have discovered the joys of riding motorcycles and wish I would have trusted myself to enjoy them at a younger age.
Just this past weekend I had a great opportunity to visit an old friend and go for a motorcycle ride together. Although we do sometimes get together and chat about cars or fitness, motorcycles are another shared passion of ours...so it was damn fun to get together work on some bikes (hint...you're always working on bikes!) and then take a short ride together.
To help sweeten the deal, this was my first opportunity to ride an Italian motorcycle (Ducatis in this case), and it's definitely a very memorable experience for your first chance to experience a couple of them. Although all motorcycles can be stimulating, the added 'wow' factor of riding Ducatis was even more exhilarating! The sounds and sensations they give are definitely a bit different from the Japanese and British bikes that I'm used to, so it was a really fun treat overall!
One thing I find particularly interesting about motorcycles (and clearly my friend as well) is that I don't mind sharing the experience of them with a friend. Meaning, if a car guy were to ask to borrow my sports car, I'd probably only extend the offer to a best friend...whereas I don't feel the same level of apprehension with a motorcycle. I actually spent some time pondering that distinction, trying to figure out what would make it different since the act seems inherently the same. Here's the best I could do so far.
1. Motorcycles are a sub-set of motorized vehicles, and require special endorsement (showing that you care enough to specialize in 2 wheels...kind of a semi-elite group in a way).
2. Motorcycles can put up with more abuse and are cheaper to maintain/fix (most cases).
3. Motorcycles are inherently more risky or dangerous, meaning it's a lot less likely that someone is going to do something blatantly stupid when riding one.
Obviously this list could be extended, but it was an interesting thought exercise for me nonetheless. This post wouldn't be complete without a couple of pictures of our experience, and I wanted to share the custom battery mount we fabricated on the fly when we would up with the wrong battery size...we weren't going to be denied on a nice weather day!
Just this past weekend I had a great opportunity to visit an old friend and go for a motorcycle ride together. Although we do sometimes get together and chat about cars or fitness, motorcycles are another shared passion of ours...so it was damn fun to get together work on some bikes (hint...you're always working on bikes!) and then take a short ride together.
To help sweeten the deal, this was my first opportunity to ride an Italian motorcycle (Ducatis in this case), and it's definitely a very memorable experience for your first chance to experience a couple of them. Although all motorcycles can be stimulating, the added 'wow' factor of riding Ducatis was even more exhilarating! The sounds and sensations they give are definitely a bit different from the Japanese and British bikes that I'm used to, so it was a really fun treat overall!
One thing I find particularly interesting about motorcycles (and clearly my friend as well) is that I don't mind sharing the experience of them with a friend. Meaning, if a car guy were to ask to borrow my sports car, I'd probably only extend the offer to a best friend...whereas I don't feel the same level of apprehension with a motorcycle. I actually spent some time pondering that distinction, trying to figure out what would make it different since the act seems inherently the same. Here's the best I could do so far.
1. Motorcycles are a sub-set of motorized vehicles, and require special endorsement (showing that you care enough to specialize in 2 wheels...kind of a semi-elite group in a way).
2. Motorcycles can put up with more abuse and are cheaper to maintain/fix (most cases).
3. Motorcycles are inherently more risky or dangerous, meaning it's a lot less likely that someone is going to do something blatantly stupid when riding one.
Obviously this list could be extended, but it was an interesting thought exercise for me nonetheless. This post wouldn't be complete without a couple of pictures of our experience, and I wanted to share the custom battery mount we fabricated on the fly when we would up with the wrong battery size...we weren't going to be denied on a nice weather day!
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