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Reading all the problems we have with our bikes. I'm just wondering why do I love riding a bike?
More often than not it's too cold, too hot and dry, it's raining, it's getting dark, your ass starts to hurt, your legs get cramped, your shoulders start to hurt, your hands start to tingle. And every time you have to put on your boots, pants, jacket, gloves and helmet. On top of all that, it's expensive too.
Now why do you love riding your bike. I know, I do. But do you?

Probably sounds dumb, but when I ride I feel like I am 17 again, which is the year that I started riding-1970. That feeling literally comes back within minutes of starting off for a ride. Some might see it as a mid-life crisis and maybe it is, but it does feel good and always puts a smile on my face.

Bottom line....

We ride 'cause we CAN!

I like riding my Bike along the rolling hills near my house and riding my Mountain Bike on the wooded trails along the St. Croix River Valley.
I really like riding my Motorcycles anywhere and any time I can.

To squeegee the third eye, i.e. disconnect from it all.

The old saying: "One never sees a motorcycle parked at a psychiatrist's' office"

Motorcycling is as close to flying as you can get without leaving the ground. It's transport for the soul. It is freedom from apathy and non-responsibility. When you ride, you are in full control, even to the extent of staying upright, nothing else is in the way, or disguising the effect of your inputs to the system.

Well said, Riceburner!

For me, it's about using honed skills to enjoy the smoothness of flight on the ground. It's time I can spend concentrating entirely on my immediate environment to the exclusion of everything else. By grasping complete situational awareness of my surroundings, I escape into reality.

To beat the traffic jams. To be able to park almost anywhere. To escape to the hills and lean the bike into twisties and feel the wind in your face. Just you and your horse.

It just feels good!

All of the above.

When I was a kid I loved to read books about early aircraft, ships, other complex machines. Probably why I became an engineer. Later promised myself to fly or sail if given the means and opportunity, or motorcycle as the more attainable option.

WHY DO WE LOVE RIDING A BIKE?

""PEACE""

It is just like getting up early in the morning and have a cup of coffee with Nobody bother you. Quiet and Relax.
I do a lot of jogging. As I am jogging, I can think. Yes, thinking while jogging. Your mind stay focus.

Agree with all these comments, especially as expressed by Sunbeemer and Riceburner. I could not have said it better, or even that well!

I didn't grow up taking things apart and putting things back together. Besides the fun of the ride, I've learned some stuff about how an engine works, some basic elctrical principles, AND the skills of riding a motorcycle safely.

Plus, everytime I get on the bike is like a short vacation...

This forum has been a big part of all that!!

When riding you use both legs and arms as well as your torso. It's still your body but you can do much more with it - specially go fast. The sensation of speed is more than in a plane or car because you're close to the ground and no barrie separates you from the earth you sense rushing by.

I love experiencing landscape - rural, urban, prosaic or dramatic. If you allow yourself, you can enjoy the flat country as much as the mountains or oceanside. Western landscape painting came of age in Holland. I can honestly tell you I never tire of my trips through Kansas. I relish a ride on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive as well as slowing down to transverse a New Mexico small town. I delight in just sitting and looking. Riding past is not superior to a fixed vantage point but it adds another aspect to the act of observing; it increases your connection to creation.

riceburner wrote:Motorcycling is as close to flying as you can get without leaving the ground. It's transport for the soul. It is freedom from apathy and non-responsibility. When you ride, you are in full control, even to the extent of staying upright, nothing else is in the way, or disguising the effect of your inputs to the system.

I agree, banking in turns, feeling of freedom, it’s Zen , it’s great

From Robert Pirsig:

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

^ One of my favorite books when it came out. He was on a Honda Super Hawk I think. Did they ever mention what model BMW?- I can't recall.

Thanks for the reminder, I might check it out at the local library. Probably more relevant than ever.

Photoguy wrote:^ One of my favorite books when it came out. He was on a Honda Super Hawk I think. Did they ever mention what model BMW?- I can't recall.

Thanks for the reminder, I might check it out at the local library. Probably more relevant than ever.

Never read the whole thing, but IIRC it was something like an R69, or thereabouts. (that vintage certainly).

When the sh#& hits the fan, it takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 (depending on the craziness of my day) on my Beakster to experience both focus and tranquility. Combined, they offer a zen like no other.

Oh yea, and its FUN!

That is why I ride.

When I thought about (years ago) why I ride,(love?), a moto I remembered that back on the ranch(west tx) where I grew up I discovered in the library that in the 19th century and before, not many folks rode a horse any distance. Most either used a drawn wagon or rail or walked. That because horses are dangerous, uncomfortable and your really stuck out in the elements.(and you will smell bad). A person had to be pretty adventurous to travel by horseback. I have (in my youth) traveled many many miles by horse.

Well that describes riding a moto as well, almost exactly. (except maybe for the smell). About the same percentage of horse riders to the population then as there are to moto to the population today.

So why ride?

Cause we can...main reason.

Yes you can list a bunch of romantic reasons but you keep coming back to...cause we can! That means you except the disadvantages in comfort, no air conditioning, getting wet, dodging traffic..etc. (and your fit enough)

Wind in your face and bugs on your teeth!

If you can't then take a bus.

To paraphrase Neil Peart from Rush... 'When I'm riding my bike, I'm glad to be alive. And when I finish riding my bike, I'm glad to be alive'