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Why do you ride?

Lots of reasons:

- It's one of the few activities that (either) overwhelm my ADHD or make effective use of it. It's a nice reprieve to be able to be singularly focused on the activity at hand.
- The thrill of one of the purest forms of man, machine, physics, and nature all exploring/feeling/testing one another's limits and sweet spots
- The people. At least half of my closest/best friends in life are somehow tied to riding in one way or another - met on a ride, at the track, or through varous moto-related forums
- Release stress, tension, anger, or sadness. Few things wipe negative emotions away like a long, beautiful, spirited ride. That said, I don't ride angry and alone. If I'm angry, I'll have someone join and let them lead, to prevent me from letting myself get carried away.
- Overcoming my fear. Fear never really entered the equation until it temporarily killed me and kept my arm. Now, a not-insignificant part of the joy of riding is in facing and overcoming my fear. People (particularly non-riders) have told me I'm crazy for riding again, after such extreme, life-long injury. I don't think they're necessarily wrong, however, I think, outside of romantic love, MOST people never find something they're truly passionate about in life. When I share that and people still don't understand it, I've started to ask them what hobbies/interest/sports/passions they have in their life that they would be willing to sacrifice a truly significant amount of money (or body part) to keep doing. Few can find an answer, which is fine, we all have our own priorities... but the hypothetical often switches on a lightbulb over their head and I can practically see them wondering about what things they love to do in life.
- Many, many more.
 

Love the feeling of falling while keeping the wheels underneath my center of gravity so I can continue falling and so on.


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Blankpage said:
For the chicks. That’s not working so great right now, must be the bike.
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This (although my wife has no interest in my biking).

Also, because if I couldn't ride, I'd probably have died of a rage-induced heart attack by now. But I can get on the bike, ride round the block and I'm calm...
 
senpai71 said:
This (although my wife has no interest in my biking).
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My wife used too, but gave up her pillion spot years ago.
She still thinks it is cool and likes to hang while I gear up in the garage and seems to enjoy sharing that I do it with various folks, including my kids friends.

A core group of one of my daughters friends all dirt bike together and bought a bike for their amigo as a wedding present. Hope his new wife is good with it.
 
For me, I feel like it is a constant challenge to find the limitations of traction, balance, acceleration and danger. And when in that challenging state, there isn't time to think about anything else. And when you combine these a quiet elation occurs that is only shared with fellow riders.
 
Originally, it was the cheap transportation. Park anywhere (back in the day), perfect for the short hops to work, school and home. No insurance needed, not mandatory back then and figured I'd be the worst of it in any dust up.

As an athlete, decided the risk/reward wasn't balanced, then unlike most, when I got married and had the kid, bought another motorcycle. Same reason, short rides and convenient. And then...

Enjoyed the pure essence of a long ride. Which became longer. Longest? Coast-to-coast and plan to do it again this summer. At 71 now, daylight is waning.
 
budman said:
My wife used too, but gave up her pillion spot years ago.
She still thinks it is cool and likes to hang while I gear up in the garage and seems to enjoy sharing that I do it with various folks, including my kids friends.
Click to expand...
To be clear, my wife is absolutely fine (within limits) of me just heading out and riding all the time. Indeed, I convinced her to take the MSF course years ago. She rode a little Vespa for a short while especially to take our daughter to school, but never really enjoyed it, and the scooter just sat for years before I sold it.

In the last 15 years she's ridden pillion on my bike 5 times, all in the City and all never getting to speeds above 2nd gear. She screamed every time.
 
-Fun
-Super ANALOG vehicular experience - this is a big one
-Offsets my gas spending on my sportcars/trucks
-Lane splitting and can safely/easily make passes on the twisties around pedestrians/vehicles. I ride a lot slower than driving my enthusiast vehicles but it's more fun (see line 2) so sometimes passing a pack of cyclist can give me a lot of buffer zone behind me.
-Burn calories while doing all that!
 
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