My name is Cadd and I'm a moto-holic...

Yes, my name is Cadd and I'm a moto-holic.

How bad is it? Well people ask me sometimes why I ride "those damn things" and I took some time to think about why. The thing that became most evident was that logical reasoning had long fled any excuses I could muster.

I started riding because I wanted cheap transportation. I already had a car, but it only got 20 MPG at best & gas was a whopping 26 cents a gallon. I'd ridden bicycles a lot, and took to MC's pretty quickly. I've ridden consistently about 30 of the past 39 years, and sporadically in between. There were a few years where I didn't own a bike or my bike(s) were torn apart & I couldn't afford to fix them. There were several years that I either did not own a car at all, or my wife drove the one car we had while I rode.

The "cheap transportation" thing was misleading. I spent much less for gas and far more for everything else; but for the cost of a pretty slow car I could have a pretty fast bike. Now I ride because I've become obsessive-compulsive in my old age.

I can hardly bear to take the car unless it's pouring rain --particularly if I'm going solo. I can't stand to let anyone else work on my bike. I can't bear to have my bike torn apart for long, so maintenance chores like changing tires are done in marathon sessions without stopping to eat or wind my watch. I buy spare parts way in advance of when I'll need them so I don't have to wait. I've changed a lot of things on it, but I keep every part, screw, and washer hoarded away "just in case".

It hurts to look at it when it's filthy, but I don't wash it enough because I know I'll be out getting it dirty again very soon. Besides, when I do clean it, my wife complains because I'll spend three or 4 hours. A half-mile ride to the liquor store turns into a 5 or 10 mile ride just because I don't want to take it out without warming the engine fully.

My cars and boat are used less & less each year, until I should probably sell them all (except for one beater to drive when it pours rain) so they don't just rust up solid. I have to restrain myself from running out to spend my life savings and my retirement account on new motorcycles; but I don't because I know that my income after retirement won't allow me to buy them at all unless I save the money now. The only time this one ever failed to start, (dead battery) I was pissed at myself that I don't have another one sitting there ready to go.

I do fear death. I do fear injury. I know that my number could come up on any given day. I've never had an even semi-serious injury on a bike--a few bruises or a tiny bit of road rash being the worst of it-- yet my greatest fear isn't dying but getting old enough or injured enough that I'll never ride again. When I roll my bike out of the garage every morning I look up at the sky and pray a little: "Not today, Lord...OK?" Still, knowing that one day I might bite the concrete does nothing to caution me. Not really. Oh, I don't ride like some young squid that thinks he's made of titanium, but I still ride in some hairy traffic and under some slick conditions.

No, there's not much logic left to my reasoning. I ride because the alternative is more frightening than the potential dangers out there. The alternative is not riding. I shake a little just thinking about it.

I know this old guy, in his mid 70's now. He's been riding since he was a kid, and raced bikes as well. He's crashed so many times that he has injuries that cannot ever heal. He limps. He's bent. His fingers are permanently curved and won't straighten any more. He can shoot a pistol and he can work the levers on a bike. He rides sport bikes nowadays, and his back has assumed the necessary shape to lean over the tank all day. When he gets off the bike it's still that shape. I think about him often and wonder if that will be me in another 25 years?

Or will I just suddenly blow a gasket from eating too many cheeseburgers and plow rigid into the back of a dump truck?

I'm a moto-holic, and there's no going back for me; and as far as I can tell, there is no cure this side of the grave.

[scion0]

Welcome Cadd!

[skeeter]

More than infatuation, true love.

[ruruson1]

"AMEN" I'm kinda tearful now...

[misunderstood]

Everyone at the MA meeting (Moto-holic's Anounomus) is asleep now.

[racinchef]

Very well put. We don't seek remediation or even justification, we want;
<marquee>SATISFACTION</marquee>

[cactusjack]

Yes, my name is Cadd and I'm a moto-holic.

Hi, Cadd!

CQ, that was a very introspective essay. I can honestly say I share some of the same thoughts on the subject.

[VulcanE]

I'm with you CQ, I buy my parts before I need them, I save every nut/bolt I swap out. When, for what ever reason, I can't ride, I'm like a person suffering withdrawal pains, My wife says I get ill. When people ask me Why? I tell them "If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand it, but your dog that likes to ride with the window down and his head sticking out the window, He understands!!!!

[mrfuni]

Well Said Cadd...So hard to explain to those who do not ride...
Joe

[caddman11]

You know, it just like to ride.

[phenrichs]

Preach On Cadd!!!! We all think it and you have poetically put it in to words.

I too am a little misty eyed after reading this.

Thanks

[oldbikers]

I just hope the good lord will allow me enough time to put the kick stand down when it is my time to go

Originally Posted by oldbikers

I just hope the good lord will allow me enough time to put the kick stand down when it is my time to go

I do too Oldbiker. I do too.

I worry a bit about having a heart attack while I'm on the bike, and particularly when I've got a passenger. Thankfully I never feel like that while I'm riding. Probably something about all the adrenaline rushing around in my system at the time. The truth is, it'll probably hit me while I'm behind the desk, right after lunch.

Originally Posted by racinchef

Very well put. We don't seek remediation or even justification, we want;
SATISFACTION

Definately not remediation! Besides, they'd have to come with a net.

To all:

I re-wrote that little musing a bit last night, but I originally wrote it over at Motorcycle-USA nearly two years ago. Frighteningly, it's even more true now than it was then. It's gotten worse each year since I started riding.

I think the greatest part of it all is the simple fear of mortality: the fact we all know, that someday we won't be doing what we can do now. I don't know if, when the time comes I'll be able to hang up my helmet quietly. Maybe it'll end more like that old movie The Last Run.* None of that really matters--how it will all end. The bare fact that it will is enough to swallow.

Now I'm gettin' freakin' gloomy. Forget all that crap, and until that day ROCK ON DUDES!


<* edit....The one with George C. Scott.>