Why do you ride?

Shopping for a motorcycle was fun, however I was aware that riding a geared bike – especially a sports one – was no child’s play. Unlike in a car where you have a tonne of metal and plastic around you to protect you, there is only bone shattering skin shearing tarmac around a motorcycle. So while I had initiated this discussion on Team BHP, an online forum for auto enthusiast which I am a part of, I also read whatever I could lay my hands on, which had anything remotely to do with riding. Much of the theoretical knowledge has come from reading the works of two world class riders, Keith Code and Nick Ienatsch and I acknowledge that I would be quoting them liberally. The following posts thus, is an effort to capture what I have learnt in the past 8 months of riding a motorcycle which also happens to be my first 8 months of riding a geared motorcycle, and riding one heard. I still love taking the wife’s Activa out for a spin often :) 

WHY DO YOU RIDE?

An important question that you must answer as it would lead you to all subsequent answers. Commuting on a motorcycle is a common answer many would discover about themselves, and that could be good enough. If that is the sole purpose please do not bother wracking your head over whether it’s a single downtube or a perimeter frame, or whether it makes enough horses to beat most mid sized cars hands down. Go to the nearest Hero/Honda/Yamaha showroom, see if they are kind enough to give you a test ride from any of their 125-150 cc selection and pick the one you connect with. These machines will take tons of abuse and still run forever with just the periodical oil change. No sense in getting a Japanese or worse, Italian torture machine where the rider is stretched across from low slung clip ons to foot pegs which are placed so far back that your wife/GF may mistake those for the pillion, if she is able to perch herself there on the first place. If you know you are going to be hitting the highways often and for long distances, do a bit of research before you find yourself in a Royal Enfield showroom (which you will) as not everything which is branded as a ‘cruiser’ makes for comfortable cruising over hundreds of kilometres. If its to impress the girl in your neighborhood you have been eyeing, well open an auto mag or youtube channel and you will find mean looking machines; just ensure you have enough pain relievers handy for your wrists and lower back, you will need em.

While its difficult to predict just where and how much you would end up using your motorcycle – you may connect with the machine so much that you ride the crap out of it, or leave it under the cover in one corner of the garage – it’s a good idea to spend some time chewing over the purchase decision unless of course one is needed immediately, to commute for example. Try and borrow rides from your friends, different kinds if possible – cruisers like Royal enfields/Bajaj Avengers, street naked like the ubiquitous Pulsars or the manic KTM Dukes or supersports with torture inducing postures like the Yamaha R15. Quite likely, your heart will whisper the answer to you.