Last post was about my son Shane and his motorcycle and our ride last summer. I'd like to look at motorcycling from a family-wide perspective. I don't know what it says about anything, but perhaps there are some things worth finding out via this route.
I’ve not ridden all my life. I rode a Cushman Eagle (picture on the left) in high school. I loved it. I could ride two up (read: me and my girlfriend or best buddy) at highway speeds. Very cool. Looking back: maybe not so cool…maybe dorky even then. The Eagle is a collectable now. They sell from around 2 grand to over eight thousand dollars. But they operated with an engine that produced 8 hp. Top highway speed was 50 mph. But that was the fifties. Everything was smaller and slower then.
I didn’t ride a two-wheeled motorized vehicle again for almost forty years. My second oldest son, Jason, was selling his motorcycle (Honda Shadow) and suggested I buy it from him. I took it as a joke. But his suggestion started an internal conversation that I couldn’t ignore. Why not? I was 53. I felt the need of some adventure. Maybe it was a kind of mid-life crisis. I began shopping. I explored brands, models. Eventually, in 1995 I bought a used BMW R100RT. That was the beginning of my obsession with motorcycles...esp BMW's and long distance, solo touring.
Jason did sell his Honda and later on bought an RS model BMW (don't know the year). He had it while he was living in Arizona and seemed (along with his then girlfriend, now wife Dana) to enjoy it pretty much year round. Jason now lives in Florida and has not had a bike since. We talk from time to time about taking a long ride together. I hope we manage it some time.
My son Michael was a rider for a short while. Michael bought something of a crotch rocket as his first bike. It would turn out that it was also his last bike...at least to date. His experience was not good. He dumped the bike twice...once clearly due to sand and leaves on a decreasing radius curve...and the second time probably just not negotiating another curve well enough to avoid losing control. Oddly both disasters occurred less than a mile apart and within a mile of our house. He claims the experience convinced him that motorcycles are not for him.
My other son, Chris...my eldest...has never had a bike, and as far as I know has never lusted after one. If pressed I expect Chris probably would admit to thinking me crazy for my love of long solo motorcycle trips. Many people would agree with him.
And then there's my wife. Susan has never owned a motorcycle, but about a year ago she and a friend took a "course" that was billed as a lead-in to the MSF course offered all over the country. They had some instruction on how to ride and shift and steer and then were turned loose on 250cc bikes. She loved it. Her rationale for taking the course was to learn enough about bikes so that if, when she was riding pillion, something happened to me, she could jump on the bike and go for help...or something like that. She went on after the course and actually studied for the learners permit. Unfortunately, hubris interfered with her common sense and she didn't prepare well for the test. The residue is that her motorcycle fling came to an abrupt end at the RMV office that day. She still enjoys riding pillion. We need to (and will) do more of that.
And that's the family snapshot. Three out of four kids ride or rode. My wife gave it a shot. Shane and I are the only one's currently riding. Shane's riding is largely commuting in San Francisco. Having ridden in that lovely city I have the utmost respect for someone who learned to ride on the hills of SF. They are steep and learning to ride a bike under those conditions makes for some outstanding skills. Our trip last year seems to have awakened an interest in more long, back country rides. More on all that later.
