No Fun Riding Alone?
Monday, October 14th, 2013
The Harley in question.
A fellow down the street has been riding a Harley for, I don’t know, a year? Maybe two. But now the bike is for sale. Wonder why?
So we were out for a walk Saturday and one of the guys living in this house was out on the porch smoking. “Why are you selling the Harley?” I asked. I don’t know these guys, I don’t know who owns it, but I figured this was sufficient to kick off a discussion. It did.
“It’s my buddy’s. Yeah, it’s for sale.”
“Why?”
“He’s got no one to ride with. It’s no fun riding alone.”
And we continued walking.
Wow. No fun riding alone. That is so wrong, and such a sad reason to quit riding.
OK, so first, this is a young single guy and his idea of having a motorcycle is probably to go for an occasional cruise with a bunch of friends and hit a few bars. I can see how that doesn’t work if you don’t have someone to ride with. It’s not about the riding, it’s about the socializing.
So does he really not care about the actual riding? Because if he does it’s not that hard to find people to ride with, and then to make friends with others who ride. First off, there are plenty of organized rides he could go to. And then there are clubs. After all, the guy has a Harley–all he would have to do is go on some of the rides by the HOG group sponsored by the dealer he bought the bike from. He’d meet plenty of other riders there. Lots of socializing.
But you know me, I have to take exception to the whole idea that riding alone is no fun. Sure, I like riding with friends, but when you get down to it, I probably enjoy riding alone the best. People think of freedom when they think of motorcycles and there is no freedom like being on your own. You go where you want to go, stop when you want to stop, do whatever it is you–you–want to do.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been riding with the OFMC and I’ve seen something I wanted to stop for but didn’t because I didn’t want to interrupt the ride. The more people in your group the longer it takes to get rolling again. And then I have regretted again and again not having stopped. No, riding with the guys has its pluses but it definitely has its minuses as well.
I could ramble on and on with this particular topic but I won’t. If you never ride alone, maybe you should try it. Isn’t simply riding the bike fun?
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
AIMExpo will debut in Orlando Oct. 16-20
Biker Quote for Today
To ride or not to ride? That is a stupid question.
