{"id":10136,"date":"2021-01-28T13:33:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=10136"},"modified":"2021-01-28T13:33:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:33:44","slug":"flying-on-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/flying-on-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying On The Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dirtbike<\/a>

This is the kind of flying I can get into.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve read that pilots make better motorcyclists, or motorcyclists make better pilots \u2013 I can\u2019t remember which. Probably the latter. Both go beyond the basic right, left, forward, backward movement that you get in a car. Both have to lean<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You do get some lean in a car when you turn sharply, but it is centrifugal force trying to throw you in the opposite direction of your turn, while the seat you\u2019re sitting on essentially remains in the same plane. On a bike, as in an airplane, the entire vehicle rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise on an axis running from front to back. You remain firmly planted on your seat, which rotates with you, and you lean in the direction of the turn, not the opposite.<\/p>\n

What this adds up to is fun. Anyone who rides, or who has spent much time with bikers, knows that bikers love \u201cthe twisties.\u201d Whereas car tires are shaped like a bowl, with a flat bottom, motorcycle tires are more circular. You roll the bike to the left and to the right and the patch in contact with the road moves up the left side and up the right side and it\u2019s all good because you\u2019re supposed to use the sides of the tires, not just the bottom.<\/p>\n

In the twisties, it all comes together into a dance. In a series of s-turns you go into a right-hander and you lean right and the bike rolls right, then, with a left-hander immediately following, you straighten the bike back up and keep going over on the left. Then it\u2019s back up and over on the right and back up and over on the left. There\u2019s no better feeling than rolling those tires all the way across their profile, side to side, and back again, again and again. You set up a rhythm, your body and the bike move gracefully to the music of the road, and the world is a wonderful place. It has to be the closest thing to what pilots feel that you can experience on the ground.<\/p>\n

Of course, if you\u2019re a dirtbike rider or a motocross rider you also get the ups and downs that pilots get, and you even catch a little air now and then. But I\u2019m a bit leery of that business of going up in the air more than just over whoops. I like the fact that if a motorcycle\u2019s engine stalls you just coast to a stop, as opposed to being in the air praying you can either restart it or find a place to land safely.<\/p>\n

I do like to fly, but I\u2019m happy to do my flying on the ground.<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

Motorcycle riding gives you a sense of freedom that you don’t get in a car. Your senses take on a different significance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve read that pilots make better motorcyclists, or motorcyclists make better pilots \u2013 I can\u2019t remember which. Probably the latter. Both go beyond the basic right, left, forward, backward movement that you get in a car. Both have to lean. You do get some lean in a car when you turn sharply, but it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[1116],"class_list":["post-10136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dirt-biking","tag-motorcycles-and-airplanes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10138,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10136\/revisions\/10138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}