The release of the movie Why We Ride, combined with a look at many of my motorcyclist friends, made me think about why I started riding.
I started riding a motorcycle to be cool. I grew up watching Happy Days on TV. Henry Winkler as the Fonz was the coolest character I knew. He had a mastery of the machine that I envied. There’s one episode where he puts his bike back together blind. I wanted that.
Flash forward many years. My best friend David got a bike. David was always much cooler than I was – tall, blonde, athletic, and good-looking compared to my short, awkward self. He had the self-confidence to know anything he did would be cool. The motorcycle was the topper.
I started riding a motorcycle. It didn’t do anything I expected. The only self-confidence I gained was from the fact I enjoyed riding and was good at going fast. That self-confidence melted the moment I got off the bike. I was still likely to have been voted “Least likely to get laid.” (Thanks to Dr. Les Kertay for that one.)
I was a nerd on a motorcycle.
No matter what I did, I never seemed any cooler. I started doing track days and racing – no cooler. Faster, but not cooler. I rode everywhere I could. I couldn’t shake being a nerd on a motorcycle. By this time it’s gotten into my blood. I define myself, in part, as a motorcyclist. I’m raising my daughter to be one, too. (She wants to be a particle physicist, so I’m thinking I’m raising another nerd motorcyclist.)
30 years and dozens of bikes later, I’ve realized that I’m still a nerd on a motorcycle. That’s just fine. I think back to the friends I’ve made and I realize lots of them are nerds on motorcycles, too. I once put together a group ride of about a dozen guys, and realized that the only one who wasn’t in IT was me. Some of the best riders I know are in typically nerdy professions – engineers, coders, accountants. All nerds on motorcycles.
I wonder how many of them started for the same reason I did.