What is a biker?

[tradrockrat]

A biker.

So many people have asked what that phrase means, but we can’t tell them. Not because the answer is too complex, but because it’s too simple. Words define. Being a biker is indefinable. This fact is what separates a bike enthusiast from a biker - this and nothing else. A bike enthusiast loves bikes and loves to ride. What it means to be a biker can’t be defined.

But people are curious and they want to know why I do what I do - why we do what we do. So we get the question, “Why?” But words fail us, and experience has proven it again and again until we give up. That’s why we say things like “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand.” And thus, because we feel the need to give some sort of answer, the questioner leaves feeling as if we are excluding him, when nothing could be further from the truth.

We want more bikers, but we know you can’t make people into bikers because it’s too personal a decision. It comes solely from the inside of a man or woman. Society doesn’t create bikers. Nor does a specific brand of motorcycle.

I can’t define biker for you, and you can’t define it for me, but we both know it when we see it, because we are both ourselves bikers.

So I can’t tell you what a biker is, but I can tell you why I am a biker. Unfortunately, words would fail me yet again if I tried to define, so I have to use a story.

I’m a biker because of rides like today.

Today, I finally got to go for a nice long ride after a month without two wheels.

Only a month? So what, you ask.

Well, ask my wife.

I don’t think I had spontaneously smiled for three weeks. Shit happens, and my life recently has been full of it. Work stresses, three vehicles not running at the same time, money issues, starting more schooling for my professional development - you name it, it happened this month.

So today my Sporty finally runs, and runs well. That alone is enough for a smile, but I’m going for a ride today - maybe 80 miles tops, but a ride none the less.

I leave the house and head to the 1431 west, which runs into hill country. For the first 15 minutes I’m just getting used to an old friend that I haven’t been with for over a month. We get used to each other again and the thoughts crowding mind mind and weighing down my soul starts to resurface, but this time I don’t fight it, I just let them come. I tend to find clarity on the road and maybe some solutions will come my way.

As I escape the gravity of Cedar Park and get into the hills, I pick it up. My speed increases until I’m sufficiently over the speed limit that a cop would be a bad thing to see right now, but I also begin to realize that some of my problems aren’t so bad - they’re just long term solutions. This is a real issue for me as I’m not a long term guy.

I’ve never been one to spend too much time introspectively assessing my faults and weaknesses, but I do know that if I don’t know myself, I’m asking for real problems socially and emotionally, so I tend to try to keep a healthy dose of self awareness about me. Therefore, I have no medical or psychological basis for the belief that my ADHD has put me in a lifestyle that craves rapid solutions, but it sure as hell feels right to my gut.

If I buy a part for my bike and it doesn’t work - I’m stopped. If I try to get a simple part and it isn’t in stock, my life stops. If the Dealer then forgets to order the fucking thing putting me yet another week behind, life goes on, but I don’t. I need this solved. I know how to solve it. I've got the fucking solution right in front of me! I need a fucking 5 dollar spring. It isn’t available! Life is stuck until I get the god damn fucking bike running again! It’s a fucking 2 hour job that is going to take a month! How the hell am I supposed to be happy right now?!?!?

This is my thought process. For three different vehicles. At the same time.

I’ve also got the uniquely Irish ability to feel the greatest mood swings this side of clinical depression and I know that I’ve been in the 'ole Irish funk because of this.

I realized about 30 minutes into my trip the real reason I’m so pissed is that I can’t make the process of fixing my life go faster - it’s out of my control. This is a seriously bad thing for me. Others might be able to handle this just fine, and some might wonder why I’m such a whiny bitch, but the fact remains this is real issue for me. But recognizing this will help me cope when this ride is over, and maybe I’ll be a little more pleasant around my wife - she sure as hell has been trying her damndest to help me through this month, but I haven’t been to much help back. Course having now gotten rid of the truck (bye bye you bitch!) and finally fixed the Harley, I’m only an obsolete part on e-bay away from having the 78 Yamaha running again too (140 dollars for a broken part two weeks ago - still doesn’t run)

It’s the ride that made this insight possible. Why? Because my mind is shutting out everything now, one by one. My mind is reassessing what matters and frankly, at 90 MPH, paying the fuck attention to my bike and the road comes first! Multitasking unconsciously, my mind is doing what I can not make it do consciously - prioritizing my life.

Everything but the ride eventually fades from consciousness. I pull into a small town just smiling serenely.

I fill the tank with some fresh gas and just turn around to drive home. The ride home relaxes me more than I’ve been able to relax since the shifter peg stopped working 4 weeks ago.

Another thought occurs to me as I ride. The truck wasn’t really that big a deal other than not having it when I needed it, but having both bikes in pieces at the same time physically hurt to look at. So much of who I am is wrapped up in the feeling that those two machines give me.

I’m in a bad place compared to most. A bike enthusiast might be able to handle living without a bike for a while. Maybe he isn’t afraid to let the bike sit for two rainy weeks and ride to work in the car while it’s raining. I can’t. I need the bike. I need the peace. This thought isn’t new to me, but I feel it viscerally on this ride and now I pick the speed back up; not to escape my thoughts, but to exalt in the lost feeling I so missed.

Man and bike.

The last ten miles to home I’m back in traffic and my mind starts thinking again, but now my thoughts are on Canada and a little girl who needs money to live. I can’t wait to get up there and help out as much as I can.

I got home with a shit eating grin on my face and a feeling of peace so profound I felt literally like a different man.

I’ve gone longer without a ride - hell there was a two year span where I couldn’t afford a bike after the last one got totaled, but knowing they were right there in the garage just waiting for me to put my life together by putting those bikes together was almost more than I care to think about - even now.

But with the bike running and me riding, perspective has come back and I’m ready to stop whining and start helping myself and others that might need it. My quality of life has suffered without two wheels, but now I am content.

That’s how I know I’m a biker.

[speed]

Wow.

SM

[mrpiff]

Makes perfect sense to me Trad!

[Kate]

Sweet...

[HDangel]

well done trad and welcome back!

[wrecker]

Trad as always well done .. for years i thought i was a biker , then one day i was setting in front of a store this gal sat next to me and asked if i where a biker i said yes then she told me that she thought of pussy 24/7 and that she was a lesbian so after thinking about it for a while i decided so am i

[shell]

Originally Posted by wrecker

Trad as always well done .. for years i thought i was a biker , then one day i was setting in front of a store this gal sat next to me and asked if i where a biker i said yes then she told me that she thought of pussy 24/7 and that she was a lesbian so after thinking about it for a while i decided so am i

LMFAO

Trad all I can say on your written words is WOW !!!!

[TexasFatboy]

Great read, Dan! And glad ya got the machinery fixed to help clear the mind...

And wrecker, based on that definition, I guess I'm a lesbian too. Yee haw!

[Archangel]

Originally Posted by speedman

Wow.

SM

I am with SM.....all I can say is WOW!!!!

[tradrockrat]

shit - now I have to write about why I'm a lesbian...