Motorcycle Honeymoon Phase Over? Where to now?

Remember how exciting it was when you started riding a motorcycle and then bought your first bike?  You felt on top of the world with your newly discovered passion! You’d get butterflies in your stomach and your heart would beat a little faster at the thought of sharing time with your "sweet" motorcycle. The two of you attached in adventure, performance and safety- the "honeymoon phase".

In the honeymoon phase all is fresh and new. Inescapably you will hit an eventual pleasure plateau. Motorcycling, perhaps comparable to life- your career, personal relationships all level off.  When the honeymoons' over you’ll feel as though you’ve “been there done that”; as you ready to ride you'll find yourself saying “where to now?”

When I started riding, it was the same- you couldn’t remove from the seat of my bike. I’d find any excuse to be on my motorcycle. During the week I’d hurry home after work, skip dinner just to get a few hours of riding in before nightfall. It didn’t matter where I went as long as I was riding- the quality of the ride or it's distance was not relevant. But then it changed. I started to weigh out the trouble of getting the gear on and the motorcycle out to the quality, time and distance of the ride. The rides became predictable. So I started to explore other areas of motorcycling. I became an instructor, took mechanics courses and even left the country and moved to a tropical Caribbean Island just so I could ride all year long! Motorcycling has given me now twenty nine years of intimate sporting adventure and taken my kicks to so many different plateaus!

Using my example, you've likely figured out the solution to keeping that riding flame of passion going -work on the intimacy of the relationship.  Get closer to motorcycling! It's up to you as to which extent you'll do that but here are a few suggestions to get you going! (Random order)

• Trade in your motorcycle for a larger size (cc) engine; the next size up.
• Change the style of riding i.e. cruiser to sport-bike or sport-bike to sport touring.
• Take a motorcycle mechanics course.
• Practise doing your own general maintenance–start with an oil change or understand your braking system by doing your own brake fluid refresh.
• Take an off road course.
• Enroll in a track day-learn circuit riding!
• Start racing or some form of motorcycle competition.
• Take part in a rally (KYMCO Mad B Scooter Rally).
• Try to beat a record i.e. Iron Butt contests.
• Start a motorcycle club or charity ride.
• Travel to a challenging destination i.e. Panama.
• Ride with new friends – join a new club.
• Become a motorcycle instructor.
• Take a month off and go for a four week tour.
• Take an all inclusive European motorcycle tour (Edelweiss tours).
• Modify/customize your motorcycle.
• Get a custom paint job for your motorcycle.
• Move to a climate where you can ride all year.
• Diversify your style of riding. Add an off road motorcycle or a scooter to your collection.

Once you move through these plateau’s and keep motorcycling interesting- ever increasing skills and knowledge, you'll result in an expanded intimacy for the activity! 

At this point in my life, the phase I fear most which inevitably accompanies ageing- the physical inability to ride! Though I've still many years ahead (counting my blessings!) it is unlikely I'll surrender gracefully, if at all, to this reality. But perhaps it will then be time to outfit myself with a motorcycle and side-car!  The romance may never last, but the intimacy never ends!

That’s The Way Love “Rolls”

I confess, and it’s no secret that I’m in love with motorcycling! Nothing else to date has succeeded to top this passion. You can’t break us up and in fact I’ve a license as a full endorsement of the relationship – a marriage license of sorts! We’ve shared thousands of kilometres between us and stayed together through the “rough patches” and catastrophes such as crashes on the track. We’ve moved to different continents and adjusted our methods through different variations of the bond. The day we first met is still a perfect memory. It was in Nova Scotia while stationed for a short term business position. I was shy and excited by a somewhat intimidated perception but it seemed so powerful and oh so intriguing! After the initial introductions and we got to know each other better, we partnered up, hit the road and never looked back except to check blind spots!

So I thought I’d see where others stand on the matter although I pretty much knew most would share the same passion that I do. I decided to use my social network on facebook which is 95% made up of motorcyclists to see what others really felt. I posted an update status question that asked: Would u say you have feelings of 'love' for your motorcycle? Would you say it has a life or personality of its own with an anthropomorphic tendency for your ride? The responses were overwhelming! One reply stated “It sure does. It's a part of me. I talk to it like it’s real and feel bad during the winter and it sits all by itself in the garage!” Another expressed “I definitely feel like there's a connection between me and my bike! I talk to her, pet her... and I "feel" her when I ride, especially at the track! She becomes part of me and me a part of her!” There was “YES!!! I love riding” and “I love love love my bike!!” and then just a simple response of “I do. I do. I do!”  

All of us remember the moment when we officially purchased and then picked up our first motorcycle and when it really becomes ours! We also remember and for some too many occasions of regret at situations when we had to sell a bike or trade it in for an upgrade. I’ll also bet that every rider has at least one photo of their motorcycle in their smart phone! I still have the key to my first sport bike. I told the person who purchased the bike from me I had lost the spare key just so I could keep a small memento! It was the key from my 1987 Honda Hurricane CBR600. I had to sell it because I was moving to the Caribbean. The other motorcycle “divorce” that still causes me pain, was my recent move to Canada. Customs would not allow me to bring my 1995 Ducati 900SSE due to emission and engine issues.

Motorcycling seems also to make love happen. So many friends I know met their partners during a motorcycle trip or event of some sort. The shared camaraderie removes a lot of social barriers that normally stand between everyday potential casual encounters. The renowned “biker’s wave” already symbolizes our kinship with each other. Could you imagine what reactions would occur if we waved at every one else in an auto?

The best motorcycle love story I’ve heard was shared with me during my Daytona Bike week and while filming our TLC biker girls show. We were co-hosting the largest “biker wedding vow renewal ceremony”. Motorcycle couples had gathered in the hundreds aiming to set the new record for this special ceremony. Our view from the stage was thrilling and overwhelming from the energy emitting from these ‘in love’ motorcycle married couples. It was after this ceremony I met an elderly couple in their mid/late 60’s. They had been together their entire lives. The wife and passenger said to me, “If we had had to speak to each other all those years, we would never have stayed together!” I guess not having to converse is another benefit of motorcycling.

Motorcycling is definitely my ultimate passion - the way I see it, anything that “starts my heart” in such a manner - must be ♥love!♥