Motorcycle Research Paper Question - Why do you ride? | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Motorcycle Research Paper Question - Why do you ride?

Mostly because one day, trying to find a cheap car online, I wondered aloud to my friends/co-workers about it being easier/cheaper to get a bike and they all started cracking up. I had no exposure to bikes as a kid, nobody in the family had one. And the first bike that I bought was a travesty, a shame to all motorcycles. Hasn't gotten old yet.
 
CafeRay said:
This is an epidemic in modern society: be afraid of anything, thus do nothing. This has lead to the default of playing video games or masturbating to the internet, while gaining massive weight and dealing with diabetes.
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wow!
 
Joe Bass said:
OP ^^^^^ this is coming from someone who is recovering from a recent serious crash. That in itself is a reason that can't be put into words.

mr. walczak -- how goes the recovery?
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slowly but surely, can't walk yet. I'll be back and riding soon enough!
 
I like doing it. A lot.
 
There is something about being a part of the experience. You are a part of the machine. You have to be engaged with the machine to control and maneuver. It's intimate with the environment. Temperature, smell, rain, sun, wind. Having a passenger, they wrap themselves around you. They touch you. The experience is together.

You can feel every input and function of the machine. Throttle response, engine revs, clutch, brakes, tires grip, suspension compression and rebound. Dive into a corner, exit and exhale with a grin.

You have the view of everything. The surroundings. The sky above, the ground below and everything in between.
 
I wear my motorcycle like Ironman wears his suit, it's an extension of my abilities as a mere mortal. My first choice was glider pilot or hang-gliding but that was part-time at best and much more expensive and time committment. We ride to feel alive, for the rush.
 
nakkers said:
There is something about being a part of the experience. You are a part of the machine. You have to be engaged with the machine to control and maneuver. It's intimate with the environment. Temperature, smell, rain, sun, wind. Having a passenger, they wrap themselves around you. They touch you. The experience is together.

You can feel every input and function of the machine. Throttle response, engine revs, clutch, brakes, tires grip, suspension compression and rebound. Dive into a corner, exit and exhale with a grin.

You have the view of everything. The surroundings. The sky above, the ground below and everything in between.
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This! ^^^ Same reason I go back country skiing in BC every year. The feeling of doing it right just elevates you. Floating linked turns through deep powder down a steep treed pitch is like hitting the perfect set of linked turns on an amazing back road somewhere beautiful. You don't see the trees, you see the white spaces in between and it all just comes together. The fact that it isn't easy, that you have to work to improve makes the reward of doing right all the more worthwhile. But on a bike, it can still work even if your not someplace special. Taking advantage of the bike's acceleration and maneuverability to get through some gaps on the 401 and free yourself from that bunched-up group of cages on your commute to work can feel "almost" as rewarding. Riding makes my commute soooo much more enjoyable.

Why did I start riding is a different question. I never thought about it as a kid or younger adult. It just wasn't on my radar screen. In 2008 I had a realized that I was putting a lot of miles commuting in a car that deserved better. Honda also started a big marketing campaign for the CBR 125 and I realized, "holy ****, you can get a motorcycle for $3,600! So I started looking for a motorcycle as a cheap commuter vehicle. I didn't get the CBR, it looked like a toy under me, but I did get a V-Strom 650 and I fell in love with riding. Since then I've stepped up to something with a bit more kick. I commute from mid-March to mid-December, I get out on weekends, sometimes with friends, sometimes just with my wife on the back. She and I have now done 2 touring holidays in Europe. I get on at least 1 long weekend ride with friends down to PA plus 1 day dirt biking with Trail Tours a year, and I've done track training with Fast & Racer 5 and a couple endurance races. Let's just say I'm making up for lost riding time when I didn't know any better ... so in short, ... "Mid Life Crisis!"
 
Loved cars/bikes as early as I can remember. I saw a mint Yamaha YZ50 for sale for $275 when I was 6 and it was love at first sight. Since I was already helping out on the farm my parents agreed to buy it for me. For the next 4yrs my parents always knew where I was because they could hear me riding around the farm (for the tiny price of gas I was always outdoors and not indoors annoying them). That YZ50 turned into a CR80 (track started with this bike), YZ125, and CR500 by my 16th birthday. Progression to streetbikes was only natural.
I still enjoy every ride as much as I did when I was 6yrs old.
 
nikhil567 said:
Hi everyone,

I was wondering if everyone could help me out with a research paper that I have to work on for a sociology paper.

My question to anyone on this forum is why do you ride?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I do ride, I just wanted to see some other peoples reasoning behind it as well
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Is the research subject why do people ride or how much people are only too happy to fall all over themselves to explain why they ride?
 
I ride because I find it engaging, challenging and a way to relax.
I ride to experience and enjoy places that are otherwise not very accessible to me.
I ride to commute, because for me it's much faster from point to point than in a car.
I ride to be more connected with the space and land around me as I move through it, especially when I travel and explore.
 
Why do we voluntarily do anything?

Pure, unadulterated, juvenile enjoyment. The adrenaline rush. The sensory experience. The environs and atmosphere. The camaraderie. The exclusivity of membership into a very cool fraternity.

Pulling up to a light on a cool bike and knowing that if there's a guy in the minivan next to you he wishes he were in your shoes and his wife wishes she was on your pillion. :D
 
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Had a Honda 80 when I was a kid. The feeling of freedom on the trails and in fields etc was amazing. I feel the same way now in my 30s. Worth every penny to me. I also lived my teens on a bmx bike so I've always loved two wheels. In my 20s I got into track driving my car etc. Realized after a few years that it was too expensive so back to two wheels I went! Nothing like it.
 
Matt Rain said:
Probably the case for 100% of us. I regret starting so late.
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I know for sure I was one of those kids being pushed in a stroller and awed by bikes.
Its so funny to see a little toddler who probably has no idea what a motorcycle is yet mesmerized craning his neck to look back at you across the whole intersection :lmao:

That's about as primitive as the cool factor can get...
 
Motorcycling and especially track riding is a total sausage fest. I definitely don't do this for the chicks. Not sure where they are but it aint the track.
 
Loved riding since I could remember - clear memory at 3 falling off a tricycle and blood all over the place.
Huge jump from a small bicycle to a geared 26" I could barely spin the pedals on ( generally ridden standing up ) - still recall exactly where I was on both of those occasions even to the smell of the hot tar on the summer road.

Got up to 50 mile round trips on the 3 speeds we had then and migrated to Sears 40cc that I could outrun on the bicycle on a good day and then a Honda 305 Hawk that I adore to this day.

Nearly 50 years later ( maybe already ) still riding for the love of it in Canada and Australia maybe 25k km between the two riding seasons.

It's fun at a whole bunch of levels that are not reached in the cage. My kid is exactly the same - had no interest in cages...anything with wheels since he was 3 or so ( burned out the wheels on one of those low 3 wheelers ).
Now he's been riding off road and on for almost a decade and we are heading cross country in June.

Something in the genes?? ;)

My model was a guy named Barry from the Forks area who passed last year at 82 I think - riding legally since he was 14 ( Brit ) .
He was still very active when his heart gave out.

Burgman 650 is a heavy bike and he had a huge grin on his face when he took it for a spin ...his first automatic.
Love of riding?? ....you betcha. Really a shame he never wrote his memoirs.

Nother one of that long time rider bunch is Marty who is in his 60s and camps out on a old Beemer and did 34,000 km on a single trip last year ( his longest ) including Alaska - loves the remote regions.
Big time inspiration for me to keep riding.

It gets in deep to some of us and not so easy to put into words.

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The camaraderie.
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That too.....big time factor for me tho I also love winding through the mountains all on my own a long way from home no matter what the weather...something far more elemental than a Tstorm in a cage.....even smells as you ride - from fresh grass to the cigarillo in the pickup ahead. Very different experience.
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