As long as you have your health. It is everything!When you retire, then you can ride full time and call it your occupation
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At what point is it not a hobby anymore?
- Thread starter LePhillou
- Start date
Trials
Well-known member
You ride track! I'm impressed
Trials
Well-known member
Oh, ?
you might want to start soon if you plan to be doing it when you are old, old comes on pretty fast.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I ride my bike for basic transportation from April to December -- the only days I don't ride to work are when it's raining hard on the way in (don't mind coming home wet, nuisance arriving at the office wet and dirty).
I don't look at it like a hobby, more of a passion. Hobbies fill spare time, passions are part of your life, you are ever changing and experiencing or re-experiencing. My motorcycling exploits have taken me to every size and category of bike over the years. I tinker with old bikes (that's a hobby), but when it comes to firing them up and making them go... that's a passion and for me it gets stronger every year.
I go to one of those places every week to tend to my 95 the old father in law. It's one of the reasons i walk 4km every day...... And why i drink.
How old are your kids?
When I read "Kids", that caught my attention.
When my kids were young there was no way I could have enjoyed riding. My spouse would have been disgruntled if I simply took off on a moments notice to "go play" whilst dumping her with the kids, and honestly, my life back when my kids were young was just too insanely busy to really have time to enjoy riding.
Yeah, sure...I could have had a bike and rode it, but I wouldn't have gone far, or for very long. It would have been very utilitarian for me.
See any correlation?
That's the biggest reason I didn't have a bike for ~20 years after riding from the age of 5 up until my early 20's - I knew I wouldn't be able to really enjoy it. I saw no reason to own one anymore accordingly as it didn't even make sense for commuting for me.
Now, my kids are adults. They aren't a time commitment anymore. 1 doesn't even live at home anymore and the other is in his 20's and he lives his own life. I can (and sometimes do) get a text from a buddy at 8AM on a Saturday and by 9AM a bunch of us are rolling for a few hours at minimum, and sometimes, all day. I do multi day trips with friends. Yeah, I still can't just ditch my wife constantly, but the kids are no longer an issue so there's no heat for short notice things, and planning trips doesn't present much of an issue anymore either with discussion ahead of time.
Secondly, does your spouse ride? When I got back into riding my wife quickly decided being a passenger was fun, but riding her own would be WAY more fun. She got her licence, and the rest is history. Suffice to say that when your wife is going with you and/or rides her own there's far more fun and relaxation involved - no worries in the back of your head about the inevitable "is she grumpy I'm not at home" routine.
Anyhow, some food for thought.
When I read "Kids", that caught my attention.
When my kids were young there was no way I could have enjoyed riding. My spouse would have been disgruntled if I simply took off on a moments notice to "go play" whilst dumping her with the kids, and honestly, my life back when my kids were young was just too insanely busy to really have time to enjoy riding.
Yeah, sure...I could have had a bike and rode it, but I wouldn't have gone far, or for very long. It would have been very utilitarian for me.
See any correlation?
That's the biggest reason I didn't have a bike for ~20 years after riding from the age of 5 up until my early 20's - I knew I wouldn't be able to really enjoy it. I saw no reason to own one anymore accordingly as it didn't even make sense for commuting for me.
Now, my kids are adults. They aren't a time commitment anymore. 1 doesn't even live at home anymore and the other is in his 20's and he lives his own life. I can (and sometimes do) get a text from a buddy at 8AM on a Saturday and by 9AM a bunch of us are rolling for a few hours at minimum, and sometimes, all day. I do multi day trips with friends. Yeah, I still can't just ditch my wife constantly, but the kids are no longer an issue so there's no heat for short notice things, and planning trips doesn't present much of an issue anymore either with discussion ahead of time.
Secondly, does your spouse ride? When I got back into riding my wife quickly decided being a passenger was fun, but riding her own would be WAY more fun. She got her licence, and the rest is history. Suffice to say that when your wife is going with you and/or rides her own there's far more fun and relaxation involved - no worries in the back of your head about the inevitable "is she grumpy I'm not at home" routine.
Anyhow, some food for thought.
All fine when you're a track/trials/whatever rider. Not so much when you're an open road rider.
And sometimes the family just won't have any interest. I used to be seriously into radio controlled models - planes and helis. I tried my damnest to get my kids interested in it (my son at least) so it wasn't a "Dad is taking off to go play with his toys" scenario, but unfortunately it just didn't turn ANY of their cranks so in short order I was soon going along again.
Been there, done that. Us in 2008 on one of our many, many trips, this out out to the west coast.
The whole fam-jam was into camping. So we did it. Hard core, for about 10 years. But as the kids grew up lost interest we moved on from this as well. Had Jetskis for a few years overlapping the trailer and the time before we got back into the MC's, etc.
Motorcycling, during that era, would have been purely a "Me" thing, and I was the sort of parent would would have felt guilty being an absentee parent off riding constantly. So I didn't. I focused on things we could all do and enjoy together.
We're now full circle where enjoying motorcycles is possible again. Not just riding them.
The whole fam-jam was into camping. So we did it. Hard core, for about 10 years. But as the kids grew up lost interest we moved on from this as well. Had Jetskis for a few years overlapping the trailer and the time before we got back into the MC's, etc.
Motorcycling, during that era, would have been purely a "Me" thing, and I was the sort of parent would would have felt guilty being an absentee parent off riding constantly. So I didn't. I focused on things we could all do and enjoy together.
We're now full circle where enjoying motorcycles is possible again. Not just riding them.
Look, you really don't owe anyone an explanation or excuse for how you feel about riding. If it was a passion 5 years ago and you lived for every minute on the bike then great, glad you enjoyed it to the max. If things have changed and now it's just a commuter process then that's OK too.
Don't feel guilty about how your riding perspective has, or has not, changed. It is what it is and people change and evolve over time . Just move on with whatever you're into now and don't worry about it.
Don't feel guilty about how your riding perspective has, or has not, changed. It is what it is and people change and evolve over time . Just move on with whatever you're into now and don't worry about it.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
You might be on to something...noticed the same with my grandma...she stopped moving/slowed down and her health got bad, but all of her friends who stayed active are still running around
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