Why do you love motorcycles?

I love motorcycles for many reasons. I want to wax poetic myself but time is against me this morning. I found out early how fun and painful a dirt bike can be. Then how different a street bike is compared to the dirt bike. then after my first deployment to the eastern Med and sight seeing around Lebanon, the bike back home became a requirement, sort of like what @MikeDeY mentioned. I didn't ever become attached to a particular bike till I bought my first new bike, number 26, the VMAX. A whole new world opened up for me with that bike.
I have never owned a lemon out of all 28 bikes I've ridden. Maybe someday i will sit down and write something about each of them, would probably bore us all to tears though. But then again, e
I love motorcycles for many reasons. I want to wax poetic myself but time is against me this morning. I found out early how fun and painful a dirt bike can be. Then how different a street bike is compared to the dirt bike. then after my first deployment to the eastern Med and sightseeing around Lebanon, the bike back home became a requirement, sort of like what @MikeDeY mentioned. I didn't ever become attached to a particular bike till I bought my first new bike, number 26, the VMAX. A whole new world opened up for me with that bike.
I have never owned a lemon out of all 28 bikes I've ridden. Maybe someday i will sit down and write something about each of them, would probably bore us all to tears though. But then again, each one of them has done something positive for my soul.
ach on of them has done something positive for my soul.

I love em' like any addict loves their particular vice. They got under my skin as a youth; mini bikes, then racing Motocross, and then desert Hare & Hounds as I used a street bike to commute and such on. I thought after 15 years and 500,000 miles of exclusively using motorcycles as a legal messenger in So-California I was 'burnt out'. 2 years without a 'wheel' and I was back perusing the local dealership inventories.

I grow weary, my butt catches fire and my hands get numb much quicker than 'back in the day'; but there still is no other place, no other experience on earth that gives me near the solace as piloting a motorcycle.

For as long as i can remember a visit to my grandfathers place meant standing in his garage staring at the beat up old hondamatic that was always leaning against the back wall and waiting for his best friend, Uncle Jimmy, to come riding up on his Harley so i could beg for a ride. Ive loved bikes since the first time he put me on there and took me to the end of the street and back. Never had money/access to anything until i was 22 when i finally bought a beat to hell old goldwing. My grandpa and Jimmy would come and help me fix it up, we'd talk about riding and i listen to the stories of their youth riding. About 6 months after I got that bike running right my Uncle died due to complications with his diabetes (grandpa hasnt been able to ride since i was a kid due to back and knee issues) so i never got to ride with him, but every time i twist that throttle it makes me think of him and there is nothing to replace how great that feels.

Bryan said:

For as long as i can remember a visit to my grandfathers place meant standing in his garage staring at the beat up old hondamatic that was always leaning against the back wall and waiting for his best friend, Uncle Jimmy, to come riding up on his Harley so i could beg for a ride. Ive loved bikes since the first time he put me on there and took me to the end of the street and back. Never had money/access to anything until i was 22 when i finally bought a beat to hell old goldwing. My grandpa and Jimmy would come and help me fix it up, we'd talk about riding and i listen to the stories of their youth riding. About 6 months after I got that bike running right my Uncle died due to complications with his diabetes (grandpa hasnt been able to ride since i was a kid due to back and knee issues) so i never got to ride with him, but every time i twist that throttle it makes me think of him and there is nothing to replace how great that feels.

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Very similar story here. The nice thing is now my kids and wife all ride and we often ride together. It makes up for not riding with my Uncle and cousins.

sleeves said:

I'm definitely not a poet but here goes.

Its funny but when I was 14 I only wanted an R/C airplane and was saving up for one. My parents (who don't ride and never had) said "you should get a motorbike, it would be better than an RC plane" I thought this was a good idea as in NZ you could get your license at 15, what I didn't realize is they were probably trying to kill me....

Anyway got some piece of crap 100cc trail bike and it was simply the sense of freedom it gave me, then I got a Triumph at about 16 I think and never looked back (looked inside lots of motors, gearboxes, carbies etc, etc, for the rest of my life, but hey).

When I got a job at an engineering company I pulled up on my Triumph and parked in a big row of *** sports bikes (the late eighties). The engineers gave me a hell of a hard time about my old piece of obsolete crap continuously, but also helped me repair it, paint it and everything else without fail, this is where I discovered the camaraderie of bikers in general.

Over the years that freedom and camaraderie has got me into trouble, love, drunken stupors, pain. Its got me lost, found, happy, sad and everything else that's part of life.

And while I've met some asses on bikes, I met most of my best friends too.

That's my bit anyway.

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Beautiful mate

There's just something so "freeing" about them. As @DJ said my first love is flying. But I've found flying, riding and boating to all be the same. They free the mind and the spirit. They all come with a lot of extra "work and effort" and I guess they all sort of fall out of the "normal" range, but they all make the troubles and worries of life fall away and leave the mind imprinted with such beautiful things no one else ever "slows down" even to notice, let alone really has the opportunities to SEE! It's just freeing, plain and simple, and I'm a plain and simple man who likes to be free!

Mittzy said:

Beautiful mate

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Thanks, as an afterthought I recently managed to get an RC Plane too, wasn't as good as I had fantasized, lasted about 30 seconds before burying itself in the dirt at high speed, I have a video my wife was taking of the doomed attempt and the highlight is her trying not to laugh as she walks over to me and my destroyed toy...she didn't do too well

sleeves said:

Thanks, as an afterthought I recently managed to get an RC Plane too, wasn't as good as I had fantasized, lasted about 30 seconds before burying itself in the dirt at high speed, I have a video my wife was taking of the doomed attempt and the highlight is her trying not to laugh as she walks over to me and my destroyed toy...she didn't do too well

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Sadly I have the same tale of the ill fated maiden voyage of my RC plane and helicopter

I like riding in the rain and I always look at those blokes hiding under the overpass as I pass by and think, they don't know what their missing. Bunch of wimps

Mittzy said:

Sadly I have the same tale of the ill fated maiden voyage of my RC plane and helicopter

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Yep seems harder than it looks, I spent winter building my plane off an old 1960's plan and kitting it out, lot of work for 30 seconds of confusion and terror, then found out you can buy them ready to go and pretty robust out of the box, just got given a helicopter a mate bought that lasted less time than my plane, have ordered parts to fix it and a computer simulator, must be learning as I grow older....

Pic for your amusement