By Joe Ballegeer
Forward: I started this website to tinker with my own motorbike mind. To reach out to a community that I cared for so much, without having to fight my social anxiety disorder to touch. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would accomplish anything of the sort. I thought I would hammer away on my keyboard, racking my brain for analogies that I would later re-read and find lackluster all on my own. Happy, but alone.
Joe has proven me wrong, and I never been so elated to be so. Please enjoy our first Inner Motorbike guess writer; Joe Ballegeer’s thoughts, on our Motorbike down time.
Best,
Jeff.
I recently participated in a virtual family gathering. Across the seven people on the call, we fumbled our way through the usual catch-up conversation – the weather really has been crazy the past few weeks. Between the stop-start of “I was, oh sorry, wait, I, no sorry you go ahead” my father-in-law mentioned he registered his motorcycle’s mileage at the Harley dealer. It was not long before the conversation traversed from why he was clocking miles to where those miles would take him. Among the destinations listed, the one that captured my attention was a twenty-hog pilgrimage to Appalachia. Hearing this my mind flickered with memories of an early September afternoon I spent jamming down Skyline Drive over the Shenandoah valley. Despite my in-laws and I holding divergent opinions on what makes a great ride, and our machines being as like as chalk and cheese, we were both bristling with anticipation for what the season ahead had in store.
Now, as days grow perceptibly longer and the mercury creeps higher, my mind incessantly wanders as it did on the family video conference. For many of us motorcyclists, January, February, and March are a dark purgatory endured until the new year begins in earnest. Biker New Year is more than just turning a page on a calendar, though. Winter’s compulsory abstinence nurtures a desire to ride in the way only wanting what you cannot have will. Biker New Year is distinguished from calendar new year in that we are not cajoling ourselves into new-year-new-me. Rather than flipping a page on the calendar, the world beckons us with higher temperatures to continue this motorcycle life. With Biker New Year we get to pick up where we left off last year. Our riding skills have the benefit of one more years’ experience. We know better what we do and do not like when riding. We start the year with growth rather than rebirth.
Growth comes from riders not leaving motorcycles behind when the riding season ends. Those of us with the privilege to experience seasons find ways to service our habit. Winter is itself an opportunity to complete scheduled maintenance or a few minor (major) modifications without losing riding days. Working on a stationary motorcycle is a poor substitute for adventure, though. I scratch that monkey during snowy months scouring maps for thicc roads. Dropping the google street view dude into a twisted line on the map to discover clean pavement and tight curves yields a microdose of adrenaline. YouTube bike reviews and on-board cameras are stellar moto-methadone. If you are in possession of a sturdy seat edge, Sepang 2015 is worth a watch.
By the end of March, projects are done, YouTube bike reviews are difficult to differentiate, and we have unearthed more treasure roads than we will have time to ride. We are left sitting through zoom staff meetings daydreaming about a few consistent days with the temps above sixty degrees Fahrenheit.
Spending months doing motorcycles without riding motorcycles inevitably results in Biker New Year resolutions. I have never made an actual new year’s resolution. I accept my fitness and I read enough to not feel guilty about the TV I watch. However, every spring since my first season with an endorsement I give thought to my biker resolutions. My father-in-law was making a resolution to ride as much as possible when he officially recorded his season start mileage. The five-dollar Harley gift card per thousand miles is a trivial bonus on top of the hours of pleasure found in each of those thousand miles. In a similar fashion, I traditionally set a specific mileage goal at the start of each year. Some years I have made a list of places to visit. If target destinations require pounding miles on a highway, they pair nicely with mileage goals at the start of a season.
Like most New Year’s resolutions, life happens, and biker resolutions go unmet. Too often Indian summer arrives with my odometer three thousand miles short. I am also guilty of switching a riding destination to a ski strip. While our lives will not be judged on the success of riding resolutions, a missed goal does lead me to scrutinize the weekends I spent an eighty-degree Saturday watching TV. Looking out the window onto a tantalizingly sunny forty-five-degree street and reflecting on why I missed a mileage target, I remind myself how much fun can be had this year if free afternoons are spent riding. Whether or not you actually ride a twenty-thousand-mile season, trying to is a great way to push yourself to twenty thousand miles of smiles. The resolution is a chance to take a moment and set an intention for a good time.
Looking ahead, I also eagerly anticipate the experiences tangential to riding on a bike. The best burger this side of the Mississippi is found at a little drive-up snack shack 80 miles west of town. This place is on the way to nowhere and would be obscured from my awareness if not for an afternoon spent wandering aimlessly around back roads. Don’t worry, I realize this may not literally be the best burger, but some things taste better a thousand miles from nowhere. These experiences are as much a part of riding as cruising down the road.
Having self-flagellated through too many frigid October weekends and still ultimately failing to hit a mileage target, I am adjusting my resolution this year to consider the total riding experience. Instead of my tired mileage targets, I am shooting to ride a hundred days this year. Whether it be a beer run or an eight-hundred-mile weekend trip, I will count a “day” towards the hundred as any day I ride on the bike. I will admit this is an awfully generous standard, but simplicity avoids the devils hiding in details. This variant of resolution is adopted from my ski bum days when even a few laps on the mountain was better than not getting out, no matter the conditions. The simple tally sets aside any need for a metric of a “real ride” and eliminates excuses not to go. Also, between you, me, and the dog, any time I get on the bike I’m not riding straight A to B.
Whatever way you approach the season to come, making ‘resolutions’ is a fun way we spend the final days before the return of riding weather. Taking time for hopes and dreams ultimately banks a portion of accrued off-season enthusiasm for those sweltering July days we take dry roads and sunshine for granted. We urge our future selves to trust us, come December, you will not regret riding too much. Biker New Year is like the trailers before a blockbuster movie, right now there is nothing except excitement for what is coming soon.
Joe can be found at @joeballegeer on Instagram
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