When asked "WHY DO YOU RIDE" Think Before You Answer.

I'm sick of it. I keep reading these things...

"WHY WOMEN RIDE".....

Oh let's see... many will tell you they have never felt so "EMPOWERED"
What hell are you saying? Are you really going to tell me that you felt put down, worthless, or what ever else is associated with feeling "EMPOWERED"? Get off it ladies...a bike can't empower you unless you use it as a crutch for what's wrong in in your life. You don't take the reins in your life...except when you get on your bike? Not likely....

Or how about the ever popular...I love the "FREEDOM" of it. Freedom? Can't you express what your talking about better than to call it "freedom"? Will you please define for me what "Freedom" your talking about? What is freedom to you? Why not think about what freedom is and describe that rather than using the blanket expression?

Go deeper than the usual responses that you read about. Talk about what makes motorcycling special to YOU! Not the looks you receive...not the friendships you make....all that is something you can get without the bike. Talk about what the bike gives you...what the ride is to you. Talk about how you feel when you ride...not about how the MAKES you feel...cuz the bike can't MAKE you feel anything. It's how your affected by the ride...it's how the sound of the bike awakens something inside you...it's how the anticipation of the wind in your ears, the curves ahead of you, the passion awakened as you wheel past road kill...it's the advantage of watching the eagle or hawk as he circles in the sky...it's the pain of road rash...of bee stings, of direct hits by birds...it's the scared feeling you have when you brush danger...of being exposed.

It's the rain scrubbing your skin like a million needles injecting moisture into your face...it's the love bugs you spit out of your mouth...the nasty taste of em...but still it's alive...

It's not the guy riding next to you...it's not the next beer stop...it's not the looks you get from people who don't understand...it's not any of this external crap...it's the bike...it's the road trip, it's how your affected by the natural experience of being exposed....

It's how you process this all...it's how you translate the bike, the ride, the exposure... It's all life on a bike. But it is not about empowerment, it's not about freedom...it's not about friends....that is just an embellishment of who and what you were in the first place...