Motorcycle: The Power Between Two Legs

Riding a motorcycle just might be the best description of personal freedom. As your legs hug the leather cradling your thighs, an instant bond is experienced. Wrapping your fingers around the ends of the handlebars produces many unexplainable and exciting sensations. Instantly, a bond between you and this marvelous two-wheeled wonder has been created.

Some people claim 20 years can be regained just by climbing on this beautiful lady of the road. No matter whether it's painted black, red, purple, or splayed with designs, suddenly your beating heart and soul become one with the shiny motorcycle. You find yourself sitting taller, loving the feel of this mechanical horse between your legs, and enjoying the morning sun on your face as you start out on a new day's ride.

The destination doesn't really matter, it's the ride that counts. Some riders prefer riding in solitude over the roads, while others ride in groups. Motorcycle riding clubs present a magnificent presence as they glide along the countrysides and interstates. Glistening in the sun, you'll see bikes with one rider, two riders, and even bikes with a rider and a pet. Some will be sporting an abundance of chrome trim and accessories, while others remain stock, and still some motorcycles are pulling a matching trailer.

But, a motorcycle, alone, is not the whole picture. To complete the motorcycle aura, you absolutely must look the part! You gotta be different! Many riders just throw on a pair of shorts and a pair of sandals, but this is not gonna give you anything but uninterested glances. No, you must prepare to strut your stuff!

After all, you are out there as part of the scenery, part of life's canvas. Let's start at the bottom and work our way up. First, you need a good looking pair of leather boots made for riding. No Stiletto's, no sneakers, no shower flip-flops, and no funky looking pull on rubber boots!

Next you need to be packing your stuff in a pair of jeans that offer coverage, but accentuate the necessary body parts when you get off your horse. Jeans that hug you in all the right places, or leather chaps providing a glimpse of the front and back body areas just above the upper leg area are very good. Okay, got the picture?

You'll need a good looking belt, not one of those silver tombstones that mark the resting place of a dead dick!  Perhaps a few leather cases strapped around your waist to hold a cell phone, mace, or pocket knife. Just to add more mysterious leather do-dads to complete the picture.

The t-shirt must not be over sized or one that fills up with wind while riding, otherwise you're gonna look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Be sure the shirt hugs your body and remains there!  You don't want to look like Mary Poppins or a downed paratrooper.

Leather vests are good protective accessories, besides they keep the t-shirt under control. There are fringed vests, beaded vests, vests with braids and painted designs. Some enthusiasts even create their own vests by stringing beads to create a picturesque 'V' shape or Indian-type design (this is what I did).  Remember, styling and being noticed is all part of the game - hey, you are different and walk to your own drummer!

Of course, a great leather jacket should always be tucked inside the side bag. Changing weather, such as rain, wind, and sleet can all be encountered when riding on the open road. Like it or not, you are a prisoner of the elements, and never win when you're up against Mother Nature!

Gloves and helmets are necessities, not a luxuries! Personally, I prefer a full-face helmet because sailing along at 70 miles per hour (or more) subjects the human skin to all kinds of intrusive nasty and foreign objects. For instance, birds, bees, and blowing sand can easily slam into your arms, hands, and face.

I once had the experience of being bombarded by a swarm of honeybees! Yep, sweet little honey bees, those small winged pollen collecting creatures. Not a small bee family just out taking a leisurely Sunday fly-by, this was the whole damned colony of bees!  Must of been one-hundred or more!  However, a gang of these little gems hammering into my t-shirt, arms, hands, and legs were not so sweet! The windshield was covered with sticky bee-remains and yellow pollen! There were bees, dead and alive, on my boots, arms, and helmet.  And the survivors were not happy campers!

Gentle rain drops are more like high-speed metal projectiles that pound against your arms, legs, and face like shotgun bullets. Blowing winds, whether from the wrath of nature or 18-wheelers, can throw your body back and forth, shove you from side to side, and slice through your eyeballs.

Sure, we've all seen the 'tough guys' that insist the blowing wind in their face and hair is what it's all about. Casually they ride in a short-sleeved t-shirt in the dead of winter. Actually, they have been freeze-dried and actually no longer feel the elements!

Tell you what, I'd rather get off the bike without bloodshot, sandblasted, or gravel filled eyes. Lips that resemble two cracked, dried thin lines (much like the Sahara Desert), and skin looking like the lines on my road map or craters of the Grand Canyon just take away from the whole illusion you hope to present. And, the hair, oh that helmet hair!  Not one high-dollar salon could hold a candle to those award-winning hairstyles!

Ah, yes, there are challenges, but the rewards of riding far outweigh the negatives. Once addicted to the sights, smells, and freedom of the open road on a two-wheeler, there is no cure. It's true love!