How a motorized bike taught me to be a better man

[Asparagus]

Hello friends and fellow gearheads. Let me just say, before motor bikes I've never truly appreciated the miracle of engines. You get in, sit in a car and just go. Even with a motorcycle it always felt like car lite. It was completely acceptable if something is wrong with your car to just take it to a shop. Here in orange park florida I couldn't get a bike shop owner to look at my bike if my life depended on it.
The first time I had to change a wheel and sprocket I did so with very little mechanical knowledge. In doing so I became proficient in it. After my first home engine mount I would tell my coworkers to buy kits just so I could get better at it.
When I say I was mechanically handicapped I mean I could hardly assemble furniture without wanting to take a bath with my toaster. It was that bad.
Running errands now isn't even a chore,it's just an excuse to fly by orange parks stand still traffic and appreciate the little things.
Nothing really instills the trial and error mentality in you quite like a motor bike. I smile everytime I hear a familiar enginr hum while I'm at work,knowing there's someone out there having as good of a time as I'm about to. Why these aren't more popular I'll never know. Sure is nice only having to spend 2$ per week on gas. Happy riding!

 

[bluegoatwoods]

Yes.....I can understand what you're saying. I was already a low-level gearhead. So I missed the "Eureka!" moment when you realized that you could do mechanical things.

But I do know what you mean when you say you don't understand why they're not more popular. A motorized bike, with a little cargo carrying capacity, is a much better commuter and errand runner than any car. And some of the folks around me kinda get it. At least I think they can see it. Yet they don't get one for themselves.

 

[troyg]

Americans don't live as humans were intended.Everyone is in a rush to get "nowhere" so they can do "nothing", somewhere "time is money" got confused and *******ized.Sadly the most prevaling qualities I see anymore (worse in high populace areas) are greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust.

 

[2old2learn]

Just like marriages, social relationships are stronger when we are forced by circumstances to be interdependent. When families traveled across the great distances of our country in covered wagons and carved out homesteads, they did so collectively by helping each other. Our modern world tends to isolate us. This website is an examble of modern collective sharing of knowledge and experience. If we all lived in a single community, I feel sure many of us would be physically helpng some of our mechanically challenged members regularly.

 

[Asparagus]

I can imagine a community full of motorbikers would be a utopia. When I first got into bikes I had no idea what to do or how to fix it,leaving me walking for one or two weeks until I could afford to take it to the guy I bought it from to be fixed. It's a shame they don't come with an instructional pamphlet,like making sure you tighten up your sprocket every day so it doesn't go off center and warp your wheel.

I wish I had that rim still,it was bent at a 30 degree angle in two spots,what a mess

 

[Fabian]

Just wait till you realise how good things can be when building yourself a reliable heavy haulage trailer train; designed to get the tonnage moving!!!

Puts a smile on your face from ear to ear every time you do a serious haul-out!!!