I get asked pretty frequently about my advice on getting a motorcycle. As an avid rider this is not uncommon.

My advice? Don’t!

I just lost another friend yesterday. He too was an avid and, I think, accomplished rider. I say another, but most of the people I have lost to accidents have been in my larger sphere of acquaintances. When you are involved in a Motorcycle Ministry and a Biker Church you tend to know a lot of people who ride.

These losses have made me question the thought process behind why I ride.

The freedom of the open road and the enjoyment of being on a motorcycle are high on this list. There is nothing quite like riding a motorcycle. Except maybe mountain biking which is also a passion of mine. However, it has been a back burner passion very frequently usurped by my motorcycling addiction.

However, at 58, two things are beginning to change my thinking a bit.

One is the constant need to dodge people on their cell phones. I have written many times before about the danger of distracted drivers on cell phones and we all see it. It is epidemic. Clearly 50% of the people I am around on the freeway has one or both eyes one a cell phone. This coupled with all the other distractions while driving has made motorcycling a very dangerous activity. This is the main reason I advise people to not take it up.

Second, I am getting older. Recovery times are getting longer and without some form of activity (Mountain Biking) the battle with my love of food…well, I will just admit I am losing the battle. Thus, it is becoming more imperative every day that I get out and ride as much as I can. This has become so pervasive in my mind that I am in the process of building up a Bikepacking and Touring bike.

This brings me to the other reason I like motorcycles and bicycles. I am a builder and I simply love to tinker with what ever I own. So a bike build is forever going to be going on in my garage in one way or another. The beauty of doing so on bicycles is the cost factor. Motorcycle modifications are exponentially more costly. I can change the seating on my mountain bike for about a tenth of the cost of a motorcycle seat. Other parts are pretty similar, and the only oil I have to change on my mountain bike is the mineral oil in the brake system.

I truly want to continue to motorcycle. Like I said, there is nothing like it. I no longer have a appetite to ride fast, I just like to enjoy the countryside and ride. Motorcycling also provides an alternate form of transportation if I have one of our primary vehicles down. However, that too is an unwarranted justification as my wife works only a mile from our house so I can easily drop her off and pick her up and still have a vehicle to use.

I have a few friends that think I am nuts to be on a motorcycle in the city, and yes, there is a greater chance of an accident in and around the city. However, the friend I lost yesterday was not in the city when it happened. However, on the nuts topic there are probably a lot of other reasons they think that that are just as valid.

To be honest I am writing this to simply get the quandary on paper and help me mood through my reasoning. I have toyed with selling the motorcycles before but always pulled back before I did. Failure to launch I guess.

But each death like this, each accident, renews the mental debate.

This and the fact that over the past fifteen years I have spent an ample amount of time in hospital rooms with bikers that survived their ordeals but were none the less bunged up. Many of these riders near my same age and I watched the longer and longer recovery times.

Yes, I could kill myself or get run over on the mountain bike as well. But I guard against this more in my choice of where I ride. Of course that does not preclude my own ability to make a bad choice or hit something on the road or trail that throws me off and I break my neck. Again though, the likelihood is much lower and the speed I would carry into such an accident much lower. The only real threat I have on the mountain bike is the fact that at 6’6” …. I have a long way to fall.

The fact that I am not contending with cars most of the time also makes bicycling, in general, a less stressful activity. Too often I find myself getting really angry at people when I am motorcycling. Even with me being on a very large, very tall Adventure bike and as I said I am 6’6”, with auxiliary lights on all the time people do not see me and often just don’t seem to care. I truly often feel like a target.

As I sit here mourning the loss of my friend and considering my state I find myself debating these and a myriad of other thoughts on the subject. I have a brotherhood in the motorcycling world that I would not like to give up. Not that I necessarily would, friends are friends, but there is more to it than that. There is a connection with other riders.

I have not felt that in the Mountain Biking ranks. However, so too I typically ride solo. Maybe if I found some riding buddies there I would build new connections.

It is hard to even consider giving up something you love as much as I love motorcycling. For a very long time the love of it has outweighed the potential cost.

I am just not sure when that balance might tip….