The feeling of being one w/motorcycle?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I long to get a motorcycle and have had many during my time in this world. And so I got to thinking about a kinda cool phenomena that I’ve heard other bike enthusiasts make mention of on a couple of occasions that has to do with feeling a connection with their machines, especially during long rides. I’ve experienced it, too.

Going on rather long road trips down an empty hi-way and hearing the hum of the motorcycle and feeling its power stirs this phenomena to life for me, and if it’s raining maybe even more so. It’s a feeling I like, as if somehow knowing that my machine loves me as much as I do it; and wants to protect me and make all things go well so that no harm comes to ether of us.

Many years ago I read a WONDERFUL book called ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ and the author, Robert M. Pirsig (sp?), touched on this thing I’m talking about (so I’m NOT nuts!).

I’m sure one could achieve the same spiritual/emotional/psychological/mystical encounter riding a lawn mower, as Methinks any machine performing a service of carrying a human being on it during some task would invite this nameless phenomena in question, though absurd as it may sound.

Anyway, it’s a cool thing to encounter and for that reason I’d get a kick out of hearing what others that dare admit to knowing what I’m talking about give some of their own words to it. And, too, if anyone knows of an actual term that exists out there specifically for this thing I’d certainly like to learn it!

Thanks Much for your time and any friendly remarks you care to share!!:slight_smile:
I

2

I am an enthusiastic motorcyclist and have been so for over forty years. I can’t say I ever felt like any of my machines love me. On a a good day of riding, there is a feeling of control and that you can make the machine and yourself really perform. On a bad day, everything just feels off…and I HATE riding in the rain, especially at night.

3

One of the great commercials was for Honda, ca. 1980. It was shot entirely from the rider’s viewpoint.

“Above you… is the open sky. Ahead of you… is the endless road. Beneath you…is the Honda GSX1000. Behind you…
…is everyone else.”

4

Most people don’t have the opportunity to ride a dirt bike in the desert often enough to get good at it. Among those who do, some will experience the sensation of having the bike disappear beneath them. When you’re standing on the footpegs (to allow your legs to function as additional suspension) and traveling at 30-40 mph or better over rough ground you feel as if your mind alone is traveling swiftly along the trails. All of your reactions are instinctive and you enter a zen like state of focus and concentration. At the same time you’re focused on the trail, you also notice small things like bugs crawling along just off the trail. The bike ceases to exist as an entity, as does your body. All is mind, and the feeling is simultaneously relaxing and exhilarating. You are “one” with the bike to such an extent that it virtually disappears. Your body, mind, and motorcycle blend into a seamless whole.
It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe properly and impossible to forget. The only time I’ve ever felt that feeling on a “street” bike is on the racetrack, where the lack of dangers from cars and guard rails is absent. The rest of the time there is always an element of wariness and alertness to danger, like a deer feeding.
Some folks don’t feel as if any machine has a “soul”. Lawrence of Arabia did, and even though he died in a bike wreck I know he didn’t blame Boanerges. (His name for his Brough Superior motorcycle.) Call me believer in “woo” and I will not deny you.

5

I’ve had some bikes where there was an almost physical/emotional connection and sometimes when riding almost a sense of flying as much as driving. Using my feet, hands and body together to make the subtle little corrections I wanted. And not just doing the moves needed for safely moving along but the ones to move safely and with style. But a lot have basically been two wheeled cars; just a way from point A to B and back.

What makes the difference? I can’t say for sure. I do know though that most times as I first look at a bike I’m buying, I can tell you there and then how reliable its going to be and how many miles I’m going to put on it. In other words, if its love at first sight or just lust. But I got room in my life, and garage, for both.

6

A motorcycle responds to your body in ways that a car doesn’t. You steer a car by turning a wheel. You steer a motorcycle by leaning. With a dirt bike you can also shift your weight to control traction, to make the bike oversteer or understeer, to get the front wheel over obstacles. As mind the gap mentioned, your legs can act as suspension. You’re not enclosed in a metal box, so you can see, hear and feel what the bike is doing. With experience the bike becomes an extension of yourself in ways that a car can’t be.

7

True, but you make it lean by fiddling with the handlebars. The interesting thing is that unless you’re doing tight maneuvers at parking-lot speeds, the movement of the bars is very subtle, difficult to perceive with your eyes. So you think of turning, you push/pull on the bars, they move just a smidge, and the bike readily leans over and starts carving a turn. In that sense, it can seem like rider and machine are one: you decide to turn, and without any visually obvious cues, the bike just starts leaning (contrast with a car, in which the movement of the steering wheel is obvious to all in the car).

Other aspects of connection with your motorcycle may or may not happen depending on the bike, any customization you’ve made, how much saddle time you have on it, and so on. And yes, going on long treks helps; cross-country treks with your bike as your closest companion for days on end are transformative in a way that afternoon cruises near home are not.

I used to have a bike like that, and I used to ride it like that. Custom saddle with backrest, barbacks, and a few other tweaks made it fit me perfectly, and after 130,000+ miles of riding it and wrenching on it I had grown intimately familiar with it. Took a trip from the upper Midwest to California, and several trips to the Rocky Mountains and the desert southwest. Track day. Saddlesore 1000. Every kind of weather, from “goddam it’s hot” to “WTF, it’s actually starting to snow.” I did feel that kind of unity; it was my horse. When I stopped somewhere for lunch, I’d sit where I could watch it - not for security reasons, but simply because I liked looking at it. And not just because it was pretty, but because looking at it brought up a ton of memories of all I had been through with it. For me, all of the scratches, dings and scars weren’t depreciation; they were a storybook, a historical record of all the adventures we had been on together.

I like my current bike - it’s more powerful, has cruise control and a heated seat and other things my old bike did not - but I have a much stronger emotional connection with my previous bike.

8

I know the feeling – all in one day! Once I rode from the Grand Canyon, where the temperature at the rim was over 100 degrees that day, to Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado, where there was snow on the ground and I was freezing my butt off and had to pull over and layer on some clothes under my jacket.

That was a great day.

9

I have spent a lot of time riding mtbs over the years and have had similar experiences. Once was in New Mexico, riding outside of Alamagordo in the scrub, legs exhausted, breathing hard and then 90 minutes in, it all went away. There was just me, the wind, sand and the everpresent acacias (that taught me bout self sealing tubes). No pain, no effort, just sailing along and seeing everything.
That was the best part, seeing the ants and the mountains, grains of sand kicked up from the other bikes, clouds in the distance, every sense aware and alive. I really wouldn’t have been surprised in the least to see Jim Morrison’s naked Indian spirit guide at that point ( I didn’t thankfully)

Transcendent.

It was capped off with a blitz along a dry creek bed that we had to navigate through to get out and then rain started to fall. Our leader had us riding hell bent for leather because of flash floods, and sure enough by the time were out of the creek bed the water had already started to flow. One of the most memorable rides of my life.

10

I’ve heard it called “flow”
I’ve felt it on a motorbike, on a horse, while running and while knitting.

I wish I could bottle that feeling and uncork it whenever I needed it, but alas, it is elusive!

11

Honda made Suzukis? Who knew? :smiley:

12

Machine Elf, that was beautiful.

13

It may be that plus a bit of ideomotor reflex.

14

Yeah… idiotmotor reflex made me and my mountain bike one with with a tree and the bottom of a dry stream rock bed. :wink:

15

I thought about “flow” when I first read the OP, but I wasn’t sure that was what he was thinking of. I’ve experienced flow plenty of times on my current bike and on my previous bike, most often during intensely sporting rides where your mind and body are very busy making constant adjustments to the speed/attitude/direction of the bike. Some days those sport rides seems like a nervous struggle, but other days you get flow: all of your decisions/actions seem spot-on, you have confidence in the traction of your tires, everything just goes perfectly.

I may have also experienced flow on long touring days, when the scenery and my location have drastically changed. 700+ miles have gone by, and I’m achy and tired, but the heat of mid-day is fading, and the world looks completely different from how it looked in the morning; I’ve gone from rolling farmlands to rugged mountains, or vice versa, and I know I will be sleeping in a different place from where I woke up.

But he wrote this:

This sounded less like flow and more like a sense of companionship, togetherness, shared history with the motorcycle itself.

Thanks. On the one hand, I’ve felt envious of people I know who buy a new bike every couple of years, or have a stable full of bikes. OTOH, I doubt they ever felt the connection that I felt with mine.

16

I have said that when I’m in my car, there is a destination. When I’m on my motorcycle, there is a journey. Even when both start and end in the same locations.

17

Yeah, that’s why I think you really don’t get the connection even with things like ATVs or those CanAm Spyder trikes. You’re still out in the wind and having to shift your body, but you’re shifting your body to avoid getting thrown off as opposed to leaning with the machine to control it.

18

:confused:

I was in the motorcycle business for many years and never heard of a “self-sealing tube”. Are you talking about a bib mousse? Please do enlighten us! If there is a self-sealing tube, I want some! I rarely finish a good off-road ride without getting a flat.

19

Bolding your quote, I ride bicycles and know exactly the feeling.

20

Probably Slime or something similar.