black chevrolet

So, is it absolutely, imperatively necessary to live in a place with twisty roads to justify owning a motorcycle?

This question came to mind as I mulled over an old, old message from a very good friend who was contemplating selling his Suzuki SV650 (the first bike I ever drove; he probably has sold it by now; I should give him a call). The reason adduced for this was the flatlands of central Wisconsin don't afford much in the way of tilted pavement. "I don't have all the nice twisty roads you do, and I just don't ride it that much anymore". (Okay, there is more to the story: he's two years married and now has a little one and the greatest nemesis of the Rider is not safety or practicality or weather but marriage)

But I got to thinking: if southern California were all straight roads, would I quit riding?

Not by a long shot. It would be significantly less fun, since I wouldn't have the pleasure of pitting five or six forces of physics against each other simultaneously.

But not having twisty roads wouldn't change the way I see the landscape and smell the air any different. It wouldn't change the way I can bolt past any four-wheeled vehicle that isn't German or Italian, even though I only have 62 hp at command. It wouldn't change the fact that I can park wherever I damn please. And it wouldn't change the fact that I can go all week on twelve US dollars of fuel.

It has something to do with my bike and something to do with me. (Well the bike I have has something to do with me). But the fact that I don't own a hunkered-over crotch rocket but rather something that poises me in a relatively comfortable upright posture doesn't make me subconsciously need to be flicking through curves all the time. I sit on my backside, not on my hands - that makes a difference.

I enjoy the smells in the wind and the dusky mountains in the distance and the general vast openness of a world freed from window frames. I treat the experience like an artist, because that's how I think of it. Riding slow lets me see that stuff more easily than if I'm concentrating with every fiber of my being on lines and apexes and brake points. Not that I don't get a thrill out of such stuff, but most average days on the average ride home from work I'm too tired to push the limits. But not too tired to feel the cold wind evaporating at least 70% of stress from my body....