In Animal Farm, the working farm animals overthrew their human masters with the rallying cry:
4 legs good, 2 legs bad.
Applied to the world of motorized transportation, this slogan was coined sometime in the 80's:
2 wheels good, 4 wheels (you figure the rest out...)
IMHO adherence to ideological extremes are something that thoughtful people that self identify with the 'left' or the 'right' might do well reflect on in the USA today for all the harm to innocent people that this causes. History is replete with cases of innocent individuals who had become labelled as a member of some enemy class or group or other and once someone has been declared to be a member of this class, humankind has no shortage of individuals that know 'just what to do with them'.
(Note: I have friends that own cars. In fact I myself have a car. It is indeed possible to be a decent human being while simultaneously having a motorcycle, a bicycle AND a car)
What is it that draws people to transportation on 2 wheels when there is so much more convenience and comfort to be had on 4 ?
Noted Career Counselor Marty Nemko, for whom I have a lot of respect, once opined on one of his radio shows that he could not understand why anybody would spend the money to buy an overpriced Harley-Davidson Motorcycle when you can get a reliable Toyota Corolla for less money. That such a choice makes absolutely no sense.
Here's the thing about 2 wheeled travel as opposed to 4.
People spend time and money to go to amusement parks towards no practical end.
It can be argued that there is nothing productive or 'socially redeeming' about riding a roller coaster, yet many people enjoy the experience enough to make and pay money to have the experience.
2 wheeled travel can be like having a roller coaster ride on demand, at your convenience.
Shed of an insulating shell, travel on 2 wheels exposes you to your environment.
You experience everything immediately.
On a cold but sunny morning, come around a corner off of a mountain and into a valley and the feel the chill give way to radiant warmth.
The whistle of the air flowing around you (good when you want it, bad when you don't) carrying with the smell of the flowers you see all around you.
Bank the machine into a corner and take in the sensation and view from your body hovering inches off of the ground which is rushing just beneath you, you can glance down to SEE it speeding by, up close, right in front of your eyeballs.
You don't get anything like this when driving a passenger car or truck. (exception noted for performance car driving which offers it's own kind of sensory involvement)
Bicycle riding has been part of my adult life for decades.
Aside from utilitarian bicycle riding for local transportation and commuting to work I also enjoy riding a bicycle for recreation. This kind of riding often involves putting the bicycle on a conveyance to get to a remote starting point. There is the conventional method for getting there: put the bike(s) in/on a car/truck and drive or perhaps get on a train or plane with the bike(s) as luggage.
When I've packed up and drove for this kind of ride, it would often strike me as a waste of a good day to be spending part of it sitting in a car when I'd much rather be on a bike, the motorized kind.
The obvious solution was to find a way to do both. While not common, I'm not the only one to have invested the effort towards this end, but here's my take on it.
Scenes from 2 decades of MC bicycle fun:
Somewhere in Montana on the way to Minnesota for a special 4th of July celebration bicycle ride:
Epic winter AZ get away
over a freezing snowy pass on the way:
out to the desert and warmer climes at last:
Returning from another July 4th bicycle ride in Minnesota, this time stopping at the Mitchell Corn Palace in, where else ? Mitchell, South Dakota. The graphics on the exterior of the Corn Palace venue are rendered in, what else ? Corn !:
Death Valley MTB haul sometimes you just have to get off of pavement:
Local scenic ride:
Phenomenal Kawasaki ZX-14R capable of going from 0 mph to a speed of 100 mph in just 4.8 seconds (but I don't have the nerve to try it).
The Extremes of 2 wheeled travel during the same outing !
2 wheels good ! Oh yeah !
