Learning to Ride

I’m going to learn to ride my own bike.  After 20 years of marriage, I admit it is a bit tough to think of creative and exciting things to give to one another.  But my husband outdid himself on this one.  He was almost giddy when he told me, after all the other Christmas presents had been opened, that I was really going to love what he had gotten for me.

And he was right – at least I think so.  The Basic Rider Course is this weekend.  I hope I love it as much as I do riding on the back of his bike, which I have been doing for a year now.  “You were meant to ride,” he has told me several times since as I have checked the calendar to see if I had some open time to take the weekend-long class.  “You’re going to love it.”  Why, I’m not exactly sure.  But I am sure there are a few universal reasons people latch on to this incredibly popular sport and ride like the wind whenever they can.

The first thing that comes to my mind is speed.  Not kill-yourself type of speed, but just the sensation of having nothing between you and the elements as you move along down the road.  I imagine it to be a little like water-skiing, snow-skiing or even snowmobiling, if you have ever engaged in those sports.  I fell in love with all three the first time I learned and became addicted to that feeling of flying.  When I was a kid, I used to think the greatest thing would be if man could fly, and wondering if they were ever going to invent those packs you strap on your back that let you fly around like in the sci-fi movies.

The other obvious reason to ride is control.  How does it feel to have all that power in your hands, to make the decisions about how to take the turn or just simply starting the thing up under your command?  As the passenger, I wouldn’t know, but I imagine it’s pretty great.  Like anything in life, there is a thrill that comes from being in charge, of successfully maneuvering obstacles, of making something powerful work for you.  This time it happens to be a two-wheeled, 400-pound, 100-plus horsepower, sleek driving machine.

Better learn how to control that.