Oldsters on Sportsters

So why do the aged ride?

Modern day Don and Donna Quixotes riding their cycles. They cycle across the nation on steeds of steel rather than resigning themselves to the motorized wheel chairs advertised by the Infomercials. They are often seen on Goldwings, and the really cool ones are seen on Harleys.

The higher answer is that they seek the Grail. Ultimately they ride like the knights of Arthurian legend to seek the Chalice, the last cup used at the Last Supper. But that is part of the higher knowledge, and HarleyDad will blog upon this another time to the initiated.

The lower and more understandable answer is like Ponce de Leon they seek the fountain of youth. Now the answer is different for motorcycle men and motorcycle women. The papas are from Mars and the mamas are from Venus, ya know.

So first a word from Brokerbelle, who really is from Venus. Brokerbelle says, “They ride because they have the time and money to ride and they did not have it when they were younger.” Well so much for the opinion from Venus. Now an opinion from Mars.

We ride because we choose not to die. One of the Harley sayings is :” Live to Ride”. But it is also true that we “Ride to Live.”

People speak of the danger in riding. But it is the element of danger that tinges the senses and makes us feel truly alive. We are outside in the light roaring down the highway with the wind in our faces and the sunlight on our skin. We dress in leather. We are outlaws. It is more fun than the child of yesterday going out to play “guns.” We shed our work clothes, be they suits or grease stained cover-alls, and we become modern day Paladins all dressed in black. “Have motorcycle, will travel.” We are the new knights of the road.

We join a grand fraternity of free spirits. We are bound together as a brotherhood and sisterhood if necessary against the evil drivers of cars that are out to get us. We use the low waive as a sign of our brotherhood. Some of us are a rough and tumble lot. Others of us want to be a rough and tumble lot. At least sometimes we do.

Like Ponce de Leon we seek the proverbial fountain of youth, and you are likely to see us anywhere. Harley Dad describes himself as a Diogenes in Leather. I seek truth dressed in leather rather than in a Greek or Roman toga. My one beam from my Harley is a lantern seeking truth even as I ride at night on the streets.

And yes, I get to do it in leather which is far more exciting than doing it in cotton or in a silk shirt. It bespeaks pilgrimage. And that is what I am a pilgrim on 1200 ccs or 1500 ccs or even more.

By riding I proclaim that I am not yet dead. I reject being a candidate for being a member of the couch potato brotherhood.

The zen of golf is good. But I ride when I please rather than waiting patiently in line for a tee time or for tea time. Instead of motoring on a measily golf cart on a green, I zoom across asphalt roads on my Harley Horse of steel. Instead of golf shirts and short pants and shoes with plastic spikes (plastic now not even real spikes) I am garbed in jeans, leathers, a helmet and Harley Boots that scream “I am gonna walk over you!” like Nancy Sinantra used to sing. “These boots are made for riding.”

No sissy white golf glove for me. Now I wear Harley riding the gloves, and the bigger the better. Instead of motoring over manicured greens looking to hit the ball into a small hole with sticks called clubs; I now motor across open fields when I choose and I don’t need a foursome to do it. I go when I please and where I please (well almost, after I get Brokerbelle’s permission of course.)

Like all great searches in life, they are usually done alone. The pilgrims life is lonely but exciting. A modest amount of danger is the cherry on the sundae.

And so I ride. I seek the fountain of life, youth, truth and romance. That is why oldsters are on Sportsters .

I tell you it is a search about life. And after that there is the grail.