2008.01.13 Bike Dreams
I ended up at the dealership, where my hindbrain went "POP".
It was the culmination of a predictable series of events fueled by my long-term bike addictions. I haven't had a motorcycle in... well, a long time. I'm the sort who feels that a single summer without riding is too long, so it's actually being way too long. I like to lie to myself and say that it's sensibility that has kept me in 4-wheeled vehicles, but it's a cop-out. That cop-out got harder to ignore when one of my comrades at work got his dream bike (a fabulous Aprilia), and another coworker got a cool brat-bike (a Husqvarna). This set my bike-seeking tendencies back into action, browsing Ducati Monsters and classic Honda Hawks. But what I found myself most coveting was the BMW R1200R.
And the very next day, there was one parked in the parking lot. It drove me nuts. And, well, drove me to visit the dealership so that I could see more. Which naturally lead to the cataclysmic moment where I sat on the thing.
Perched there, mounted atop the R1200R - which bears a non-trivial similarity to a CX650 - all sorts of memories flooded me. I think it may well be that my first unambiguously positive physical self-image I had was when I began riding motorcycles on the street. I was the nerdy loudmouth bookreading weird kid still, but I was also the only leather-wearing biker at school. Thanks be to my father, who allowed me unrestricted access to his bike. The same bike he in turn gave to me outright when I graduated high school. The same bike on which the vast majority of my highway biking adventures and experiences happened.
I rode alone, on those lonely Canadian highways. When I stopped, a lanky 6'1" athletic youth in jeans and leathers with a black helmet and gloves, people left me the fuck alone. A thing that was a solemn wish on many a school bus commute.
Crawling out of my personal pigeon hole, it suited me well that the bike wasn't easily pigeon holed either. It wasn't a crotch rocket, nor was it a cushy cruiser. But it easily outran any cruiser, and outlasted any crotch rocket. Which is probably why the R1200R appeals to me as well, it's the same sort of non-niche bike.
There's simply no room in my life right now for a motorcycle. Not yet, and not for a while.
Luckily, I'm an idiot - which gives my hindbrain cause for hope.