Geek Girl Navigating the World – Lessons from a Dirt Bike

One of the great joys of visiting my parents is being able to go out and play in a rural environment.  There are things that you can do there that just can’t ever happen in the city.  Case in point, getting in really good motorcycle rides.

I’ve been around motorcycles my entire life.  As long as I can remember, there has never been a time when my parents didn’t have motorcycles.  I’ve known how to ride for a long time.  Granted, my main toy in the city where I live is a moped, simply because the moped doesn’t have to be licensed in my state, and the drivers around here can be pretty awful about motorcyclists.  Still, the moped is an effective means of two-wheeled transportation that I find highly satisfying, even when things like the throttle sticking wide open as I approach a very busy intersection happen occasionally.  You might not think a runaway moped would be all that scary, but trust me, at thirty-five miles an hour when you desperately want to stop, it can be pretty terrifying.

Occasional incidents aside, I am very much a big believer in the “Poor Man’s Therapy” that a motorcycle can provide.  Automatic transmissions, air-conditioning, and radios in cars, not to mention being completely encased in the car’s cabin, make driving a highly insular experience.  People should concentrate when they’re operating a motor vehicle, but the sad fact of the matter is that most of the time, they let their mind go to something else.  A motorcycle, on the other hand, requires your entire body to be engaged while you ride.  Your hands have to run the throttle and the brakes, you need your feet to shift, and every time you stop, you have to put your legs down to balance.  Even over the engine and through your helmet, you’re still going to hear the cars, people, and activities going on around you, and you’re going to feel the sun and the wind and the texture of the road underneath you.  A car disconnects you from the world, because once you roll up the windows and close the doors, you are in the microcosm of its interior.  On a motorcycle, though, even going at the speed limit, you’re still connected–there’s no car barricading your interaction with the world.

When I go home to visit my parents, the motorcycle never actually goes out on any roads.  There’s no real need when I’ve got acres of hayfield to zoom around in without having to worry about traffic or other people.  My mom has a 1964 Street Dress Honda, and I love that bike.  The tank is rounded and chromed, which makes it look gorgeously retro-futuristic.  The styling makes me think that it would fit easily and beautifully into steampunk sensibilities just as well as it would into the future that never was or as a vehicle for a superhero who wanted to actually be able to use and ride his motorcycle.  It’s built on the short side, which means that I can sit in the saddle and my feet are flat on the ground.  I don’t have to stretch forward for the handlebars, and it shifts four down, instead of in a combination of up and down, which makes it a lot easier to run.  Getting on it, for me, feels a lot like coming home.  I belong there, pure and simple.

Most people probably think of motorcycles as a simple inanimate object, a mere vehicle, something to be used for a while until they get bored.  I’ve found that a motorcycle, especially one that gets ridden off-road, can actually teach a person some good skills to know in their real lives.

1. Respect the machine.  It may just be a machine, and that means that most of the time you’re in control of it, but it still goes faster with you at the helm than you will ever go under your own power. This means that you need to keep in mind what you’re doing and where you’re going, how heavy the motorcycle is, and the fact that it is capable of taking you great distances at high speeds. Losing sight of the fact that
   you’re running it is a bad, bad idea.
2. Know where your gears, fuel shut-off, choke, and on/off switches are, and always keep in mind what gear you’re running while you’re driving.  If you keep these things in mind, it will help you to keep safer and help you get yourself out of some of the less serious trouble you can get yourself in while you’re riding.
3. Treat the bike well, and it will take you to the ends of the earth; ignore it, and it will leave you stranded every time.  In all honesty, a motorcycle is a fairly simple vehicle.  It’s an engine with a seat on top at its most
   basic level.  Still, they like to be kept in tune, and they like to be ridden.  Without regular use, gaskets get dry and brittle, fluids leak all over inside it to places where they shouldn’t be, and the motorcycle deteriorates.  A ridden bike is a happy bike, and happy bikes have happy riders.
4. Watch the road.  If you start getting too cocky about your skills and the control you have over the bike, the terrain has ways of setting you right.  Sometimes, those ways really hurt.
5. It’s okay to let your mind wander just a little bit, but don’t let it wander too far or shut off completely.  Riding a motorcycle gives you the opportunity to notice your environment in a way driving a car never will.  If it’s something that you feel you really need to take a good, long look at, just stop the bike and gawk, really.  It’s much safer in the long run and infinitely more satisfying.
6. Dirt bike engines make music, too.  Humans aren’t the only ones who create it.  Every motorcycle has its own voice–there’s a particular tone and rhythm to its growl, a unique timbre to the whine of its pistons, and its own singular thump as the gears shift.  It’s a beautiful piece of art in its own right and deserves to be savored.
7. If someone offers you the opportunity to ride their bike, take it.  First of all, this means that they trust you completely, which should make you feel very, very good.  Second of all, you never know when you’ll find that next great love.  Be careful, though, and keep in mind this motorcycle is not your bike and you should be cautious while you get to know it.  Every motorcycle has its own set of quirks, and not recognizing that or learning them can lead to some very unfortunate circumstances.
8. Learn how to fall.  This saves a lot of trouble.  Don’t think that learning how to lay a bike over is something that you’ll never need to know.  Even the most careful and skilled rider has to dump the bike once in a while.  Accidents happen to everyone.  If you practice how to fall before it ever happens, when the time comes, you’ll be in much better shape.
9. Be prepared to pull yourself out of the ditch once in a while.  No one is perfect. You can’t see every eventuality that’s going to come up, and sometimes obstacles are unavoidable.  Some of the problems are actually operator error, some of them are environmental, and some of them are mechanical.  It happens.  To everyone.
10. Learn when to put your feet down.  It’s an instinctual move to try and stabilize that motorcycle with your legs.  That is not always going to be the brightest idea in your head.  Fighting instinct is hard, but it’s necessary if you want to have lower extremities after you’ve learned to ride or after you’ve been riding for a while.  Knowing when and how to put your feet down makes riding that bike so much easier.
11. When you fall, don’t fall in the sandburrs.  There are some things you should just avoid at all costs, because all they’re ever going to do is make your life infinitely more painful. While there are times when appearances can be deceiving, when it comes to things like sandburrs, they hurt just as much as they look like they will.
12. When you have to lay that bike over, if it’s still possible, get it upright, get back on, fire it up and keep riding. Most of the time, if you had to lay the bike over, it’s because you did something stupid that meant you couldn’t save yourself.  You’ve got two choices after that happens: quit or learn from your mistake.  I know that some people will prefer to live the rest of their lives in fear.  It happened once, after all, so what’s to say it won’t happen again, what’s to say it won’t happen every time you get back on a motorcycle? To be fair, it probably will happen again…under completely different circumstances.  On the other hand, it was probably a lot of fun until you fell over.  A motorcycle is only a machine (remember #1 on this list), and you’re in control of it.  The motorcycle did not cause the fall; you did.  If your heart tells you the ride is worth the risk of a possible  spill, then it absolutely is.
13. The path of least resistance isn’t always the easiest one. The valleys and low spots are where the sand collects, and the soft spots that form there usually suck your tires sideways.  The bumps are a lot more fun ,and you’ll learn so much more about yourself and what you can do that way
14. Sometimes, slowing down is not the best course of action.  If you’re not going fast enough, you’re never going to get through the sand or soft dirt, and you’ll never clear the sprinkler ruts.  (If you find some mud, though, gunning it is only going to bury your tires.)
15. Know why you should stand on the pegs.  Then, stand on the pegs for no reason.  You can’t stand up in your car and feel the wind on your face while you’re driving.  This is one of the great joys of riding a motorcycle.
16. Under the right circumstances, riding a motorcycle is a form of ground-based flying.  It’s you, a machine, and the world.  Making the most of that experience is really what riding is all about.
17. Figure out how long you’re capable of smiling in a continuous stretch.  This is how long your motorcycle ride should last.  Just like anything else, you’ll want to work yourself up to extended rides; after all, you don’t want your face to be too sore from the grinning. You also probably want to avoid having your face freeze that way.
18. Never wear clothes for a ride that you aren’t willing to grass stain permanently.  If you’re wearing something you didn’t want to get dirty, then inevitably, that will be the day that you end up either in the ditch, running through the biggest mud hole you’ve ever seen, or laying the bike over, and those clothes will be thoroughly ruined beyond repair or hope.
19. Wear your grass stains, muffler burns, helmet hair, and road rash like the badges of honor that they are. You belong to a tribe united by a common joy, and it’s something that should make you proud.  Now, you have a story that you can tell in exchange for the good stories of others.
20. If it matters that your clothes got dirty and your hair got tangled, then you just don’t get it, and you never will.  The fun in riding a motorcycle can’t ever really be explained–it has to be felt.  If this makes no sense to
    you, you shouldn’t be riding anyway.

There will always be people who don’t understand that soul-warming experience of kick-starting an engine to life and setting out on the day’s journey.  I don’t pity them or feel bad for them–motorcycles are not for everyone–but I do hope that whatever they do, they find something that makes them just as happy.