Motor bicycles have blown my little mind. I've always considered myself sort of a major know it all, on all things motorcycle. I've lived a lifelong dedication to riding. It's who, and what I am more than anything else in my life. I've had handle bars in my hands since I was 3 years old. When I was 6, I used to tie tin can lids onto the handle bars of my bicycle. They were my gauges. I always loved putting balloons in the spokes of my bicycle wheels. If I ran out out of balloons then playing cards were good enough. I bought my first motorized 2 wheeler when I was 13. A kind of Cushman thing, for $25. I was the youngest person in history to attend the drivers school I went to. I got my motorcycle license at 7am on November 21st 1968. That was the first second the drivers license office was open after I turned 15, and I was the first in line that day. I got my first speeding ticket 2 weeks later. I don't know how I made it that long lol.
I was always aware that the first caveman motorcycles were made from bicycles. Harley's were made from bicycles after all, but by the time I was old enough to start riding, they were nothing more than distant memorys. Even Whizzer's were long gone by the time I started riding, in the mid 60s. I think the advent of the Japanese motorcycle put an end to them for good. All I can say is at least I had heard of them, but that's it. In my mind no real man wanted such a puny toy like motorcycle anyway.
Back then the closest I came to motor bicycles were mopeds. But I considered them beneath my dignity, even when I was so young that I was still riding my Sting Ray. I had a long, long way to travel before I became enlightened enough to be able to appreciate a motor bicycle, and finally realize that less really is more. That's a difficult concept for most people to grasp, especially us Americans with our lives of plentiful excess. It was only two years ago that I accidentally stumbled across a picture of my first china girl. I was instantly intrigued, but I didn't exactly know why. Something was telling me, I had to have one, even though I had a garage full of Harleys at the time. I guess it was a case of love at first sight.
Now I'm just like the majority of us here. Most of us have ridden bikes all our lives. We're in our 50s. We can ride any bike we want. Motor bicycles have become what we crave through the process of natural evolution. We're truly enlightened. We don't ride motor bicycles because they're cheap entry level vehicles, like beginners tend to think of them as. We ride them because we know they're the highest form of 2 wheel contrivance. We don't buy them, we make them. You have to make them. That's one of the things that sets them apart. They're an extension of who we are. We're creators. Making ever better ones is an obssesion. It's an addiction. Trying to make a perfect one. It's god like.
Now when old acquaintances see me on my motor bicycle they're always so surprised that this is what I'm riding now. They always want to know where I got it. When I tell them I made this, it amazes them. It's a great feeling to hear them tell me, they think my bike looks store bought. I always tell them the same thing. That this is where you end up after reaching highest level of motorcycle enlightenment. Less really is more.
I was always aware that the first caveman motorcycles were made from bicycles. Harley's were made from bicycles after all, but by the time I was old enough to start riding, they were nothing more than distant memorys. Even Whizzer's were long gone by the time I started riding, in the mid 60s. I think the advent of the Japanese motorcycle put an end to them for good. All I can say is at least I had heard of them, but that's it. In my mind no real man wanted such a puny toy like motorcycle anyway.
Back then the closest I came to motor bicycles were mopeds. But I considered them beneath my dignity, even when I was so young that I was still riding my Sting Ray. I had a long, long way to travel before I became enlightened enough to be able to appreciate a motor bicycle, and finally realize that less really is more. That's a difficult concept for most people to grasp, especially us Americans with our lives of plentiful excess. It was only two years ago that I accidentally stumbled across a picture of my first china girl. I was instantly intrigued, but I didn't exactly know why. Something was telling me, I had to have one, even though I had a garage full of Harleys at the time. I guess it was a case of love at first sight.
Now I'm just like the majority of us here. Most of us have ridden bikes all our lives. We're in our 50s. We can ride any bike we want. Motor bicycles have become what we crave through the process of natural evolution. We're truly enlightened. We don't ride motor bicycles because they're cheap entry level vehicles, like beginners tend to think of them as. We ride them because we know they're the highest form of 2 wheel contrivance. We don't buy them, we make them. You have to make them. That's one of the things that sets them apart. They're an extension of who we are. We're creators. Making ever better ones is an obssesion. It's an addiction. Trying to make a perfect one. It's god like.
Now when old acquaintances see me on my motor bicycle they're always so surprised that this is what I'm riding now. They always want to know where I got it. When I tell them I made this, it amazes them. It's a great feeling to hear them tell me, they think my bike looks store bought. I always tell them the same thing. That this is where you end up after reaching highest level of motorcycle enlightenment. Less really is more.
