Moto Blog

 In the last 2-3 years of my away with out leave on this blog, I've gotten into a new hobby of motorcycling. To cut a long story short, I essentially burned out of my white collar career which I had spent such a long time forging, health came under fire, and the resulting solution from attempting to salvage the little humanity I was left with after getting chewed up by the gears of society was motorcycling.

Motorcycling has been something that's always fascinated me from a young age due to the influence from my mother. She was a "tourer" back in japan, taking her 400CC inline-4 Yamaha on mountain roads with a pack of likeminded riders. I grew up with pictures in the photo album, hearing her stories with a heavy dose of precaution and word of warning about the dangers.

I honestly took them to heart. I never reached for it. I rode scooters, bicycles, skateboards, roller blades, you name it. Anything with wheels, I've probably taken a swing at it. However, the words of wisdom from my mother weighed heavily when it came to motorcycles. Add on the societal outlook of motorcycles, how they're death traps, how they're so fast and it'll get you killed. It always stopped me from going for it.

But as a man in my 30's, faced with pressures so significant, it made me question even the reason I was working so hard. 

"Fuck it"

After spending a month in bed, unable to do much beyond just lie there and watch isekai anime. Low thought, low processing content to numb the tension, number the weight of my thinking. An idea sparked on me. Why not get a motorcycle? I had saved up a decent chunk of change working hard on my career. Although my expenses had gone up adjusting to the 9 to 5, I saved up just enough to buy a motorcycle, a decent one.

After mulling over the numbers in my head, I immediately signed up for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation(MSF) course exam for the next month. Even I surprised myself how quickly my mind moved to the next steps once I had made the decision. I began googling all kinds of information. Safety data. Equipment. Motorcycle brands. Stylings. Everything and anything. I began to become consumed.

Oddly enough, it didn't seem like it at first. It was subtle.

I was already OCD as it is. My passion towards my hobbies were fierce when it was ignited.

It was my standard M.O.(Modus Operandi)

Yet, what I didn't realize at the time, was the consequence of compounding investment.

They say this hobby is a money pit. As wise as I pretend to be, even I found myself a bit at odds with the restraint both financially, mentally and physically this hobby demanded.

As the weeks crept forward towards the MSF, I felt the anticipation rise.

A chance to try riding a motorcycle for the first time. I had ridden a motorized scooter, I had ridden a 4 wheeler, but never a motorcycle. That's all it was. I wasn't dead set on purchasing a motorcycle at this time. Just a few hundred bucks. A very cheap investment to try out what it's like to be on 2 wheels, exposed to the elements, yet given a mode of transportation like no other.

That's all it was at the time. A chance.

The first day of the course arrived. Heavy down pour.

The heaviest rain in months. Enough to even be dangerous in a car.

What an introduction.

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