Friends On The Ride

If you participate in an activity that most people find dangerous and inexplicable, you make acquaintances. Often, you find Friends.

This is what has happened in my passionate pursuit of riding motorcycles.

These Friends may be other Riders, or just people who like bikes. They may be met in person, or in an online forum for enthusiasts. The Friendships may be barely more than acquaintances, or they may be deep indeed.

When non-Riders overhear our conversations, they think we're nuts. How can people talk so long and fervently about 'slipper clutches', 'helmet cams', and torque curves? Why do bikers get so excited about the scary act of flying through a twisty bend at a healthy lean angle? Just what is 'lean angle' and what's so darn 'healthy' about it?

Non-Riders will instantly browse away from any motorcycle forum they may accidentally land on. If they don't, they'll be perplexed by the threads, which carry meaning only for the initiated and truly obsessed.

Shared passions and outsider status can bond people, who might otherwise share no common ground.

Which pretty much describes us - Friends on The Ride (?FoTR?).

A Tip of The Helmet, then, to a few of my FoTR who are now gone but never forgotten: Sammy, Daniel, and Uncle Ernie. Death and the Road took you too soon. Rest in Peace, Gentlemen.