Dude on the shining Cruiser
Ever since I got my Vulcan here in the US, my life hasn’t been the same. It has been a dream come true, I always wanted to ride a cruise in the US. I wish it were the shiny Harley but a Vulcan will do well for now. I did 90mph on the highway 59 last week. This is something that is never possible in India. Someone asked me if drivers on the highway 59 weren’t crazy, I replied, “Well..., I didn’t notice, perhaps because I was one of the crazy ones there”. I think every man, sometime in his life, loves to be a crazy on the motor cycle.
A part of modern man's appeal to the motor cycle I guess is because the equestrian riding position is the closest the modern man can come to riding a horse. The dude in the shining cruiser is the closest the modern man can get to the gallant medieval knight in the shining armor. Motor cycling is more pleasurable and romantic than a car for the simple reason that in the motor cycle one is closer to nature than in the car. As one pierces through the air at 90mph riding equestrian on 500 pounds of metal which produces sheer power at the turn of the throttle, one feels as thought ones sensitivities extra sensitized - the air that moves over the face, the lips, the chin, the hair the arms and make one feel 'fully alive' whilst feeling the pounding of the piston beneath, kind of reminiscent of the gallop of the horse.
The other reason why I think the motorcycle is more appealing than the car is because motorcycle is a lot more dynamic than the car in that the whole body in involved in the driving process. At every curve the whole body has to go through a balancing process in which the mind calibrates how the body should position itself over the motorcycle so that motor cycle goes through the curve at the highest possible speed without allowing the centripetal force to throw the motor cycle off course. The key to balancing being how equilibrium is maintained through the bodily balancing of the centripetal and centrifugal forces, which is why you could turn a motorcycle without touching the handle bars at all. :P Motor cycling is the act of battling the natural forces and at the same time being one with them.
The thrid reason why I think motorcycling is appealing is because, it is more thrilling than a car. It is like dancing on a thin wall. One feels more insecure on a motor cycle than a car and the increased agility adds to the feeling of insecurity. In fact the first time I went on a freeway without a helmet I seemed to me like all hell was breaking loose. If there was to be a small mistake, it would be a battle between my cranium and the hard concrete if not the other cars zipping past at 70 miles an hour. Nothing appeals to the vanity of the alpha male as such trysts with mortal dangers.
As one feels the engine thumping below and a whiriwind of a breeze racing over the bare skin, there is an
ecstasy which cannot be captured in any other life experience. When the inexorable movement of history towards the more docile pleasures of wii and xbox has made motor cycling obsolete, my only preposterous hope is that the dudes on the shining cruisers would be fondly remembered by posterity as the knights in the shining armours are idealized now. Long live the dudes on the shining cruisers.