2Wheeltips

From the time we’re born until the time we die, our life is a series of learning experiences. In our youth we learn a lot in a very short period of time. As we age, the pace of learning slows but never entirely stops. (Hence the old adage: “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”!!)

The same is true of overcoming fears. Think back to your childhood and remember all the things that scared you until you either simply outgrew or overcame that fear. Some that come to mind would be jumping off the 5’ diving board for the first time, climbing to the very top of my Dad’s extension latter, learning to water ski. The reason I bring this up is that I’ve known a number of people who are excited about the idea of riding a motorcycle, take the class, get their license, buy a motorcycle and then discover; “hey I’m not real comfortable on the street riding this thing, in fact I’m really scared sh…less!!"

Then what inevitably happens is they begin making excuses as to why they aren’t riding, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, looks like it might rain, and I’m just too busy this week. Then after about 2 or 3 seasons of making excuses as to why they aren’t riding their dusty motorcycle, they decide to sell it. Well, why have a few thousand dollars just sitting in the garage? It was a mistake to buy it in the first place because (insert the reason of your choice) and I never used it.

The root problem was they never made the effort to overcome the initial fear many of us have in our early days of riding, and ran away from it rather than confronting it and getting over it. I think it’s important to get this fact out in the open so all you new riders aren’t thinking something’s wrong with you because you’re not dancing out to your bike with a big grin on your face and zooming off to motorcycle nirvana with every ride. That’s sure not what happened to me!!  I’m coming out of the closet on this and will bare my soul to all of you 2Wheeltips members; I rode scared!! And I rode scared for almost 2 seasons before getting comfortable and relaxed on my bike.

In the first 2 seasons, I was not comfortable in traffic, I was not comfortable going over 50 MPH, I was not comfortable in windy conditions and I did not like riding in the city with all the traffic lights, STOP signs and tight turns. But I have done other stuff that has scared me, did it anyway and lived to tell about it, so I believed if I worked at this fear of riding a motorcycle, I could get past it and by golly I was right!!

I had just started a new job, bought a new house, did a long distance move from North Carolina to Iowa and the first thing I bought was not new furniture, but a Kawasaki 1600. Trust me, I had so much going on in my life at that point in time I didn’t have to work very hard to come up with excuses not to go riding. I saw me going down that “today’s excuse not to ride” road and got so angry at myself I made a weekly riding schedule. I scheduled myself to ride a minimum of 4 hours per week, unless some catastrophic weather condition prevented it, but then I had to make-up any lost hours the following week so I would average 8 hours of riding over a 2 week period.

I’ll be honest and tell you the entire first season from June – October I rode scared. My 2nd season started off the same but, by late July, I was getting more comfortable and actually started looking forward to getting out. By the end of my second season, I was feeling really good about riding and started to thoroughly enjoy my bike, and was riding every chance I could. If you’re a new rider, you may be having similar apprehensions and might consider calling it quits. I would challenge you to stick with it, confront your fear and work to overcome it like you have with so many other fears you have successfully overcome. The secret for me was like that old Nike commercial “Just Do It!!” I assure you the fear will go away and you’ll begin enjoying a wonderful experience that compares to nothing else. One other note:  I’m an “old dog” and was very excited to add motorcycling to my list of tricks!!