07/20/2003 Archived Entry: "Bike!"

I had a fifty mile ride today on the V Star, and the smile on my face couldn't be removed even by a gallon of turpentine. There is something so wonderfully perfect about cruising down an open rode at sixty-five, and the only sound you hear is the thrum of the pipes.

The thing that I like the most, though, is waving to other bikers. My first wave came a few weeks back, when I was tooling down Space Center boulevard and a guy who looked like he came right out of the seediest, scummiest biker bar on the planet came blowing past me on the other side of the road. This guy was scary looking--huge beard, three-quarter helmet with the spike on top, leather jacket, biiiiiig hog with freeway boards, huge gut; the works. I look over at him and he looks over at me, and he puts his hand out and gives me a low deuce as he rides back. I maintain the presence of mind to respond in the same way and a feeling of absolute joy welled up inside of me--I was now in The Club.

Almost everyone I see on a bike responds to a wave, and it's fabulous. About the only guys I don't get waves from are the little punks riding crotch rockets--other than that, EVERYONE waves. I even got a wave out of a motorcycle policeman on a huge thundering Kawasaki.

I love the bike. I want to ride another fifty miles tomorrow!

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