I'm a junkie and I need a fix!

Hello, my name is Jeff, and I am an addict.

A motorcycle addict. And I'm going through withdrawal. And I don't mean metaphorically.

Riding is as much a mental activity as a physical one. Your perception is altered, the experience releases a flood of powerful brain chemicals, endorphins and the like, you become accustomed to them, and now suddenly they're gone. Bummer!

When I'm riding, and in the zone, I'm flying. By flying, I don't mean fast, or speeding, (though that can be a factor), but flying in the sense of freedom from earthly constraints. I bank, I
dive, and I zoom - fists in the wind like Superman. The bike disappears, and I am gliding over the surface of the Earth, and everything is right there. I can reach down with my left foot, and it skids along the surface of the pavement like a rock on ice. I pass a field and I can smell the horses, I pass a stream and the air is suddenly cooler. I can dawdle along, barely above a walk, and count the pickets in a fence, and then with a thought and a slight twist of the wrist, the fence is a blur and the horizon tilts, and I am gone, man!

I wear a full face helmet, for more than just physical protection - if the world could see the stupid grin on my face as I bomb around, I'd probably get locked up in a looney bin (they still call them that, right?).


In a car, you are separate from the world, cocooned and muffled. Everything happens out there. You yak on your phone, eat your cheeseburger, and (too often), fall asleep. We bikers call them cages. We pity you (except when you're trying to kill us).

It's now the beginning of winter, and the bike has been prepped for storage, with fresh oil and fluids, fuel stabilizer added, battery removed and sitting on the shelf (like a heart waiting for transplant). Turned in my license plate, cancelled my insurance. Left my freedom on the counter.

I will fill the winter months with inadequate attempts to recreate the riding experience. I will read and re-read my motorcycle mags, I will surf all the bike sites I can find, I will watch American Thunder and Superbikes. I will tinker and tweak and adjust her valves, though she is cold and inert.

We'll wait for the sun. And then we fly.