HS on: the essence of biking

You might wonder why I deserted this blog a week ago and went silent. Here's a flimsy explanation: see, last week spring arrived properly. I know this because the primitive section of my brain commanded me to take out my bike, and that is an as accurate indicator of spring as the dog-poo that appears from under the melting snow on all the sidewalks.


A week ago I still owned an Italian 125cc 2-stroke Cagiva (or in english a chainsaw with fairings), but not anymore, I sold it. And I'm a bit sad.

The Ducati for those who aren't old enough to own a Ducati

Some would say the little 2-stroker was incredibly annoying to drive, powerband high up there in the northeastern corner of the rev-counter, engine shivering like a frightened dog, exhaust emitting oil- and petrol-fumes that induced an alarmingly fuzzy feeling in your head and so on.

I would say this was all character. You had to know every bit of it's personality, be friends with it, before you could ride it properly. And when you did, it was enormous fun. The lightness, the agility, the powerband, the smell, the lack of power, everything. It was like a trip through time to a time where only the brave and the stupid would get on a bike. A notion of being someone really testicle-swelling special, if you will.

It was nowhere near practical, reliable or civilized. In other words, everything a bike should be, just that I didn't realize it then. And so I sold it and went looking for something bigger, thinking "POWEEEERRRR".

I looked at many bikes, most of them with over 5 times the power of my old bike and most of them japanese, but none seemed to tickle me in the right places. The torque was even throughout the revs, the sound was sterile, the feel was perfect and so on. Riding them you felt that you were riding quality bikes. They were all too... predictable. It was then I realized I wasn't looking for engineering perfection, I was looking for soul. Imperfection, annoyment, unpredictability, quirkyness. Everything I had had in my former bike.

The Ducati 750 Supersport, my solution

So I decided to go back where I started except with a few more cubic centimetres, I bought a Ducati. A Honda-owner will have a hard time understanding why someone would want a dysfunctional bike with a bad temper over a quality piece of engineering-porn, but it's deeper than that. The appreciation one develops for a bike is so much greater when it has a personality, something you can get to know over time... The V-twin helps too.



 To summon my somewhat fuzzy point, let's throw in an analogy. The Honda is like a paid luxury-escort; you take her out for a night and have a blast, she's perfect but that's it, there's nothing more to it, where as the Ducati is like the lovable, kind yet sometimes a bit hard-to-handle girlfriend of yours who no matter what has stood by your side through good and bad. You would never drop a girlfriend like that for a few nights with a luxury-whore.

In my mind a bike should be an event, emotion-stirring, annoying, indulgent, insensible, not a means to travel to an event on two wheels. That's why I miss my old 2-stroker, and having experienced the whole of it I have a hard time believing anything could top the eperience of my old Cagiva. I've realized it's not the power or the speed. It's all senses but.

-HS

P.S. Sorry for posting something totally off-topic, just had to get this off my chest :P I will activate myself again!


Any bikers reading? Your thoughts and comments please!