The Cure For "No Time To Ride"

We all know the tragic scene. A shiny, low-mileage motorcycle under a thick layer of dust and garage debris, tires and battery flat, gas in the tank slowly returning to primordial ooze. At some point, a carelessly placed rake will fall over and put a small dent on the tank.

Sooner or later, usually later, the online ad goes up, with all the classics: "no time to ride," "ran when parked" and of course, "just needs TLC."

How do you keep this horrible fate from happening to you and your motorcycle? The phrase "no time to ride" is a common excuse but it's important to prioritize your ride time to avoid such a scenario.

Is Ride Time ... Selfish?

Defending the time to ride is always a big problem. There's ALWAYS something "better" to do. ALWAYS. Life wants you on a ladder, in the office, sorting laundry, visiting Mom, wrangling a weed whacker or foraging in grocery stores.

So you have to put riding on its own pedestal, so to speak and sometimes you have to vigorously defend that time.

Your ride time is sacred and it's essential to protect it. Like any other limited resource, tough choices have to be made and sometimes, yeah ... your boss, your spouse, your kids, etc. are just going to have to be unhappy. The grass will get a little longer and painting the bathroom will need to wait until winter.

But you don't have to be selfish about it, either. Balance is possible, even with a busy professional and family life. Remember, it's not about neglecting your responsibilities but about making ride time an integral part of your life.

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Well

Riding motorcycles is the most fun you can have in waterproof pants but it's also something you have to take seriously. If you're going to ride motorcycles, you have to do it well. Very well. If you've been on two wheels only thirty minutes this year, your skills are quite rusty in ways that aren't always obvious.

Maintaining a high level of skill takes a lot of mindfulness and saddle time. And I'm not just talking about the "remembering which levers do what" skills. I'm talking about the vast array of "staying alive when the whole world wants you dead" skills.

To ensure your ride time is well spent, it's crucial to keep these skills sharp.

Rideology Psychology

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (an old psychological model of motivation; there are many others but this one is well-known) motorcycling sits right at the top under self-actualization. No one NEEDS to ride. We ride because we want to, because it brings us joy, because for the likes of us it is an important ingredient in a life well-lived.

Later on, Maslow revised the model to add another layer, "transcendence," at the top. Motorcycling fits there, too, at least for many of us. It's relatively easy access to a higher plane of being, a transcendent state of blissful, expanded consciousness, a state sometimes called "flow" or maybe even "nirvana". I honestly feel bad for people who rarely or never enter that state of being.

J. Finkelstein, Wikimedia

The ride time we dedicate to motorcycling can lead us to these states of transcendence and self-actualization. There's no need to apologize or make excuses for the time, money and risks of riding. You are doing what is right for you.

But you do have a responsibility to find a workable balance in your life.

Ride Time, Love And Balance

An important part of the equation is the people who know you best and love you most. I've found that the mark of healthy relationships is that they want you to be happy and even if they don't understand or share your passions, they see and respect the joy that riding brings you and they feel joy for your joy.

Even when I've been seriously injured riding (yes, I know the risks up-close), I've found unexpected support and understanding from my wife, my sister, my mom, even my boss and co-workers. They understood enough and respected my choices and my joy. This is a sign of healthy relationships in your life.

And of course, unhealthy relationships are the opposite: selfish and one-sided, with no respect for your needs, your joy, your self-actualization, your transcendence. People in these sorts of relationships actively prevent you from serving any needs but theirs. They steal and waste the time, energy and resources to ride motorcycles or do anything else that brings joy and meaning to your life.

The Two-Way Street

This goes both ways and all ways, of course. That's the key to ensuring that riding motorcycles isn't selfish. Riding can be selfish and unhealthy if you're regularly neglecting everything and everyone else in your life.

We're all about obsession here but there's a healthy level of obsession.

Healthy relationships are where the space exists to have a joyful, busy riding life as well as a productive, busy and enjoyable career and personal life. And just like riding skills, healthy relationships require mindfulness, work and rational prioritization. It's all about finding the right balance between your ride time and your worldly presence.

No one is "blessed" with healthy relationships and love. Healthy adult relationships are deliberately built out of shared values, mutuality, respect, love, compromise, forgiveness and all the rest. They take awareness, humility and sometimes, hard work.