Team-BHP - A motorcyclist learning about cars

Hello everyone,

Can't believe the mods let a motorcyclist like me with no experience with cars whatsoever be a part of this forum! Really appreciate this opportunity to learn about cars and driving in general.

I'm here to learn from everyone and hopefully someday I will be as passionate about driving as I am about riding. Since I don't own a car, I am sharing an introduction about my motorcycling experience. Hope all the car guys/gals here will be able to relate to it. Anyway here it goes:

It took just one lap of the smallish lane that connects our society to the main road. My heart was beating hard with the excitement of the powerful emotions sweeping through me. Never before had I felt such a rush and such calmness in the same moment. Damn, I was feeling this way for the first time in the 20 years of my existence!

Was I cursed in being allowed to know the shape and texture of this dream as intimately as the knowledge that the dream itself was impossible? Or was I blessed in at least being able to know this dream in such intense detail?

These were my musings when I rode a motorcycle (A friend's Honda CB Twister) for the first time in 2012. That I wanted one for myself was an understatement of the highest order!

After an agonising 3 years of waiting, in 2015, I had my own motorcycle, a red Suzuki Gixxer! Since then I have ridden it for more than 29000 km in and around Mumbai. The longest ride I have ever done till date is Mumbai to Lavasa return trip in a single day. I enjoy riding solo too, partly because I think it doubles up as meditation and partly because I'm an introvert.

I believe the universe is a benevolent, near-sentient thing. It sees you stuck in the pattern (read work, studies or anything that bothers you) and it hears all the sighs. And then it decides to intervene. The bike starts with the first thumbing of the engine start button, and all the sighs seem to disappear in a flash. Like sleep when a puppy hops on to the bed and decides to lick your face until you have no choice but to laugh and join in the fun. Four corners later, the sun is out.

If not the real one, the proverbial one to be sure. All the sighing and waiting is forgotten and all there is, is the here and now. The next turn-in point, the next apex and the next fast exit. Passing scenery that blurs by cheerfully and beautiful vistas that appear, hold your gaze for a moment before you surrender your attention to the road once more. Whose powerful call drowns out every other voice, including your own.

It engages each and every one of your senses. You can taste the pleasure and hear that booming roar of a man-made engine. You feel the vibration of it running, of the tyres gripping tarmac and of so many more things. Your skin tingles as it sorts out the sensations and completes your picture of the world around you.

Where the only sigh is about how great the last ride was and how the next one must be greater still. It's what makes us humans, it makes us unequivocally happy!! Because measuring life in years is foolish. It isn't how long you lived, it's how you lived this long that ultimately counts, no?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shumi_21 (Post 4315171)

Can't believe the mods let a motorcyclist like me with no experience with cars whatsoever be a part of this forum! Really appreciate this opportunity to learn about cars and driving in general.

Welcome to the club Schumi_21! It doesn't matter on the rides you have, 2-wheels / 4-wheels or more, it's all about being passionate about the things you like.

Quote:

It took just one lap of the smallish lane that connects our society to the main road. My heart was beating hard with the excitement of the powerful emotions sweeping through me. Never before had I felt such a rush and such calmness in the same moment. Damn, I was feeling this way for the first time in the 20 years of my existence!

Was I cursed in being allowed to know the shape and texture of this dream as intimately as the knowledge that the dream itself was impossible? Or was I blessed in at least being able to know this dream in such intense detail?

You have some amazing writing style buddy, the lines you have written are something we all have experienced sometime or the other with our vehicles. And it never gets old.

Quote:

After an agonising 3 years of waiting, in 2015, I had my own motorcycle, a red Suzuki Gixxer! I enjoy riding solo too, partly because I think it doubles up as meditation and partly because I'm an introvert.

I'm not much of a bike guy, but a friend has a Gixxer and IMHO, that bike looks something. I've never seen one in red though. Please write about your ownership experience. I'm sure it will be an awesome write up. Happy riding!

Quote:

I believe the universe is a benevolent, near-sentient thing. It sees you stuck in the pattern (read work, studies or anything that bothers you) and it hears all the sighs. And then it decides to intervene. The bike starts with the first thumbing of the engine start button, and all the sighs seem to disappear in a flash. Like sleep when a puppy hops on to the bed and decides to lick your face until you have no choice but to laugh and join in the fun. Four corners later, the sun is out.

Where the only sigh is about how great the last ride was and how the next one must be greater still. It's what makes us humans, it makes us unequivocally happy!! Because measuring life in years is foolish. It isn't how long you lived, it's how you lived this long that ultimately counts, no?

clap: Wonderful! I guess this is the mantra we should all adopt. After all, we are here for a small time and we have to make the most of it. And what better way than going out for a ride in your vehicle, keeping all the worries of work/home aside and just enjoying the moment? Sometimes, the best way way to relax is to fill up the tank and leave with no particular destination in our mind. Just go places, explore roads and have fun... After all someone had once famously said, its the journey that counts, not the destination.

Kindly go through the rules of the forum once before you start.